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Yearly Archives: 2021

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Bai lives in Umerkot’s Rajari village with her spouse Ramji. Bai was born with a physical disability and is unable to walk on her own. Ramji is unable to see, and has been declared blind by doctors since he was five years old owing to an eye infection. Bai and Ramji were married to each other by their parents when Bai was 26 and Ramji was 29 years old and now are parents to two children; a son named Veeram and a daughter, Samina.

The couple earned a living through beggary in the neighbourhood and lived in a one-room house offered to them by fellow villagers in Rajari. They would go house to house or wandered in the streets until someone gave them some charity money.

“We have always wanted our children to go to school and make a better life for themselves. Unfortunately, we are unable to give them that right as we barely make ends meet by the money we receive. Our income is not steady as it depends on the charity of others. Our children also beg with us occasionally,” added Bai sadly.

Four years ago, when Veeram turned 16 years, he started working as a farmer at the local agricultural fields. He was would earn an income of PKR 7000 each month (Approx. USD 40). “Veeram is a dedicated and hardworking individual. He despised begging and felt awful whenever he saw his younger sister, Samina, begging on the streets. He was anxious to find work and support his family and stop them from begging,” Bai explained, “We stopped begging as Veeram began to provide a source of money for the family. We were living a very simple and happy life since we didn’t have to rely on begging or on someone else’s generosity for a living.”

Veeram planted cluster beans, mung beans, wild melon, millet, and sesame among other crops. He farmed the crops on a two-acre plot of land he rented from his landlord. The landlord received fifty percent of the produce as rent.

The majority of the union council that Rajari is located, is a rain-fed area, and agriculture is solely reliant on rain showers during the monsoon season, which occurs between July and August every year. Unfortunately, Rajari along with other villages did not receive enough rain this year, and subsequently the agricultural production did not meet expectations. “Veeram was unable to find work in agriculture since it became nearly impossible to harvest without rain water. We had to borrow money from the landowner to make ends meet. Veeram took a loan of PKR 10,000(Approx. USD 57) to buy groceries and cover other household costs.”

Many families in Rajari and surrounding villages were affected by the drought and the locust invasion and were left with no source of livelihood, driving them to poverty and famine. To support these affected communities, Community World Service Asia and its partnersⁱ, provided food packages and millet seeds to 516 households in the area. Each food package contained wheat flour, rice, cooking oil, pulses, sugar, tealeaves, iodized salt, matchbox, and millet. These packages have been developed to alleviate food insecurity among climate change affected communities while also enabling them to self-sustain themselves through agricultural activities.

Bai’s family was identified and selected as a project participant to receive the food package by the Village Management Committeeⁱⁱ. Bai received the food package on October 8th during the distribution activity conducted in Punhoon Bheel village, which is a kilometre away from Bai’s home.

“I was overwhelmed when I heard that our family will be receiving assistance. The food package includes nutritious food items that will last us for a good two months, as we are only four members in the family. At the distribution day, it began to rain. We are more optimistic that we will be able to cultivate the millet seed included in the package, and that my son will be able to find labour in the fields. This support has given us hope when we had no hope left and nowhere to go,” shared Bai.

1370

A second virtual Sphere Asia Country Focal Points[1] meeting took place to encourage open dialogue and share new learnings around the application of Sphere and other related Quality & accountability standards among focal points in the region. Hosted in the last week of November by Community World Service Asia (CWSA), which is also Sphere’s regional partner in Asia, the meeting was attended by focal points from China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Wassila Mansouri, Sphere Network and Membership Coordinator, also participated in the meeting to share the new Sphere Strategy 2021-2025, offer advisory support and address any related queries by focal points.

Shama Mall, CWSA’s Deputy Regional Director, emphasised on the importance of these quarterly meetings to establish open communication, exchange best practices and discuss regional challenges. Participants were encouraged to explore creative ways of continuing to promote quality and accountability standards in their respective countries in the face of contextual challenges and changing dynamics. 

“Sphere Standards are being embraced by an increasing international community of trainers and practitioners. Furthermore, we at Sphere have a variety of thematic guides, training packages, learning tools, and online resources that are accessible to all partners and relevant stakeholders to use in their respective locations,” shared Wassila as she discussed Sphere’s key accomplishments over the years. She went on to define the key priorities of the new Sphere Strategy and shared the new governance arrangements.Wassila highlighted the particular attention that is given to increased awareness, uptake, accessibility and localisation in the new strategy through the use of engaging digital platforms, activities and the provision of handbook translations and physical and online trainings. 

Sphere’s fundraising initiative was also introduced to focal points in the meeting. This offers funding to focal points interested in working on initiatives that promote localisation and aims to help increase Sphere Standards ownership and application among members.

Participants recommended developing digital handbook platforms for increased interaction between Sphere, partner organisations, and community members to enhance collaborations and best practises across humanitarian standards. The strategic priorities including encouragement of accountability and learning through a better understanding and articulation of evidence of impact. The focal points were encouraged to share impact based visibility material, such as case studies and videos, map annual review against the strategic priorities and increase external engagement and advocacy with international partners and organisations.

Shama applauded Sphere’s initiative to focus more on supporting focal points, regardless of the fact that resource mobilisation has remained a challenge. She stressed on the need for focal points to identify creative ways of capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practises. It is important for Sphere to promote Sphere more and more with local organisations as well part of their localisation strategy. The focal points can play a vital role in supporting this since we have access to national organisations in our respective countries and regions. 

“Since the Sphere Handbook 2018 was translated into Nepali, the network has distributed over 1500 handbooks to 753 Local Levels in Nepal with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). We have also scheduled trainings with local government officials on disaster risk reduction and management, which will include a focus on the Sphere Standards,” shared Raja Thapa of DPNet Nepal.

“Sphere Community Bangladesh (SCB) went through a rigorous assessment process of humanitarian projects. In the previous year, we reviewed a range of emergency response projects after the occurrence of cyclone Amphan, for different organisations. After this experience, we felt the need of developing a tool or a framework to assess quality and accountability standards during the evaluation of such projects. These virtual meetups will help in brainstorming ideas to develop these tools.”

In conclusion of the engaging session, CWSA shared some key discussion points for the next meeting, which included developing a paper of best practices, and discussing learnings around working with government counterparts.

[1] Sphere Country Focal Points are experienced humanitarian and development organisations, networks, working groups and even some committed individuals working together to promote the Sphere Standards at country-level.

914

When: 16 December 2021
What time: 2.00 PM-3:00 PM (Pakistan Standard Time)
Where: Zoom – Link to be shared with registered participants.
For registration click here
Language: English
How long: 60 minutes
For: Safeguarding focal points, senior managers of national, international and regional NGOs and aid/development networks
Moderator and Trainer: Ester Dross

Background:

CWSA is a Pakistani humanitarian and development organisation addressing factor that divide people by promoting inclusiveness, shared values, diversity, and interdépendance.CWSA is highly committed towards Accountability to Affected People and people centered aid. Over the last 2 years, we have offered different webinars, covering various aspects on safeguarding and aiming to raise more awareness on key aspects of accountability such as establishing efficient and transparent complaints systems and protection from and prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

Objectives:

Safeguarding is a key pillar to any accountability measures that organisations must integrate into their programmes and working cycle.

When people we work with or for, feel unsafe within their workspace or global environment, this has important negative impacts on the quality of our work and the objectives we intend to reach. It is therefore important that we are more aware and increase our efforts for a better understanding of the issues at hand.

This webinar is part of a series of 6 one-hour remote events, covering Safeguarding, Key policies and minimum requirements, Complaints systems, Complaints handling and Managing Investigations and communication. The last webinar will be dedicated to experience sharing and best practice.

This second event follows an introductory session on Safeguarding where three organizations shared their experiences on setting up a safeguarding framework. In this session, we would like to ensure that the audience is aware of the minimum policies and procedures an organization needs to have in place to be compliant with their responsibility and commitment to accountability and safeguarding.

Moderator and Trainer:

Ester Dross—Independent Consultant

Ms. Dross is an indépendant consultant with over 25 years of expérience, specializing in accountability, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, gender and child protection.

Ms. Dross has had an extensive exposure to humanitarian certification systems and accountability to affected populations while working with HAP International as their Complaints Handling and Investigation Advisor, later as their Certification Manager. She has been closely involved in the Building Safer Organizations Project since 2005, dealing with sexual exploitation and abuse of beneficiaries, particularly focusing on gender and child protection. Over the last 6 years and since working as an independent consultant, Ester has been leading a pilot project for FAO on accountability and gender mainstreaming in emergencies and working with numerous NGOs including ACT Alliance members, supporting and training their staff on gender issues, child protection, accountability, complaints handling and investigations. She is an experienced investigator herself and has conducted investigations in Asia, South America, Africa and Europe.

1995
Syeda Adeela Bokhari, Joint Secretary NGOs/INGOs, sheds light on NGOs receiving MoUs under the 2013 NGO policy.

Community World Service Asia (CWSA) has long been committed to facilitating Pakistani NGOs with building their organisational capacity, improving quality and accountability mechanisms as well as strengthening coordination and collaboration with local governments to create an environment conducive to civil society growth. With the same mandate, CWSA facilitated the NGO/INGO Cell at the Ministry of Economic Affairs Division (EAD) with organising a seminar on “Understanding the Process and Procedures for Registration on E-Portal” on 21st October 2021 in Islamabad.

All attendees at the seminar were registered as the seminar commenced.

The objective of the seminar was to improve participants’ understanding of the EAD’s NGO E-portal[1], which was launched earlier this year and introduce them to the upcoming NGO Policy. Through the submission of papers on the web, this portal has digitised the process of getting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from the EAD, ultimately saving time and resources. Syeda Adeela Bokhari, Joint Secretary NGOs/INGOs, was the keynote speaker at this seminar, attended by 24 people from 16 different humanitarian and development organisations.

Participants were familiarized with the processes involved in obtaining an MoU from the EAD.

Tooba Siddiqi from CWSA, set the stage for the event and did a round of introductions with all attendees. Following her opening comments, Tooba reiterated the role NGOs need to play to make the compliance process easier for the government. Ms. Bokhari started with discussing the application of the 2013 NGO Policy, as well as a sectoral overview of the non-profit sector and the governance issues that exist, such as those pertaining to regulations and a lack of integrated data.

During the second presentation, the process of uploading required documents on the NGO e-portal was explained.

Ms. Bokhari emphasised that there is a significant divide between the government and NGOs, which her and the team is attempting to bridge at every possibility. Ms. Bokhari and her team at the EAD are working on a new policy for NGOs that would rectify these inadequacies while remaining compliant with Pakistan’s international legal obligations.

Participants were informed about how to access the E-portal and shared how documents could be uploaded to the portal to attain an MoU. The avoidance of common mistakes was emphasised, such as ensuring that the file size to not exceed seven megabytes, all information to be valid, and that currency values to be provided in both Pakistani Rupees and US Dollars. Ms. Bokhari further stated that the EAD is working to ensure that all development partners are on the same page when it comes to the portal.

A Q&A session was conducted towards the end of the seminar where Adeela Bokhari addressed queries.

Ms. Bokhari concluded by stating that she believes “in continuous development and that the EAD is working to enhance the digitising process. Because this is a radical departure from usual procedures, it will take a significant amount of time and effort to make it completely functioning for all stakeholders.”

Participants appreciated the EAD’s efforts to bring innovation to the process, saying that “such an event was a need of the hour.” This seminar also provided an opportunity for participating NGOs and CSOs to share feedback and input with the Joint Secretary on glitches and challenges they usually face. It is anticipated that the participants would put their newfound knowledge into practise, and that the EAD will host similar activities in the future.

[1] The Minister for Economic Affairs, Mr. Omer Ayub Khan inaugurated the NGOs helpdesk facility and NGOs e-portal on 30th June, 2021. The E-portal offers, on line submission of fresh applications; renewals, additional project requests, auto generated correspondence such as acknowledgement, approvals, regrets.

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When: 17 November 2021
What time:2.00 pm (Pakistan Standard Time)
Where: Zoom – link to be shared with registered Participants Register Here
Language: English
How long: 60 minutes
Who is it for: Safeguarding focal points, senior managers of national, international and regional NGO’s and networks
Format: Présentations, Discussion
Moderator & Présenter: Ester Dross

Background:

CWSA is a Pakistani humanitarian and development organisation addressing factor that divide people by promoting inclusiveness, shared values, diversity, and interdépendance.CWSA is highly committed towards Accountability to Affected People and people centered aid. Over the last 2 years, we have offered different webinars, covering various aspects on safeguarding and aiming to raise more awareness on key aspects of accountability such as establishing efficient and transparent complaints systems and protection from and prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

Objectives:

Safeguarding is a key pillar to any accountability measures organizations must integrate into their Programmes and working cycle.

When people we work with or for feel unsafe within their workspace or global environment, this has important negative impacts on the quality of our work and the objectives we intend to reach. It is therefore important that we are more aware and increase our efforts for a better understanding of the issues at hand.

This first webinar is part of a series of 6 one-hour remote events, covering safeguarding, key policies and minimum requirements, Complaints systems, Complaints handling and managing investigations and communication. The last webinar will be dedicated to experience sharing and best practice.

During our first event, we would like to ensure that participants know what we talk about when talking about safeguarding, feel they are able to identify and act upon gaps within safeguarding frameworks and learn from practical examples.

Moderator and Présenter:

Ester Dross—Independent Consultant

Ms. Dross is an indépendant consultant with over 25 years of expérience, specializing in accountability, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, gender and child protection. Ms. Dross has had an extensive exposure to humanitarian certification systems and accountability to affected populations while working with HAP International as their Complaints Handling and Investigation Advisor, later as their Certification Manager. She has been closely involved in the Building Safer Organizations Project since 2005, dealing with sexual exploitation and abuse of beneficiaries, particularly focusing on gender and child protection. Over the last 6 years and since working as an independent consultant, Ester has been leading a pilot project for FAO on accountability and gender mainstreaming in emergencies and working with numerous NGOs including ACT Alliance members, supporting and training their staff on gender issues, child protection, accountability, complaints handling and investigations. She is an experienced investigator herself and has conducted investigations in Asia, South America, Africa and Europe.

1155

When: 1st – 3rd December 2021
Where: Murree, Punjab
Language: Urdu, English
Interested Applicants: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!
Last Date to Apply: 15th November 2021 Objectives

Through this training, you will be able to:

  • Identify any gaps between the dynamics of your organisation and targets you desire to achieve in given circumstances
  • Understand your leadership and management style in order to become more self-aware about your unique strengths and how you can overcome the challenges you face by improving your leadership and management competencies
  • Learn skills and tools to foster a healthy organisational culture that nurtures talent, celebrates diversity and guides performance
  • Enhance your capacity to communicate purposefully and with a vision for improved team functioning
  • Develop innovative tactics to envision, plan and implement organisational change

Background

With changing global trends, the dynamics of organisational and people management have also changed. Traditional methods are becoming obsolete with every passing day. Effective managerial skills now aim to improve the performance of individuals and skills in organisational setting with a focus on the 5 Cs: Clarity, Context, Courage, Commitment and Consistency. Competent and well-managed staff are at the heart of an accountable and effective organisation; therefore, they need to be equipped with the right skills and behaviours. The need for staff development, coaching and mentoring is key to optimising maximum productivity.

This training aims to enhance leadership skills of participants which would promote their professional growth resulting in strong institutions. Through this training, you will learn how to best utilize your leadership and management style to engineer change and innovation in your organisation. By the end of this training, you will also further strengthen your skills, knowledge and behaviours to handle interpersonal conflict, manage deadlines, build a healthy organisational culture, lead employee trainings, solve problems, and managing feedback.

Number of Participants

  • A maximum of 20 participants will be selected for the training. Women, differently abled persons and staff belonging to ethnic/religious minorities are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to participants representing organisations working in remote and under-served

Selection Criteria

  • Mid or senior level manager in a civil society organisation, preferably field staff of large CSOs or CSOs with main office in small towns and cities
  • Be in a leadership role within your organisation and/or have primary responsibility of organisation/people management
  • Your organisation should be registered with its respective provincial social welfare department
  • Participants from women led organisations, different abled persons, religious/ethnic minorities will be given priority
  • This 3-day training session is suitable for CSO and NGO workers of all levels particularly from locally-based organisations with a small staff size
  • Willing to pay fee PKR 10,000 for the Exemptions may be applied to CSOs with limited funding and those belonging to marginalised groups.
  • Commitment to apply learning in their work, including dissemination of learning within their organisation

Trainer’s Profile

Ms. Sofia Noreen is an ambitious professional with over 28 years’ eventful career studded with brilliance predominantly in the area of research, program/ project designing and execution, monitoring, international development, and liaison & coordination. Her areas of focus include Gender and Women Empowerment, Climate Change/ Food Security within rural communities, and Governance issues both at policy and implementation levels. She is a dependable professional with a comprehensive understanding of Pakistani politics, the parliamentary setup, and electoral reform agenda and familiar with election management systems both for general and local bodies elections.

1069

When: 8th -10th December 2021
Where: Murree, Punjab
Language: English & Urdu.
Interested Applicants: Register here
Last Date to Apply: 8th November 2021

Background

Safeguarding is the responsibility that an organisation has to ensure its representatives and the activities it conducts promotes the welfare of the people (especially children and vulnerable adults) it serves and the communities it works with. Safeguarding ensures that the organisation does not expose the communities it works with to the risk of any sort of harm or abuse, including sexual exploitation and abuse. Safeguarding measures seek to prevent situations where individuals can use their position of power, to abuse or exploit another person. Safeguarding vulnerable adults and children is the process of protecting them from abuse or neglect, enabling them to maintain control over their lives and make informed choices.

Objectives

The objective of this training is to enhance the capacity of participant organisations in ensuring the safety and well-being of all of their employees and the community members that they work with.

This workshop will support participating organisations and their staff in exploring key concepts and strengthen their understanding on:

  • Quality and Accountability in Humanitarian and Development.
  • Core Commitments of Safeguarding
  • Safeguarding Basics – Milestones and Development
  • Protecting most vulnerable groups – support for survivors and whistle-blowers
  • Accountability and Transparency around safeguarding and PSEA.
  • Contextualization of Key Safeguarding Messages and How to communicate them
  • Experience sharing / best practices / lesson learning around Safeguarding
  • Overview of Complaint Response Mechanism.

Participation

This training will target members of complaints committees, human resource and MEAL staff, program teams and leadership of NGOs. The training will support participants to understand the key barriers, challenges related to safeguarding at organisational and programmatic level while dealing with communities and stakeholders. It will serve as a platform for participating organisations to discuss and review their relevant policies and procedures to ensure that they are effective in all situations. It will also offer the complaint committee members’ opportunities to develop peer support groups so that they can learn from and support each other. Post-training technical support will be provided to participant organisations to develop and implement policies and systems related to safeguarding.

Number of Participants

A maximum of 20 participants will be selected for this training. Women and differently-abled staff and staff from ethnic/religious minorities are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to participants from organisations based in underserved areas.

Selection Criteria

  • Primary responsibility for Safeguarding at the organisational level
  • Participants from women led organisations, differently-abled persons, religious/ethnic minorities will be prioritised
  • Mid or senior level management in a civil society organizations, preferably CSOs with main office in small towns and cities
  • Willingness to contribute PKR 15,000/- for the training. Exemptions may be applied for CSOs with limited funding and those from marginalised groups. An early-bird discount of 15% will be awarded to applicants who register by the 5th October 2021 and a 30% discount will be awarded to women participants
  • Commitment to apply learning in their work, including dissemination of learning within their organization

Methodology

The approach applied in this training is the ‘Blended Learning’ approach developed by Community World Service Asia in its previous phases of the Civil Society Empowerment Project (CEP). The approach is participatory and needs-based in nature. It consists of selection of participants from diverse organisations at different levels, content and methodology designed with and based on the needs of the training participants, use of experienced and knowledgeable trainers, flexible content and methodology during the training, development of action plans and follow up refreshers and coaching and mentoring support.

Methodology of this training includes practical exercises based on real life projects/programs (but considering social distancing). These will be interspersed with lectures by the external trainer and experience sharing by prominent leaders from the development and humanitarian fields. Presentations would be in English, discussion to be followed in both English and Urdu. Coaching and mentoring support will be provided to 30% of participant organisations to help them apply their learning.
Facilitation Team:

Palwashay Arbab – Head of Communications and Gender Justice Focal Person- CWSA. A journalism and humanitarian practitioner associated with the aid sector in the Asia Pacific region since the last ten years. Has a diverse experience based on humanitarian work, journalistic writing, humanitarian and development communication, social media management, advocacy, training management, fundraising, branding and public relations, program development, gender justice and coordination. Training and presentation development experience for youth and staff on social media campaigns, hashtag activism, diversity and safeguarding. Representational and networking experience with the international donor community, I/NGOs, and communities. Currently co-chairing the global Gender Justice Reference group of ACT alliance and governing board member of the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) Network.

Asma Shehzad –Head of Support Functions- Safeguarding Focal Person-CWSA with more than 15 years of experience in Management including Organizational Policy development, conflict management, investigations, policies implementation, Asma has been now working with Community World Service Asia as Head of Support Functions. She is currently based in Islamabad, Pakistan. Asma is not only involved actively in the implementation of Safeguarding Policy at the organizational level with all stakeholders, she also acts as a Safeguarding Focal Person for CWSA. Being head of Support Functions Department, she is fulfilling her responsibilities in the development and implementation of policies to the best of her abilities. To her credit is the honor to be part of the team that has implemented Safeguarding Policy across CWSA. She also feels privileged to be part of Act as Co-Chair for Act Community of Practice- Safeguarding.

Ayesha Hassan – Associate Regional Director Head – CWSA Ayesha Hassan is the Associate Director at the Community World Service Asia with a diverse experience of campaigning and project implementation on Quality and Accountability (including Safeguarding, PSEAH, Complaints Response Mechanism), Gender, Livelihood (including food security with focus on DRR), Education, and Participation. She is a trainer, advisor and voice for Quality and Accountability standards including Core Humanitarian Standards, Do No Harm Approach, and Sphere Standards.

Ayesha is hands on in fundraising and program growth, overseeing the development of proposals and donor compliance. She develops program strategies for various programs under implementation while she has also facilitated the process of developing a 10-year strategy for DRR, livelihood and democratization.

1952

When: 23rd– 25th November 2021
Where: Islamabad
Language: Urdu and English
Interested Applicants: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!
Last Date to Apply: 5th November 2021

Objectives

Through this training, participants will be able to

  • Identify essentials of project proposal writing
  • Explore logical sequence and steps in the process
  • Analyze the problem and address it systematically using problem and objective analysis
  • Apply Theory of Change approach to projects and programs
  • Develop project/program implementation plan and
  • Define key aspect for developing project budgets

Background

A project proposal defines your approach and methodology to address key thematic focus or problem. The project proposal document consists of overall goal/impact statement, objectives, activities, project implementation and management methodology, key results/outcomes and associated budget to address any given problem. It fosters a relationship between an organization and potential donors about a particular project. It tells stakeholders about the situation, key issues to be addressed, proposed methodology and proposed outcome under the given budget and timelines.

Learning how to write a project proposal helps to better communicate with potential donors and partner organizations. This skill is essential for getting to know key elements of writing good proposal to increase chances of success. Proposals establish a formal framework about a project that enable clear understanding for all stakeholders.

Proposal writing can be a daunting task especially for smaller and medium-sized NGOs. This training will provide you an in-depth understanding about the key elements of good proposal writing. You will learn to communicate effectively with the donors. This training will also help you to understand the requirements of different donors, explore their formats and identify ways to innovatively address the key section in any given format. In an environment of increased competitiveness in the non-profit sector, it is crucial for all NGOs to learn essential skills in proposal writing. This training will provide you an opportunity to enhance your understanding and enhance your capacity to write effective proposals which can in turn benefit your organization to achieve its desired goals.

Number of Participants

  • A maximum of 20 participants will be selected for the training. Women, differently abled persons and staff belonging to ethnic/religious minorities are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to participants representing organizations working in remote and under-served areas.

Selection Criteria

  • Participant’s organization should be registered with its respective provincial social welfare department
  • Primary responsibility for proposal writing
  • Mid or senior level manager in a civil society organization, preferably staff from small scale CSOs working directly with communities in small towns and cities
  • Participants from women led organisations, different abled persons, religious/ethnic minorities will be given priority
  • This 3-day training session is suitable for CSO and NGO workers of all levels particularly from locally-based organizations with a small staff size
  • Willing to pay fee PKR 10,000 for the training. Exemptions may be applied to CSOs with limited funding and those belonging to marginalised groups.
  • Commitment to apply learning in their work, including dissemination of learning within their organisation

Trainers’ Profiles

Ms. Sofia Noreen is an ambitious professional with over 28 years’ eventful career studded with brilliance predominantly in the area of research, program/ project designing and execution, monitoring, international development, and liaison & coordination. Her areas of focus include Gender and Women Empowerment, Climate Change/ Food Security within rural communities, and Governance issues both at policy and implementation levels.

She is a dependable professional with a comprehensive understanding of Pakistani politics, the parliamentary setup, and electoral reform agenda and familiar with election management systems both for general and local bodies elections.

Ms. Sofia has delivered multi-day training programs on train-the-trainer, team building, and other related topics. She is an articulate communicator who is highly well versed in Log Frame Analysis, Risk Analysis, and management for Result Based Management, budgeting, staff recruitment, capacity development, NGO management, stakeholder engagement, evaluation of program and projects, report writing, proposal writing and manuals. Throughout her career, she has been committed to following the principles set forth with the UDHR, ICCPR, CEDAW, and other international conventions and standards. Mr. Khurram Saeed is working with Community World Service Asia and leading the Quality and Accountability program. He has over 10 years of experience in capacity enhancement support, project management, coordination & networking. He holds hands on experience in promoting Quality and Accountability and applying project cycle including assessing, designing, implementing, reviewing and evaluating projects in humanitarian and development context. He remained extensively involved in the designing and carrying out humanitarian/development capacity enhancement interventions in participatory manner including development of strategies, training manuals and training events.

Mr. Khurram Saeed is working with Community World Service Asia and leading the Quality and Accountability program. He has over 10 years of experience in capacity enhancement support, project management, coordination & networking. He holds hands on experience in promoting Quality and Accountability and applying project cycle including assessing, designing, implementing, reviewing and evaluating projects in humanitarian and development context. He remained extensively involved in designing and carrying out humanitarian/development capacity enhancement interventions in participatory manner including development of strategies, training manuals and training events.

 

 

Scholarship/Discount Details: Special Scholarships are available for those organization that send two or more females to attend the training.

Additional Details: The final deadline for applications is November 5th, 2021. Please be assured that incomplete applications will not be entertained. Community World Service Asia (CWSA) is a humanitarian and development organization, registered in Pakistan, head-quartered in Karachi and implementing initiatives throughout Asia. CWSA is a member of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance, a member of Sphere and their regional partner in Asia and also manages the ADRRN Quality & Accountability Hub in Asia.

1649

An informal consultative meeting hosted by Community World Service Asia was held online amongst the Sphere Country Focal Points in Asia on 3rd September 2021. It focused on the contextualized challenges in different countries, including the new challenges amid the pandemic, and how to overcome them.

Sphere, established in 1997, is well known for its contribution and commitment towards strengthening the quality of humanitarian assistance to affected communities across the globe. Its flagship publication, the Sphere Handbook, outlines the fundamental tenets of quality and accountability in humanitarian assistance. It is based on the core philosophy that organisations and individuals that support and assist different, vulnerable communities around the world also bear the responsibility of ensuring that the assistance they provide is of acceptable quality and that appointed resources reach affected communities in the most accountable manner.

Role of the Sphere Focal Points

The implementation of Sphere standards is promoted at country-level by experienced staff representing humanitarian and development organisations, networks, working groups as well as independent practitioners, known as Sphere Country Focal Points. The role of these focal points is to disseminate knowledge and promote the application of Sphere principles and standards around the world and more specifically in the regions that they work in. A Virtual Meet-up was held amongst the Sphere Country Focal Points in Asia on 3rd September, 2021. This informal consultative meeting had a few set discussion points and was hosted by Community World Service Asia which is the regional partner to Sphere in Asia as well as Sphere Country Focal Point in Pakistan. Participants were free to actively engage in discussion, share their experiences or just listen and learn.

Consent on most effective practices

Through this meeting, Focal Points were given an opportunity to promote open communication and learning in addition to sharing the work that focal point organisations or practitioners are doing on Sphere standards in their respective countries. The insightful discussion mainly focused on the contextualized challenges in different countries, including the new challenges amid the pandemic, and how to overcome them. All participants agreed that practices which accommodate multiple stakeholders and take into account the country’s specific contexts are the most effective. A few of the key discussions and action points deliberated in the meeting are shared here:

  • Sphere focal points will develop a context and different stakeholder driven best practices/lessons learned document on quality and accountability to be shared within the region
  • Language barriers for global and regional level events/virtual events need to be addressed
  • Innovative and effective approaches for conducting impactful online/virtual trainings must be identified
  • Experience sharing on approaches being used by Focal Points to promote Q&A

Second Meet up on November 24

Interested participants are creating a practical implementation plan based around the discussion points. This will help solidify the work and impact of quality and accountability advocacy including Sphere standards and Core Humanitarian Standard for local governments and civil society in focal point countries. The second Virtual Meet up of Sphere Country Focal Points is scheduled to be held on 24th November 2021. It is hoped that these meetups will be conducted regularly to improve quality and accountability frameworks for humanitarian agencies within the region.

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