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“This humanitarian assistance will enable me to meet my family’s food needs for more than a month. The millet seeds will assist me in reviving my agricultural livelihood, which I want to pursue with the help of my nephew and son-in-law in make a better living. This will enable me to send my girls to school so that they may receive an education and have a brighter future. This help came at the perfect time, just when we were struggling to afford a single meal a day even,” Seeta explained.

The Village Management Committeeⁱ of Sheedi Jo Tarr village identified Seeta as a project participant under Community World Service Asia and UMCOR’s relief projectⁱⁱ. The project is supporting climate induced disaster affected families with the provision of food packages and seasonal seeds for harvesting in the upcoming farming season.

Seeta, a widow belonging to and living in Sheedi Jo Tarr village of Umerkot district, does not have any children of her own but has in fact adopted four daughters of her nephew and has raised them as her own. “I got married at a very young age. I was only 16 years old. While my husband was alive, we decided to adopt two of my nephew’s daughters. We have nurtured them as our own, and we adore them. We married our eldest daughter off at the age of 20 in 2009. It was a very joyous moment for us,” shared Seeta.

Seeta’s husband, Geneso, died of a heart attack in 2010. Following Geneso’s death, Seeta’s nephew’s other two daughters became close to her, as her nephew left them with her when he and his wife went to work in the fields. Seeta would care for the three children by herself all day, and the two younger daughters grew to love her and refused to live with their parents. As a result, Seeta has been caring for the three children on her own since then. Her nephew had a meagre income and would give Seeta a portion of it to help her care for his children. However, this was insufficient to meet all of the children’s necessities. “My husband worked in the farming industry. He had rented acreage and cultivated a variety of crops on it. I occasionally assisted him in his agricultural endeavours. However, after he passed away, it became impossible to make a decent living, as I was caring for my three girls alone. The money did not come in as frequently as it used to. I could not work in the fields on a regular basis because I had to care for my house and girls. However, I used to be able to pick cotton and chilli occasionally to earn a little money. 

Our neighbours and relatives sometimes offered cash assistance, but it was insufficient to meet our family’s basic needs. At 69 years now, working to earn a living for my family has become too exhausting for me. My daughters help me at home, but I want them to go to school so they may have a better future. My ten-year-old daughter has completed her basic schooling. The two younger ones, who are five and three years old, on the other hand, have not been enrolled in school yet. Unfortunately, I am unable to cover the costs of their schooling,” Seeta explains.

Seeta received the food package on October 8th, along with 516 other families at a distribution activity held in her village. The food package consisted of wheat flour, rice, cooking oil, pulse, sugar, tealeaves, iodized salt, matchbox and millet. “Since receiving the food package, we have been eating wholesome meals on a daily basis. My nephew and son-in-law have offered their assistance in preparing the field for millet seed sowing. We now have hope of making money from our agricultural efforts, and I intend to enrol my girls in school,” Seeta concluded.

ⁱ A community-based structure consisting of key community members, both men and women, who coordinate with and support the project team during project interventions. 

ⁱⁱ Humanitarian and recovery support to the vulnerable communities continuously affected by recurrent disasters

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Format: Webinar presentation, discussion
When:  2nd February 2022
Time:  2.00 PM-3:00 PM (Pakistan Standard Time)
Where: Zoom – Link to be shared with registered participants.
Register: 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:

Community World Service Asia (CWSA) is a humanitarian and development organisation registered in Pakistan, addressing factors that divide people by promoting inclusiveness, shared values, diversity, and interdépendance. CWSA is highly committed towards people centered aid and Accountability to Affected People. Over the last two 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. 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 critical 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 webinars, covering safeguarding, key policies and minimum requirements, Complaints systems, Complaints handling and managing investigations and communication. The last webinar will be dedicated to experiences sharing and best practices.

We are now reaching the second part of our 6-session series. We spoke generally about safeguarding and how three organisations set up their safeguarding framework, followed by an interactive session where participants explored the key policies and guidelines they need to have in place in terms of safeguarding. The last time we met we spoke more in-depth about complaints systems, the necessary minimum requirements and how to ensure they are appropriate and user-friendly.

Objectives:

During our 4th webinar on the 2nd February 2022, we want to dedicate more time to explore how to manage investigations. If we were successful in setting up our safeguarding processes, if the complaints systems we set up are confidential, trustworthy, accessible and transparent, we should have an increase of complaints as a result. We therefore need excellent processes to handle these complaints and guarantee safe, independent and fair investigation processes.

The webinar today will explore the following topics:

  • The decision making process on external or internal investigation processes
  • How to plan an investigation and manage an investigation team
  • What to communicate around complaints and investigations
  • Taking into account Data safeguarding and protection

Moderator & Presenter:

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 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 Organisations Project since 2005, dealing with sexual exploitation and abuse of bénéficiaires, 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

2028

Applying – Contextualising – Learning Principles, Commitments and Standards through the Project Life in Humanitarian-Development-Peace Contexts

Virtual Workshop

2022 First Semester

Learning Sessions – Coaching Lab – Capitalisation of Experiences

When: Starting February 1st, 2022

Target Audience

  • National organisations first! Gender-sensitive selection.
  • Gender-sensitive selection
  • Both humanitarian and development actors
  • Participants from Asia, MENA Regions

Participants:

  • Aid workers engaged in promoting Quality, AAP and Safeguarding
  • Have interest/ experience in implementing Quality, AAP and Safeguarding approaches and tools, and in managing projects or programmes,
  • Have a ‘good enough’ command of English,
  • Commit to attend all sessions (management endorsement, certificate of attendance).

Aim & Learning Objectives

This virtual workshop aims to gather and learn from committed professional humanitarian and development actors who are leaders in promoting and implementing Quality, AAP and Safeguarding throughout the project/programme cycle, update them on the latest developments and tools, and facilitate contextualisation, localisation and learning for future improvement.

By the end of this event, participants should be able to:

  1. Identify key initiatives and tools contributing to CHS-related topics.
  2. Outline the opportunities and challenges faced by humanitarian and development workers in contextualising and applying collectively principles, commitments and standards throughout the project/programme cycle.
  3. Describe strategies and means by which they and their colleagues can collaborate and coordinate better.
  4. Design an improvement plan on Quality, AAP and Safeguarding tailored to their context and assessed with a Do-no-harm lens

Methodology

  • Five half day online sessions combining plenaries, debates, personal or pair assignments and studies, guided discussions in sub-groups, etc.
  • Coaching sessions to support the design of an improvement plan
  • Improvement plans with monitoring details, and
  • learning follow up through 2022

Shortlisted candidate will be informed through email by January 17, 2022.

Contact us at: qa.support@communityworldservice.asia

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When: 17th -19th February, 2022
Where: Murree, Punjab, Pakistan
Application Deadline: 20th January, 2022.
Register: Click here

Covid-19 has challenged the traditional leadership style and forced leaders to adapt their leadership approaches in dealing with the uncertainties brought about by the virus and its effects. NGO leaders have also been faced with dilemmas and ambiguities that they have never been exposed to.

Leading in Complexity and Uncertainty training will be directed at the senior staff of NGOs. It will use the ‘Authentic Leader’ model and provide opportunities to the participants to reflect on their leadership style and its relevance and effectiveness in the context of Covid-19. It will give them knowledge on leadership competencies based on research with contemporary leaders. They will also have opportunities for practicing and sharpening their personal leadership skills and competencies.

Methodology of this training includes self-reflection and analysis, working with buddies, exercises (but considering social distancing). These will be interspersed with lectures by the external trainer and experience sharing by prominent leaders from the development and corporate sectors. Coaching and mentoring support will be provided to 30% of participant organisations to help them apply their learning.

Objectives

At the end of the training, participants will:

  • Understand the different leadership styles and competencies.
  • Reflect on their leadership style based on their self-assessment and others’ perceptions/feedback.
  • Sharpen/strengthen their leadership competencies.
  • Develop action plans for peer support and coaching/mentoring.

Methodology

The approach used in this training is the ‘Blended Learning’ approach developed by CWSA’s Capacity Enhancement Project (CEP) in its previous phases. 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.

Number of Participants

18-22 participants will be selected for the training. Female staff and those with disabilities and from ethnic/religious minorities are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to participants from organisations based in underserved areas.

Selection Criteria

  • No previous exposure/participation in leadership training
  • 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
  • Participants from women led organisations, those of persons with disabilities, religious/ethnic minorities will be preferred
  • Willingness to contribute PKR 20,000 for the training. Discount of 10% will be given on early registration by 15th February 2022 to the participants and 20% discount will be awarded to women participants. Exemptions may be applied for by CSOs with limited funding and those from marginalized groups
  • Commitment to apply learning in their work, including dissemination of learning within their organisation.

Participants will need to arrive at the venue on 16th February 2022.

Training Facilitator

Arif Jabbar Khan, Country Head, Water Aid.

Mr. Arif is the Country head of Water Aid Pakistan. Mr. Khan holds an M.Phil. degree in Public Policy from the National Defense University Islamabad and was awarded with the President’s Gold Medal. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering (Water Resource Development) from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. Mr. Arif is an Eisenhower Fellow wherein he studied the “Americans with Disabilities Act” during his Fellowship. Mr. Arif is a leadership Coach and is currently coaching a number of staff members in public and private institutions. He was the Chief of Party of USAID Ambassador’s Fund Grant Programme and has served Oxfam International as the Global Head of Humanitarian Campaigns, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Southern Africa and East Asia, Country Director in Pakistan and South Africa, in addition to holding other portfolios. He also served as the Country Director, Pakistan with Voluntary Service Overseas –VSO, Regional Grants Manager, Asia with Child fund International, Director Programme Operations, Sri Lanka with Save the Children and Director Operations, Market Development Facility with The Palladium Group.

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When: 14th-16th February 2022
Where: Murree, Punjab
Language: Urdu and English
Interested Applicants: Click here to register
Last Date to Apply: January 31st, 2022

Training Objectives:

The training will focus specifically on developing the ability of participants to:

  • Comprehend concepts and terminologies of Project and Project Cycle Management
  • Recognize various phases of Project Cycle Management and their importance
  • Understand and sharpen their skills to use various analytical tools for Project Identification
  • Learn to use causal hypothesis and Theory of Change for project designing and implementation
  • Understand M&E essentials and learn to plan for monitoring and evaluation at the time of inception of project life cycle
  • Learn to incorporate lessons from similar projects in the designing of new projects

Rationale

The development agenda has been, for long, aimed at improving quality of life of communities. However, projects can fail to meet priority needs of communities and not achieve stated outputs. These failures can be attributed in part to poor project cycle management, such as inadequate opportunities for potential beneficiaries to participate in project identification, weak financial management, inadequate monitoring during implementation, poor linkages between project activities and project purpose, and insufficient attention to the external environment during project design. Projects are more likely to succeed when the socio-economic context in which they operate is taken into considerati9on.

The rationale for imparting training of NGOs in project cycle management to equip development practitioners with the skills and tools to identify projects, recognize roles of different groups, overcome challenges to project management and apply techniques such a logical framework for maximum output. Participants of the training will go through all critical phases of project cycle management both theoretically and practically and there will be ample room through group exercises to benefit from the rich knowledge of participants that they will be bringing from their respective fields and focus areas.

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
  • Participant is mid/senior for program/project manager working in a local/national NGO
  • Participants from women led organisations, different abled persons, religious/ethnic minorities will be given preference
  • Commitment to apply learning in their work, including dissemination of learning within their organisation

Fee Details

Training fee for each participant is PKR 10,000. Fee concessions and scholarships are available for participants belonging marginalised groups and NGOs with limited funding.

Facilitator/Lead Trainer:

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, 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.

Additional Details: The final deadline for applications is January 31, 2022. Please be assured that incomplete applications will not be entertained.

Register Now

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 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.

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As part of the Quality & Accountability Week 2021,  a webinar titled ‘Key Policies & Minimum Requirements in relation to Safeguarding’, was jointly hosted and organised by ADRRN’s Quality and Accountability (Q&A) Hub, Sphere, CHS Alliance, ACT Alliance, ALNAP and Community World Service Asia (CWSA).

This webinar was the second one of the webinar series on Safeguarding and Complaints Management. Speaking about Safeguarding, Ester Dross, lead facilitator and moderator of the webinar, shared the need to explore and understand essential policies and guidance to establish a safeguarding framework, “The first session was more about general safeguarding, what it is and what it means for organisations to setup safeguarding framework. Today, we will have a concrete and practical discussion on what it means for our organisations when we speak about safeguarding and, what essential policies and guidance we need to have in place to establish a safeguarding framework.”

More than 80 humanitarian and development practitioners participated in this 90-minute webinar that discussed a wide array of diverse expertise and knowledge on safeguarding from all over the region.

Safeguarding, a key responsibility of every organisation

76% of the participants defined safeguarding as an organisation having a set of policies and procedures in place to prevent and protect different stakeholders from sexual exploitation. Abuse and harassment.

“We want to embrace the responsibility of the organisation to ensure that their staff or operations do not harm children or adults. This is really about having policies and procedures in place, from a Code of Conduct to a safe reporting and recruitment mechanism,” said Ester Dross.

While discussing key policies and guiding documents, participants identified policies that are essential for establishing and mainstreaming safeguarding. These included a Code of Conduct, a Safeguarding policy, complaint response mechanisms, HR policy, disciplinary policy, investigation guidelines and a separate safeguarding and code of conduct policy for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

Participants discussed and identified key components to improve the safeguarding practices. “It is critical to establish clear definitions of safeguarding and Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH) so that everyone understands what the organisations are talking about when they discuss safeguarding. Safeguarding and other related phrases may have different definitions from one organisation to another or even from one context to another. Certain definitions, such as sexual harassment and safeguarding, must however, be streamlined and thoroughly understood across the organisation. It is also crucial to relate SEAH breaches to contracts and disciplinary actions, as well as to regulate or prohibit sexual relationships with various stakeholders.” Ester further emphasised on humanitarian organisations to ensure effective reporting of any suspicions or incidents and create a safe and SEAH free environment.

28% of the attendees selected ‘Prohibition of sexual relationship with children from a list of rules when asked to identify key behavioural rules that would need to be included in a code of conduct in terms of safeguarding.

Minimum key rules and commitments that organisations require to include in their code of conducts for safeguarding and prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment to be compliant with UN Secretary General’s bulletin and IASC Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s[1] key commitments on sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment were shared in the webinar:

Sexual exploitation and abuse = Gross misconduct
Sexual activity with children (-18 years) is prohibited
Exchange of money, work, aid, services against sexual favours is prohibited
Sexual relationships between beneficiaries and staff are prohibited

We need to have an effective, accessible, safe & non-retaliation complaints response & recruitment mechanism

Clear definitions on complaints and how to address anonymous complaints are essential to having an effective policy and systems. It is also important to emphasize on maintaining confidentiality and protection and how to deal with whistle-blowers among staff. “Clarity on key commitments such as the procedure of registering and addressing complaints, disciplinary action, appeals process and references and vetting are essential,” said Ester.

Yasir Khan, a participant at the webinar, shared his concern on reporting cases, “Individuals sometimes do not feel safe to report any suspicious case. For this reason, organisations must establish a strong complaint response mechanisms and train staff to come forward through a standardised procedure and report incident witnessed internally or in communities. In addition, proper safeguarding standards should be set within organisations, available in local languages as well, to allow individuals to clearly understand the process and report without any fear or discomfort.”

  • What do we need to include into our recruitment process in terms of safeguarding?
  • What do we need to include into job descriptions in terms of safeguarding?

While addressing these questions, raised by Ester during the webinar, the participants highlighted the need to include equal representation of men and women in the recruitment team and ask questions related to safeguarding during the interviews. Some shared the need to sign an undertaking focused on Safeguarding and commit to maintenance of confidentiality and diversity in recruitment.

“It is important to be precise on who should provide a reference so that one can avoid references from line managers who are your best friends. This will allow organisations to gain useful information on the person they aim to recruit.  Elaborated questionnaires can be sent to references to address some specific questions that takes up more time but prove to be more helpful in recruiting the right person,” shared Ester.

Due to the increase in safeguarding issues, it has been recommended to conduct interviews with people who are providing reference checks. “This can be a good indicator to determine if the applicant being considered will be able to comply with the safeguarding policy and procedures set within the organisation.”

Speaking about inclusion of key points on safeguarding in job descriptions, participants shared, “It is important to remind people, even at the level of announcing new positions, that there is zero tolerance on SEAH. In addition, commitment to maintaining confidentiality can be added in the contracts. An individual can be given a role to act as the focal person on Safeguarding in the organisation, who will be responsible to orient staff, promote the policy and ensure proper implementation of the procedures and guidelines established.”

Another point raised was to add the commitment to maintain safeguarding norms, especially for staff with specialised responsibility or who work with vulnerable individuals. Moreover, the job description can guarantee that disciplinary action is included in the event of a breach.

Ester shared an anonymous action plan from an organisation, which contained activities to improve the organisational culture and put safeguarding at the centre of everything. “An action plan will attempt to provide a safe environment for the children, youth, and families with whom organisations engage with, as well as employees and partners.”

“Working with children and young adults may be quite gratifying. However, it also entails a significant amount of responsibility. One of the most crucial components of this responsibility is your duty to keep individuals under your care safe. Having a solid safeguarding policy in place is the ideal method to guarantee that personnel have the information and skills required to offer a service that safeguards all stakeholders involved in humanitarian work,” Ester concluded.

1. https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/

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Webinar on: Complaints Mechanisms

Format: Webinar presentation, discussion
When:  20th January 2022
Time:  2.00 PM-3:00 PM (Pakistan Standard Time)
Where: Zoom – Link to be shared with registered participants.
Register: 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 humanitarian and development organisation registered in Pakistan, addressing factors 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 two 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. Safeguarding is a key pillar to any accountability measures that 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 critical 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 webinars, 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

Objectives:

This third event follows an introductory session on safeguarding where three organizations shared their experience in setting up a safeguarding framework and an interactive session where participants explored the key policies and guidelines they need to have in place in terms of safeguarding. During this session, we would like to:

  • Explore more in-depth complaints systems and necessary minimum requirements to understand essential components
  • Ensure they are appropriate and user-friendly
  • Discuss and explore challenges and solutions

Moderator & Presenter:

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 Organisations Project since 2005, dealing with sexual exploitation and abuse of bénéficiaires, 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 projet 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

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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.

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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.

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