How a literacy program became a life-sustaining activity

June 15, 2024

1 min read

Designed initially as an early-grade reading program, the USAID-funded READ II activity sought to improve the reading proficiency of 15 million children in seven regions of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, Sidama, SNNP and Tigray) in English and mother-tongue languages.

READ II pivoted twice to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and the escalation of armed conflict in northern Ethiopia. In 2022, the activity emerged as the Education Recovery Activity, diverting all its remaining resources to provide an education in crisis and conflict response in Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions.

Over six years, READ II has impacted children and educators across Ethiopia, promoting early-grade reading and later education as a life-sustaining activity.

READ II Activity’s Culmination Event celebrates impact on education in Ethiopia

May 30, 2024

By Pariesa Brody

4 min read

For six years, the READ II Activity has supported children and educators across Ethiopia, promoting education as a life-sustaining activity. The initiative’s enduring legacy was celebrated at a culmination event in Addis Ababa on May 20, 2024, bringing together education leaders, officials, students and staff members.

Dana Beegun, Education and Youth Office Director at USAID Ethiopia, highlighted the project’s significant achievements, including reaching millions of children and preparing instructors with essential pedagogical skills.

“Over the course of our six-year endeavor, we have witnessed a profound transformation in Ethiopia’s educational landscape,” Beegun said. “Through unwavering dedication and collaboration, over 27,000 teachers have embraced evidence-based reading pedagogy, enriching the educational experience for more than 3.5 million children across the country.”

*Dana Beegun, Education and Youth Office Director at USAID Ethiopia, poses alongside students, READ II staff and Creative representatives at the activity’s Culmination Event.*

From rural schools to internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, READ II embraced flexibility and adaptability to reach students where they were.

Ato Mezgebu Biazin, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education’s Chief Executive for Strategic Affairs, expressed gratitude for USAID and the dedication of the program’s implementing partners and hope for continued support to meet the government’s learning objectives.

The May 20 event provided a comprehensive overview of the activity’s impact on education in Ethiopia and offered valuable insights into improving early-grade reading, supporting education in crisis situations, providing direct support to trauma-affected students and building the capacity of teachers and educational leaders.

From early grade reading to crisis response

Designed initially as an early-grade reading program, the USAID-funded READ II Activity sought to improve the reading proficiency of 15 million children in seven regions of Ethiopia—Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, Sidama, SNNP and Tigray—in English and mother-tongue languages.

READ II pivoted twice to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and the escalation of armed conflict in northern Ethiopia.

In 2022, the activity emerged as the USAID READ II Education Recovery Activity, diverting all its remaining resources to provide an education in crisis and conflict response in Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions, and thereafter providing support to schools, parents and children as they returned to formal education post-conflict.

More than 150 people attended the May 20 ceremony, including high-ranking officials and representatives from the Ministry of Education, USAID Ethiopia, Regional Education Bureaus, Creative Associates International, partner organizations, school administrators, instructors, coordinators of gender clubs, students, parents, trainers, and former and current staff members. The diverse range of attendees reflected the collaborative effort and collective commitment to enhancing educational outcomes in Ethiopia.

The event commenced with a gallery walk, which showcased through photographs the journey of READ II from early-grade reading to crisis response. Attendees also viewed artwork created by primary school students during the education recovery phase.

To introduce the event, three students expressed their gratitude to USAID, Creative and all stakeholders involved in ensuring their return to learning following the conflict in northern Ethiopia, underscoring the READ II activity as a catalyst for education.

Noy Villalobos, Chief Programs Officer at Creative Associates International, recognized the important contributions from USAID, the Ministry of Education and local and international partners for their involvement in the activity’s development and execution. She discussed the activity’s accomplishments, including its pivot to address the urgent needs of students affected by the conflict through its Education Recovery efforts. Villalobos reaffirmed Creative’s commitment to supporting Ethiopia as it enhances basic education in Ethiopia.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, READ II pivoted to distance learning through radio and TV, virtual training for teachers and a hotline to engage teachers, parents and school directors. With the escalation of armed conflict in the north of Ethiopia, READ II transformed to promote education as a life-sustaining activity, providing healing and stability for those affected by the crisis.

From providing basic supplies like furniture and tents for students in temporary learning centers to promoting healing activities like sports and art, READ II had a profound impact on students returning to normalcy after conflict.

Tassew Zewdie, PhD, Chief of Party for READ II, and Sandy Oleksy-Ojikutu, PhD, Project Director for READ II, briefed attendees on the project’s accomplishments, impacts and lessons learned.

They highlighted the program’s strategic use of preexisting materials, comprehensive teacher development, subject-specific mentoring, empowering instructional leadership, enhanced supervision and feedback, the vital role of parental and community support, an emphasis on psychosocial support, flexibility and adaptive management, the critical role of scenario planning, and the necessity of collaboration and coordination.

A panel discussion also provided an opportunity for reflection and insight, as education officials and instructors underlined the successful ways that READ II helped relieve conflict-related trauma.

Certificates of appreciation were awarded to the Ministry of Education and the Regional Education Bureaus where READ II was implemented, recognizing their invaluable contributions to the project’s success.

The READ II Activity culmination event celebrated the program’s transformative impact on education in Ethiopia and provided valuable insights for future initiatives. It highlighted the importance of collaboration, innovation, and a holistic approach to improving educational outcomes, ultimately empowering Ethiopian children to reach their full potential.

“Bright Futures” exhibit in Ethiopia showcases art as a therapeutic tool

February 7, 2024

By Pariesa Brody

3 min read

In the wake of the devastating conflict impacting Ethiopia’s Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions, art brought hope and healing to tens of thousands of children scarred by the war.

Based on artwork created by 11,000 students in those three regions, 56 pieces were selected as finalists and 30 of these were chosen to be displayed during an exhibition called “Brighter Futures” organized by USAID and the READ II Education Recovery Activity in the nation’s capital.

The two-year conflict had a profound impact on the lives of students and their families, with hundreds of schools damaged or destroyed, learning materials ruined and educational activities upended. Recognizing the urgent need to address the trauma and prioritize education, the READ II Education Recovery Activity (READ II ER), implemented by Creative and its partners, stepped in to provide support during and after the war.

U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Gwendolyn Green inaugurated the exhibition at the Hilton Hotel.

To learn more about these trauma-informed efforts, please see this short video.

One of the READ II ER’s approaches used art as a therapeutic tool. Local artists and art teachers from schools asked students to express their emotions through drawings, providing them a much-needed outlet for relaxation and healing. In 2022, the art therapy program targeted children in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, host communities and schools affected by the conflict. 

To learn more about art as therapy, please see this short video.

The success of this exercise led to the development of an art competition involving 156 schools across the three regions. From October 2022 to July 2023, art instructors from the Regional Colleges of Teacher Education worked with primary school art teachers and local artisans, who worked with nearly 11,000 fourth and fifth graders across the three regions.

The competition events showcased the incredible talent and resilience of the children. The 30 artworks selected and displayed at the Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel from Jan. 23 to 29, 2024, represent these young artists’ creativity and emotional journey, capturing their experiences and hopes for a brighter future. The U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission, Gwendolyn Green, inaugurated the exhibition.

The art show attracted a diverse audience, including prominent figures from the local art industry, representatives from international organizations, and officials from the federal government and USAID Ethiopia. The event received extensive coverage from local media outlets.

During the weeklong art exhibit, various local schools brought their students to view the drawings and discuss their hopes for the future. The exhibit will be moved to a local library, then to Bole International Airport.

Through the power of art, this exhibition highlights the immense challenges faced by children affected by conflict and celebrates their resilience and ability to heal. It serves as a reminder of the importance of prioritizing education and providing psychosocial support to help children overcome trauma and rebuild their lives.

One of the lasting benefits of the competition was the reintroduction of art into participating schools’ curricula, which will continue to support children as they rebuild their resilience.

The READ II Education Recovery Activity provides scholastic and recreational materials to schools and trains schoolteachers and administrators in psychosocial services, psychological first-aid, socio-emotional learning and more.

READ II ER supported over 700,000 students in 1,156 conflict-affected primary schools in 100 districts. The activity provides basic school supplies, furniture, and tents for schools and temporary learning centers to help teachers and students resume teaching and learning activities. READ II ER supports regional and local back-to-learning efforts through targeted campaigns, posters, public service radio announcements, and mobile hotline push messages. 

Sharing successes in rebuilding trust in governance in “Democracy Delivers” webinar

February 6, 2024

4 min read

Practitioners in governance face many challenges in countries where democracy is tenuous, and one of the most challenging is strengthening the social contract between citizens and government.

But forging trust is an essential step in creating a framework that can respond to citizens’ pressing needs and priorities, experts said during “Democracy Delivers,” a webinar co-hosted by Creative Associates International and VNG International, the international cooperation agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities.

“At the end of the day, people are looking for results in order to trust the local authorities and trust the system,” said panelist Karl Jean-Louis, Chief of Party for USAID-funded Inclusive Governance for Resilience program implemented by Creative in Burkina Faso.

Women riding bicycles in Yako, Burkina Faso on November 17, 2022

In political systems weakened by conflict or fragility, panelists said their experience implementing governance projects has demonstrated that building a constructive partnership between local governments and communities requires honest conversations, establishing mutual goals and a shared understanding.

A first step in the path to trust is understanding the key players in local governance, said Yeshimebet Aynie, Capacity Strengthening Manager for the USAID-funded Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity implemented by Creative.

“As a starting point, we conduct analysis of key local governance actors,” Aynie told the webinar audience on Dec. 5, 2023. “We focused on the council, elected councilors, the administration, and the citizens. The three points, and what their relations look like there, is the social accountability that we want to focus on between the citizens and the service providers.”

Accountability is critical, panelists said, since stakeholders cannot constantly monitor each other’s activities.

A Matter of Trust

Trust and accountability are even more complicated when governmental leaders are reluctant to share power and information. In countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali, where military juntas are in control, panelists said every step of the journey is delicate.

“Our approach has been cautious in doing different analyses,” said Jean-Louis, head of the Burkina Faso project. “We have to navigate with all the pressure and tension, mainly the political crisis and the lack of trust between citizens and the [leaders of] these two war-torn countries.”

Practitioners said governments can regain the trust of their citizens when they demonstrate good faith in improving the provision of public services. But even if the government gains citizens’ trust, it can be undermined if it cannot make good on its promises.

“It’s very important to make sure that you don’t end up with this process with a wish list at the end set up by the population, but then nothing can be implemented,” said Eva Peppelman, who directs VNG’s programs in Burundi, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Project Manager in VNG’s Business Unit for West and Central Africa.

In such instances, a project can support the relationship by providing incremental resources and supporting revenue generation, Peppelman said.

“In the short term, the use of small grants to be able to implement small actions from these plans – based on participative needs from the community – shows the community that participation actually pays off directly with services or improvements that they can feel,” Peppelman said.

A similar result was achieved in Burkina Faso, where the government had struggled to meet the demand for identity cards. Still, a mayor’s office provided 45,000 I.D. cards to citizens.

“We can see people coming from all over the place, being in line for 1 to 2 hours to get their card, because this card gives them access to other services,” said Jean-Louis of the Burkina Faso project.

Governance practitioners can play a valuable role in helping government officials confront how they are not meeting their citizens’ needs. In southern Ethiopia, citizens had to travel most of the day to get clean water. Having an outside party in place to bridge the gap between the citizens and the government moved leaders to confront the untenable situation and make progress.

“Once (the citizens) participated in the dialogue with service providers and the local government, they were able to influence them to allocate a budget,” said Yeshimebet.

Tools of the Trade

Outside of trust and communication, speakers in the webinar also stressed different tools they employ to empower struggling communities. One is the community scorecard, an accountability tool that helps plan, monitor, assess and evaluate public services.

“It is a very empowering tool,” said Aynie of the Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity. “We bring citizens together. Those empowered people raise their issues, voice their issues, demand improvements in dialogues, and that leads to a shared understanding of the citizens’ concerns and the shared development of shared action plans and solutions to address improvement.”

Barry Reed, Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Vietnam Local Capacity Development Program implemented by Creative, stressed the interconnectedness of all the elements.

“There’s a ripple effect of each activity that you undertake. It ripples out and impacts other things. At the root of it, our teams are supporting what needs to happen to make life on the ground better. How do we really make that happen for every single person on the ground to make sure the lasting effects of our work for the long term?”

Democracy Delivers: Exploring the impact of participatory, responsive local governance on trust and legitimacy

January 23, 2024

7 min read

With 17 years of global democratic decline, how can international development practitioners support communities and local governance actors to partner in building responsive local governance ecosystems? And how does this impact broader perceptions of trust in and legitimacy of government?

We explored these questions during a recent event co-hosted by Creative and VNG, drawing on our practical experiences across Burkina Faso, Mali, Ethiopia and elsewhere.

These projects have taught us key lessons about the impact of improving public service delivery on increasing trust, legitimacy and accountability to create tangible results for peoples’ everyday lives.

Burkina Faso

Challenge — A gap between community needs/trust and government capacity

Ongoing political uncertainty and insecurity in Burkina Faso have created severe gaps between community needs and the capacity of local governance actors to respond.

Elected bodies were dissolved following the January 2022 coup, including local municipal councils. Transitional authorities appointed Special Delegations (DS) to govern local municipalities in the absence of elected councils.

While DSs have the same roles and responsibilities as elected councils, they are generally not perceived as effective. There is also a lack of trust between citizens and these appointed government bodies.

Approach — Improve local government transparency, efficiency and dialogue

The USAID Inclusive Governance for Resilience (IGR) project works with local actors to catalyze solutions among government structures, civil society and individual citizens.

One way IGR is working to help restore trust is to work with the Special Delegations to ensure their work is transparent, the community is consulted, and citizens’ needs and expectations are considered. IGR supports the participatory co-creation of roadmaps to resilience that facilitate collective action between local government and communities.

IGR also helped build the skills of civil registry agents and secondary centers to speed up the issuance of civil status documents in response to citizen needs and concerns. The project supported a campaign to issue free copies of birth certificates and Burkina Faso national identity cards (CNIB) in 16 communes.

IGR is also launching community radio programs in 16 communes to promote dialogue between CSO leaders and local authorities.

Results — Identification papers for 50,000 people

The campaign enabled 7,748 people to obtain birth certificates and 42,979 people to obtain their CNIB. Seeing local services work effectively is a key part in restoring trust in authorities and laying the groundwork for social cohesion.

Mali

Challenge — Mistrust between communities and government

Mali is a fragile state where conflict and violence have spread from the northern to central regions. This insecurity contributes to tensions and frayed relations within communities. There is both a lack of trust between citizens and local governments but also among different groups of society. This mistrust is compounded by top-down decision making in planning, which has been a main source of tension and fragility.

Approach — Bringing citizens into the process of governing

The USAID Mali Peacebuilding, Stabilization, and Reconciliation (PSR) program worked through a governance system lens to build the resilience of 43 communes to conflict and violent extremism.

To build trust between local actors and strengthen state legitimacy, PSR strategically worked with Regional Development Agencies (ADRs), commune authorities, civil society, private sector, and traditional leaders to enable multi-actor participation, citizen voice and inclusive decision-making in commune development planning.

PSR used the Plan de Développement Social, Economique et Culturel (PDSEC), a public policy and institutionalized local development planning tool, as a convening process to gather local actors around community priorities and as an entry point to facilitate local dialogue and problem-solving.

Results — A historic first in participation

Citizens participated in the process of crafting their local development plans for the first time in the history of the PDSEC.

PSR findings indicate that when communities come together around shared interests and common priorities in an inclusive, participatory and transparent manner, citizens’ perceptions of government trustworthiness improve and citizen-state relationships and state legitimacy are strengthened, even if tangible improvements in service delivery have yet to materialize. Mali PSR’s training module on decentralization is now being used by the Centre de Formation des Collectivités Territoriales, Mali’s national center for community training.  

Ethiopia

Challenge — Building trust and strengthening local government accountability

As Ethiopia continues along its path to a participatory democracy and deals with conflict and regional and political instability, strengthening the social contract, trust and accountability between citizens and local governments is crucial.

Approach — Social accountability for equitable, efficient services

In Ethiopia, VNG has supported several iterations of social accountability programming, and is now partnering with Creative on the USAID Ethiopia Civic Engagement activity.

Through the Ethiopia Social Accountability Programme (ESAP) 2, VNG worked to strengthen the use of social accountability tools, approaches and mechanisms to make basic service delivery more equitable, effective, efficient, responsive and accountable.

Public basic service providers delivered improved basic services in education, health, agriculture, water, sanitation and rural roads in response to community needs.

These service delivery improvements, identified through citizen and civil society organization engagement, were supported through grants and technical assistance to local governments to ensure improved basic service delivery and the ongoing monitoring and accountability efforts of communities.

Results — Big strides in education and other service delivery

Citizens, service providers and local government actors developed more than 250 joint action plans for improved service delivery.

In the education sector alone, ESAP2 supported the construction of 153 additional classrooms, the provision of more than 45,000 textbooks to students, the recruitment of 269 additional qualified teachers and the construction of 67 toilets at school facilities.

These efforts have improved partnerships between communities and local government officials and increased trust as citizens see more responsiveness and better basic services.

Currently ESAP3 is being implemented by 75 CSOs, organized in 26 consortiums, in 416 woredas throughout Ethiopia. ESAP3 focuses on five pro-poor sectors, namely education, health, rural roads, agriculture, water and sanitation and other identified sectors fundamental for delivering these primary sectors, such as electricity.

Four lessons and recommendations

Recognize the link between strengthening inclusive, local governance and stabilization

Our projects in Mali and Burkina Faso have theories of change that posit strengthening local governance is crucial to building community stabilization and resilience to violent extremism.

IGR’s approach focuses on supporting a system that reorganizes relationships between and among state and non-state actors to ensure inclusive participation and responsive service delivery. It also equips citizens with the skills and resources to hold governments to account and strengthens the social contract between local governments and citizens to collectively stop the infiltration of violent extremist groups.

Strengthen capacity in tandem with social and resource mobilization

Drawing on Creative’s local governance work in similar low-resource, conflict environments, including Mali PSR, IGR is prioritizing the implementation of participatory roadmaps to resilience and supporting commune officials in revenue mobilization strategies to equip local governments to meet the needs of citizens.

Participatory processes, while crucial, can be counterproductive for building trust and legitimacy in the longer term if the corresponding capacity and financial resources are not in place to deliver in response to citizen priorities.

Balance planning and flexibility in fluid contexts

The rapidly evolving security and political environments in Mali and Burkina Faso and conflict dynamics in Ethiopia have required an approach that balances longer-term governance goals with short-term, visible results and flexible, adaptive response mechanisms based on emerging needs and challenges.

While IGR’s initial analysis was valuable for building trust and buy-in with local communities and understanding their needs, the fluid context requires ongoing analysis and adaptations to stay responsive to shifting conditions and needs.

Build and maintain authorizing support

Initially, IGR struggled to obtain and maintain the support of local authorities and influential individuals whose commitment and buy-in was essential for activities.

By involving these local actors throughout capacity strengthening and roadmap to resilience co-creation processes, IGR was able to instill a sense of commitment and responsibility among local leaders, motivating their continued involvement and leadership in the work.

To ensure both national and local relevance, IGR also worked to align the roadmaps with local transition plans and annual plans required by the national government. This led to IGR efforts directly contributing to making local strategic planning more inclusive, data-driven, participatory and focused on local needs and priorities, and helped save time and resources for the municipalities.

Improving services and safety through good governance

Democracy and long-term stability are more attainable when local governments deliver on their commitments to provide effective, inclusive and citizen-responsive services and when citizens can meaningly participate.

This improves state-citizen relationships and reduces the potential for violent extremist organizations to exploit local cleavages.

Concluding the recent Democracy Delivers event, Barry Reed, Chief of Party for the Vietnam Local Capacity Development Program highlighted that “there’s a ripple effect of each activity that you undertake. It ripples out and impacts other things.”

From participatory co-creation of community plans based on citizen needs and political realities (while managing expectations and ensuring that resources align), to drawing on existing tools and structures and working within the system to promote sustainability, the discussion reinforced the interconnectedness of local governance programming efforts to deliver tangible results for communities and to strengthen trust and legitimacy within diverse, fluid contexts.

We will continue to explore these interconnected topics through our ongoing learning series. A forthcoming discussion will focus on lessons and good practices for advancing localization and inclusion in local governance programming.

2023 on film: Videos of impact from around the world

January 9, 2024

By Ashley Williams

4 min read

Locally conceived and led initiatives are transforming communities. Whether they are moving communities from conflict to peace, supporting students, backing entrepreneurs or strengthening governance, these short films provide local perspectives to on-the-ground solutions to pressing issues. Explore their stories in these 12 videos from 2023.

Honduras: Kickboxing & Jiu Jitsu Build Self-Esteem, Protect Women from Violence

Women’s networks in Honduras are empowering people by enhancing their self-esteem, resilience and individual agency through kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu. The USAID/Office of Transition Initiatives program called CARI Honduras is supporting these classes in the Honduran communities of Chamelecon and Rivera Hernandez, as well as outreach to survivors, public policy advocacy and more.

Ethiopia: Using Art to Overcome Trauma

After two years of conflict concentrated primarily in northern Ethiopia, most students were traumatized, and many were reluctant to return to their classrooms. The USAID READ II Education Recovery Activity stepped in with psychological first aid and social-emotional learning interventions. The program worked with schools to use art and other techniques to support students.

This video won three Telly Awards.

Ethiopia: Trauma-Informed Education

Originally designed as an early grade reading program, USAID’s READ II Education Recovery Activity pivoted to provide education in conflict services to students, educators and families in three regions. It demonstrated how education can be a life-sustaining tool in conflict-affected communities by supporting about 500,000 children to return to learning and continue their education.

This video won two Telly Awards.

Mali: Artisans for Peace

Artisans for Peace is an initiative designed to teach youth traditional techniques that they can use to start small businesses. Funded by the USAID Peacebuilding, Stabilization and Reconciliation project, this activity is led by the nonprofit Aid to Artisans.

This video won a Telly Award.

El Salvador: How Beauty Is Confronting a Beast

El Salvador has some of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in Central America. The USAID CARI program works with an NGO in Santa Ana, El Salvador to counter violence against women and girls by leveraging beauty salons to reach women with messages of empowerment, self-care and more.

Youth Supporting Youth in Guatemala

The USAID Tejiendo Paz (Peacebuilding) project works in the Western Highlands of Guatemala to support peace initiatives. Ana Cristina Toma, a social worker and student, discusses the factors in her community that influence irregular migration among youth and how family, education and societal efforts help young people remain in their home communities.

Benin: Wrestling for Peace in Malanville & Karimama

USAID/OTI’s Littorals Regional Initiative leverages popular wrestling competitions to reach youth with peace and social cohesion messages in northern Benin. Throughout the tournament, spectators heard from wrestlers and grantees explained the role of youth in encouraging peace and community resilience against violence.

Mali’s Online Sleuths: Preparing Citizens to Counter Aggressive Misinformation Campaigns

USAID’s Peacebuilding, Stabilization & Reconciliation program supports efforts to promote credible, reliable information in Mali. Working with established organizations, the program has trained hundreds of journalists, youth and citizen sleuths to better understand the origins of misinformation and how to fact check before sharing content.

Regional Challenges, Local Solutions

USAID’s Reacting to Early Warning and Response Data II (REWARD II) program provides grants to local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Benin, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Togo to help prevent and mitigate electoral violence and promote peace social cohesion.

A Win-Win for People and Environment

Coliba Sarl is a Côte d’Ivoire-based company connecting households and small businesses with informal waste collectors. Through its co-investments with USAID’s West Africa Trade & Investment Hub, Coliba is integrating informal waste collectors into its business model, allowing collectors to participate in formal training to help them build better businesses.

Burkina Faso: Co-Creation Workshops

The USAID-funded Inclusive Governance for Resilience supports initiatives that improve citizens and organizations to advocate for their needs and constructively communicate with officials, among other goals.

Building an Inclusive Economic Model

Traditional financial tools are often unavailable to Guatemalan women, indigenous people and rural area residents, forcing them to rely on remittances. The USAID Central America Regional Initiative is supporting Quiché, Guatemala to study remittances, financial inclusion and levels of economic development of women and young people who are family members of migrants.

Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity launches in Addis Ababa

December 15, 2023

4 min read

The Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity, an initiative designed to support local and grassroots civic actors to achieve more inclusive, peaceful and responsive governance, officially launched in Addis Ababa on Dec. 11.

Speaking to a large audience of domestic and international officials and non-governmental organizations, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Mission Director highlighted the timeliness of the Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity.

“By bolstering Ethiopian organizations’ abilities to engage in advocacy, dialogue and collective action for peaceful, democratic progress, USAID is ultimately empowering the voices of Ethiopians across the country, including marginalized groups,” USAID/Ethiopia Mission Director Scott Hocklander said at the event.

The Mission Director emphasized the U.S. government’s continued support for the country through programs like the Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity.

“For decades now, USAID has placed a high priority on supporting Ethiopia in its efforts to expand the democratic space and foster an engaged citizenry,” he said. “Our focus extends to enhancing human rights, strengthening the rule of law and promoting government transparency and accountability.”

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity is a four-year program designed to strengthen civic and community-based actors’ abilities to engage in policy analysis, advocacy, dialogue and collective action for peaceful, democratic change.

“Looking at the new project we are launching today, I have strong confidence that the USAID Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity will play a pivotal role in our continuing efforts to expand the civic space and empower civic actors,” the Mission Director said.

Diversity, dialogue, and local solutions

The launch event included a traditional coffee ceremony, which the Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity Chief of Party Melissa Brill highlighted for its cultural and programmatic significance.

“The coffee ceremony symbolizes the richness and diversity of Ethiopian culture, and it is a time and place for people to come together, put aside their differences, build trust, relax and reflect, where neighbors come together and discuss the issues that matter most in their lives,” Brill said at the event. “These concepts — diversity, coming together, dialogue, as well as Ethiopian solutions to Ethiopian problems — are foundational to the program.”

The four-year program uses a collective impact approach in which civic actors identify, understand and determine solutions to citizen-defined issues in an iterative process. The Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity, through identified cluster lead organizations, will bring together a cross section of organizations and individuals – including youth, women, traditional leaders, faith-based organizations and others – to work together to better understand the issues, determine solution and address the causes, while simultaneously building their organizational skills, comity, connection and trust.

Implemented by Creative Associates International, along with  VNG International and the Center for International Private Enterprise, will support up to 20 clusters in key parts of Ethiopia which will promote issue-based partnerships and inclusive dialogue that leads to improved governance. The Activity will operate out of three regional hubs— Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa and Dessie.

Panel session on good governance

As part of the half-day launch event, a panel of four persons discussed “Civic Engagement and how it intersects with Transparency, Accountability, Good Governance, Social and Youth Inclusion, Peace and Security, Human Rights and Development and Gender Equality” in Ethiopia.

Referring to panel sessions and subsequent discussions as part of the launch event, Sharon Van Pelt, Creative’s Vice President and Senior Director of the Communities in Transition Division, said the speakers “emphasized the significance of civic engagement and the active involvement of multiple stakeholders in transforming Ethiopia’s civic sector.”

Though Dec. 11 was the official public launch, the Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity has been working to conduct studies of the needs of residents in these geographic hubs. Panelists discussed these diverse needs during the launch event.

“Building upon these findings, the Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity will implement various activities to strengthen the social fabric in Ethiopia,” said Van Pelt, an expert in governance and civil society.

Based on the survey of citizen needs and priorities, the Ethiopia Civil Engagement Activity has selected a set of initial issues for support through these clusters based on the findings from its citizen survey. For Addis Ababa and Sheger city, the issues are water, fiscal transparency and inflation. For Dire Dawa, the issues are water, inflation, roads and fiscal transparency. And For Dessie, the topics are inflation, peace and security, job opportunity and fiscal transparency.

“The focus of ECE is on civic engagement,” Chief of Party Brill said. “We are not confined to a specific sector but will be supporting this engagement across many different sectors.”

USAID Read II Education Recovery Activity

The Ethiopia Civic Engagement Activity is one of two USAID-supported programs that Creative is implementing in the country. Its sister program, the READ II Education Recovery Activity, was initially organized to advance the country’s early grade reading efforts. When the war erupted in Ethiopia, the READ II Education Recovery Activity pivoted many times to support students, educators and others caught in the two-year conflict.

The program established education as a key element in life sustaining efforts, including work on social-emotional learning, supporting internally displaced persons and more.

Learn more about the Activity’s programs here: Artwork as therapy; gender clubs; emotional support; and sports.

Ethiopian schools engage students to curb violence against women and girls

November 30, 2023

1 min read

USAID’s READ II Education Recovery Activity includes a key component that supports the training of Girls Club leaders and school administrators. Violence against women and girls increased dramatically during the two-year conflict.

Originally designed as an early grade reading program, USAID’s READ II Education Recovery Activity pivoted to provide education in conflict services to students, educators and families in three regions. It demonstrated how education can be a life sustaining tool in conflict affected communities by supporting about 500,000 children to return to learning and continue their education.

READ II Education Recovery Activity is implemented by Creative Associates International and World Vision. The opinions expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the U.S. government or its implementing organizations.

Creative’s videos earn six prestigious awards in global competition

June 7, 2023

4 min read

Three videos produced by Creative Associates International about innovative field programming earned six awards – a Gold, three Silvers and two Bronzes – in one of the most prestigious global competitions in video across all screens called the Telly Awards.

Two videos about the USAID-supported READ II Education Recovery Activity in Ethiopia scored five of the six awards. “Trauma-Informed Education in Northern Ethiopia” earned two awards – including the top honor of Gold for script writing – and “Using Art to Overcome Trauma” earned three awards, including two Silver awards and a Bronze.

One of the two videos produced for the USAID-supported Peacebuilding, Stabilization & Reconciliation program, Artisans for Peace, earned a Silver for videography/cinematography. The Artisans for Peace initiative is implemented in collaboration with Creative Learning’s Aid to Artisans. 

Creative President & CEO Leland Kruvant commended the close collaboration among programs, communications and the communities to make these successful videos.

“The videos from Mali and Ethiopia channel the voices of people in these communities to larger audiences, each time showing that they have agency and determination to overcome obstacles in conflict and post-conflict situations,” Kruvant says. “While we are honored for the recognition of our outstanding videos, we continue to be driven by the positive results in these communities.”

Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Jim Huylebroek earned the two Silver Awards for the six-minute video about artwork as therapy in Ethiopia and the four-minute video about artisans for peace in Mali. Michael J. Zamba earned the Gold for script writing of the trauma-informed education video and a Bronze for the one on how schools are using art to help students to overcome the effects of the two-year conflict in Northern Ethiopia.

The team – including Zamba, Huylebroek, former READ II Communications Manager Habtamu Gelgel, video editor Yevgeniya “Jane” Bondar and HQ Senior Manager for Strategic Content, Ashley Williams – won a Silver for Social Impact for the artwork as therapy video and a Bronze for Social Impact for the trauma-informed education production.

Ethiopia education program’s quick pivots

The USAID-supported READ II – originally focusing on early grade reading – shifted its efforts after November 2020 when a regional conflict broke out in Ethiopia, quickly moving to address the needs of students, educators and communities in the Amhara, Afar and Tigray Regions. It was renamed READ II Education Recovery Activity.

The Activity provides training and ongoing support to teachers and community leaders on psychological first aid, psychological support and social-emotional learning to support classroom and school-level recovery and learning. School leaders receive support in creating safe and protective learning environments to lead their schools and temporary learning centers to better recover from conflict shocks. Teaching and learning can recommence, along with the development of school-level psychosocial support mechanisms.

Another video produced by Creative highlights how the READ II Education Recovery Activity used sports and recreation to support students. It was produced by Williams, filmed by Huylebroek and edited by Charlotte Bellis.

Peacebuilding Program Working in Mali

The Mali Peacebuilding, Stabilization and Reconciliation program seeks to improve prospects for long-term peace, security and reconciliation in Mali by building trust between conflict-affected communities and their governments, strengthening the ability of communities to mitigate and manage conflict, and training and empowering marginalized youth as change agents. The five-year program, which ends this summer, contributes to measurable improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness, and capacities of local communities to be more resilient to conflict and violent extremism and brings citizens and local leaders together to build peace. 

The program focuses on 43 communities, or “communes,” in the Mopti, Ségou, Gao, Kidal, Ménaka, Taoudénit and Timbuktu regions. 

 The program fosters local ownership of peacebuilding and strengthens the links and communication within and between communities and with the government, with a focus on elevating the voices and engagement of often-marginalized groups like women, youth and ethnic minorities. 

In addition to the Artisans for Peace video, Creative produced a four-minute piece about countering disinformation and misinformation in Mali. The video was filmed by Huylebroek, produced and written by Zamba and edited by Bellis. 

About the Telly Awards

Organizers of the Telly Awards said the announcement of 2023’s winners caps “a year-long celebration of creators and talent who truly stand out during a time when the ubiquity of screens brings more clutter than quality into our lives. These are the creators and innovators who spotlight diverse voices, who are building a more sustainable industry, and who break through the static with their creativity.”

This was a record-breaking year with nearly 13,000 entries from across the globe and top video and television content producers, such as Airbnb, Audible, BET Networks/BET Digital, BritBox, Disney, FEMA, Golden State Warriors, NASA, National Geographic Society, Netflix, Paramount, PBS Digital Studios and more, according to an official announcement by the Telly Awards.

Trauma-informed education in Northern Ethiopia

April 25, 2023

1 min read

USAID’s READ II Education Recovery Activity includes a key component that addressed the traumas sustained by students, educators and their families as a result of the two-year conflict in Northern Ethiopia.

A trauma-informed system is “one in which all parties involved recognize and respond to the impact of traumatic stress on those who have contact with the system including children, caregivers, staff, and service providers.” Adopting trauma-informed practices, “schools undertake a holistic approach to recognize, understand and address the learning needs of children impacted by trauma.”

Originally designed as an early grade reading program, USAID’s READ II Education Recovery Activity pivoted to provide education in conflict services to students, educators and families in three regions. It demonstrated how education can be a life sustaining tool in conflict affected communities by supporting about 500,000 children to return to learning and continue their education.

Using art to overcome trauma in northern Ethiopia

April 25, 2023

1 min read

After two years of conflict concentrated primarily in northern Ethiopia, most students were traumatized and many were reluctant to return to their classrooms. The USAID READ II Education Recovery Activity stepped in with psychological first aid and social-emotional learning interventions.

The program worked with schools to use art and other techniques to support students. The objective is to engage students in creative exercises to reflect on their experiences during the conflict and envision a better future, build their self-esteem and express dreams and desires for their futures and hopes.

Ongoing monitoring of the students have found that the artwork and other interventions are supporting efforts to help them to overcome the traumatic experiences.

USAID’s READ II Education Recovery Activity has transformed education into a life-sustaining activity that reached more than 500,000 students in 1,100+ schools. Its work continues today.