Sidonie Michaela Yeats Fernau

What is the purpose of measurement in social, humanitarian, and development work? For me, it is to visualize how the community changed for the better with our programs and collect knowledge on how we got to this change. So, in project management terms, I try to identify the goal of what I want to change in the community based on data in the community, then look for a donor who wants the same or similar changes. Then, I try to evaluate if this change happened. But let’s try to remember what donors' reporting forms usually look like: we need to fill in indicators of reached people, stakeholders, and deliverables with documents confirming these numbers. Sometimes, we have a space to write qualitative changes. But is it something that helps to identify if the community valued this project and if it helped? In this case, it’s a choice of local organizations if they will collect data about the real impact of the project. If you collect data on how your organization or project impacts the community in your own way, please share in comments how you do it and how you use it. In humanitarian projects, we submit only numbers of reached people for clusters: numbers of men and women, based on age and region. What does it show? As my colleague said, they try to evaluate how risky they spend their money. In this case, people become objects whom we calculate. But if this approach is changed when communities become a subject (not individuals), how does the project/program influence them? What does this aid mean for beneficiaries? We had stories that it was more about the care they received from volunteers rather than the impact of aid itself. However, for local businesses, it could result in a loss of income. So we received people who get care, businesses who lose income, and local buyers. Does this project impact or affect the community? I became a part of a community organized by The Global Fund for Community Foundations “Measures what matters” to rethink and change the measurement system. We had our first meeting in Indonesia last week. After the meeting, I had more questions than answers, but it was a valuable conversation that should start globally.

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I'm excited to share that our latest blog post on menstrual health & dignity, published by Stichting PSI Europe, is now live! In this piece, Henriette Ceyrac and I discuss the crucial role that local social solidarity enterprises play in breaking the taboo around MHD. Check it out and let us know your thoughts!#MenstrualHealth #DignityForAll 🔴 Read the blog here, https://lnkd.in/eNz_3uiZ

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For #sbc competencies, learn the following;

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Strengthening Accountability in the Humanitarian & Development Sector Independent monitoring is crucial for ensuring the quality and effectiveness of our work. Anton van Wijk, Dutch Relief Alliance Board of Directors Liaison, recently highlighted the value of "third-party monitoring" in providing valuable insights and building stakeholder trust. (February 2024). Reducing Reporting Burden, Enhancing Credibility The humanitarian and development sector is grappling with duplicative reporting requirements. HQAI proposes an approach that leverages professionally validated CHS audit data for multiple purposes. In this perspective, HQAI works with governments, funding bodies, intermediaries, and the CHS Alliance to achieve sector-wide savings (financial, administrative, and HR resources) without compromising on accountability and rigour. HQAI Audits: Gaining Recognition & Recommendation HQAI audits are increasingly being recognised, acknowledged, and recommended by donors and funding mechanisms. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/e2vvy7Nt #humanitarian #accountability #duediligence #HQAI #efficiency

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We've had such a positive response to the USAID Theory of Change Workbook (linked below). Recently, a development organization unrelated to USAID - the Stockholm Environment Institute - reached out sharing how they used the workbook in Iraq and Bolivia to both create a new theory of change and revise an existing one. I asked Carla Liera to write that up for the wider development community (link below as well) on USAID Learning Lab. Thank you, Carla! Some of my key take-aways from what she shared: (1) For the critical first step - contextual analysis - don't answer every SINGLE question in the workbook. Pick the context questions that are most relevant to your context and needs. (2) Assign a facilitator. You need both an overall process facilitator because creating or revising a theory of change may not happen in just one sitting. And you also need a strong meeting facilitator who can help participants focus and keep moving forward in specific sessions. I would also add that it can be easy to get mired in making the ToC "perfect." It never will be, so don't try. Go for "good enough for now." Just make it the best you can with the information and people you have at the time and then keep learning from implementation and adapting it as you go. Links: - ToC workbook: https://lnkd.in/g5jvJybf - Use case blog:https://lnkd.in/eRVqYhPq #theoryofchange #USAID USAID Learning Lab

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New Insights on Livelihood Challenges in Sudan Amid Armed Conflict 🌍 We're proud to share findings from our latest collaborative study with the United Nations Development Programme, titled "Livelihoods in Sudan amid armed conflict: Evidence from a national rural household survey," published by the International Food Policy Research Institute. This is the first National Rural Household Survey after the onset of the armed conflict, conducted between November 2023 and January 2024. It sheds light on the significant socioeconomic impacts of the ongoing conflict on Sudanese rural households. 🔍 Key Findings: Economic Disruption: Rural incomes have plummeted, exacerbating vulnerabilities around housing and access to basic services. Migration Trends: The conflict has driven significant migration, particularly to states like Aj Jazirah and Gedaref, with migrants facing substantial income losses. Agricultural Impact: A sharp decrease in crop cultivation highlights the need for urgent support in the agriculture sector, especially for smallholder farmers. Market Challenges: Access issues and economic instability require enhanced efforts to improve market functionality and accessibility. This analysis emphasizes the urgency of targeted policy and programmatic interventions to support displaced populations, enhance public services, and bolster rural livelihoods. Our findings aim to guide the development of strategies that address immediate needs while fostering long-term resilience and stability in Sudanese communities. 🔗 Explore the full report and join our conversation on how we can support Sudan during these challenging times: Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/e_iYz4kA #SudanConflict #RuralDevelopment #EconomicResilience #IFPRI #UNDP #AgriculturalDevelopment #MarketAccessibility #PolicyIntervention

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New, startup NGOs particularly face problems in mobilizing resources from International Funding Agencies as the latter prefer to partner with and provide financial support to experienced organizations with solid foundations, systems, policies, M&E, funding sustainability, compliance, track record of success, and staff. Being a successful resource mobilizer is difficult and complex for every NGO as it is. However, it is more challenging for brand-new NGOs. It resembles job applications: Most employers prefer to recruit employees who have vast experience, but to get the experience, you need a job, which literally you don´t get if you don´t have experience. It is a vicious circle that does not seem to have an end to it. But this does not mean that inexperienced job seekers are discouraged or cannot navigate through the challenge, as evident that they secure employment, internships, enroll in trainings to strengthen their skills etc. The same as securing resources, partnerships for start-up NGOs. It is not hopeless also for start-up NGOs and CSOs in general. Over the years, as Resource Mobilization specialists, through coaching, mentorship, capacity building, consultation, we brought our capacity building skills, strategic goal setting skills, problem solving, experience, wisdom 🧠 🧠 and as solution designers, strategic thinkers in the field, as cheerleaders to incubate and assist NGOs, both well established and start-up to strategize on their resource mobilization approaches. There is no “one size fits all”. This include customized approaches to prioritize relevant resource providers that are a perfect fit for the CSOs needs, identifying the “low hanging fruits” and building a strong foundation as equally; there exist diverse agencies, resource providers which offer support, provide small and large size grants to new ideas, promising efforts, potential scale-ups, for different missions, provided the CSOs adopt relevant resource mobilization mechanisms. We assist NGOs with customized game plans to navigate through this complexities. Barcos Mompati Mbakhwa- Resource Mobilization specialist for CSOs.

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Neighborhoods, communities, economies, political and health #systems, are also networks, or networks of #networks – patterns of connection and of #flow. They are characterized not just by elements (including people) that are in #relationship (that we might see in a typical network map) but also by the resources that move through those channels of relationship (money, information, nutrients, etc.). This realization takes us into the realm of what are called the “#energy network sciences” and the idea that evolving patterns and the quality of connection and flow changes and/or creates new systemic possibilities. https://lnkd.in/eHVC45x https://lnkd.in/eHVC45x

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𝗔 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗯𝘁 - 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗲: ✅ Recently met a very challenging fundraising target. ✅ Just got confirmed in post (after an extensive probation period). ✅ Successfully renewed 3 key donors. 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗯𝘁?? She has been: ➡️ Reporting to a (dysfunctional) board of non fundraisers for nearly a year because the CEO left and has not been replaced (to save money). ➡️ Part of a toxic and headless senior leadership team that meets every Tuesday (so she has spent hours in frustrating meetings having the same circular discussion that hasn't gone anywhere). ➡️ Trying to reach an unrealistic fundraising target without any budgets, signed off accounts or impact data. ➡️ Compensating for 2 vacancies in her team of four fundraisers because of a recruitment freeze.  ➡️Unable to work with the rest of the organisation because of staff turnover (and that recruitment freeze) - everyone is stretched and doesn't have time to help fundraising with anything. 𝗧𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗖𝗘𝗢, 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟮 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁, 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿, 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗹. Usually a very confident and capable person is now full of self doubt, and feels like she is failing at everything. Obviously, it's the situation she is in that is making her feel like this. The person I am talking about will be reading this post.  Because I wrote it for her. When I said "you're trying to do four jobs under impossible circumstances", she thought I was just being nice. I know there are a lot of people in her boat who read my posts, but won't like or comment at the risk of feeling exposed.  And that of course is OK. But if you recognise this situation and believe circumstances like this can grind a person down - to the point where they start to think they're not good enough to do a job other people would breeze through, then please leave the words "𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗱" in the comments. Please help me show my ex colleague and fundraisers in this situation - not to let self doubt creep in when you're been put into an impossible situation.  Most of us have experienced this.  Please comment to let people know it's not them. They are just shaken BUT not stirred. 🍸

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐩𝐢𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞? On the first, it is clear that education delivery is being affected by climate change, but we need to know more about the specific impacts (where, how, on who) and how to mitigate them. Better and more targeted research is needed to ensure all children continue to receive education as the effects of climate change intensify. On the second, education could play a role in building resilience among populations in the face of climate change, but we have very limited evidence for this and how it might work. This type of questions are the building blocks of the research agenda proposed by the Center for Global Development. #education #climatechange https://lnkd.in/eM9zzXaH

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Another interview on water and climate! Check it out!

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💡 Recommendations needed - Program co-creation I am looking for case studies / examples of (entrepreneurship) programs that were co-created with the community they aim to impact. I am specifically interested in programs that focus on supporting and empowering marginalized groups This could be in the form of participatory approaches and involvement of 👭 potential future or past program participants, 📢 grassroots and advocacy organizations or 👩‍💻 external consultants and experts that have deeper insights into the needs of a specific target group Any pointers or introductions are much appreciated! #CommunityCollaboration #InclusivePrograms #CoCreatingChange

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Spot on call from Digital Poverty Alliance. Candidates in this election need to commit to creating a cross-departmental digital inclusion task force with transparent accountability for real change and a joined-up focus. Also an interesting idea in this blog by Elizabeth Anderson - if you didn't have a smart phone or laptop, would you know there was an election in a few weeks time? My take is that this is particularly dangerous for refugees. Refugees are political footballs, they are pawns of the political process. They have very little (but not zero) political agency. Those seeking asylum in the UK, and refugees who don't have British or Commonwealth citizenship, cannot vote or run for parliament. That's despite the fact that the policies which directly affect their lives are central to the current debate. Our approach to asylum seekers is under the microscope to such an extent that we have lost sight of the key stakeholder - asylum seekers themselves. People who have never spoken to an asylum seeker before get more of a say than someone who has lived in the UK and within the asylum system for years. It makes no sense and it's undemocratic. What happened to universal suffrage and decisions being made by everyone subject to those decisions? For refugees to be repoliticised and reinvested with political energy they need to be seen and listened to and included. The sooner we understand refugees as agents of positive change and members of local and national communities - rather than enemies at the gate - the better.

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💚 Join our third event in People Powered's learning webinar series, focusing on innovations in climate democracy - in collaboration with Open Government Partnership and Trust, Accountability and Inclusion Collaborative. Tuesday, June 18, 10–11:30 AM ET / 4–5:30 PM CEST 🌩 The climate crisis demands immediate, equitable, and effective responses. While participatory and deliberative democracy provides a powerful framework for involving communities directly in climate-related decisions, the journey is fraught with challenges. How can we ensure inclusive approaches that respect local knowledge and expertise? How do we navigate the complexities of local and global climate policies? What innovations are making a real impact on the ground? At our webinar, learn how governments, civil society organizations, and philanthropies are leading and supporting climate democracy initiatives around the world. Register here: https://lnkd.in/dEU92tg6 Josh Lerner Yery Menendez Garcia Michael Jarvis Carole Excell The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Athena Ronquillo-Ballesteros William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Open Society Foundations Robin Varghese Ford Foundation ClimateWorks Foundation Valeria Scorza IKEA Foundation Saliem Fakir

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USAID’s approach to over-emphasizing systemic resilience is easier said than done. Do you think USAID succeeded in building resilience through boosting local systems? "The most transformational investments to strengthen sources of resilience often take place through systems-level interventions. Investing in systems from local to global levels can strengthen resilience by bolstering comprehensive and enduring approaches to manage shocks and stresses. An example of an informal, resilient local system is receiving support from self-help groups in times of crisis, while formal systems include government social protection programs (e.g., cash payments or health services), national emergency management systems, physical infrastructure, healthy and well-managed natural systems and health systems, and local and national government that includes effective, legitimate policing and the rule of law. USAID and its partners must make sure these systems are resilient themselves by investing to ensure systems continue to function as conditions change.10 Locally led development is part and parcel of strengthening resilient systems. Local ownership and consultation, and co-creation with local representatives toward joint goals are essential for fostering sustainable results and our commitment to do “nothing about them, without them.”10 This is especially critical when it comes to strengthening the capacity of host-country systems across levels and enabling countries to take the lead in their own development, through a process rooted in local systems and based on community needs."

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🌟 Exciting Update! 🌟 On June 26th, 2024, USAID hosted an event to launch the USAID Mental Health Position Paper – the Agency's first policy document dedicated to integrating mental health into its programs. Read more here: [USAID Mental Health Position Paper](https://lnkd.in/eJSCb_Hh) Assistant Administrator for Global Health, Dr. Atul Gawande, introduced this trailblazing paper at the event titled, “Mental Health is Health: Redefining Mental Health in Foreign Assistance.” The event featured insightful fireside chat with U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, highlighting the importance of prioritizing mental health both domestically and internationally. Key discussion points included: 🌟 Championing local mental health 🌟 Fostering community-led interventions 🌟 Promoting ethical practices 🌟 Addressing barriers like mental health stigma and the need for diverse partnerships This is a significant step towards enhancing global mental health in international development programming! 🌍 Watch the live event here: [Mental Health is Health Event](https://lnkd.in/eFfApWkG)  #MentalHealth #MHPSS #USAID #MentalHealthMatters #SustainableDevelopment #InclusiveDevelopment  #localization #communityempowerment #socialjustice #Equity #innovation #future #inclusivedevelopment #internationaldevelopment #development #sustainabledevelopment #peacebuilding #humanitarianaid #humanrights #pyd #youthempowerment #disabilityinclusion #genderequality #positiveyouthdevelopment

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