In just four months, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a dramatic toll on economies and institutions around the world, and the number of new cases, economic dislocation and deaths continues to mount. Decades of progress raising living standards and reducing extreme poverty could be replaced by increasing food insecurity, conflict and forced migration.
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The full version of this post originally appeared on Medium.
Self-management. Self-testing. Self-awareness. These are three pillars of self-care interventions that can help promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women, men and youth according to new guidelines released by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO defines self-care as “the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.” Self-care as part of reproductive health is not a new concept. Throughout history, people have sought to control their fertility. However, in the context of a global shortage of trained health care workers and with an estimated 214 million women in developing countries who still have an unmet need for contraception, both new and existing SRHR self-care interventions can play a critical role in helping close the gap while at the same time empowering individuals to take control of their health.This July is self-care month, and FHI 360 is excited to join partners around the world in advancing strategies to meet the SRHR needs of women, men and youth through evidence-based self-care interventions. There are six ways that FHI 360 is helping advance the SRHR self-care agenda.
Read the complete post.
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Today, most of the world’s refugees — and most internally displaced people — are uprooted from their homes for protracted periods. While estimates vary, the average length of displacement can be between 10 and 26 years. What does this mean for how we manage refugee assistance and what does promoting self-reliance look like under these conditions?
In this episode, I sit down with Muzabel Welongo, Founder and Executive Director of Resilience Action International and a recent graduate of Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. A former refugee himself, Muzabel describes some of the systemic issues surrounding refugee aid, the negative consequences of well-intended aid efforts and the need to shift the paradigm from aid dependence to self-reliance.
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YouthPower Action research identifies employment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa
An Interview with
Obed Diener, Technical Advisor, Economic Participation, FHI 360
In a recent YouthPower Action study, FHI 360 found evidence of promising employment opportunities for youth in sub-Saharan Africa in the health and social services sectors. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by FHI 360, the YouthPower Action project is expanding the evidence base for what works in positive youth development and applying improved approaches across programs to empower youth to realize their full potential. Obed Diener, the lead author, discusses the research and its implications.
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This post was originally published on the Atlantic Council’s New Atlanticist blog. Reprinted with permission.
Over the course of four days in June, more than 8,000 world leaders, influencers, practitioners, advocates, academics, activists and journalists gathered in Vancouver, Canada, to discuss how to accelerate progress for girls and women around the globe. The Women Deliver conference included important conversations about the future of work and women’s economic participation. Importantly, the debate demonstrated how the dialogue on the role of the private sector is shifting: from corporate responsibility to corporate interest and from social impact to bottom line impact — and increasingly both.
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Does the development community effectively discuss and address power dynamics? In this episode, I sit down with Paul O’Brien, Vice President for Policy and Advocacy of Oxfam America, to discuss the uses of power within international development, policy and institutions.
We explore the four types of power, discuss the currency of power within the world of development and talk about how even those programs and organizations that practice do no harm inevitably take risks that can be harmful.
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May 23, 2019
A full version of this post originally appeared on the blog Stanford Social Innovation Review. This excerpt has been reprinted with permission.
The explosive growth of the impact investing market has attracted more and more mission-driven nonprofits in recent years, but many of them are jumping in without first assessing if the undertaking is the right fit for their mission, culture or stakeholders. While some nonprofits are achieving their impact goals while making financial returns, many others have wasted years of staff time or thousands of dollars on expensive consultants with little to show for it.
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The development community is in love with the idea of innovation as a way to accelerate positive change. But are innovation and disruption always positive? What are the unintended consequences from our drive to innovate?
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Education is important for all young people, but it can be lifesaving to youth in emergency settings. Adolescence is a period of significant cognitive, emotional and social change for every young person. For youth in emergency contexts, education can help to protect them from recruitment into armed services, sexual exploitation, abuse and early marriage. It can also build inner resilience by offering stability, normalcy and hope.
Given the increase in emergencies worldwide and the number of youth who are out of school, it is critical to ensure that educational curricula are holistic, relevant and meet learners’ social-emotional and developmental needs. We believe there are three elements that must be considered to successfully develop curricula for youth in emergency settings.
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Technology strengthens resilience
An Interview with
Josh Woodard, Regional ICT and Digital Finance Advisor, Asia Pacific, FHI 360
Digital technology offers promising ways to solve some of the world’s development challenges. At FHI 360, we are applying new and existing technologies to build resilience among the communities where we work.
What is technology for resilience?
Let’s look at what we mean by resilience. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) defines it as “ the ability of people, households, communities, countries and systems to mitigate, adapt to and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth.”
Recently, we’ve been using The Rockefeller Foundation’s definition: “Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities and systems to survive, adapt and grow in the face of stress and shocks, and even transform when conditions require it.”
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Are our growth-based models of modernization at odds with sustainable development? Does addressing environmental concerns need to take a back seat to economic growth in order to alleviate poverty? And is it reasonable to expect people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from to care about the environment?
In this episode, I sit down with Heather Tallis, Global Managing Director and Lead Scientist for Strategy Innovation for the Nature Conservancy, who dispels the myths and assumptions around the interplay of conservation and safeguarding the environment with meeting human needs and raising living standards. Marshaling the evidence, Heather makes the case that there doesn’t have to be a tradeoff between economic growth and poverty alleviation and conservation and that development goals and environmental goals can go hand in hand.