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Country: West Africa

West Africa is a region which represent several countries.

Healing community trauma to promote peacebuilding in Northern Ghana

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Posted November 17, 2023 .
6 min read.

On April 13, 2022, unidentified gunmen attacked the Zakoli community, a Fulbe settlement near the town of Yendi in northern Ghana. The Fulbe are a largely pastoralist ethnic group that is spread across multiple West African countries. Their permanent settlement in Ghana is more recent, and relations between Fulbe and non-Fulbe have often been marked by tension and conflict.  

The Yendi attack was surmised to be a reprisal attack for the killing of a non-Fulbe teacher by suspected Fulbe bandits. The violence profoundly impacted the community, including 29-year-old Memuna Belko, who lost three of her brothers among the eight men killed.  

Having recently lost her husband in a motor accident, the tragedy compounded Memuna’s grief. Overwhelmed by anguish, she even contemplated suicide.  

In parts of northern Ghana, this conflict between Fulbe and non-Fulbe groups poses a threat to social cohesion and community development and enables exploitation by violent extremist organizations. According to local context tracking by the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives’ (OTI) Littorals Regional Initiative (LRI) and anecdotal evidence gathered since 2021, violent attacks on Fulbe communities have increased in intensity and frequency in northern Ghana.  

The violence has been met with a handful of arrests and little to no justice for victims. The Fulani Youth Association of Ghana (FUYAG) notes that these incidents, based on long-held stereotyping of the Fulbe as criminals, have pushed many Fulbe to the periphery of towns and villages or caused them to flee to neighboring countries, including Burkina Faso, a country currently under threat from violent extremist organizations.  

The violence and upheaval that punctuates these conflicts may be easier to spot, but what is often left unaddressed is the less-obvious damage to the population caused by emotional and psychological trauma — such as in Memuna’s experience. 

Working with communities to address trauma  

From March to August 2023, OTI partnered with the Center for Social and Development Reform (CSD Reform), a local Ghanaian NGO, to start addressing the psychological effects of the violence by conducting trauma healing training in Karaga, Gushegu, and Yendi — three districts in the Eastern Corridor of the Northern Region with high incidents of clashes between Fulbe and non-Fulbe. 

In collaboration with the Council of Fulani Chiefs and two Fulbe organizations — the Ghana Chapter of Tabital Pulaaku and the Fulani Youth Association of Ghana — CSD Reform organized a training of trainers on the Rising from Resilient Roots1 trauma healing tool for 30 selected Fulbe and non-Fulbe youth. CSD Reform then supported these trainers to facilitate trauma healing sessions for 720 residents in the target communities and organized six dialogue sessions between Fulbe communities and traditional and local government authorities. 

Trauma healing gives a sense of hope and agency 

The trauma healing exercise led by CSD has been life changing for Memuna Belko. Tears flowed as she narrated her story as part of the session and drew her tree of life, a visual depiction that signified her past, present and future represented by the roots, trunk, leaves and fruits.  

“The tree of life showed me that despite what I have been through, I still have so much to live for. I have my life, children, friends and my community who love and support me. Suicide is no longer an option,” she said after the session.  

Inspired by the transformative power of their individual trees of life, Belko and the other 29 members of her group (both Fulbe and non-Fulbe) decided to merge their creations, forming a collective forest of life, a symbolic gesture representing their shared journey toward healing and growth. Later, during community dialogues, the women discussed how to nurture this forest by deepening inter-ethnic peace and collaboration. 

Trauma healing participants initiate trust-building efforts  

After CSD Reform led the trauma healing exercises, participants started working together to apply what they learned and build trust and confidence in their abilities to address local conflicts. For example, in May 2023, a Fulbe male leader and female leader in Bagurugu town in the Karaga District jointly organized a meeting for 30 herders and 20 Fulbe women in the community to educate them on best practices to avoid farm destruction by their cattle. 

According to the Fulbe woman leader, “The training helped to ease my pain from the past conflict. I also reflected on the loss of property, which cannot be replaced. I want to make sure we can prevent these kinds of conflicts in the future to avoid further pain and loss.”  

In April 2023, following a series of farm destruction incidents by Fulbe cattle, a non-Fulbe youth leader in Bagurugu town in the Karaga District averted a planned attack on the Fulbe community.  

A farmer was upset following a series of farm destruction cases by cattle he believed belonged to a Fulbe. The non-Fulbe youth leader, who happens to be a member of an interim mixed mediation committee formed after the “Rising from Resilient Roots” training, became aware of the farmer’s frustration and employed due processes learned during the training to calm the farmer down. The youth leader also liaised with Fulbe representatives in the committee to identify the owner of the cattle and resolve the issue amicably. 

The cattle owner took responsibility for the farm destruction, apologized, and was prepared to pay the compensation, which the farmer graciously declined on the grounds that the herder admitted to the wrongdoing and earnestly apologized. 

According to the youth leader, “I have learned that peaceful co-existence between community members is a very important way to prevent the inflow of violent extremist groups into the community.” 

Additionally, in August 2023, Memuna and over 30 youth from the Dagomba, Fulbe, and Konkomba ethnic groups from the Zakoli community formed a multi-ethnic peacebuilding group to organize community dialogues to tackle conflicts peacefully.  

Restorative Circles: A trauma healing tool  

In a separate activity in Tamale and Wa in Ghana’s Northern and Upper West Regions, Dr. Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams, a professor and the Director of Peace and Justice Studies at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, trained 44 OTI partners and other interested civil society representatives to use a trauma healing tool called restorative circles.  

The tool teaches a method that encourages conflicting parties to sit in a circle and air their grievances through equal opportunity sharing and listening. After the training led by Dr. Williams, participants reported using restorative circles to improve community relationships and pass on the knowledge by training their peers on the trauma healing technique.  

Since May 2023, Hajia Mariam Alhassan Alolo, an Islamic instructor and founder of the Hajia Mariam Alolo Islamic Institute in Tamale, has taken what she learned and introduced the restorative circle methodology to her community. She took the initiative to organize five training sessions on it for 49 members of her school community.  

Damata, one of the participants, acknowledged the benefit of the sessions and said, “The training is healing. It has helped me bring out some issues that have burdened my heart for a long time, and it is refreshing to share this with other people who are going through similar pain.”  

Hajia Mariam’s ultimate goal is to introduce the methodology to the other instructors at her school and eventually integrate it into her curriculum. Additionally, two Queen Mothers — who play powerful leadership roles in their communities — and a female Fulbe leader successfully introduced the restorative circle methodology to 47 Queen Mothers in the Upper East Region. 

So far, former participants of the initial training have conducted restorative circle training for more than 300 of their peers across northern Ghana.  

Recognizing the transformative power of trauma healing practices, OTI remains committed to harnessing local capacity in this area and piloting innovative approaches to conflict resolution, healing, restoration and recovery.

Major Trade Hub Learning Event a success 

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Posted September 19, 2023 .
1 min read.

Co-investment partners, USAID, multilateral organizations and government officials learned about the USAID West Africa Trade & Investment Hub’s significant contributions to bolster economic growth, investment opportunities and employment during it hybrid Learning Event in Abuja, Nigeria, Sept. 6 & 7. 

More than 75 in-person attendees, and many more online, participated in the two-day “Leveraging Private Sector Engagement to Promote Sustainable Impact” that reflected on the progress and successes of the USAID-supported, five-year program. 

Through an innovative public-private partnership, the Trade Hub has provided co-investment grants to 93 companies and organizations in West Africa to focus on boosting exports, generating sustainable employment opportunities, addressing climate change, improving food security and more. 

For four years, the Trade Hub has generated more than 60,000 new jobs, generated $158 million in exports and attracted in excess of $319 million in private sector investment.

WACOT Rice Nigeria’s Team lead by Habiba Sulaiman the head of Strategic Partnerships at the Tropical General Investments (TGI) Group.
Affiong Williams, founder and CEO of Reel Fruit, the largest fruit processing, packaging, and marketing company in Nigeria, showcasing her products to the Acting Mission Director.
R-L : Alladjodjo Dieu-Donne, CEO Promo Fruits in Togo (Grantee); Shadi Saleh, CEO Caspian in Liberia (Grantee) and Issifou Dabo, Promo Fruit, discussing possible partnerships.

Democracy Day 2023: Local solutions to the rising tide of authoritarianism

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Posted September 18, 2023 .
5 min read.

Burkina Faso is a challenging country for civil society and citizens who are promoters of democracy, its ideals and the institutions that support its growth. Two successive coups have pushed the country from “partly free” to “not free” on Freedom House’s list of “Freedom in the World 2023.”  

Indeed, USAID cautions that “modest development gains in Burkina Faso are threatened by political instability, violent extremism, internal displacement and the impacts of climate change.” The agency lists the country as one of the poorest in the world, with high rates of illiteracy and malnutrition. 

Karl Jean Louis, Chief of Party of the USAID-supported Inclusive Governance for Resilience, which is implemented by Creative and local partners, says, “Burkina Faso is a complex situation where democratic norms, values and institutions are under attack through organized campaigns.” 

“The perception of democracy in Burkina Faso is that it is linked with Western values, and in those Western countries people may more easily see the benefits of the democratic process,” Jean Louis says. “Unfortunately, in Burkina Faso there are too few concrete results of democracy that people can see. The current government in Burkina is very popular, even while it continues to shrink citizens’ freedom of expression and monitors CSOs, especially those organizations that are promoting democracy.” 

Burkina Faso is not unique. “More than one-third of the world’s population live under authoritarian rule,” the Economist Intelligence Unit’s most recent report said, which listed Burkina Faso as “authoritarian.” Slightly more than 43 percent of the countries analyzed have “democracies.”  

Promoting and strengthening democratic ideals and institutions among citizens, as well as the non-governmental guardrails like civil society organizations. 

A colleague of ACPE NGO, which is supported by Creative/USAID, performs local dance with villagers during a field visit in Kita, Mali on June 13, 2023.

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres’ 2023 Democracy Day message said, “the walls are closing in on civic spaces. Mis- and disinformation are poisoning public discourse, polarizing communities and eroding trust in institutions.” 

Addressing these challenges, as well as building trust among communities, being inclusive and strengthening institutions to become responsive to residents’ needs, require nuanced and contextually appropriate approaches to complex local situations, says Susan Kemp, Creative’s Governance Practice Area Director. 

“Creative uses a people-centered governance approach, convening citizens, civil society groups, the private sector and government officials to engage in dialogue and build trust; facilitating spaces for communities — including underrepresented populations — to voice their needs, perspectives and priorities; and supporting actors across the governance system to partner in addressing citizen needs to strengthen responsive governance,” Kemp says.  

“This requires staying attuned to contextual shifts and strengthening the capacity of actors to gather and use data and engage with one another to facilitate meaningful participation, inclusion, transparency and accountability.” 

In Burkina Faso, Louis says the USAID-supported Inclusive Governance for Resilience project is working with more than 10 community-based organizations and plans to double that number in the coming months to advocate for community needs and counter threats to their democracy.  

“Working with local CSOs, we are carefully crafting training activities and community radio civic education programs to reinforce the norms and values of democracy,” he says. “These programs will also help us to capture the public’s perception about democracy and democratic institutions.” 

Louis is aware of the local situation and actors — and ensuring that government officials are involved in the process, too. “To avoid problems, we are carefully crafting our messages and ensuring that local authorities also play a role in all our efforts,” he says. 

In addition to Burkina Faso, Creative’s teams are working with diverse local partners in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ethiopia, Syria and elsewhere to strengthen institutions, services and civil society. Led primarily by local staff and organizations, their efforts are focused on shifting behaviors and norms, combat mis- and disinformation and promote inclusion and meaningful participation in countries’ governance processes. (Please see our question-and-answer story with the Honduras Sembrando Esperanza team.) 

Burkina Faso is a challenging country for civil society and citizens who are promoters of democracy, its ideals and the institutions that support its growth. Two successive coups have pushed the country from “partly free” to “not free” on Freedom House’s list of “Freedom in the World 2023.”   Indeed, USAID cautions that “modest development gains…

While not all programs are developed specifically to address governance or democracy per se, many projects have components and activities that strengthen those ideals and institutions given the importance of governance for peace, stability, and violence prevention.  

In West Africa, the five-country USAID Reacting to Early Warning and Response Data in West Africa, better known as REWARD II, has prioritized a return to democracy during the past five years as part of the solution to the rising tide of violent extremism, disenfranchisement, poor government services and disinformation.  

REWARD II’s Chief of Party, Alimou Diallo, says the team focused on challenges related to peace, security and democratic process in Benin, Togo, Guinea, Mali and Niger. It issued more than 200 locally driven and implemented grants to support the priorities of each community — including educating and registering internally displaced persons to participate in Mali’s elections and including youth in local decision making in Benin. 

A meeting organized by NAGARI NGO with the city council and community members, supported by CREATIVE/USAID at the town hall of Zinder, Niger on June 7, 2023.

“The design stage focused on working with the stakeholders in country to identify their priorities,” says Diallo. “So that consultation was able to identify the basic needs and priorities in terms of peace, security and development. And the project implementation process was also designed to make sure that it fits into existing processes and the countries’ institutional infrastructures. Where they are weak, we strengthen them and [support their development] where these do not exist.” 

Diallo says the approach from the initial phase was key to the program’s successful results. Working with USAID in West Africa, REWARD II sought local civil society organizations instead of larger national or international groups as implementing partners. “That turned out to be very positive because they understood the context and they knew the issues and they were able to navigate around all the challenges and implement successful programming,” Diallo says. (Learn more about REWARD II in this short documentary.) 

When the world celebrated Democracy Day 2023 in September, its theme was “Empowering the Next Generation,” which was one of the core principles during REWARD II’s five years of locally focused program programming. In Benin, one NGO worked to better engage youth in civic affairs. 

“Youth always think that the authorities need to do everything for them,” says Christian Houegnanfode, youth leader in the community of Ifangni, Benin. “One of our objectives is to tackle the problem of youth reluctance to involve themselves in the management of the community’s wellbeing. Today, thanks to the project, we’ve noticed that some of the youth do want to learn and get involved.” 

Houegnanfode says local NGO-led training focused on elections and youth were a significant step forward. “Elections are always a big moment during which things can take a turn,” he says. Through these trainings, “we were able to notice a positive change in the attitude of the people with regards to the elections. We also noticed some positive impacts amidst the community.”

Four lessons from 20 years of literacy work

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Posted September 5, 2023 .
4 min read.

My literacy journey began 20 years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Niger. It was there that I saw the dynamics of literacy up close and how a few key elements can make all the difference for young learners. In the decades since, I’ve seen these fundamentals of literacy hold true and play out in the countries where I have worked. 

  1. Language and literacy are intricately intertwined

The village where I lived on the edge of the Sahara was mostly Hausa-speaking. Hausa was used in the market, on the radio and tv, and for most business. However, French is the national language in Niger and the language of instruction.  

One day, some of my neighbor kids recited a beautiful poem in French that they had learned at school. When I asked them what it meant, each one of them proceeded to shrug their shoulders and say they had no idea.  

I have always loved languages and recognized the power of language, but it was not until that moment that I realized the critical role that language plays in literacy; because how can a child understand a text in a language they do not speak? 

  1. Reading comprehension requires decoding and language comprehension

To read with comprehension, one must both understand the language being read AND be able to interpret the symbols on the page into the sounds they make, otherwise known as decoding. Both skills are required, and one alone is not sufficient.  

Imagine for example a child who has a large vocabulary in Spanish and then is handed a book in Spanish. If he has never learned to decode the words on the page, even though his understanding of Spanish is perfect, his reading comprehension will be null.  

Now imagine a child who already knows how to read in their home language of Mam. When this child is presented with a text in Spanish, even though they already know how to decode in Mam, since they do not understand Spanish, their reading comprehension will be zero. Children must develop both decoding and language comprehension to become skilled readers.   

  1. Literacy is in fact rocket science

Okay, maybe not literally rocket science, but so often we hear that literacy is not really all that complicated when in fact this could not be farther from the truth. Although language ability comes naturally to humans, and babies learn speech through listening and observing those around them, the same is not true for literacy.  

You cannot just surround a child with books or read to a child and expect them to learn to read. Literacy is a science — and although we are still learning more every day about how learning to read happens in the brain and the most effective strategies to support reading development, we know so much more now about the science of reading and how to facilitate reading with comprehension.  

  1. Literacy does not happen in a vacuum

In an ideal world, children are spoken to with rich language from the time they are in the womb, interesting reading materials in a language they understand abound in their homes and communities, they are read to frequently by siblings and parents, attend schools with full bellies, have teachers who are trained to teach reading, and experience school in a safe setting where they are protected and able to just be children.  

After 20 years of working in international development, I know that most children must try to learn to read in the midst of circumstances far from this ideal.  

Literacy interventions must help teachers follow the science of reading but at the same time they will be much more effective if they also ensure students have access to books, collaborate with school feeding programs to make sure students are well nourished, and work with parents to understand how they can support reading at home from the very earliest days. 

Putting literacy to work 

Supporting children to learn to read in languages they speak and understand is core to our model, and we are putting it in practice in places like Ethiopia, Nigeria and Somalia.  

We provide reading materials in the languages children speak, train teachers in the science of reading, and bundle our reading programs with other complementary activities such as psycho-social support for children who have experienced trauma, as is the case in many of the crisis-affected areas where Creative works.  

We also work to strengthen education systems in every country where we operate as this is the only way that reading improvements will be sustained over time. 

Although much has been done, there are still millions of children attending school and attempting to learn to read in languages they do not speak and without books to support them, and there are teachers who have never been trained on how the science of reading can be implemented in a classroom.  

I am reconfirming my commitment to ensuring that, 20 years from now, I will see a world where children are given the opportunity they need to learn to read by the very education systems that were meant to support them. 

Rebecca Stone is the Director of Creative’s Education Technical Unit.

Bridging the gap from direct implementation to technical assistance 

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Posted August 30, 2023 .
By Cory Heyman .
3 min read.

Everyone rose when the Honorable Executive Governor entered the receiving hall. He and an entourage of officials moved swiftly through the room with press cameras trailing behind to welcome our delegation back to Sokoto.  

As the Governor shook hands with Leland Kruvant, Creative’s President and CEO, the Governor recalled a previous visit some years ago and expressed his gratitude for Creative’s ongoing work in the state. 

I was heartened that, within a compressed day of meetings, the Governor pledged to release funding for early grade teaching and learning materials and his Highness, the Waziri of Sokoto, pledged full support for early grade reading on behalf of his Excellency, the Sultan. Council members of the Nigerian Califate also pledged to reinforce messages about the importance of financial investments in early grade reading to their communities.  

These are important indicators of local commitment that make our LEARN to Read (LEARN) project’s technical assistance approach possible. 

A decade of progress in Nigeria  

The path from direct implementation to technical assistance requires long-term investment. 

Creative previously implemented USAID’s Northern Education Initiative and NEI Plus projects in Sokoto and Bauchi states that were touted as enormous successes. The projects provided teaching and learning materials, teacher training, and monitoring and assistance of school support officers. 

The uptake of new student-centered, structured lessons was high, and early grade reading assessments showed substantial improvement in student reading achievement before COVID. The formula for reading instruction in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and English was working — reliably replicable with larger numbers of teachers and schools. 

It made sense to shift the next project, LEARN, toward technical assistance. LEARN would help the Ministry of Education and receptive state ministries adopt the historically successful approach. 

Photo by Randy Haniel

Passing the torch from direct implementation to technical assistance  

This change has yielded important results. LEARN has helped the national government to adopt a National Reading Framework as well as central guidance for assessing and monitoring student reading performance. These are no easy tasks in a country with a strong federalist system in which most educational policies are determined at the state and local levels.   

LEARN has also helped individual states build effective reading strategies into their own curricular guidance. In addition to Bauchi and Sokoto, seven new states have expressed interest in the approach and receiving on-demand support from the LEARN project.  

Despite hurdles — like the pandemic creating an extended gap in programming and national elections diverting attention away from education — LEARN has supported local stakeholders to take ownership of this important literacy work.  

This requires advocacy about the importance of early grade reading with new education officials, many of whom were just elected a few months ago, as well as guidance about how to shore up state-approved curriculum and teacher training to help children learn to read. 

Challenges to moving towards technical assistance  

Graduating to a technical assistance model is a great achievement and a sign of programs that have done well. However, challenges are a part of the process. 

In Nigeria, for example, states have struggled to provide new textbooks and maintain professional development continuity for teachers and school support officers. USAID and LEARN are continuing their longstanding relationship with governments to navigate these growing pains. 

At the same time, it is individual state victories — such as financial commitments from new Governors, public pronouncements from traditional and religious leaders, and genuine progress in student reading outcomes — that build momentum for more states and local governments to follow similar paths for millions more children to learn to read.

Creative one of eight implementers awarded peacebuilding IDIQ

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Posted June 13, 2023 .
By Ashley Williams .
2 min read.

Creative Associates International is one of eight implementers awarded a five-year, $800 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to improve peacebuilding and violence-prevention efforts in fragile, conflict or violence-affected countries.  

“Creative has a long history of implementing peacebuilding projects in some of the most challenging environments,” says President & CEO Leland Kruvant. “We look forward to bringing our conflict and post-conflict expertise to the table to continue supporting USAID’s peace and stabilization work around the world.” 

Conflict, political crises, democratic backsliding and violent extremism are among the many complex challenges that are barriers to peace. By placing communities at the center of peacebuilding efforts, Creative focuses on building local leadership, elevating diverse voices, establishing trust among residents and channeling resources as communities address underlying causes of conflict and pursue positive change. 

“Peacebuilding and violence prevention are critical to achieving stable, resilient communities and regions where people can live safe, full lives,” says Sharon Van Pelt, Vice President of Creative’s Communities in Transition Division. “Centering communities and local leadership in the peacebuilding process is integral to our approach.” 

USAID is eager to use the Programming for Prevention and Peacebuilding mechanism in support of the Global Fragility Act to re-imagine how to develop and carryout peacebuilding initiatives in five key locations — Haiti, Mozambique, Libya, Papua New Guinea and Coastal West Africa — and then take those experiences to other at-risk and conflict areas.  

“An emphasis in these regions, using systems and evidence-based approaches, has the potential to put U.S. resources to work in a more strategic way and to address the root causes of violence and instability,” says Mystelle Ruble, Creative’s Transitions Practice Area Director. “This is an exciting opportunity for implementers and USAID to build the knowledge base on what works well and how we can apply it elsewhere.”   

The Programming for Prevention and Peacebuilding IDIQ was awarded through the Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention at USAID’s Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization. The IDIQ has a ceiling of $800 million during five years. Each one of the IDIQ holders compete for task orders issued by USAID. 

Learn more about Creative’s extensive peacebuilding work here.

Creative’s videos earn six prestigious awards in global competition

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Posted 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.

Nigeria launches National Reading Framework for early grade reading

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Posted June 5, 2023 .
By Emmanuel Uko .
3 min read.

On May 25, 2023, the Nigerian Ministry of Education celebrated the launch of a National Reading Framework to improve early grade reading outcomes with an event in Abuja.  

The framework is the culmination of years of collaboration between the Ministry and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council — under the Federal Ministry of Education — began working on the National Reading Framework with the USAID-funded Northern Education Initiative Plus (2015-2020) and finished it with the support of the USAID-LEARN to Read program. 

The framework links Nigeria with the Global Proficiency Framework for Reading towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4. It also ensures that Nigerian pupils are assessed using the same standards as their counterparts from around the world. It addresses governments at all levels, head teachers, teachers, parents, and the community. 

The National Evaluation Framework for Reading is at the core of the overall framework. It outlines the reading skills that must be included in any reading curricula, textbooks and other reading materials for Nigerian pupils. The evaluation framework was developed by classroom teachers, curriculum experts, measurement and evaluation specialist and language experts from 10 language groups across the country. 

The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, addressed attendees at the event and emphasized the importance of the framework for the Nigerian education system.  

Nigeria’s Minister for Education Mallam Adamu Adamu (left) and LEARN to Read’s Chief of Party, Dr Nurudeen Lawal (right), with dignitaries proudly display copies of the National Reading Framework during the launch.

“Through this framework, Nigeria now has a basis for equivalent scores on different reading assessments. The reading performance of the Nigerian child can now be assessed and compared over time, while improvements are being monitored,” he said. 

Expressing his contentment at the event, the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Professor Ismail Junaidu, said, “[The framework] ensures pupils across Nigeria develop reading skills based on the same standards. We are happy to have worked with development partners including USAID-LEARN to Read to achieve this milestone.” 

The USAID-LEARN to Read project is working to strengthen, scale and sustain improvements and evidence-based practices in early grade reading outcomes for about 3.5 million Primary 1 to Primary 2 pupils in Nigeria.  

In his speech, the Chief of Party for the USAID-LEARN to Read project, Nurudeen Lawal congratulated the Federal Ministry of Education and NERDC for the achievement. He reiterated USAID’s commitment to partner with the Nigerian government through the USAID-LEARN to Read project and to improve reading outcomes for all Nigerian children.  

Lawal called on governments at different levels to consider revising the curricula for early-grade reading in all languages of instruction; allocate adequate time on school timetables for teaching of reading every week, and ensure pupils spend more time reading independently. He identified the need to develop, print, disseminate and ensure access to high-quality reading materials; train teachers on evidence-based instructional practices on reading; and establish grade-specific performance standards for language of instruction. 

The Minister of Education was joined at the event by other key stakeholders in the education sector, including the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejoh; the Executive Secretary for NERDC, Prof Ismail Junaidu; Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi; the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Arch. Sonny Echono; Registrar of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Professor Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye; representatives from the National Universities Commission, the National Council for Colleges of Education, and other development partners. 

Creative Associates International, who implements the USAID-LEARN to Read project, has implemented education programs in Nigeria for a decade, including Northern Education Initiative (2009-2014), Education Crisis Response Program (2014-2018), and Northern Education Initiative Plus (2015-2020).