CLOSE
Authors Posts by comms

comms

815 POSTS 0 COMMENTS
https://www.communityworldservice.asia

1562

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the functioning of all businesses, entrepreneurs and industries the world over. Leaders and managers, whether from the business sector, the education system, or the development sector, had to modify their leadership styles to meet the demands and sustain their businesses in these unprecedented times.

Under its Capacity Enhancement Programme, Community World Service Asia (CWSA) developed a strategy to equip Pakistan’s current and future humanitarian leaders with the leadership skills necessary to run their organisations in turbulent times such as COVID-19. CWSA has conducted virtual trainings in the first quarter of the year on quality and accountability, but with decline in COVID-19 in April and introduction of vaccines, the organization resumed in-person trainings, following strict SOPs with COVID 19 guidelines in place. The guidelines wereshared along with the invitation, and reiterated every day of the training in addition to placing santizers and masks in all common areas.  

As part of implementing the strategy, CWSA organised an open-call training on Leading in Complexity and Uncertainty in which 17 participants representing 14 NGOs and INGOs participated and exchanged new experiences and learnings. 

  • Strict SOPs were followed during the training

Arif Jabbar[1], a renowned leadership coach with two decades of experience in the local and global humanitarian and development sector lead the training and applied the ‘Authentic Leader’ approach in most of the sessions, providing equal opportunities to participants to reflect on their leadership style and its relevance and effectiveness in the context of Covid-19. This enabled the participants to learn about new and existing leadership competencies based on research with contemporary leaders. During the training participants also practiced and sharpened their personal leadership skills and competencies through practical exercises.

Adopting a participatory approach through most of the training, Arif engaged participants in group exercises to promote peer learning. In one exercise, participants were divided in four groups, namely Norms Committee, Feedback Committee, Games Committee, and the Complaints Committee. Tasks were assigned to each group with the purpose of completing the tasks with giving the least instructions in twenty minutes. After performing the tasks successfully, the participants shared that they panicked for a while due to the time constraint and absence of detailed instructions but they were ultimately able to reach the goal. In response, Arif Jabbar shared that “the real-world does not give us parameters or instructions and that the real leaders and successful organisations are the ones who can survive in situations like these.”

Rabel Sadozai, National Marketing Manager at Fatima Fertilizers, was invited as a guest speaker through a virtual online session. As the National Marketing Manager, Rabel leads the brands, channel and exports businesses at Fatima Fertilizers and has a rich corporate sector experience. In her discussion with participants, Rabel shared the need of exceedingly focused individuals in the development sector with the ability to consistently accomplish humanitarian objectives through attention to detail and being able to thrive in high-pressure, deadline-driven environments. “The challenges faced amid COVID-19, especially during remote management, built a gap between the managers and their teams. It was essential for regular communication in these times as physical contact was minimal. We prompt up our online communication and encouraged teams to provide updates as frequently as possible. This allowed us to overcome the communication gap that arose due to remote working. it was also important to keep teams motivated and let them know that we as managers are here for them even in times of difficulties. We also held casual meetings to maintain staff well-being and be supporting models, as everyone was going through tough times.”

A video of Martin Luther king was screened during the trianing to show participants his vision and communication style. The session on Vision and Communication shared various visions of companies including Tesla and Google to give participants a clear understanding on the conceot of vision. Participants learned the essential steps that need to be taken in developing a clear vision for themselves and their organisation. “It is key to know the right communication medium to inspire people thorugh your vision. Storytelling is one of the most effective tools used to impact audiences,” said Arif. Participants then worked on developing a personal and organisational vision in an exercise.

Participant Takeaways:

  • “Effective and continuous communication in key in creating a sustainable working environment during unprecedented times.”Javaid Ahmad, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat
  • “Conveying the organisational vision is key to build trust with communities we work with. It is important that the organisation’s vision is understood and enforced in its true meaning.” Saima Noreen, Sojhla Welfare Foundation
  • “Staff at any position can implement interactive activities to promote efficient communication while working remotely. These interactive exercises help staff to overcome challenges and work towards solutions as a team.” Nabia Farrah, Secours Islamique France

[1] He was the Chief of Party of USAID Ambassador’s Fund Grant Programme and has served in Oxfam International as the Global Head of Humanitarian Campaigns, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Southern Africa and East Asia and Country Director in Pakistan and South Africa.

1316

Covid-19 has changed and challenged many facets of human life, including the non-profit and development ecosystem. Restricted movements have led to limited access to communities and stakeholders, thereby adversely impacting most humanitarian programming. Shrinking economies and a shift of funding countries’ financial focus on internal health sectors has drastically reduced global aid and development funding. For operating aid organisations, these funding challenges are only an addition to the existing issues of staff care, health and limited mobilisation.

Forty-four aid organisations in Pakistan gathered to discuss these challenges and share their experiences in a virtual event organised by Community World Service Asia on Organisational Sustainability and COVID-19 in April this year. Arif Jabbar Khan, a well-known leadership coach with twenty years of humanitarian and development, moderated the session, joined by panellists, Anne Masterson, Country Director- Norwegian Church Aid Pakistan (NCA- Pakistan), and Hashim Bilal, Country Director- Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

Inequalities during the Pandemic

Participants in the session discussed the ‘Triangular Crisis’ which refers to the complex relationships among policymakers, humanitarian agencies, and the international news media and related it to the current pandemic. Their interaction is of increasing salience to the outcomes of effective humanitarian action. The panellists and participants touched upon the adverse effects of COVID-19 including a rise in unemployment, child hunger, domestic violence, child labour, and poverty. “Asia-Pacific’s least developed countries (LDCs) have suffered multiple supply and demand shocks as global economic growth collapsed under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the relatively small number of COVID-19 cases reported in these countries, the pandemic quickly developed into a multidimensional crisis, owing in part to their high levels of external dependency and exposure, but also to their low levels of resilience, such as their underdeveloped healthcare systems, large informal sectors in which workers do not have adequate social protection, and limited policy space or institutional capacity to respond to shocks. These factors have magnified the impact of lockdown measures introduced to contain the spread of the coronavirus.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a harsh light on inequality. “People living paycheck to paycheck in service sector jobs are in a very different position to those working in salaried jobs they can do from home. Stark gaps in wealth, health and work have gone from being chronic problems to acute ones. Additionally, the failure to control the COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts on the global economy, with global GDP falling by 3.3 percent in 2020[1]. Even with the global economy projected to grow by 6 percent in 2021, recovery will depend on equitable distribution of the vaccine globally. Failure to do so could cost the world economy up to $9 trillion, according to the International Chamber of Commerce, with the costs born equally by wealthy and poor countries, causing more economic devastation than the 2008 financial crisis,” narrated Arif.

Moreover, the pandemic along with the economic downturn combined have hit everyone hard. But the impact has not been spread equally. While sharing the drastic effects of the pandemic on men and women, Arif said, “A report in November by UN Women found clear evidence that, although both genders have seen their unpaid workloads increase, women are bearing more of the burden than men. During the pandemic, widespread restrictions on daily life, school closures, disruption to businesses and a big rise in working from home have made many tasks more time-consuming and arduous. According to the UN Women report, more women than men have reported an increase in their workload in almost every aspect of domestic life.”

Revolutionising Humanitarian Action

Internal and external restriction on movement has gravely affected the delivery and implementation of aid. “We have not seen substantial funding for COVID, yet the situation is going to get worse. Many donors pulled back their funding from less-developed countries. The decrease in funding has a direct impact on people’s lives and our ability to sustainably provide life-saving aid to them and to reinforce fragile essential infrastructure in the way we need to,” says Arif.

According to Hashim, the virtual event has provided an effective platform to learn and adopt new strategies from various organisations in unprecedented times. While sharing VSO’s change in strategies, Hashim said, “VSO executed adoptive and integrated approaches for its strategies. We engaged our volunteer groups with communities and stakeholders to conduct awareness raising on COVID-19 and its SOPs. Additionally, we build awareness in schools on COVID-19 through poetry to gain maximum attention of students and enforce implementation of preventive measures. We also developed songs on how to avoid transmission of the virus and published them widely on social media.”

To cope with the rapidly changing situation, NCA reinforced its online communication systems to effectively use online platforms for meetings, trainings, discussions and follow-ups among staff and partner organisations. “We tried to improve our online communication systems due to the restrictions in movement and holding physical meetings. We encouraged the usage of mobile phones, WhatsApp and other internet facilities to up the online communication for updates and progress. Our main donors, particularly the Government of Norway, right from the beginning of the outbreak by March 2020, were already offering to be more flexible in the way our agreements and programmes could be utilised and implemented. This allowed NCA to immediately bring in a dimension of COVID and quickly adapt programmes to effectively operate within the restrictions of the dimensions of COVID pandemic,” narrated Anne. She further shared the change in information sharing and awareness raising programme, saying, “We expanded our existing programmes, particularly under WASH, GBV[2] and Peace Building, adding COVID-19 messages and communication for awareness raising on SOPs and preventive measures with focus on women, minority groups and affected-communities.”

Organisations will need to practice adoptive approach and civil society organisations need to invest more in education, livelihoods and health programming. “Civil society organisations and developmental institutions can work jointly and influence donors by giving them joint statements for the betterment of humanitarian actions. We need to work together to cope in this pandemic situation and reach the affected-communities effectively. Additionally, humanitarian organisations have to boost government ownership in reaching out to affected-communities and working with them in partnership in target areas. To make this possible we have to promote our humanitarian work and increase visibility,” remarked Hashim.

A participant brought forward issues of staff care while ensuring effective delivery of project activities to which Hashim shared the VSO’s health care policy during COVID 19 which included strict adherence to SOP’s, restricted staff movement, allowed flexible office timings and partial staff attendance in the office. “In addition to the healthcare policy, VSO designed and conducted mandatory trainings on duty care, safeguarding and risk communication. These trainings were delivered to national and international staff members of VSO, volunteers and community members. VSO further provided the provision of personal PPE[3] kits to avoid direct exposure to risk.”

In response to a participant’s question on ensuring continued funding, given the economic downturn globally, Anne shared NCA’s experience saying, “NCA addressed this concern while keeping face-to-face and online communication with the donors. We tend to keep them updated about how NCA is managing work and implementing the projects during a pandemic. Moreover, we identified the need of funds and prepared applications for and with national partners to raise funds further for emergency responses. We worked within and as part of different networks to advocate for continued funding in existing programmes and additional funding for COVID-19 response, particularly for vulnerable and most affected-communities.  We increased advocacy efforts and NCA has been successful in getting additional funds in Pakistan and other Asian countries.”

Key Take-aways shared by Participants:

  • “Humanitarian organisations have to work towards awareness raising through radio in order to reach rural and remote areas to encourage the communities there for vaccination.” Ifthekhar Farooq

  • “COVID -19 has affected women and minorities in the context of mental stress. For this reason, humanitarian groups should focus on organising trainings, Focus Group Discussions and sessions on psycho-socio economic condition.” Alyas Rahmat

  • “Local community leaders adopt the techniques and skills provided by the NGOs under COVID-19 response. It is difficult to adapt to quick changes; therefore, we need to support existing programs instead of introducing new ones in short time-span.” Liaquat Ali

  • “Fair distribution of vaccine needs to be ensured. Additionally, travel restrictions should also be checked as more restrictions between Pakistan, North America and Europe are affecting real stories to be conveyed to the international space.” Anne Masterson

  • “The topic of webinar, ‘Organisational Sustainability and COVID 19’, is a vast field. This discussion is just the initiation and we as humanitarian practitioners, have to work towards making efficient strategies, both at organisational and national level.” Arif Jabbar

[1] https://www.usglc.org/coronavirus/economies-of-developing-countries/

[2] Gender-Based Violence

[3] Personal protective equipment

1107

“The smiles we bring to the faces of the individuals we work for inspires me to keep going and serve as many people as possible.”

Muhammad Waseem has been actively working as a humanitarian practitioner in Pakistan’s development sector since the past seven years. “As Manager Quality Assurance in Association for Gender Awareness & Human Empowerment (AGAHE), I am responsible to develop, review and implement a robust Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning framework and tools. The objective is to facilitate measurement of progress and enhance compliance of programmes and projects with AGAHE standards, policy framework and best practices. AGAHE is working on various thematic areas, including Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Food Security & Livelihoods, Health & Nutrition, Disaster Risk Reduction & Resilience, and Governance.”

“Managing teams was the most challenging responsibility after being promoted to Manager Quality Assurance. Since the promotion took place during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the projects became extremely time-sensitive, and workload was at an all-time high. I always believed that working in a group was more efficient than working alone. But it did not take me long to realise that it’s only easier when done right. Team chemistry, capabilities, and challenges faced are the most essential factors to consider while dealing with teams in times of crisis. After hearing about the training workshop on ‘Leading in Complexity and Uncertainty’ in April from a friend, I immediately applied,” shared Waseem.

Seventeen participants representing 14 national and international non-governmental organisations took part in the training. Waseem, along with other humanitarian workers, explored various leadership styles and skills during the training and analysed their own leadership styles based on self-assessments. Participants learned new methodologies and tool to improve their leadership skills and devised strategies for peer assistance exercises and technical mentorship. “The training material was prepared with the participants’ consent. This was a motivating aspect since it allowed us, as participants, to suggest essential subjects for inclusion in the training agenda, making the training more relevant and effective in terms of learning. Arif Jabbar, the lead facilitator, adopted a participatory approach throughout the five-day workshop which enabled an effective sharing and learning process among all us participants.”

Waseem was new to the MBTI and Emotional Intelligence models of self-awareness that were introduced in the training. “It’s hardly news that people leave organisations because of poor management. Tools like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) can be extremely helpful here. The MBTI and Emotional Intelligence workshop was an excellent method for us to develop our own self-awareness, and it also served as a strong foundation for learning what would potentially frustrates or upsets others. This session’s group activity targeted at self-assessment in times of complexity and uncertainty, allowing us to discover important qualities to work more successfully with others and manage our team in a more emotionally intelligent manner.”

Waseem initiated regular meetings with his team members after taking the training. “The ‘Leader as a Coach’ session improved my communication skills and helped me understand my team’s dynamics more. I started scheduling twice-monthly meetings with my team members to give them an opportunity to share their challenges and work together to find solutions. Keeping the mechanism of accountability in place without compromising teams’ trust and confidence was a big challenge. Meetings with teams that worked remotely helped to bridge the communication gap and accelerate project delivery. This initiative has increased our team’s productivity and motivation to work in unprecedented times.”

Constant communication with his teams has been a game changer for Waseem. “My staff has more faith in me and the work we are doing now. Overcoming my negative leadership qualities and improving team communication has increased my team’s trust in me, and we are now working more collectively than ever before.”

1852

Lalo is from a small village in Umerkot’s Pithoro tehsil[1] called Achhlo Kolhi which mainly homes a Kolhi[2] community settlement, consisting primarily of farmers from a religious minority population in Sindh. The village is located at a 10 kilometres distance from Community World Service Asia’s Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) center in Pithoro, which was set up under its health project[3] in collaboration with Act for Peace. The Kolhi community have limited livelihood prospects due to their heavy reliance on agriculture and many of them are living below the poverty line. Currently, eighty of the Kolhi households in the village even lack basic amenities such as safe drinking water, education, and health care.

Lalo supported his wife and seven children working as an agrarian farmer for long hours on agricultural fields in the area. His elder sons also worked on the fields with him and the family survived and sustained on the income from the farming on a day to day basis. Something tragic that happened last year (2020) deprived Lalo of this livelihood, changing his life forever and left the family in a crumbling state.

“Working in the agricultural fields provided me with a monthly income of PKR 10,000 (Approx. USD 63). In April of 2020, I paid a visit to a relative of mine, Geno, who lived in a nearby village, Bacha Band, during monsoon season and it was raining heavily. We were in a room when the roof fell over us, burying us beneath the rubble. Both of us were seriously injured and were transported to the hospital straight away. Geno succumbed to his injuries after a month in the hospital. While I was left with a crushed femur (thighbone) and have been unable to walk since.”

Lalo was well known for his social skills and actively socialised within the community. He was a hardworking father and husband who worked for hours in the agricultural fields, collected fodder for the animals daily, visited the nearest town to buy household groceries and happily took part in all religious rituals and family events. However, the accident changed this lifestyle of Lalo. It became very difficult for him to manage anything on his own. Most of his days were spent lying down in bed, as he struggled to move about with only his hands. Lalo could not work on the fields anymore, an activity he had grown accustomed to and was a sole source of income for his family and him.

With the help of the wheelchair, Lalo has been more mobile and is able to attend to some household chores as well as socialise as he used to. “At times when I felt more pain, I have not been able to visit the MNCH. However, now I am able to visit the health centre when needed. I am also participating in our religious rituals again. This initiative has given me hope to come back to the normal life I had and step towards a good and healthy life.”

[1] In Pakistan, a tehsil (or taluka) is an administrative sub-division of a District. Those are sub-divided into union councils.
[2] Kolhi is a subgroup of Koli community native to Sindh, Pakistan. Kolhi’s mostly are Hindu but some of them are Christian and Muslim.
[3] Umerkot Health Project, implemented by Community World Service Asia and funded by Act for Peace

1635

When: 24-26 August 2021
Where: Murree Punjab
Language: Urdu
Interested Applicants: Click here to register
Last Date to Apply: 5th August 2021

Rationale:

Since the 1950s the development agenda has been characterized by projects and programmes aimed at improving the quality of life of beneficiary communities, be it in physical or qualitative terms. Despite significant inputs of human and financial resources, many fell short of expectations. Projects failed to meet the priority needs of communities; stated outputs were not achieved or, if achieved, not sustained; target groups did not benefit in the manner intended; project costs escalated and implementation dates slipped, and adverse outcomes were not anticipated.

These failures were attributed in part to poor project 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. It was also recognised that projects were more likely to succeed when account was taken of the socio-economic context in which they operated.

The rationale for imparting training of NGOs in project cycle management is the wish to achieve sustainable development. Projects should identify and understand the different roles and entitlements between various beneficiaries in focused communities, and the special challenges faced by disadvantaged groups. During recent decades, many tools have been developed to strengthen the management of projects, such as project cycle management, the logical framework and rapid appraisal techniques. Similarly, technological revolution has also contributed significantly to plan, design, implement and keep track of the activities by all team members while geographically spread and/or different locations.

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.

The training will specifically focus on:

  • Comprehend concepts and terminologies of Project, Project Management
  • Recognize various phases of Project Cycle Management and its importance
  • Understand and sharpen their skills to use various analytical tools for Project Identification
  • Use Project structure, Logical Framework Analysis, External Environment, OVI and sustainability and work plans based on activity analysis during projects’ design phase and preparation phase
  • Learn to undertake use of technology for documentation, communication, quality assessments at each phase of PCM

Number of Participants

  • A maximum of 20 participants will be selected for the training. Women applications, 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

  • Primary responsibility for program/project management.
  • Mid or senior level manager in a civil society organization, preferably field staff of large CSOs or CSOs with main office 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. Discount of 10% on early registration by 1st August 2021 and 20% discount will be awarded to women participants
  • Commitment to apply learning in their work, including dissemination of learning within their organisation Commitment to apply learning in their work, including dissemination of learning within their organisation

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.
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.

Scholarship 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 August 5th, 2021. Please be assured that incomplete applications will not be entertained.

2060

The Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) Surge Approach is designed to enable health systems to effectively treat children diagnosed with acute malnutrition. The CMAM approach relies on the assumption that the number of children with acute malnutrition increases drastically at certain times of the year in many places. Low birth weight owing to poor maternal nutrition, protein-energy malnutrition, anaemia, and iodine deficiency are all major nutritional issues in Pakistan. Since 2013, Pakistan has been a part of the worldwide Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) effort to address these nutritional issues. Sindh is severely affected by intensifying malnutrition and stunting indicators. As many as 48 percent children under the age of five are stunted while 35pc of them are severely stunted[1].

Aware of the rising rates of acute malnutrition among remote and impoverished communities of rural Sindh, the People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative (PPHI)[2] of Sindh, in collaboration with Community World Service Asia, conducted orientation sessions on CMAM Surge Approach for community-level implementation for early diagnosis and referral of malnourished children in Umerkot district of Sindh.

In June, awareness and orientation sessions on CMAM Surge approach were held in two villages of Umerkot where forty members (both men and women) of village level Health Management Committees (HMC) participated

The sessions focused on the CMAM Surge Model that seeks to improve the resilience of health systems to be able to deliver more efficient and effective medical and preventive treatment for acute malnutrition over time. The focus was on providing the best care during times when cases are at a peak and the need for health services to address these cases is the highest. The potential to save maximum lives is at its greatest then, while ensuring that the capacity and accountability of the public health sector is not undermined.

The CMAM Surge applies an eight step approach to assist health teams in responding to rapid changes in capacity and caseloads. The scaling up of CMAM Surge has resulted in additional learning and adjustments to the methodology that are context-specific. The sessions were facilitated by PPHI and along with thorough learning on the CMAM, nutritional plans, relevant reading material, referral slips and brochures were shared with participants.

In the last six months, 45 cases of malnutrition have been recorded at the MNCHs of Samaro and Pithoro as a result of insufficient food and an absence of a balanced diet. Participants learned about the prevalence of malnutrition and its causes, particularly among children. During the sessions, participants were made aware of the many different forms of malnutrition and how to prevent it. The importance of breastfeeding and consuming a well-balanced diet were stressed upon with participants. A practical exercise was also conducted where participants learned how to measure lactating and pregnant women and children using the Mid-upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) tape.

Learnings of HMC Members:

“I knew very little about malnutrition and the services provided by PPHI to alleviate malnutrition in Sindh. We learned a lot about identifying cases of malnutrition and when and how to refer them to doctors. I will now be able to check children for malnutrition and, if necessary, refer them to the nearest PPHI centre. I also learned that malnutrition is not a disease, but rather a result of human negligence, poverty, unsanitary conditions, and food insecurity. I will sensitise people in my community to maintain hygiene at home and their neighbourhood and provide a healthy diet to their children to avoid malnutrition.”

Chetan Kumar, member of Health Management Committee in Samaro

“The CMAM Surge Model approach is a great way to assist health systems offer treatments to children with acute malnutrition more effectively. Members of the HMC will be able to predict when seasonal caseload surges are likely to occur and will use this information to better prepare themselves for management of services during times of high demand. We were able to gain a thorough understanding of malnutrition, its causes, and how to prevent it. We are now better equipped to refer malnourished children to the nearest PPHI centre for treatment.”

Nabi Bux Solangi, member of Health Management Committee in Samaro

“We discovered that the MUAC is utilised to determine nutritional status of women and children. Because it is simple and inexpensive to use, we can efficiently apply it for active case finding. MUAC is an effective indicator of mortality risk associated with malnutrition, it is therefore a better measure to identify children most in need of treatment. The use of MUAC tape will allow me to immediately refer children with acute malnutrition to doctors in a timely manner.”

Lachmi, member of Health Management Committee in Samaro

“It was my first nutrition training session, and it was a great learning experience. Malnutrition awareness is critical in our community, and individuals must understand how to prevent it. The knowledge on malnutrition, its prevention, and the usage of MUAC tape will help in the mitigation of malnutrition in our village, Mirashah.”

Shanti, member of Health Management Committee in Pithoro

“We were not aware of PPHI’s nutrition program being operated in our vicinity. This session improved our knowledge of malnutrition and its many forms, as well as the use of MUAC tape and the referral of suspicious cases to the PPHI health centre for treatment.”

Sisliya, member of Health Management Committee in Pithoro

[1] https://www.dawn.com/news/1426604

[2] Footnote: PPHI Sindh is a not-for-profit company setup under section 42 of The Companies Act 2017. PPHI Sindh has focused on mother and child health and has continuously improved delivery coverage all over Sindh.

2189

World Environment Day 2021

For too long, we have been exploiting and destroying our planet’s ecosystems. Ecosystem loss is depriving the world of carbon sinks, like forests and peatlands, at a time humanity can least afford it. Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown for three consecutive years and the planet is at one pace for potentially catastrophic climate change.

The emergence of COVID-19 has also shown just how disastrous the consequences of ecosystem loss can be. By shrinking the area of natural habitat for animals, we have created ideal conditions for pathogens – including coronaviruses – to spread. Considering all these challenges, this World Environment Day focuses on the restoration of our ecosystem, with the theme “Reimagine. Recreate. Restore.”

Only in a healthy ecosystem can we sustain people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change impacts and reduce the degradation of biodiversity. A recent German Watch Report of the Long-term Global Climate Risk Index 2020, a global think-tank working on climate change, had rated Pakistan number 8th most affected country due to adverse impacts of climate change. Community World Service Asia continues to encourage and build awareness on environment conservation with communities on the ground that are most affected by climate change and pollution.  We are continuing to invest in preservation, prevention and preparedness, together with the communities, as a necessary part of all systematic efforts to increase resilience to climate change and disaster risks and protect the environment.

Growing Sustainable Kitchen Gardens

Sustainable farming and kitchen gardening impacts everything from the air we breathe to the carbon footprints we leave behind. Community World Service Asia has been working with the most vulnerable, flood and drought affected rural communities by promoting sustainable agriculture among them to improve their food security, health and nutrition. These activities are allowing community members to sustain livelihoods, ensure good well-being and be an active part of preserving their environment.

Growing your own food allows you to stop relying solely on traditional methods of purchasing your produce from a grocery store. When you buy foods from these shops, you should take into consideration the sad, but true, fact that these foods travel several miles before ever being consumed. Not only does this impact the freshness and flavor of the food, but more importantly, this emits dangerous amounts of carbon emissions and waste associated with air freight and other transportation methods into the atmosphere. The concept of kitchen gardening is helping to reduce the high amounts of burning fossil fuels that fill our environment as a direct result of importing foods from commercial farmers. This initiative is also reducing waste from food packaging materials such as man-made plastics and cardboard, that also travel hundreds and thousands of miles. Women in Sindh feel safer and satisfied knowing what they are eating and what has gone into producing their food.

Under its Livelihoods portfolio, CWSA has conducted 291 workshops for more than five thousand people, a majority of these rural women, on kitchen gardening since 2015. Through these trainings, rural communities, especially women, have started growing kitchen gardens in their homes and have applied low-cost irrigation methods in their agrarian farming.

Introducing Eco-Friendly Farming

Most local communities in interior Sindh rely heavily on agriculture, but farmers in this region have struggled to cultivate bountiful harvests in the vicinity due to extreme water scarcity, harsh weather conditions and limited knowledge and resources on sustainable farming.

Under its food security projects, CWSA promotes sustainable farming and agri-based enterprises and provides continuous technical support and guidance on business development to rural farmers to enable them to achieve high quality agricultural produce. To further strengthen the skills and expertise of these agrarian communities, CWSA facilitated six exposure visits of 476 farmers, including men and women from twenty-five villages, to renowned agricultural research institutes in Sindh. During these visits, the community members observed multiple ongoing researches and agricultural activities. Some of these included kitchen gardening activities using drip irrigation systems, pitcher gardening schemes, solar desalination units and hydroponic cultivation systems. They were also familiarised with the use of bio fertilisers as one of the most important components of integrated nutrient management, being cost effective as well as being a renewable source of nutrients to supplement chemical fertilisers.

Through workshops on sustainable farming, 13,125 farmers, more than 50% women, from ninety villages in Sindh have been trained on sustainable agriculture. Communities have learned about crop production sustainability and productivity in changing climatic conditions. Most of these trainings focused on increasing productivity in agriculture and the level of economic prosperity among target communities while working on resource and environment conservation.

Improving ecosystems by restoring natural balance

Afforestation is key to sustaining the ecosystem and accelerating socio-economic development. Trees have remained a main contributor for sustaining resources including food, fiber, livelihood resources and water. Community World Service Asia has launched aeroculture[1] campaigns with farming communities in Sindh. These campaigns have promoted and enhanced biodiversity and mitigated adverse impacts of climate change in the areas that we work. One of the more long-term outcomes of the campaigns has been to provide an alternative livelihood source to water-deprived farming communities in the area. Tree Plantation activities have strengthened peoples’ bond with nature and helped purify the environment.

A variety of fruit and plant saplings such as Sapota, Lemon, Azarirachta indica (neem), Moringa, Falsa, Jujube and Guava, have been distributed among 690 targeted agrarian families of Badin and Umerkot. As many as 34,192 samplings were given out during the campaign that chanted the slogan “Let’s make a promise to grow more trees.”

Ensuring human wellbeing and environmental health through Fuel-Efficient Stoves

To reduce smoke emissions and decrease deforestation, CWSA, under its Climate Action and Risk Reduction portfolio, is training women on effectively using and adopting a new technology of fuel-efficient stoves in their homes. The fuel-efficient stove is an energy system that has a positive impact on the ecosystem while providing basic cooking needs. The stoves are made of mud and straw enabling caretakers in the house to cook on two burners simultaneously while being able to control the flame at a required temperature. As a result, it reduces smoke emission and fuelwood consumption. A total of forty-seven trainings have been conducted by women community mobilizers for almost a thousand rural women on the use of the stoves and raising awareness among them on its environment-friendly nature. A cleaner environment and reduction in kitchen expenses has been seen as a direct impact of these trainings. More than three thousand stoves have been effectively installed in 2002 households in 16 villages of Umerkot district of Sindh province since 2019.

Ecosystem restoration can take many forms: Growing trees, making cities greener, rewilding gardens, changing diets or cleaning up rivers and coasts. This is the generation that can make peace with nature so let us all join hands to play an active role in Reimagining, Recreating & Restoring our precious ecosystem.

[1] A method of growing plants without soil by suspending them above sprays that constantly moisten the roots with water and nutrients.

1732

To effectively empower women socially and economically and reduce economic inequality, it is critical to encourage women in rural entrepreneurship. Rural women’s entrepreneurship is a relatively recent phenomenon in Pakistan, and policy efforts to encourage rural women’s interest in entrepreneurship need more work in well-targeted ways. The absence of or lack of awareness of entrepreneurial processes is having a significant impact on the enterprising capability of aspiring rural women entrepreneurs in the country. Furthermore, their lack of experience or expertise in formal enterprises’ management and marketing affairs further impacts their potential for business expansion and profitability.

Community World Service Asia (CWSA) has worked with rural women artisans on enhancing their skills, providing them exposure and promoted their craftsmanship in the national and regional market for more than a decade. CWSA has worked with over a thousand women artisans through its livelihoods programme, giving them a platform to enhance their embroidery and stitching skills and become economically empowered. We have particularly worked towards creating and establishing many market linkages for these artisans to expand their clientele and increase demand for their products. We believe that by establishing sustainable links and maintaining partnership models that are tangible in their deliverables and outcomes, we can provide a critical platform for changing rural women’s position from one of vulnerability to one of decision makers and successful change makers.

By creating or participating in a formal Chamber of Commerce, women entrepreneurs can avail more opportunities to prove their economic clout and convince the government and large corporations to pay attention to specific requirements of women in the workplace and in the enterprise sector. The establishment of an active association specifically focused on women will ensure mentoring, information sharing, simplification of processes and support to rural businesses through policy lobbying.

To develop a pertinent platform, an Association of Rural Women Entrepreneurs is in the process of being registered with the Women Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Pakistan, which will ensure representation of thirty rural artisans as members. CWSA’s team supported the women artisans to prepare and submit all required documents for the registration of the association, including SIM cards, national identification cards and complete profiles of each artisan. Shaiyanne Malik, CWSA’s consultant on women’s skill building and empowerment projects, is in close coordination with the Women Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Pakistan to process and complete the registration of the association successfully. The association will promote entrepreneurship of rural artisans and help rural women connect with business hubs and institutes that will further help them achieve social and economic empowerment.

The primary goal of this association is to give technical assistance and coaching to women who are starting businesses, as well as to promote initiatives from the Export Development Funds (EDF) that are specially targeted for women. It will provide women economic liberty as well as an effective voice to echo their issues, challenges and needs. The chamber will assist rural women in building and operating successful and secure businesses and careers, along with gaining access to government contracts and developing their leadership skills.

This association will be dedicated to changing the economics of business and labour markets, as well as removing impediments to long-term business and economic growth of women in rural regions. In the future, the association will look at funding and capacity-building options, along with promoting the work and products of these rural artisans on a global scale.

1030

A4EP, a global alliance of Southern organisations, the 63rd and the newest signatory, will ensure GB policy discourses remain centred on affected populations and informed by the experiences of local actors to strengthen effective, efficient and timely responses through a nexus approach. A4EP commits to working together with international actors to address the barriers in establishing equitable partnerships with local actors. We will work with others to ensure distributive and collaborative decisionmaking in the global governance of the Grand Bargain and at the country level.

The last five years of experience of the Grand Bargain has shown that progress is slow and deep rooted systems change takes time. The short term two-year planning is leading to ad hoc activities which are not bringing required system wide change. Given the ongoing pandemic and the climate crisis and its longer terms impacts, the Grand Bargain v2.0 needs a longer time horizon and commitment, in line with SDGs and Sendai Framework for DRR and Paris Climate Goals. For the Grand Bargain commitments to be meaningfully moving forward, it needs to be systematically implemented at country level by contextualising it to the country context. There must be a country level process roadmap with M&E framework to ensure accountability.

  1. Extend the timeline for the Grand Bargain v 2.0 to 2030.
  2. Engage Principals in high level dialogue to harness political will to make real progress on shrinking needs and dignified life for affected population.
  3. Carry out a review of state of localisation at country level and create a road map and action plan to ensure efficient, effective and timely response for affected populations in which they are the main decision-maker and actors.
  4. Create a localisation task force co-led by local actors and supported by international actors which can jointly monitor the progress at country level

Shrinking space

In the race for deepening and broadening the resource base the INGOs are now nationalising and the UN agencies are now also raising funds in the aid-recipient countries. Both INGOs and UN agencies are now monopolising every operational, policy and resource space in countries. If the GB signatories want to make real process on localisation and participation revolution, there is a need to revisit the IASC Definitions Paper to make the definition apolitical and thereby creating a facilitative environment for locally rooted CSOs. The GB signatories need to complement the local and national actors not replace them.

  1. Review and revise the IASC definitions of local, national and international actors and develop a localization marker to assess progress.
  2. Stop further nationalisation of INGOs. The existing branches of INGOs registered in countries should not be treated as national CSO but should be required to complement and support home grown CSOs as intermediaries. They should be shifting roles, shrink their operational space while providing support for increasing space for local/national actors.
  3. INGO and UN should only be operational as a last resort otherwise they should be reinforcing and not replacing local actors in operational and policy space and should be complementing the local actors and sharing risks.

Increasing inclusion and representation of local organizations

At present the global and country level aid architecture displays authoritarian and colonial tendencies with decision making in the hands of a few powerful international actors with patriarchal (or patronising) attitudes who dominate the resources. There is a serious lack of diversity and inclusion of local actors in the decision-making in aid architecture and the Grand Bargain process. Where local actors are present, their voices are not being heard or being able to influence the decision making because they are outnumbered.

  1. Open up and broaden the representation and participation of diverse networks of local actors from local, national and regional level at the Grand Bargain table.
  2. Democratize Grand Bargain governance and decision-making so it does not remain in the hands of a few powerful international actors and become more inclusive.
  3. Create a safe space for local actors to share openly and honestly the issues without retaliation or backlash.
  4. Let GB be a template, which can be evolved by local and national actors according to a specific context with complementary support from international actors, instead of it being prescriptive.

Funding and financing

Funding and financing of local organisations has made the least progress in the last 5 years.

  1. Support or establish country-owned and locally led pooled fund in aid-recipient countries earmarking percentage only for access by local actors.
  2. Pooled funds that are created must be operated with consistency and with full transparency and accountability.
  3. Given that pooled are only available in a few humanitarian contexts, a pool of local actors need to be identified for direct support or through intermediaries, based on the GB commitment 4.
  4. Provide fair overhead costs and multi-year flexible funding to local actors for timely, effective, efficient and predictable response that is accountable to the community.
  5. Set up a simplified county level dashboard, respecting the IATI principles, that can be used by all actors so funding can be more clearly tracked to where it is most needed at country level and establish open feedback mechanism from recipient of funds up to donors.

Members of the Alliance for Empowering Partnership

Website: www.A4EP.net Twitter: @A4EP2

Prev1...212223...68Next Page 22 of 68
© Community World Service Asia