comms
Solution Clinics: QAS Lab — From Standards to Solutions
We know the standards. We have the policies. Now what?
Community World Service Asia, together with its key quality and accountability partners, invites humanitarian and development practitioners to a new kind of learning experience, one built not around another training, but around real problem-solving.
The QAS Lab’s Solution Clinics bring together humanitarian and development practitioners and standards specialists, from across the region to tackle the everyday dilemmas of Quality, Accountability and Safeguarding from “policies without implementation” to “collective accountability to affected populations” and “exit without harm.”
This isn’t a one-off event. It’s a continuous learning journey, from coaching and needs-mapping (Sept–Dec 2026), through four days of hands-on, expert-facilitated Solution Clinics in Bangkok, to sustained mentoring and community-building through mid-2027.
What you’ll gain:
✔ Practical tools to move from compliance to real-world implementation
✔ Confidential coaching on your toughest QAS challenges
✔ A growing QAS Toolbox of job aids, SoPs and checklists
✔ A regional community of practice that lasts beyond the event
Facilitated by Sylvie Robert, a certified trainer and workplace misconduct investigator with 30+ years of experience across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.
Register by 10th November, 2026 to secure your place. 📩 qa.support@communityworldservice.asia
Learn. Solve. Share. Lead. From standards to solutions.
People and Culture for Accountability
If we already have the policies and systems in place, why are accountable behaviours still inconsistent?
Community World Service Asia, invites aid and civil society organisations to a regional workshop that looks at accountability from the inside out, through People and Culture practice.
This is where policy alone runs out of answers. How are people managed? How are decisions made? How is feedback handled? How is power used and checked? Because when there’s a gap between an organisation’s stated values and its everyday behaviour, that’s where accountability quietly breaks down.
Over four days, participants will examine workplace culture, staff wellbeing, leadership, fairness, inclusion, safeguarding, and performance management, not as separate boxes to tick, but as connected parts of one system. Expect honest peer exchange, practical tools, and real organisational scenarios, not abstract theory.
Key topics include:
✔ Organisational culture as everyday practice
✔ From policy to practice: safeguarding, complaints and staff voice
✔ Change, workload and wellbeing
✔ Performance, feedback and growth
✔ Managing up and responsible challenge
✔ DEI in practice
Who should join: HR/People and Culture staff, QAS focal points, senior managers, and MEAL professionals. We recommend organisations send at least two participants — reflection and change go further when colleagues can apply what they’ve learned together.
Facilitated by Uma Narayanan, an independent consultant and evaluator with extensive experience in accountability, organisational development, and workplace culture across Asia, Africa and the Pacific.
Apply by 10th November, 2026 📩 qa.support@communityworldservice.asia
On the Wings of Hope
Transforming Education in Umerkot
How ten years of community-led work in Umerkot, Sindh, brought girls and boys back into classrooms.
In the sand dunes of Umerkot, Sindh, livelihoods have long depended on rain that may not come. For decades, poverty, environmental hardship, and deeply entrenched traditions kept children, especially girls, out of the classroom. With many families relying on every working hand and a shortage of women educators, a girl’s education often ended before it ever truly began.
Today, that story is changing. Schools that once stood silent now echo with learning, laughter, and hope.
Parents who never had the chance to attend school themselves have now become its fiercest advocates.
Discover how families, volunteers, and dedicated teachers made classrooms in the desert come alive.
A Decade of Community-Led Impact
Our decade-long intervention across 350 villages and 350 schools in Umerkot district, with focused efforts in the Fakhir Abdullah, Kaplor, and Sekhro union councils has delivered transformative results:
| Key Impact Area | Measurable Change |
| Students Reached | 70,000 children supported (75% girls) |
| Girls’ Enrollment | 75% average rise in girls’ enrolment |
| Dropout Rates | 70% reduction in dropout rates among adolescent girls |
| Secondary Transition | 50% increase in girls transitioning from primary to secondary school |
| Gender Parity | Equal ratio achieved in primary & lower-secondary schooling |
| Teacher Training | 4,000 teachers trained in interactive, child-friendly methods |
| Community Engagement | 140,000 parents & representatives actively involved |
How Change Took Root
Transforming access to education required addressing the root causes of absenteeism through holistic, dignifying interventions:
- Nutritional Support: School meals designed around Sphere Standards help fight acute food insecurity, keeping children healthy and focused on learning.
- Upgraded Infrastructure: Schools are now equipped with desks, chairs, renovated WASH facilities, fresh paint, and solar-powered fans to keep learning continuous, even in extreme heat.
- Teacher Development: Government and CWSA-placed educators completed multi-cycle training programs in multigrade teaching, child-friendly learning methods, and updated curricula.
- Local Leadership: Active Village Management Committees keep governance in local hands, driving over 500 community sessions to promote girls’ right to education.
Stronger Together
This decade of measurable progress was made possible through the unwavering support and shared vision of our partners:
- Presbyterian World Service & Development (PWS&D)
- Act for Peace (AFP)
- Sindh Education Department (SED)
Join the Conversation
Where schools once stood silent, 70,000 children in Umerkot are now building a brighter future. Watch ‘On the Wings of Hope’ to see how ten years of community-led action transformed girls’ education in the sand dunes of Sindh.
Empowering Inclusive Humanitarian Action
When crisis strikes, inclusion cannot be an afterthought.
Community World Service Asia, in partnership with HelpAge International, ADRRN’s Q&A Hub, Sphere, and CHS Alliance, invites humanitarian professionals across the Asia-Pacific to a regional training on making inclusion central to humanitarian response, not an add-on to it.
Older people and persons with disabilities are too often overlooked in emergencies, despite the disproportionate risks they face and the valuable knowledge they bring. This training puts a practical framework in your hands, the Humanitarian Inclusion Standards (HIS), aligned with the Core Humanitarian Standard and the Sphere Handbook , to turn “leave no one behind” from principle into practice.
By the end, you’ll be able to:
✔ Make the case for age, disability and gender inclusion in humanitarian response
✔ Recognise how intersecting identities shape people’s experience of crisis
✔ Apply all nine HIS standards across the programme cycle
✔ Identify concrete steps to strengthen participation and accountability
✔ Assess and improve inclusive practice within your own organisation
Who should join: Local and national NGOs, CSOs and CBOs, Older People Associations (OPOs) and Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), INGOs, UN agencies, and government stakeholders, including Inclusion Advisors, Programme Managers, Technical Coordinators, and MEAL staff.
Facilitated by inclusion experts Shahzado Khaskheli (Foundation for Ageing and Inclusive Development) and Benil Thavarasa (HelpAge International), each bringing over 20 years of experience in inclusive humanitarian programming.
A dedicated fourth day (7 December) is set aside for the Sphere Regional Consultation.
Apply by 30th October 2026, places allocated first-come, first-served.
📩 qa.support@communityworldservice.asia
Sustainable Pathways
At Community World Service Asia, we actively work alongside the communities we serve, our partners and local stakeholders to address these challenges.
Through our climate and resilience initiatives, we support sustainable resource management, strengthen local capacities, and help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change. From promoting climate-smart practices to supporting plantation and ecosystem restoration efforts, our interventions contribute to healthier environments and stronger, more resilient communities.
We extend our sincere gratitude to our partners and community members whose dedication make this work possible.
Combating Desertification and Building Resilience in Thar
On World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2026, Community World Service Asia (CWSA) engaged communities in Village Charihar Bheel, Thar, to raise awareness about the impacts of land degradation, water scarcity, and climate change on livelihoods and natural resources.
Through interactive awareness sessions, educational videos, cultural performances, and a community walk under the slogan “Save Water, Save Lives, Save Earth,” local communities reflected on the challenges they face and the collective action needed to promote water conservation, environmental stewardship, and resilience.
This event also encouraged community dialogue on water conservation and environmental protection and strengthened local participation through cultural performances. In line with the theme, community members presented a drama titled “Thar Ji Pukar”, depicting local environmental challenges. Another cultural performance based on the local song highlighted the hardships faced by women in fetching water during drought conditions.
Every Child in School, Not at Work!
Humanitarian Logistics & Supply Chain Workshop
Dear Colleagues,
Are you working in humanitarian or development operations and looking to strengthen your supply chain knowledge and practical skills?
Community World Service Asia (CWSA), in partnership with HELP Logistics, is organising a 2-day interactive Humanitarian Logistics & Supply Chain Workshop on 6–7 December 2026 at the Rembrandt Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.
The workshop will combine theoretical learning with practical and interactive sessions, including a Supply Chain Board Game, covering key areas such as:
- Humanitarian Logistics Principles & Practices
- Human-Centred Design for Supply Chain Solutions
- Supply Chain Readiness Assessment
- And more
Application deadline: 30 September 2026
Interested participants can register through the registration link provided below or by scanning the QR code in the attached brochure.
Registration Link: https://cwsa-workshops.partners.amanacard.org/e/hlscw-dec2026
For further information on the workshop, eligibility criteria and application process, please refer to the attached brochure.
We encourage interested colleagues and organisations to apply and take this opportunity to strengthen their capacity to build more resilient and efficient humanitarian and development supply chains.
Strengthening Partnerships for Mental Health and Wellbeing
Community World Service Asia (CWSA) had the opportunity to engage with the Media Secretary and press officials in Gilgit, Baltistan during a networking lunch, fostering dialogue on the importance of advancing mental health and psychosocial support services and strengthening collective efforts to promote wellbeing across the region.
The meeting provided an opportunity to highlight the newly established, first of its kind Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Hub at Karakoram International University (KIU). The officials expressed their support for the KIU–CWSA partnership and appreciated the efforts being made to expand access to mental health services and promote wellbeing in the region.
Particular interest was shown in the innovative therapeutic healing approaches being implemented by CWSA, with participants recognizing their potential to support individual and community resilience.
