When: 11th June, 2021 What time: 2:30 TO 4:30 PM (Pakistan Standard Time) Where: ZOOM – Link to be shared with registered participants –Register Now Language: Urdu How long: 2 hours Who it is for: Pakistan-based NGOs interested in registration with the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) Format: Presentations followed by discussion
Navigate through the processes and procedures of signing an MOU with EAD in Pakistan
Explore the scope and nature of support available to NGOs under the CWSA NGO Help Facility
Background
Civil Society Organizations in Pakistan, especially working at the grass-root level, sometime finds it difficult to navigate through regulatory framework due to lack of understanding to the government procedures and requirements. The regulatory information is at times complex and technical in nature. The need is to simplify the information, develop guidance notes for the documentations and advice on how to do follow-up on their application.
It is critical for all NGOs, small or large, to sign an MOU with the Economic Affairs Division in Pakistan to receive funding and implement projects across Pakistan. The process for the registration with EAD and then the reporting procedures including the submission of Annual Plan of Actions, NOCs for projects and biannual reporting requirements are difficult to fully comprehend for NGOs of all type and scale.
To help overcome this, CWSA is providing practical assistance to local and national NGOs in Pakistan that require assistance with any of the processes and procedural requirements for application to EAD.
CWSA has established an “NGO Help Facility” for technical discussion, coaching, on-line information resources and virtual clinics to support NGOs intending to file their applications and sign MOUs with the EAD. The help facility will also support organization in understanding the reporting requirements at EAD.
This service is facilitative and free of cost. CWSA will help to clarify application guidelines, support organizations to develop complete application documentation as per EAD requirements, and, guide for any needed follow up. Activities offered by the NGO Help Facility will include the following:
Advisory sessions/ days for NGOs
Webinars on EAD Process and Procedures
Creation of a center within CWSA, available to any and all NGOs on demand.
Provision of training and coaching to NGO representatives to support development, and revision of their application documentation
Disclaimer:Assistance provided through the NGO Help Facility is a pro bono service that offers technical support and brokers positive relationships. Engagement, in itself does not guarantee that the client organization will be granted an MOU without having successfully completed all of EAD’s required due diligence processes.CWSA mandate is to support the local NGOs in understanding the process and procedures for the MOU with EAD and ensure complete documentation to avoid unnecessary delays due to incomplete documentations.
Community World Service Asia is a Pakistani humanitarian and development organization addressing factors that divide people by promoting inclusiveness, shared values, diversity, and interdependence. It engages in the self-implementation of projects, cooperation through partners, and the provision of capacity building trainings and resources at the national, regional and global levels.
Pakistani farmers have been struggling to combat the worst locust plague to hit the country in nearly three decades. Large parts of the country were hit by severe locust infestations since June 2019, with insect swarms decimating entire harvests in the country’s agricultural heartlands, leaving food prices soaring and many farming communities’ food insecure. On February 1st 2020, tackling the insects was declared as a national emergency as a large scale of crop land was destroyed in the country’s most fertile Punjab province.
Heavy rains and cyclones sparked “unprecedented” breeding and led to an explosive growth of locust populations on the Arabian Peninsula early last year. The same locust swarms made their way to Pakistan after wreaking havoc on agriculture lands in other neighboring countries, such as Iran. Locust swarms from southern Iran started migrating to Pakistan from the Iran-Baluchistan border. These locust swarms have since laid hundreds of thousands of pods which are likely to hatch as soon as they get a favorable environment. Local farmers feared their new batch of kharif seasonal crops would also be devoured by the locusts.
To mitigate further impact of the locust attacks on local small-scale farmers, Community World Service Asia (CWSA) in partnership with CWS Japan and Japan Platform (JPF) launched a project to assisted 1,600 farmer families with provision of cash grants for the tilling process in their lands. Under the project, 16,193 hectares (40,013 acres) of land has been cleared from locust eggs through introducing the tilling method to farmers in district Umerkot.
Tilling/ploughing is a renowned process used and adopted around the world to eradicate locust swarms. This process involves the ploughing of the infected land to a certain, carefully calculated depth and exposing the locust eggs to sunlight, which effectively destroys them.
“Community World Service Asia have been very supportive in Government’s effort to eradicate locust swarms by introducing innovative ideas that are much helpful for the communities. The trainings provided to the local farmers on Integrated Crop Management have made the communities resilient and have allowed them to mitigate the risks caused by the locust invasion,” shared Ayaz Kachelo, Agriculture O at the Agriculture Extension Department, Umerkot.
Through the project, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of Pakistan has also been provided with 58,508 liters of Lambda Cyhalothrine insecticides to use for chemical application on the mature/adult locust swarms. The local farmers have also been further trained on Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques as part of the assistance. Since the tilling, use of chemical insecticides and the application of new farming techniques in the area no locust swarms have been seen. The farmers in the area have in fact also been able to cultivate their lands in time due to the effective tilling process.
“We were introduced to new techniques to eradicate locust swarms from our fields, such as digging trenches in the agricultural area. We have also been supported by the project teams in tilling/ploughing of our lands. The existing locust eggs on our lands were destroyed in the process. Our lands have finally been cleared from locust eggs, eradicating any future threat to our crops, and ensuring that the lands are ready for the next cropping season,” shared Nago, a sixty-year old local farmer from Nagho bheel village in Umerkot.
Sodho is the President of the Village Management Committee and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Committee of Male Jo Par Village in Umerkot, Pakistan. He has actively been working to promote sustainable farming practices and build community awareness on DRR to enhance community resilience on recurrent hazards and climate change impacts. The Village Management and the DRR Committees[1] were established in September 2020 under Community World Service Asia’s emergency response project[2], supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan.
“I have coordinated and helped the project team conduct 19 trainings focused on kitchen gardening, fuel efficient stoves, sustainable agricultural practices and DRR since last year. It is a relief to see that our people have the knowledge and skills to protect themselves from natural hazards.”
On September 24th, 2020, an orientation for VMC members was organised to share project objectives and to familiarise members with the role of the committee and as individual members.
“All 15 members, seven women and eight men, were explained their responsibilities as VMC members. We were taught on how and when to coordinate with the project team and how we can contribute in organising project activities. By the end of the training I was also elected as the President of the committee.”
Sodho, along with fifteen other community members, participated in a training on DRR held in October 2020. All training participants shared and learned about common natural and man-made hazards such as earthquakes, floods and fire, experienced in the region.
“The knowledge on DRR was new to the community members. They now know of and are well aware of the different disasters that their people are faced with and have identified ways of alleviating and lessening its effects. Through the training, communities were provided technical knowledge on all kinds of hazards, developing disaster prevention plans and the importance and methods of raising community awareness on DRR.”
Sodho shared a recent accident where a fire broke out at a house in a nearby village. The family was saved but they suffered a massive loss as all their essential belongings and household items were burnt.
“As an active member of the VMC, I immediately called for a meeting to discuss how we can collect donations and help the family recover from the loss. We were able to collect some clothes, food items and essential household items for the family. Through the immediate help, the family found some relief and were hopeful to recover from the monetary and infrastructural loss sooner.”
“VMC members also organised a lesson learning session for their local communities on what they had learned at the DRR training to further enhance community knowledge and capacity on preparedness and mitigation. To overcome natural and man-made disasters, the participants were told about the different disasters and how to minimize the destruction they bring to affected areas. We also shared the story of the house-fire as an example and conducted drills to show what items to save first in the case of a fire and how to prevent the damage caused by such disasters.”
Kitchen gardening, primarily engaging women in the target villages, is another key component of the project. Sodho was personally quite interested in this initiative as having an opportunity to grow healthy vegetables at home seemed like a blessing and was a new concept introduced in the village.
“I saw the benefits of kitchen gardening immediately when the team shared the concept. Growing healthy vegetables at home can bring good health to families and save money as well which was otherwise mostly consumed on purchasing vegetables from the market.”
“I encouraged all women in the village including my own wife to participate in the kitchen gardening trainings. In the last winter season, my wife grew white radish, carrots, spinach, lady fingers and pumpkin in her new kitchen garden. I could see how much she enjoyed working and bringing seeds of different vegetables and fruits from the market to grow in her garden. She is now growing watermelon, guar[3], pumpkins, bottle gourd and lady fingers.”
Sodho further added that their village, Male Jo Par, has existed for the past hundred years and in these many years no-one had ever thought of starting kitchen gardening.
“We reside in the remote areas of Umerkot. The agriculture fields are faced by severe water scarcity. The land has low productivity due to unfertile soil and lack of water. We never thought of growing vegetables in our homes so conveniently with the help of home-made fertilisers and compost. Today, families in Male Jo Par grow garden-fresh vegetables on a daily basis, improving the quality and quantity of their food consumption, nutrition and well-being.”
Sodho also participated in a training session focused on sustainable agricultural practices for farmers, conducted in December 2020 under the project. Ten other small-scale farmers took part in this training.
“Before we took the training, all of us farmers stocked all seeds together in plastic containers and could not differentiate good ones from the bad ones. We would plough the land and sow all the seeds. Consequently, not all crops would grow well. The money that we spent ploughing and harvesting the land would be wasted as the produce would not be as fruitful as expected. This year was different. We stocked the seeds in Stoneware Pots (Matka) and before sowing them, we dried the seeds for at least three days under the sun. As a result, we had a good harvest this year.”
Our village has seen a positive change since the initiation of the DRR project. There has always been severe water scarcity in our area. The RO plant[4], which is being constructed in our village, will also help our people and those of surrounding villages to a great extent. It will provide clean drinking water at a walking distance. Our wives and daughters will not have to travel far places to collect water.”
[1] These are community based structures, members consisting of community people, who are responsible to coordinate project activities and awareness building. They are the key for sustainability and viability of project activities and mobilization of available local resource.
[2] Enhancing disaster resilience against droughts in Sindh Province
[3] Guar is an important legume crop. It is cultivated for fodder as well as for grain purpose.
[4] A reverse osmosis plant is a manufacturing plant where the process of reverse osmosis takes place. Reverse osmosis is a common process to purify or desalinate contaminated water by forcing water through a membrane.
When: 7-9 December, 2024
Where: Bangkok, Thailand
Language: English
Interested Applicants Click Here to Register
Last Date to Apply: 30 September, 2024
Join us for an empowering three-day
Event Details
When: 7-9 December, 2024 Where: Bangkok, Thailand Language: English Interested Applicants Click Here to Register Last Date to Apply: 30 September, 2024
Join us for an empowering three-day learning journey, diving into dynamic discussions, hands-on learning, and mastering the art of implementing safeguarding tools and approaches. Together, we will learn how to transform safeguarding strategies with survivor-centered approaches, and explore ways to forge stronger connections with communities through effective communication on safeguarding.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Safeguarding commitments and tools
Understanding safeguarding as a key commitment for upholding accountability to all stakeholders.
Understanding the standard conduct and voicing concerns upon code of conduct violations with organisations Assessing agreements within the humanitarian community on expectations in terms of staff conduct as well as expected responses.
Survivor centered approaches What are we looking for with regards to survivor centred approaches? Can we manage survivor centredness and still apply zero tolerance to non-action?
Applying Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment (SEAH) data into programming Using available data on SEAH into program cycles and improving the quality of projects.
Establishing and implementing effective complaints and response mechanisms Exploring ways of working with communities and other stakeholders to effectively implement the four key pillars of a robust complaints and response mechanism.
Engaging with communities on complaints and response mechanism, SEAH and Safeguarding Learning about working with communities to understand contextualised systems in place as well as expectations from community members in terms of complaints handling and conflict resolution.
Improving communication and information sharing on protection of rights Identifying ways to communicate provisions of the code of conduct and PSEAH policies in a respectful and clear way.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
This is an intermediate to advanced training for humanitarian and development practitioners. We expect applications from practitioners who:
Demonstrate prior experience and knowledge in safeguarding work.
Participants need to be at a level within their own organisation where they can ask for and implement policy and procedural changes.
Are committed to attending all sessions.
WHAT ARE YOU PAYING?
US $ 1000 per participant for UN/International organisations
US $ 700 per participant for National/Local organisations
This is a partial cost-recovery initiative.
Places will be allocated on a first come first basis. Early Bird Discount of 10% is available if you apply before 20 August.
This training fee covers shared accommodation in Bangkok, breakfast, lunch, refreshments during the training, training materials, and trainer’s cost.
Disclaimer: CWSA will not be responsible to arrange for or cover visa and travel costs. Participants will cover their own travel costs.
Applicants must register here for the RHPW Asia Pacific 2024
APPLY: Click HERE to apply before September 30, 2024
Community World Service Asia (CWSA) is a humanitarian, development, advocacy and capacity enhancement organisation, registered and head-quartered in the global South and implementing capacity enhancement initiatives across the globe. CWSA is a member of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance, a Sphere regional partner and the regional focal point for the Asian Disaster Reduction & Response Network’s (ADRRN) Quality & Accountability Hub.
CWSA is deeply committed towards Accountability to Affected People and people centered aid. Over the last years, CWSA has organised a range of webinars, learning series, and trainings, aiming to raising awareness on overall accountability and respectful work environments, as well as creating local and regional resources of Quality and Accountability Experts.
Ester Dross—Independent Consultant & Lead Trainer Ms.Dross has been active in the humanitarian and development sector for over 30 years. After a long country-based experience with the International Committee of the Red Cross, she has specialised for the last 15 years in the field of sexual violence with a specific expertise in the prevention and monitoring of allegations of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment on behalf of various INGOs, NGOs and their partners. She works as an independent expert, contributing to the creation and improvement of numerous guides, e-learning tools, trainings and policies in this field.
A depression formed due to strong convective clouds over the south east of the Arabian Sea intensified into a severe cyclone storm named Cyclone TAUKTAE on May 15th. Centered at a distance of approximately 1640 km south-southeast of Karachi, the cyclone posed a potential catastrophic threat to parts of India and Pakistan. On May 16th however, the Pakistan Meteorological Department reported that the cyclone will not make a landfall along Pakistan’s coastal belt and has in fact further intensified into a Very Severe Cyclone Storm (VSCS), centering at a distance of 1210 km south-southeast of Karachi. Latest reports suggest that even though the storm will not directly hit Pakistan, widespread rains, dust/thunderstorms with heavy to very heavy falls and gusty winds of 70-90Km/h are likely to occur in Thatta, Badin, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Umerkot districts of Sindh province in Pakistan from May 17th to 20th May 2021. The same weather conditions are likely to impact Karachi, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Shaheed Bainazirabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Dadu districts from May 18th till May 20th.
The Government of Sindh has declared an emergency in all districts located at the coastal belt of the province. It has ordered to remove all bill boards in the area, cleared choking points of storm water drains and restricted fishermen from going into the sea or rivers until May 20th as part of preparatory measures.
Expected heavy rains in the mentioned districts may be life threatening, causing floods, severe damage to property and infrastructure and could leave affected-communities in need of Shelter, Food, NFIs[1] and WASH support.
Community World Service Asia Response:
Community World Service Asia is closely monitoring the situation. Its emergency response team is in close coordination and contact with the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Sindh and other relevant district offices of the Deputy Commissioners. The teams are on standby and will start relief operations immediately if required.
Contacts:
Shama Mall Deputy Regional Director
Programs & Organisational Development
Email: hi2shama@cyber.net.pk
Tele: 92-21-34390541-4
“We need to look at localisation in a broader sense in terms of exchange of knowledge & having our own philosophy, and not just in an operational context.” Themrise Khan told an online audience of 75 aid workers mostly based in Pakistan. “Localisation will mean much more if we use our own existing resources and build them further.”
Themrise Khan, an independent development professional and researcher based in Karachi in Pakistan, was speaking at CHS Alliance’s first in-county workshop on “Bringing the CHS closer to the people we serve”, which was virtually held in Pakistan and co-hosted with CHS Alliance member Community World Service Asia (CWSA).
We were also honoured to hear from Marvin Parvez, Regional Director, CWSA. Both speakers talked about seeing the “localisation” process as an opportunity for knowledge exchange between international and national actors and encouraged Pakistani organisations engaging in the global aid sector to use their own philosophies and values.
I was pleased to see the level of interest and engagement in this national workshop. We had 75 participants including representatives from national, international NGOs and networks as well national disaster management authorities, research join us for this interactive session.
Participants heard some experiences of using the CHS and being members of CHS Alliance from Mr Shahid Ali, Executive Director at Fast Rural Development Program and Aamir Malik, Director RAPID Fund, Concern Worldwide – Pakistan. The opportunity to increase accountability to people we serve through engaging with the CHS was shared. Other benefits highlighted were improving an organisation’s own systems as well as partners’ systems, including community-based organisations.
My main take-aways for how CHS Alliance can support national organisations in Pakistan based on the vibrant discussions with participants are:
Intensify awareness on the CHS with national NGOs, community-based organisations and people to amplify the already visible interest and curiosity on the CHS among these actors.
Inform organisations of the existing options to address resource and cost barriers for CHS verification for national organisations (e.g. the new CHS self-assessment tools and the Humanitarian Quality Assurance Initiative’s subsidy fund for Independent Verification and Certification) while continuing efforts to increase accessibility to the CHS and CHS verification including availability in local languages and user-friendly tools.
Continue exploring and advocating for the potential of CHS verification to contribute optimising the resources for multiple funding partners’ due diligence and capacity assessment, including requirements from national governments.
The atmosphere of the workshop was energising and encouraged the Alliance to continue the conversation with national and local actors. Stay tuned for more as this important work progresses!
Let me know if you have any questions or would like to get more involved: bsokpoh@chsalliance.org.
Competent and well-managed staff are at the heart of an accountable and effective organisation, therefore they need to be equipped with the right skills and behaviours. The Core Humanitarian Competency Framework explains the link between the organisation’s ability to deliver impact, and what it takes to be successful through personal and organisational excellence.
Some background
The Core Humanitarian Competencies Framework (CHCF) as first developed in 2011, by representatives from a cross-section of humanitarian organisations under the Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies (now the Start Network) led by ActionAid and facilitated by People In Aid (now the CHS Alliance). The competencies framework recommends a set of core competencies that organisations could adopt to systematically build the skills of their employees and thereby improve their efforts to assist people affected by crisis throughout the world. Six areas of core competencies defined as “the essential behaviours required by all staff, influenced by their skills and knowledge”, were identified. The framework was successfully embedded in many of the participating agencies’ operations and members of CHS Alliance.
Ten years on, is the CHCF fit for purpose?
In 2017, and as part of the Start Network/DFID-funded Talent Development Project (TDP), the CHS Alliance completed a review of the CHCF taking feedback from a wide range of stakeholders on the relevance and practical use of the CHCF in humanitarian organisations, and asking for recommendations for its revision.
The review affirmed that the CHCF is fit for purpose, adds value and is highly relevant for staff development and humanitarian efforts in general and serves as a useful reference point. The review, however, also indicated that there was only low to moderate level awareness and hence corresponding lack of ‘know how’ of the CHCF. It was unclear how it links to career paths, how changes in behaviours can be identified and measured, and HR practitioners were not familiar enough with competency frameworks to guide project managers and field staff on how to adopt them.
There were encouraging cases of how the framework has been used in various contexts, suggesting that it is an important tool to professionalise the sector. The review also revealed that it would be helpful to have more tools on how to use the framework.
Following the review, additional materials and tools were developed, translated to several languages and made accessible to support the application of competency-based human resources (HR) management practices, including an introductory animation in six languages!
How is CHCF used within CHS Alliance’s membership?
Three years after the review, we have decided to put the CHCF under the spotlight and share the “user experience” feedback from two very different Alliance members who have adopted the framework.*
To help more of our members understand how to get the most out of the CHCF, as well as practical considerations for rolling it out, we hear from:
Asma Shehzad, Head of Support, Community World Service Asia
Colin Rogers, Head of Disaster Preparedness & Response, Plan International
When and how did your organisation first implement the CHCF?
Asma Shehzad (AS): We started this process back in 2017 by working on the CHCF with CHS Alliance for piloting within Pakistan through academia. The initial idea was to share the framework with our partner universities in Pakistan and develop a tool/guide for teachers to assess student performances on competencies. Later, in 2018 we started the implementation process of CHCF within our own organisation. In 2020 we moved to include the framework in our Annual Appraisal System, which means all CWSA employees will now be evaluated against the core competencies highlighted in their job descriptions. All staff have now been briefed on the new appraisal system, the core competencies and how to appraise against them.
Colin Rogers (CR): It is only more recently that we have started to integrate the CHCF into our work. We chose to focus on the competencies required for Plan International staff to join our roster for surge capacity.
Why did you decide to adopt the CHCF in your organisation?
CR: For us, it was important as we sought to build the strength of our roster, ensuring we had the right people with the right competencies who we could deploy within Plan International to provide additional surge capacity when our Country Offices were responding to new crises.
Using the CHCF provides Country Offices with reassurance that the deploying staff member has the right competencies to support their response activities. It also provides a framework for evaluating applicants who want to join our roster.
We are now looking at how to use the CHCF to develop standard competencies against emergency response job profiles, integrating the CHCF into the role profile, and also framing interview selection questions around the CHCF. This is based on a request from our country office teams who are looking for a level of guidance on hiring humanitarian staff.
AS: We felt that the CHCF could providing clarity to all staff about the behaviour and competencies the organisation expects from them, from recruiting through to retainment. CHCF helps to focus employees’ behaviour on things that matter most in a humanitarian or development organisation. The CHCF provides a common and standardised way to harmonise, select and develop talent.
What areas of your organisation did you start with?
AS: We embedded the CHCF in job descriptions, annual performance appraisals, the recruitment process and also objective setting at the beginning of each calendar year.
CR: Our emergency response roster was our starting point and this is now being expanded to other areas of humanitarian staffing.
How has the implementation of the CHCF in your organisation evolved?
CR: This is still very much a piece of work in progress. We have been revising our Emergency Response Manual and as part of this we are looking at how to integrate the CHCF in to our guidance to support country offices identify competencies needed for programme technical specialists.
AS: We have moved step by step since adopting the framework in 2018 and have come a long way since then. The framework is part and parcel of all our organisational activities whether at head office or in the field.
We started with development of job descriptions, aligning them with CHCF, then we moved to the appraisal system, and are now crafting all our recruitment procedures according to the framework. We have trained our staff through various capacity enhancement platforms and have now finally embedded it into most of our HR systems.
What were the main challenges? What about successes?
AS: Introducing a new framework and resultant policies and practices requires significant investment of resources, technical expertise, staff time and energy alongside other competing priorities.
Initially it was a challenge to develop understanding on CHCF framework. For that we had to conduct a number of sessions with staff so that they could have clear understanding of it.
Most of the references in the framework are linked to people in humanitarian crises, which might not be the case for many situations in our work. We took on the challenge by contextualising examples to our own working scenarios.
It was also a challenge to link this framework with support staff like drivers, helpers etc. As key stakeholders in our operations, it was vital they complied with the institutional stance including the CHCF.
For countries where English is not the first language, explaining the CHCF and helping staff apply it in their appraisals and job descriptions has been a challenge. The framework needs to be explained simply to be understood and applied. It has proven more complicated to roll out for staff in our project implementing countries.
However, the hard work is paying off as we have seen a number of successes. It’s really helped us to focus on key competencies for each position – making our objectives more purposeful. Annual appraisals have also become more relevant and result oriented.
By clarifying the competencies we expect our staff to achieve, and by explaining how they link to the organisation’s ability to deliver impact, we have been able to send clear messages about what is expected to be successful and attain personal and organisational goals effectively.
CR: I’d say that the main challenge has been a lack of familiarity with the CHCF outside of the Disaster Risk Management team.
What are your future plans for the CHCF? Do you think any further guidance and support is needed?
AS: We are planning to implement the CHCF in all our HR processes, next up is integrating the framework into our interview and supervisors’ assessments.
We would appreciate sessions to develop further understanding of the framework. We are also hoping to see a more localised collective approach to applying CHCF by Alliance members.
CR: We plan to use the CHCF to guide recruitment, designing job descriptions and developing interview questions. This is of interest for our Country Offices who have asked for guidance on how to recruit the right level of staff with the relevant competencies required to support their humanitarian response activities. We want to ensure a diversity of people on our roster and who are hired. We are also looking at how to use the CHCF to help us update our core learning and development programmes for roster members.
How does the application of a competency framework improve the overall effectiveness and accountability of your organisation?
CR: Whilst the competency framework is not embedded across the whole organisation, we hope that it will support establishing key requirements for different technical and managerial positions. Recruiting with the framework in mind will ensure that Plan recruits at the appropriate capacity level to fulfil our dual mandate as a development and humanitarian organisation.
AS: Competencies have helped Community World Service Asia to identify the visible behaviours that successful performers should demonstrate while working on any given job.
Focusing on competencies has underpinned the progression and success of the organisation.
How and where should organisations start if they are interested in adopting competency-based approach?
AS: The following steps are key to start with:
Support and buy-in from leadership.
Staff must fully commit and understand the framework.
Making the framework part of organisational standards.
Adopting it to local contexts.
Ensure feedback is taken and given.
Link the CHCF to existing HR processes, forms and formats.
CR: Identify windows of opportunity, small areas of work where you can demonstrate the impact and the usefulness. From this you generate buy in and support and this in turn leads to greater integration. Don’t give up – persevere and you will find your job descriptions become clearer, and the interview and selection process easier and with that stronger programmes with greater impact.
We are currently evaluating people management resources of the CHS Alliance with the intention to ensuring their content, format and purpose continue to meet organisational and user needs of our members.
If you are using the CHCF in your organisation, we would greatly appreciate hearing your views and learning from your experience.Please contact Gozel Baltaeva on gbaltaeva@chsalliance.org for more.
* Some responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
In the humanitarian sector, the term ‘accountability to affected populations’ (AAP) means humanitarian actors making an active commitment to use power responsibly by taking account of, giving account to, and being held to account by the people they seek to assist[1].
By being more accountable to affected populations – increasing their participation and feedback in programs identification, design, delivery, and lesson learning – organisations are simultaneously ensuring quality program implementation and a more sustainable impact of their humanitarian and development interventions. This also allows communities to shape their own response and recovery and enable aid organisations to effectively deliver against its commitments to stakeholders, including the people they assist and those who provide resources to make that assistance possible.
Community World Service Asia collaborated with Concern Worldwide, to enhance and strengthen the capacity of its staff and partners in Pakistan on quality and accountability standards and its integration in organisational structures and programming. This will help to mainstream and build discourse around quality and accountability to affected populations (Q&AAP) in the humanitarian community. A series of trainings were jointly conducted to promote the inclusion of humanitarian standards on quality and accountability in all stages of Concern Worldwide’s project life cycle, such as design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
The first training, which was virtual in nature due to the COVID-19 pandemic, took place in January 2021. During this training, Concern Worldwide staff identified key initiatives such as Sphere Standards and CHS[2] contributing to Q&AAP and outlined the opportunities and challenges in implementing Q&AAP. Eighteen program staff members, representing program and support units (HR, Finance & Administration) of the organisation participated and learned how to design a Q&AAP learning action plan that was tailored to their working context. During the training, the staff also identified means and platforms to collaborate and coordinate with other partners to improve Q&AAP in the areas that they work.
The same training was conducted with various other partner organisations in the following months with a participation of thirty humanitarian practitioners from sixteen partner organisations in the country. The workshop introduced Q&AAP as a concept, and discussed the role of Sphere and how to use the revised Sphere Handbook 2018 Edition and apply its technical standards in the program cycle. The framework of Do No Harm, Complaint Response Mechanism (CRM), and Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) along with the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) were also discussed thoroughly.
The facilitator of these training sessions engaged the participants in interesting group activities such as case-study analysis, documentary screening followed by an open-call discussion session, and revision of each day’s learnings by the different groups. Participants showed great interest on particular modules such as, ‘What is Sphere – the Handbook and Sphere & CHS Guidelines in response to COVID-19’.
One of the participants recommended that “the testing measures in the Sphere Handbook need to be updated as they overlap with each other when applying in field in times of a crisis and that the nature, and magnitude of a disaster varies from area to area so applying one Sphere Standard to all of it is not possible”.
The facilitator then introduced them to the changes that took place in the Sphere Handbook since 2018 and how the participants can apply the updated frameworks in their fieldwork.
A profound discussion took place between the facilitator and the participants on the similarities and differences of COVID-19 and its impact on other pandemics, like Ebola that emerged in Africa some years ago. The facilitator familiarised participants with the chapters in the Sphere Handbook that were more relevant in response to the COVID-19 pandemic such as “WASH and Health”.
“It was an overwhelming experience as it was important for us to learn whether the Sphere Protection Principles were applicable in the context of COVID-19. We faced challenges and queries from communities while responding to emergencies. However, our understanding of the Sphere standards and accountability to affected people has definitely been enhanced. This will allow us to respond more effectively and efficiently, ensuring our programs are designed and implemented to fulfill the needs of the communities we are working with,” shared Arbab Saeedullah, a staff representing one of Concern Worldwide’s partner organisations in Pakistan.
[2] The Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability sets out nine commitments for humanitarian and development actors to measure and improve the quality and effectiveness of their assistance. The CHS places communities and people affected by crisis at the centre of humanitarian action.
This article is extracted from a recent issue of South Asia Disasters on ‘Accountability to Affected Populations in Times of the Pandemic.” You can read the full study here: http://www.aidmi.org/publications.aspx
By Shama Mall, Community World Service Asia, Pakistan
At the onset of COVID-19, guidance put forth by Sphere and the CHS Alliance reminded us about the importance of ensuring human dignity, rights of affected people, as well as principled and people-centered approaches in our response and adaptation to COVID-191. There are many lessons to be learnt from experiences of organisations during COVID-19 in this respect.
Localised approaches and ownership are crucial in shaping the degree of access, inclusion and relevance of assistance. Some of the operational challenges of COVID-19 could not have been addressed without the engagement of local and community level structures (village groups, steering committees, community leadership, local govt. Line departments, etc.). Their involvement in decision making processes and implementation is helping to ensure assistance is relevant to the needs of and access to some of the most vulnerable groups – such as people with disabilities, women, children, the elderly and minorities.
Supporting local capacity and engaging community structures, including trust-building is essential to accountability and must be a long-term approach, not only during a pandemic. Organisations that have invested in such processes over the past many years are relying on such structures and continue programming to meet the needs of affected communities. There needs to be a more consistent effort to strengthen and scale up localised approaches and make such processes more meaningful.
Community level capacity must be strengthened to hold each other to account in order to avoid conflict of interest and exploitation of any kind. Remote management has resulted in an increased level of responsibilities and reliance placed upon the community level structures, without necessarily involving a due process or factoring in power-imbalances within such structures. It has increased prospects of individual interests taking precedence and even financial exploitation of affected communities by some individuals in community structures, causing negative consequences. Besides discourse on such issues with community level structures, organisations must support affected communities with strong remote monitoring, verification and complaints processes to ensure that they are not misled in any way, especially when assistance is in the form of any resource transfer.
The risks organisations perceive for affected communities and those communities perceive for themselves vary, so the engagement process must include sufficient dialogue to develop mutual understanding. For affected communities, risks are often defined by context, needs and day to day challenges. For instance, the health implications of COVID-19 for many are relatively insignificant compared to loss of livelihoods, providing for their families or meeting other immediate/long-term healthcare needs. This is affecting social and behavioral changes to limit the spread. Community engagement needs to involve listening to as well as addressing the concerns and on-going needs of communities, whilst supporting them in making informed choices and decisions in risk mitigation. Local organisations and community level structures are best positioned to achieve this.
COVID-19 has exposed the in-ward looking bureaucratic systems of funding partners/Governments. Some local organisations are left in a difficult position owing to immediate suspension of on-going projects by funding partners re-directing funds for their own needs. This is depriving local communities of life-saving services at a time when they need it most. Such action undermines the principles of partnership – by putting own needs before the needs of affected people without due consultation or a dignified exit process.
Though some funding partners are demonstrating flexibility by allowing their partners to adapt existing projects or use reserved funds to meet the needs of people affected by COVID-19.
Conclusion
The current operating context is going to be the new normal, experts predicting more global pandemics, increasing in size and impact. The humanitarian and development sector must take concrete actions based on the learnings of COVID-19 and scale up people-centred and localised approaches to be truly accountable to those most affected.
When: Aug 03-05, 2023
Where: O’Spring Murree
Language: Urdu / English
Interested: Click here to register
Last Date to Apply: July 10, 2023
Background and Rationale
Cash Transfer Programming
Event Details
When: Aug 03-05, 2023 Where: O’Spring Murree Language: Urdu / English Interested:Click here to register Last Date to Apply: July 10, 2023
Background and Rationale
Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) refers to programmes where cash or vouchers for goods or services are provided to affected populations. It’s an approach that consists of linkages, capacities, incentives and relationships to encourage effective market recovery. CTP can be done for emergency response, early recovery and long-term development.
Community World Service Asia is inviting applicants to a 3 day workshop on “Cash Transfer Programming”. Those who are interested to learn more about cash and voucher assistance in humanitarian settings must join. The goal of this workshop is to build and strengthen the capacity of aid workers in Cash Transfer Programming so that they can be more efficient and effective in addressing most pressing needs in the humanitarian context by utilising best practices, relevant tools & standards.
Aims & Objectives:
This three day workshop aims to introduce & enhance the capacity of participants to consider Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) in assessments and responses to emergencies. At the end of the workshop participants will be able to:
Define key CTP terms and concepts,
Describe the stages in the CTP process,
Describe additional information needed to assess the feasibility of using CTP,
Link the need for market analysis as a critical factor in planning interventions,
List issues related to designing and implementing cash transfer interventions,
Describe key issues when monitoring prices and social issues,
Consider what to include in the contingency planning process and preparedness activities in order to be ready for a timely CTP emergency response.
Methodology:
The “Blended Learning” approach developed by CWSA over decades of experience will be applied in this training. The approach is participatory and needs based in nature. It includes the selection of participants from various organisations at various levels. Content development and methodology will be based on the needs of the training participants and experienced and skilled trainers will lead the sessions. Action plans will be developed and follow-up refreshers, coaching and mentoring support will be assured.
Number of Participants:
18 – 20 participants will be selected for the training. Women staff and those with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to participants from organisations based in underserved areas. Applicants will be informed by 15th July, 2023 about their confirmation status.
Selection Criteria:
Mid or senior level manager from civil society organisations, preferably field staff of large CSOs or CSOs with main offices in small towns and cities.
Primary responsibility for project/programme assessments, design, monitoring and impact assessment at the project and/ or organisational level.
No previous experience/ participation in training on Cash Transfer Programming
Willingness to pay a training fees of PKR 10000/. Exemptions may be applied for by CSOs with limited funding and those from marginalised groups. Discount of 10% on early registration by 30th June, 2023 and 20% discount will be awarded to women participants.
Commitment to apply learning in your work, including dissemination of learning within organisations.
Community World Service Asia (CWSA) is a humanitarian and development organisation, registered in Pakistan, head- quartered in Karachi and implementing initiatives throughout Asia. CWSA is a member of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance, a member of Sphere and their regional partner in Asia and also manages the ADRRN Quality & Accountability Hub in Asia. For more details please visit our website www.communityworldservice.asia
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