Global Goals: How 17 goals can make the world better for 7 billion

September 29, 2015

2 min read

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Global Goals:

How 17 goals can make the world better for 7 billion

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]With the United Nations’ adoption of the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development, world leaders and citizens seek to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and justice and fix climate change. How do we get there? Can we reach the most vulnerable? And what does this mean for women and girls? Our experts look back on past progress and forward to the next 15 years.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]

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GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS-WHAT DID WE GET RIGHT & WHERE DO WE GO?

As world leaders gear up for the next generation of development milestones—the Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs)—Creative’s experts weigh in on successes, missteps and critical ingredients to ramp up growth and prosperity for the world’s 7.3 billion residents.

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THE BIG PLEDGE: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS FOR ALL

The 17 Global Goals, 169 indicators and 15,000 words in the accompanying agenda, can all be boiled down into one word—“inclusive.” Sean Carroll explores why reaching the furthest behind first and truly including “all” is so critical.

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WHAT THE SDGS PROMISE FOR EMPOWERING WOMEN AND GIRLS

The last 15 years saw missed opportunities to advance gender equality. Rekha Mehra, Rachel Clement and David Newstead take a look at where the SDGs are trying to do more.

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WE NEED TO KEEP CHILDREN IN SCHOOL AND LEARNING

A global focus on reading has had major impacts on education. But reading isn’t everything. Jerrold Keilson calls on the global community to push for quality and completion.

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LEARNING IS THE FIRST CASUALTY OF VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN

The scale of violence against children– particularly girls– is unfathomable. Cris Revaz explains why the most critical education goal is making schools places where they can be safe.

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Successful Saudi Arabian Women: A Welcome Message

September 29, 2015

3 min read

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Successful Saudi Arabian Women:

Their Gems Of Wisdom

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ABOUT THE PUBLICATION

In this one–of-a-kind series of intimate first-person stories about successful Saudi Arabian professional women, readers can peek behind the veil to view a snapshot of what it took for them to get to where they are.

This is unprecedented. Internet searches about these women yield information about the awards they have won but not about how they feel about their successes or what it took to achieve them.

Through their stories the women paint portraits in soft hues that delicately shine a light on Saudi society and their role in it. The women featured are doctors, lawyers, inventors, advocates, wives, and mothers—and more, who in their respective capacities have made major contributors to their professions and to society.

Their professional accomplishments and proficiency in multitasking suggest that the potential of women is far greater than has been realized. However, this is contrasted with the reality of the boundaries imposed on them as first generation professional women in a traditional society. For now, such women are on a proving ground; they must demonstrate that they can accomplish great things professionally while also holding fast to the values and expectations of societies, and while performing the traditional duties of a Muslim woman.

The proof that their experience and performance is providing is gradually and steadily laying the foundation for expanded possibilities for women in the future.

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Welcome Message

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Education is one of the key foundations for greatness. History shows that those who are educated dream bigger dreams and increase their chances of making their dreams come true with the tools and knowledge they acquire through education.

History is also a witness to the many contributions that educated women have made to the greatness of their societies and to the happiness and well-being of their immediate families and broader communities.

In the complex world in which we are living in the 21st century, no one knows the answers about what’s going to happen tomorrow or how to create the change and progress that we desire as human beings, but we do know one thing for sure: Knowledge is power; the more we know the better off we will be in navigating the future.

We also know that among the prosperous nations in the world, Saudi Arabia has demonstrated its embrace of education in the most profound and meaningful way. It has made enormous investments in educating her people and many Saudi women have been among the beneficiaries of this vison, commitment, and investment. The stories of the women in this book prove that the investment in education is paying off. These women are not just educated for education’s sake; they are using their education in ways that are lifting the society up higher and higher.

The importance of education and its transformative potential is not news to Creative. For the past 40 years Creative has been at the forefront of training education professionals and helping nations develop education curricula. At the same time, we have helped ensure that women around the world take advantage of the opportunity to become educated and to leverage their education for the good of the societies in which they live.

We are very pleased to have had this opportunity to come to know some of Saudi Arabia’s leading professional women and to share information about their accomplishments with our readers. There has been too much distance between these women and many of their sisters around the world and we hope that this book brings all of us closer together. After all, we are all human and want the same things for our children, families, and countries. We want to be happy and fulfilled and we believe that women who are educated have a chance to apply their education in ways that make everybody better off, including themselves.

I hope that you enjoy learning more about the powerful impact education has had in these successful women’s lives.

Peace,

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15 years later, where are we on gender equality?

August 31, 2015

3 min read

Drafted in the year 2000, Millennium Development Goal 3 reads as follows:

Promote gender equality and empower women. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.

My first introduction to Goal 3 of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals was as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa. Working in the Girls’ Education and Empowerment program in 2007, other volunteers and I could literally see the stark disparities between boys and girls in classroom settings.

Until that experience, gender ratios often came across as impersonal statistics to me and I suspect I’m not alone. The numbers were abstract and their major social significance was lost on me.

In rural Togo, that quickly changed, because the numbers no longer referred to just some graph in a report. These were actual students I knew and interacted with on a regular basis. They were my helpful neighbor or the eager football player I walked by every morning. Moreover, each student was part of one of the extended families that constituted nearly everyone in the entire community from the woman selling me street food to the village chief, making it hard to miss the critical human factors at play.

Unfortunately though, the challenges were just as visible.

In 2007—seven years into the 15-year push of the Millennium Development Goals—large numbers of young girls entered primary school each year, but only a fraction of those made it through middle school. A still smaller percentage attended high school and beyond, which severely limited the potential of those being left behind both educationally and economically.

Factors like pervasive poverty and teen pregnancy contributed to dropout rates that chipped away at the number of girls getting an education. In primary schools, they easily made up half of the student body or more! But in high schools, you could sometimes count the number of female students on one hand.

Not surprisingly, this same scenario was being replicated across the region and many parts of the world.

Because of that, I think Goal 3 represented a guidepost for forward progress in admittedly difficult circumstances. It was something everyone could work toward. In the field, having that goal, however broad, was vital, because it elevated the significance of gender equality. Goal 3 underlined the fact that the development of half the population is a serious consideration, not a side issue.

In September 2015, the eight Millennium Development Goals are set to expire and a new set of Sustainable Development Goals are set to replace them.

According to the United Nations, during the past 15 years developing countries as a whole have reached their targets for eliminating gender disparities in education with noted successes throughout Asia and North Africa. Women’s participation in the workforce has increased and the proportion of women in parliaments has almost doubled.

After fifteen years, it’s important to recognize those achievements, understanding that that work is the foundation for future practitioners to build on.

And while there are obviously still persistent problems around the world, the cause of gender equality has gained momentum in recent years.

Consider that Malala Yousafzai was only three years old when the Millennium Development Goals were drafted in 2000. Today, she is a leading voice for girls’ education, reaching people in ways that the MDGs never could.

Fifteen years from now, another generation of leaders and advocates might be ready to join her. Because of that, perhaps the transition to the Sustainable Development Goals is an opportunity for governments and the private sector to renew that commitment to equality: to identify disparities at the secondary and tertiary levels of education and to address them proactively.

Personally, I’m already hopeful. When First Lady Michelle Obama recently launched her Let Girls Learn initiative, Togo was among the first to be included.

David Newstead works at Creative Associates International and often writes about gender issues. To read more from David, follow his blog at https://philosophyofshaving.wordpress.com

D.C. summit to explore school dropout in U.S. & elsewhere

August 26, 2015

2 min read

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D.C. summit to explore school dropout in U.S. & elsewhere

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Washington, D.C. – Approximately 200 education experts and government officials will gather for a two-day summit here to explore drivers of school dropout and strategies used in the United States and other countries, the U.S. Agency for International Development (www.usaid.gov) and Creative Associates International announced. (www.CreativeAssociatesInternational.com)

The “School Dropout Prevention Summit: Understanding the Causes, Sharing the Solutions” will be held at the Washington (D.C.) Hilton on Sept. 9 and 10. Registration is open to education professionals—as well as the media—at no cost. Space is limited on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The Sept. 9 and 10 Summit, which will examine factors that affect dropout in developing and developed countries, has the following scheduled sessions:

Overview of Strategies to Address Dropout
Early Warning Systems: A Foundation for Action
Crime and Dropout Prevention Strategies
Dropout Prevention in Conflict Settings, for Girls, and Youth Livelihoods
Did It Work? School Dropout Prevention Pilot Research Findings on Dropout Intervention Impacts
An interview-style session called “Tackling Dropout: Ministries of Education Reflect” will be held at the end of the two-day session.

To visit the School Dropout Prevention Lab, click here.

Results from 4-country School Dropout Prevention Pilot Program

With support from USAID, Creative led a consortium of partners working on a five-year, four-country applied research project called the “School Dropout Prevention Pilot Program,” which explored the drivers of dropout and then engaged government ministries, educators, communities, parents and students in sustainable solutions. The target countries in the program are Cambodia, India, Tajikistan and Timor-Leste.

Findings from the pilot will be shared by the country teams and Ministries of Education during the conference, along with other program strategies and research. The pilot was carried out by CARE International, Kampuchean Action for Primary Education, QUEST Alliance and Creative.

In addition to representatives from the four countries in the pilot, delegates from Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania, Bangladesh and elsewhere will attend.

“There is not a single, simple solution to preventing dropout,” says Charito Kruvant, Creative’s CEO. “Different approaches to address dropout have been tried, with varying degrees of success. This is an opportunity to review and discuss these efforts and what countries are planning in order to ensure that children successfully complete their education.”

About USAID & Creative Associates International

The U.S. Agency for International Development is the lead U.S. government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential. (www.usaid.gov)

Creative Associates International works with underserved communities by sharing expertise and experience in education, economic growth, governance and transitions from conflict to peace. (www.CreativeAssociatesInternational.com)

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What’s fundamental to achieving SDGs? Preventing school dropout

July 17, 2015

4 min read

The Third International Conference on Financing for Development has concluded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with hopeful aspirations for financing the ambitious UN Sustainable Development Goals related to education, including $400 billion in commitments from the multilateral and regional development banks during the next three years.

As stakeholders sort out their priorities for the post-2015 development agenda, it is critical that policies, programs and significant resources focus on preventing school dropout. Doing so will reinforce the anticipated goal of ensuring all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education by 2030.

What’s at stake

While completion of primary school is up overall, UNESCO projects that by the end of 2015, only one in six children in low and middle income countries – almost 100 million kids – will drop out before completing their primary education. The projection is even more staggering for low income countries, where more than one in three children are expected to drop out.

The worldwide rate of fifth grade completion for 2015 is approximately 75 percent. In South and West Asia, the projection falls to 64 percent and, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 58 percent.

In 2015, only 13 out of 106 countries will see 97 percent of their youth population finish school.

The gender component

It may come as a surprise that boys, overall, are more likely to leave school early. Boys tend to drop out of school at a rate of 26 percent as compared with 20 percent of girls. Once enrolled, girls stand an equal or better chance than boys of continuing to the upper grades of primary school.

Extreme poverty can affect attainment, however, with the poorest girls still facing a severe disadvantage over the poorest boys in entering and completing primary education. Similarly, at the lower secondary level, girls’ attainment remains a significant concern in poorer countries.

However, in richer countries, it is boys who are more likely to dropout in lower secondary, and that trend is even more evident in upper secondary. In fact, girls’ graduation rates from upper secondary school exceed those of boys in all OECD countries except Germany.

School dropout factors

There are numerous factors that play a role in whether kids stay in school or not, many of which also pose a problem for initial enrollment: poverty; school affordability; quality or relevance of education; unsafe or insecure school environments; etc.

Poor children are the most vulnerable, leaving school to take up paid employment, pulled into household chores or, in the case of girls, teen pregnancy or pressure for early marriage. The causes vary from country to country, and within countries and regions.

A range of interventions aimed at expanding access and improving quality have helped to reduce dropout. Accessibility initiatives include offering girls’ scholarships, cash transfers, school fee abolition; school uniforms; school feeding programs and creating safer school environments. In terms of improving quality, there are initiatives to improve teacher training and support, provide relevant and modern learning materials and integrate technology and gender-sensitive practices

Yet, school dropout remains a persistent concern.

The new Sustainable Development Goals call for a greater focus on reaching the most marginalized groups: the poorest, the disabled, ethnic minorities and children in conflict countries. These marginalized groups are the most vulnerable to school dropout and in order to realize the goal of greater educational equity, we have to confront the issue of school dropout.

To do this, the international development community must pay attention to approaches that have been proven to have an impact and can be taken to scale.

SDPP: A proven approach to mitigating school dropout

Successful solutions must be tailored to each country with a thorough understanding of the factors that a fueling dropout.

Creative Associates International has undertaken a particularly successful approach to preventing school dropout that illustrates a customizable solution that can be widely replicated.

The U.S. Agency for International Development funded School Dropout Prevention Pilot was implemented by Creative in Cambodia, India, Tajikistan and Timor-Leste.

Creative’s experts closely scrutinized the factors of dropout, identifying the most severely affected groups, grades and/or geographic areas, and analyzed the relevant risk factors before designing, implementing and evaluating interventions to keep at-risk kids in school.

A central feature of Creative’s School Dropout Prevention Pilot is an Early Warning System that uses readily-accessible school data to identify students at risk of dropping out, and support teachers, families and communities to address their needs. The pilot program also incorporates a second intervention, including for some countries student-centered, hands-on after-school programs, tutoring, computer labs, in-school recreation, personal development curricula and social support programs.

“One reason the program is so effective in reducing student dropouts is because it is a community-wide effort,” writes U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia William E. Todd. “The SDPP Program works directly with students, teachers, and community groups to help children stay in school and work towards a better future.”

It is precisely this sort of tailored approach that can be instrumental in keeping kids in school and ensuring that they are equipped for success in tertiary education and meaningful employment.

Preventing school dropout is fundamental to the success of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Cris Revaz serves as Senior Education Counsel, with expertise in global education advocacy.

Remedying the underrepresentation of women in Burmese elections

July 14, 2015

5 min read

Burmese democracy has evolved rapidly since 2012, and in Aung San Suu Kyi—widely known as “The Lady”—it has a famously female face. Despite this, there are few established affirmative mechanisms for women to participate in political life, and this won’t change in the upcoming elections.

Burma’s bicameral union legislature has the lowest proportion of female representation of any country in Southeast Asia. Affirmative action on gender inequality is not enshrined in the law and women’s representation is low on the reform agenda.

There is no lack of challenges facing Burma’s upcoming elections. The reserved seats for the military, potential disenfranchisement of the Rohingya minority and legal impediments to Aung San Suu Kyi’s presidential candidacy are only some of the reasons these elections are likely to remain fundamentally undemocratic.

It is nonetheless necessary to not lose sight of the vital need for improved women’s representation as part of any reform package intended to further develop democracy in Burma.

Greater representation for the greater good

For elections to be democratic in more than a merely procedural sense, they must be truly representative of their population. Elections on November 8 are likely to mark a turning point in Burma’s history. They could mark a new era that sees a diminishing role for the military in governance, better relations with the outside world and a country embracing many of its minorities.

Yet the representation of half of its population is likely to remain as dismal after elections this year as it had been for most of Burma’s history. Increasing the number of female representatives would advance women’s rights and the rights of children. It would also advance a range of social issues.

In national legislatures throughout the world, there is a notable trend of women advancing gender and family-friendly legislation, substantiated by multiple studies. In neighboring India, for instance, greater women’s representation has corresponded with a more equitable distribution of community resources, including more gender-sensitive spending on programs related to health, nutrition and education.

Women sweeping Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. Photo by Tihana Bartulac Blanc.

Burma’s road to getting women elected

Burmese women have not always lagged behind regional and international trends. Burma was one of only three Asian countries to enact women’s suffrage before World War II, in 1929. The first woman was elected to Parliament the same year.

Ninety years and many electoral cycles later, the number of women in Burma’s parliament is just over 3 percent, among the lowest national levels of parliamentary representation of women globally. During the last decade, the rate of women’s representation in national parliaments around the world has incrementally increased from 15 percent to 20 percent, well below the 30 percent benchmark often identified as the necessary level of representation of women needed for legislative, policy and behavioral changes to occur, but well above the level in Burma.

One way to significantly improve the situation would be to reform the electoral system. Burma has traditionally used a “First Past the Post” system, which is won by the candidate receiving more votes than any others and is not favorable to women or the representation of other vulnerable groups.

This is primarily because when voting in smaller or single member constituencies, voters tend to opt for male candidates—in Burma as well as in most countries around the world.

A recent poll finds that if choosing between two candidates with the same qualifications, 48 percent of Burmese would opt for a man, with only 24 percent opting for a woman. Quota systems for women, which have resulted in a significantly increased number of female parliamentary representatives in such unlikely places as Afghanistan and Kosovo, generally require a Proportional Representation system and multiple-member constituencies.

In their 2013 study of women in Asian parliaments, Devin Joshi and Kara Kingma found that differences in electoral and party systems across Asia play a greater role in increasing women’s parliamentary representation than levels of female literacy, urbanization or per capita income. In particular, Asian parliaments with quotas and a higher number of major political parties had significantly more female members of parliaments. Burma has neither.

For the electoral system to change in Burma’s lower house, a Constitutional amendment as well as a referendum are required. For the upper house on the other hand, the parliament has approved the bill to change to the Proportional Representation list system, but it has not passed a Constitutional Review.

Whether this electoral system change is applied in November or not, it won’t make a difference for women’s representation unless combined with quotas or another affirmative measure.

Election quotas are the most effective tool, and political parties are the most important institution that can affect the political participation of women. All political parties need to develop their strategies, policies and party structures, which is likely to take time.

But parties can also introduce voluntary quotas. While this has not happened with either of the major parties, some parties have independently adopted policies to begin to address the problem. At least two parties—the National Union Party and the National Democratic Force —are trying to implement gender quotas as they decide who will contest parliamentary seats in the upcoming 2015 general election.

This is a significant first step, though all parties recognize that there is a large amount of progress that must occur before the November elections and beyond.

Combining electoral reforms with other efforts for real results

There are a number of ongoing efforts aimed at empowering women in Burma.

The U.S. government has been funding efforts to enhance women’s participation by increasing their inclusion in the voter registration process and their role in political parties. It also funds programs aimed at building the capacity of political parties in Burma. Several Burmese organizations such as the Women’s League of Burma have also been working on political empowerment programs for women.

Along with these and many other organizations, Creative has contributed by organizing study tours for Burmese stakeholders to countries that could serve as role models in democratic transition, including the 2014 study tour of Indonesia’s democratic institutions for a group of Burmese women.

Without those efforts, it would be hard to imagine progress, but it is quotas and a higher number of major political parties that will lead to an increase in female members of parliament and therefore greater representation of women in Burma.

Tihana Bartulac Blanc is a Senior Associate in Electoral Education and Integrity at Creative Associates International

Electoral violence research to boost security, deliver new tools

June 22, 2015

3 min read

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Electoral violence research to boost security, deliver new tools

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]WASHINGTON, DC—A groundbreaking new project on electoral violence will deliver innovative tools and research to support electoral management bodies and development practitioners in keeping elections secure, Creative Associates International announced.

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the three-year “Explaining and Mitigating Electoral Violence” project will delve deep into factors contributing to electoral violence and research best practices for preventing, managing and mediating it.

“As this will be an unprecedented global study of electoral violence, it will provide researcher and practitioners with insights into such violence which were not possible before, because of the limitations on available data,” says Jeff Fischer, Senior Electoral Advisor at Creative. “There have been other global studies of electoral violence, but none have been conducted with such a comprehensive scope and methodology.”

Fischer will lead Creative’s Elections project team. Creative is partnering with the University of Glasgow, the project leader, which is headed by electoral integrity expert Professor Sarah Birch.

In 2014, elections from Thailand to Bangladesh to Afghanistan were marred by violence. In Burundi, police and protesters clashed violently in April in the lead up to the country’s 2015 presidential elections.

At all phases of the electoral cycle—from campaigns to tallying votes—electoral violence can break out, threatening citizen security and tainting the integrity of a country’s democratic process.

The project team will develop an interactive web-based early warning tool that allows practitioners to identify the warning signs of electoral violence before it ignites.

Through the project website, practitioners will be able to access information, briefs and academic publications on best approaches to prevent and manage potential threats to electoral security.

World’s largest electoral violence database

The Explaining and Mitigating Electoral Violence project will support electoral management bodies, conflict resolution practitioners and donors, from the United Nations to the Organization of American States, by aggregating and analyzing data from elections globally in which violence occurred.

Previous electoral violence databases have been limited in scope due to challenges collecting accurate and complete data.

“Data on electoral violence can be difficult to obtain,” says Fischer. “This project will provide the most complete profile of such violence when compared to other studies. The databases will serve as an archive of information to better understand the root causes of electoral violence and develop measure to prevent, manage, or mediate it.”

The resulting database will be the largest global database of electoral violence to date—made possible by integrating sophisticated “big data” research methods that catalogue specific incidents with more traditional political science research analytics.

The database will include both a global macro-level dataset of electoral violence as well as dataset based on incidents of electoral violence, tracked largely though social media and digital news.

Electoral integrity expertise

Creative’s Electoral Education and Integrity team is a leader in international electoral monitoring and security, having conducted electoral security assessments in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burundi, Colombia, Haiti, Guatemala, the Philippines, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Creative’s lead co-investigator on the project, Jeff Fischer, was the chief author of two U.S. Agency for International Development handbooks on Best Practices in Electoral Security and an Electoral Security Framework.

Birch, the principal investigator spearheading the University of Glasgow’s efforts on the project, is the creator of the Index of Electoral Malpractice.

The Explaining and Mitigating Electoral Violence project presents a promising opportunity and opens doors further collaboration between the two organizations in electoral security and conflict prevention, Fischer says.

About Creative Associates International

Creative Associates International works with underserved communities by sharing expertise and experience in education, economic growth, governance and transitions from conflict to peace.

Based in Washington, D.C., Creative has active projects in more than 15 countries. Since 1977, it has worked in nearly 90 countries and on almost every continent. Recognized for its ability to work rapidly, flexibly and effectively in conflict-affected environments, Creative is committed to generating long-term sustainable solutions to complex development problems.

Started by four enterprising women with diverse backgrounds, Creative has grown to become one of the leaders among the U.S. private sector implementers of global development projects. Creative is minority owned and operated.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Moroccan youth rediscover joy in learning

May 21, 2015

5 min read

Participants from Youth Speak Morocco examined the causes of school dropout and explored possible solutions to the problem.

It was early on the second morning of the workshop on countering school dropouts when I witnessed a group of Moroccan youths rediscover the joy of learning.

As we arrived at the workshop room that morning, my co-facilitators, Mostafa and Najat, and I expected we would have the room to ourselves for about an hour before the boys and girls arrived.

We were wrong. We had underestimated the enthusiasm of our young participants and found that most of them had arrived early to review homework and prepare for the second day of the workshop. They greeted us with smiles and many quickly crowded around, all talking at once, eager to know what we would do that day.

When we told them the program wouldn’t start for another 30 minutes, one young person asked if they could help us prepare. My co-facilitators quickly handed out tasks as I put the finishing touches on our plan for the day.

Half of the 24 young people at the workshop in Rabat already dropped out of school and the other half had been deemed “at-risk” of leaving out of middle school. They had come from six locations across Morocco to participate in Creative’s Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education (ITQANE), a project funded by USAID that engages students in an open dialogue about the causes of school dropout and explores possible solutions to the problem.

Throughout the day the young people were actively engaged; they responded to each question and activity with a level of energy, seriousness, excitement and joy that was infections – a notable change from the shyness we witnessed just a day earlier.

They coordinated each activity, completed their work on-time, and spoke clearly and confidently when presenting their results. We were impressed with how rapidly they learned new and complex content, and how much fun they were having. Or, was it that they were having fun and rapidly learning new things?

The third day dawned with even more excitement and enthusiasm as the young people began to realize how much they were learning and how confident they had become in their new-found ability to conduct research.

Tasked with examining the causes of school dropout, they focused intensely on developing a sampling strategy, learned to run effective focus group discussions and designed a protocol for selecting participants. The young people were soon talking like old pros about topics with which they hadn’t previously been acquainted.

During a break for tea, one young woman told us that she had been worried she wouldn’t be able to learn the research skills. Indeed, she had been so scared of failing that she couldn’t sleep the night before her departure.

Standing in front of us with a bright smile and her shoulders squared, she announced that she was now confident she could learn the skills needed to be a successful youth researcher. Her peers, who had overheard her, nodded their heads in agreement and loudly voiced similar feelings.

Stop pushing rope

On my way back to the workshop room, the Head of the Directorate for Non-Formal Education approached me with a stern expression on his face. I silently wondered what I had done wrong.

“What have you done with all our Moroccan youth?” he asked in a serious voice before a smile spread across his face. “In my 20 years of working in education in Morocco, I have never seen young people like these, learning so much and so quickly, being so happy and so positive, and behaving so professionally and talking so confidently. We need all of our young people to be like these youth! How did you do this?”

I exhaled and smiled at him, relieved he was happy with how the workshop was progressing.

In response to his question, I told him “We did not push rope.”

He blinked and cocked his head to the side with a look of confusion. “What do you mean?”

I asked him if he had ever tried to push rope across a floor when someone was holding the other end. His look of confusion deepened and he replied, “Nothing happens when you push rope; it has no impact.”

I nodded my head and explained that pushing rope is what many teachers around the world do in their classrooms, pushing content at students with the hope that something will happen, but the sad truth is that pushing content has little if any impact on learners.

The education official smiled with understanding and asked, “So, if you did not push rope, what did you do?”

I explained that the responsibility for the changes he observed was mostly due to the young people themselves. “We did very little, the young people were much more responsible for what you are observing than what my co-facilitators and I are doing. All that you are seeing has always been inside of them. We are just creating an opportunity for it to emerge and flourish. When we create opportunities for learning and joy to coexist, all people, especially young people, will behave just as these Moroccan youths are behaving.”

The young Moroccans at the workshop demonstrated that learning and joy are inseparable and mutually reinforcing. Sadly, the education official observed, not all classrooms are filled with such joy. Indeed, his observation is not unique to Morocco; it is unfortunately all too common around the world.

Soon after most children start formal school, the joy of learning, a joy that begins at birth, fades because of the “pushing rope” approach that is all too common in formal education. This is self-defeating. Only learners can learn. Teachers and education systems cannot cause young people to learn, yet teachers and school systems can and do prevent learning.

If learning is a core goal, then we must create an environment that allows learners to rediscover the joy inherent in all learning. When this is achieved, learners take ownership of their learning and rediscover the joy and excitement inherent in quality education.

Creative continues to promote the joy of learning through education projects in Morocco, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia.

Eric Rusten is a Senior Associate, Education for Development, with expertise in designing, implementing and evaluating teacher professional development programs.

Yemen’s children cannot wait for education aid

May 11, 2015

6 min read

Al-Mutasem-School--Al-Wahda-District--Amant-Al-Asimah

For Arabic, click here.
.لقراءة المقال باللغة العربية، انقر هنا

Until March 2015, when conflict escalated, 1.3 million first, second and third graders were learning to read in Arabic throughout Yemen, even in the midst of conflict.

With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and other international donors, the Ministry of Education was scaling up a new national education reform that included the early grade reading project. Creative Associates International has provided technical and implementation support on the ground since 2010.

With the escalation of Yemen’s conflict at the end of March, nearly all education activities have come to a grinding halt. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Johannes Van Der Klaauw, estimated that 2 million children were unable to attend school.

Unfortunately, the conflict has caused tremendous losses, including the lives of children. Some schools have been destroyed, while most universities and schools have closed out of concern for safety.

Education promotes stabilization

Education in times of conflict plays a vital role in rebuilding crisis-affected communities, creating a sense of stability and preparing residents for a peaceful future. Safe schools create a protective environment for learning and healing.

Higher national levels of education are correlated with lower risks of armed conflict. Quality and conflict-sensitive education can help stabilize societies and improve economic and social well-being.

A UN “Report of the Secretary General on peacebuilding in the aftermath of conflict” finds that “in conflict-affected situations, education is more than service delivery and is a means of socialization and identity development through the transmission of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes across generations.”

Thus, while education can be a potential driver of conflict if co-opted (fueling grievances, stereotypes and xenophobia), it can also contribute to conflict transformation and peacebuilding when implemented in an inclusive and conflict-sensitive way.

Donors should not only continue and ramp up education support during the present crisis in Yemen but also prepare for post-conflict education development.

Robust & strategic education aid

School in Abyan sustained serious damages from conflict in 2011. Photo by Mohammed Al-Sanabani, Community Livelihoods Project.

The resumption of international aid for Yemen’s education development, especially in post-conflict Yemen, will need to be strategic and robust.

In the initial stages, school and Ministry of Education infrastructure will need rehabilitation from the damage and destruction of schools during the conflict. Displaced children and families may need access to host community schools, child-friendly spaces or other temporary learning centers.

Education can play a protective role. Research and practice shows that schools, learning environments and educators can help support children’s well-being and healthy development. Aid should enable education programs to be participatory, supportive, child- and youth-friendly, and free of humiliation and abuse.

Integrated, school-based support for vulnerable groups, such as children associated with fighting forces and armed groups, will be needed. Psychosocial support for educators also reduces conflict-related stress and anxiety.

Children who have been out of school will require “catch up” programs in order to finish their education or make up lost time. School rehabilitation, with a strong role for parents and community members, will help restore a sense of hope and normalcy and create secure learning environments. Keeping schools functioning in Yemen can also help communities to understand underlying causes of conflict and strengthen anti-violence messages.

Yemen sits at the bottom of the Arab world in a number of education-related measures, according to the Brookings Institution’s Arab World Learning Barometer. Student learning gains in Yemen are the lowest among all Arab states with 91 percent of primary students not meeting basic learning levels. Dropout among Yemeni primary students has declined over the last 10 years, but remains the highest in the Arab world.

A rocket propelled grenade scarred the façade of the Khadijah School in Abyan in 2011. Other Abyan schools sustained far more serious damages. Photo by Mohammed Al-Sanabani, Community Livelihoods Project.

Yemen’s education needs before the recent conflict were many. The Ministry of Education, with support from international donors, has had ambitious plans, including increasing the number of classrooms and reducing double shifts; boosting the percentage and quality of female teachers; raising student enrollment, especially for girls; and reforming early grade reading and math through grade five.

The Ministry of Education will need long-term and robust assistance to achieve its goals, which may include measures to redress issues arising from the conflict (i.e. curriculum reform and decentralization).

In a post-conflict Yemen, with new personnel in place, the Ministry of Education will also require support with capacity building and strengthening its systems. Making these plans a reality will take robust, strategic and sustained efforts to maintain the progress made in reading and other areas, and re-establish the education system.

A model for education during and after conflict

The systemic, transparent and inclusive approach to reading reform under the Yemen Early Grade Reading Approach has not only strengthened literacy and the national education system, but has also increased stability and security for students, families and communities. This program can serve as a model for carrying out quality education programming in the midst of conflict and for rebuilding Yemen post-conflict.

Yemen’s Ministry-led national reading reform has served as a critical unifying force prior to the recent conflict. Continued support for this and similar education reforms post conflict has the potential to move the country towards peace.

Through the program, parents, community members and education officials have come together to work towards the common goals of improving literacy, preventing dropout and giving children the educational foundation they need for economic advancement.

The program has helped build stronger relationships between parents, teachers and children. Parents are spending more time with their children on reading at home and are interacting more closely with teachers to boost their children’s reading.

Sharing these common goals and working to realize them, even in the middle of conflict, has laid the ground for strong communities and schools that will be critical to post-conflict stabilization.

The program has also emphasized gender parity in the classroom among students and teachers—there are more female teachers than males in the lower primary grades. Research shows that when girls complete secondary school fertility rates decline, child marriage decreases, strong socioeconomic indicators rise and communities become more resistant to violence.

Today, Yemeni primary school children arguably have the best chance of any cohort in recent memory of staying in school, achieving academic success and completing high school— one of the best predictors for reducing the potential for conflict.

Thus, sustaining attention to and continuing the implementation of these education gains in Yemen, should guide our current and future education response.

The children cannot wait

The USAID Community Livelihoods Project rehabilitated the Khadijah School after damage from conflict in 2011. Photo by Mohammed Al-Sanabani, Community Livelihoods Project.

Today, thousands of grade one students in Yemen only completed half a year of schooling due to conflict. What will happen to them?

Societies that are unable to continue education programs because of conflict are at a greater risk of getting trapped in vicious cycles where education is consistently interrupted by war. This in turn increases their risk of armed conflict in the future. Young people are missing out on valuable years of education.

We call upon all actors—USAID, the Global Partnership for Education, the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, the German Society of International Cooperation (GIZ), Japan’s International Cooperation Agency, the Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and European donors to join together now to support Yemen’s current education needs and prepare foundations for a robust post-conflict education system.

The UN Secretary General appointed former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the UN Special Envoy for Global Education to help galvanize support for Education First. The initiative gathers a broad spectrum of leaders and advocates focused on using the transformative power of education to build a better future for all—both during and after conflicts.

USAID’s Education Strategy Goal 3 seeks to increase equitable access to education in crisis and conflict for 15 million learners. Many of these learners reside in Yemen today.

While the actors and the configuration of the post-conflict Yemeni state are not yet in place and may not be clear for a long time, increased stability in the near future will bring opportunities to keep the momentum of early grade reading reforms going, provide secure learning environments and begin the process of long-term support for inclusive, representative and quality education that will contribute to breaking the cycle of conflict in Yemen.

The children cannot wait.

7 ways to make middle school less…middle school

April 7, 2015

6 min read

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7 ways to make middle school less…middle school

By Jennifer Brookland

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Memories that fall between the fun of childhood and the accomplishments of young adulthood are sometimes ones we’d rather not relive. Those middle years are, for many, a complicated and trying time punctuated by awkwardness and anxiety.

Students at this age are in physiological, emotional and cognitive transition. They face new academic and social challenges, and the stakes for both are higher. And this all happens at a time when support from classmates, teachers, schools and parents often drops off.

These middle school years can be more than something we survive—and they have to be: In many countries, increasing numbers of students who drop out of school begin their adult lives lacking in the skills and attitudes necessary to join the workforce, cope with life pressures, and contribute to society.

“People say ‘this too shall pass’ instead of seeing it as the best opportunity to encourage young people,” says Eric Rusten, a Senior Associate with Creative Associates International’s Education for Development Division. “Middle school is a wonderful opportunity for us as educators to help these young people shift their trajectory in more positive ways.”

So here, from Rusten and two other Creative experts who have worked with adolescents in Morocco, Jordan, Brazil, Indonesia and Mozambique, are seven ways to take advantage of this period of transition, and make middle school a time of opportunity and positive growth.

1. Demand more

When 3,344 Jordanian students answered survey questions about how they felt in school, only about half of them said their teachers set high expectations—the same amount who said their teachers cared about them.

But expecting students to be high achievers is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It builds their self-esteem, increases their confidence, improves their performance in school and even increases their motivation.

In Indonesia, Rusten listened to a 15-year-old girl explain that becoming a student support technician for her school’s computer system, with the responsibilities it entailed, actually changed her life.

She was responsible for preparing computers for class, maintaining and repairing them and updating software. She was also asked to manage the maintenance budget and train student technicians for the next year.

“Before, I hated school and was a poor student,” the girl said. “Now, I come early every day and am at the top of my class.”

2. Smile!

When students in Jordan were asked what changes they would bring to their school if they were principal for a day, they said things like: “Make a rule against teachers hitting students”; and “ask the teachers to just talk to students and respect them and to stop yelling and abusing us.”

One 14-year-old girl simply said, “I will ask all the teachers to smile at the students and to call them by their names.”

Making the school environment a friendlier, more nurturing place might not be something teachers inherently view as their job. But it contributes greatly to a more effective learning environment for students and increased confidence that translates into academic and social success. It can also make teachers happier and increase their job satisfaction.

3. Expand the classroom

Learning also takes place through non-academic pursuits. Think of sports teams, drama and debate club, or school-based community service. But many schools are devoid of these opportunities for children.

In Morocco, 21 percent of middle school students interviewed said they do not feel a part of their school.

“We need and want students to be given a major role in school life,” says Abdelkader Ezzaki, who leads Creative’s middle school project in Morocco. Part of that means engaging young people in activities where they can develop responsibility, collaboration, and the psychosocial skills that will serve them in class and out.

And don’t think the social and learning environment of middle school ends outside the gate. Instead, mosques, businesses and other community institutions can play a big role in helping students feel more positively about school.

“It is not only on school or teachers,” says Senior Associate Jeffrey Coupe. “If we mobilize those resources and find an adult or two or three adults who care about each individual child, that goes a long way in terms of reducing risk factors.”

4. Listen up

Middle school students have the most at stake, are most concerned about their futures, and are most unsure. Yet it is teachers and administrators who control resources and time, and do most of the talking and deciding, Rusten points out.

He says adults can only enable young people to be autonomous and purposeful by consulting with them and engaging them in authentic and meaningful ways.

“It’s a really powerful experience to actually listen to young people,” says Rusten, who believes they truly want the guidance and feedback adults can provide. “They actually want to be walked through the thought process and test their ideas out. But you can’t get to that part without first listening.”

Coupe agrees that letting young people take charge of their lives will overturn the way adults view them.

“As you see changes in children and youth, you’ll start to change your world view,” he says. “And I think that’s really a good place to start.”

6. Give in

Rusten is always shocked when teachers ask how to motivate young people.

In his experience, youth are exceptionally motivated—given the right conditions, that is. They want autonomy, they want to master skills and they want to live with purpose. When they can control their own lives, are good at something and do things that matter within an open, safe and respectful environment of inquiry and care, they will be motivated, he says.

The problem, of course, is that adults don’t like ceding control, especially in a school environment where they feel responsible. But by recognizing that they can’t control young people’s lives, adults can act as facilitators.

“Think of young people as assets,” Rusten suggests. “Realize it’s not about us, it’s about them. This is their future, their lives. Our job is to help them shift the trajectory of their lives just a little bit.”

Those who do are sometimes surprised at the positive results.

One astounded coach in Morocco told Rusten, “I knew that these young people were good with us, now I realize that they are so much better without us.”

6. Make learning useful, and personal

At a workshop Rusten helped organize in Mozambique, a 16-year-old girl and orphan was outraged when she heard NGO workers blame poverty for students dropping out. “We didn’t leave school because we were poor,” she declared. “We left because the school doesn’t provide anything we need.”

In Jordan, eight out of 10 middle schoolers reported they spent at least half of their math lessons memorizing formulas.

Children like these who do not gain knowledge and skills that will actually benefit them in their lives can easily become disinterested, or see no value in staying in school.

Making their learning useful and personalized can make the difference in their attitudes and performance, especially since an academic deficit can often lead to a behavioral one according to Coupe.

Easier said than done…. but possible and necessary.

“I don’t think deep seated cultural beliefs are going to come easily, but if you start by developing an ethos of positive behavior and feedback, over time positive change will convince people,” Coupe says.

7. Change from within

When middle school teachers in Morocco resisted a reading across the curriculum approach, Ezzaki had them create the content for it.

Teachers, who had ownership of the new approach, created a more engaging and motivating class environment, and were shown how to help struggling students.

For their part, students become more autonomous in their learning as their reading improved. Not only did they test higher in reading and other subject areas, but they dropped out of school at significantly lower rates as compared to the national average.

The program, called Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education, was institutionalized by the Ministry of Education into pre-service and in-service teacher training. Eventually, it was scaled up and funded by the government as Creative’s new RASID program.

“Change does not need to happen from outside,” says Ezzaki. “It can happen from within.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Countering violent extremism on & offline

April 6, 2015

5 min read

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Countering violent extremism on & offline

By Jillian Slutzker

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]As world leaders gathered in the White House in February to discuss strategies to counter the spread of violent extremism, the world’s attention focused on ISIS with its estimated 20,000 foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq and a sophisticated media operation broadcasting radical messages on social media to supporters and potential recruits.

From ISIS to Pakistan’s Taliban to Nigeria’s Boko Haram, extremist organizations globally are grabbing headlines and radicalizing young recruits.

In this climate, countering violent extremism (CVE) has become a top priority for the international community and particularly for the U.S. government, which reasserted its commitment in a statement coinciding with the White House summit.

“The U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are committed to countering today’s threats, and building capacity and resilience to prevent tomorrow’s challenges,” said the State Department in the Feb. 19 statement. The statement also said the U.S. will advance ongoing and planned efforts, including civilian-led programming, totaling nearly $188 million.

As governments ramp up efforts to counter violent extremism, international development organizations face the challenge of advancing effective and innovative approaches that build community resilience, mitigate the “push” and “pull” factors influencing individuals to join extremist groups and put forward alternative narratives of tolerance, unity and peace to counter extremists’ calls to radicalization on social media.

Tom Wheelock, Senior Vice President at Creative Associates International, says there is opportunity for both “CVE-specific” programming (community-level prevention, intervention, interruption and reintegration programs) and “CVE-relevant” programming (shaping a community’s environment through public policy, social programs, workforce development and more) to reduce grievances and build community resilience to prevent radicalization.

A communications campaign offering an alternative narrative should accompany these efforts, says Wheelock.

At a recent presentation at the U.S. Military Academy, Wheelock explained that these interventions complement host governments’ ongoing counterintelligence, military and diplomatic counterterrorism efforts but cannot be perceived as being linked to police or intelligence-gathering operations. Otherwise, he says, CVE programming loses its credibility within communities.

Lt. Col. Bryan Price, Director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, adds that these efforts are a key part of a comprehensive strategy to counter violent extremism.

“Effective counterterrorism efforts employ all elements of national power. International development actions can in some cases reduce the so-called ‘greed and grievance’ issues that can trigger, facilitate or speed up the radicalization process,” says Lt. Col. Price.

Where the action is

Wheelock says, “Radicalization for any individual is a unique process driven by a mixture of several contributing factors—such as peer influence, kinship ties, socioeconomic grievances or political marginalization.”

Most international donor-funded programs can be characterized as CVE-relevant—helping to build a community’s resilience and mitigate political, social and economic grievances that may push youth into violent extremism.

However, CVE-specific programming is where the action is and the difficulties lie, says Wheelock, especially in identifying youth-at-risk and intervening to prevent them from becoming radicalized. For these types of CVE interventions, he says U.S. government-funded programs should principally support local governments and community groups and acknowledge host government leadership.

These CVE-specific efforts can focus on the prevention and intervention phases by facilitating government-community collaboration; providing advice, training and funding to local partners; and supporting “alternative narrative” communications campaigns.

This should be done discretely, says Wheelock, without the usual requirements for U.S. government branding and marketing so that beneficiaries’ credibility and security are protected.

Investing in prevention

AFG092013338 — Prevention is a key part of countering violent extremism, which often means reaching the most at-risk youth in complex, multiethnic, mutli-sectarian, urban environments.

For programs working in the prevention phase—including boosting community policing or enhancing the capacity of civil society organizations—Wheelock says building trust and gaining the confidence of local governments, partners and community members is critical.

“The first step is gaining entry into a community and figuring out how to do that in a complex, multiethnic, mutli-sectarian, urban environment….Once having established that confidence and entry, then we talk to them about peace, unity and tolerance,” he says.

Interventions at the prevention phase, says Lt. Col. Price, are especially beneficial and help reduce radicalization down the line that could lead to violence.

“The more we can do to prevent members of society from radicalizing and conducting acts of political violence, the fewer plots we will have to foil at the 11th hour,” Lt. Col. Price says. “Policing, intelligence, and the criminal justice tools will always be a part of counterterrorism efforts, but they are not the only ones.”

Countering violent extremism is a long-term process, he notes. It is also multi-faceted, requiring measures to reduce community and individual vulnerabilities to radicalization, while also reaching the most at-risk individuals, using judicial systems to prosecute crimes and rehabilitating ex-radical individuals.

Wheelock maintains that CVE programs seeking to focus on prevention and intervention can benefit from techniques and methodologies used in Crime and Violence Prevention (CVP) programs to determine risk factors, identify youth-at-risk and provide support and counseling to these youth and their families.

In Central America, Creative implements primary and secondary crime and violence prevention activities as well as community policing programs and is looking at how to adapt these methodologies and lessons learned for CVE.

Social media for alternative narratives

Messaging through social and broadcast media must be part of a comprehensive CVE campaign, Wheelock says. This comprises interventions that rebut extremist ideology (a counter-narrative) or offer a more moderate world view (an alternative narrative) supporting themes of peace, tolerance and unity.

Extremist groups are highly proficient in using their own social media to identify and recruit young people. Twitter shut down 2,000 ISIS-linked accounts in early March, but the use of social media by radical groups is wide-reaching and continues to play a role in the radicalization of many youth globally.

President Barack Obama, in a speech at the Summit on Countering Violent Extremism on Feb. 19, said: “We need to do more to help lift up voices of tolerance and peace, especially online.”

The President also said that political, community and religious leaders in the Muslim world have a responsibility and big role to play in pushing back against radical messaging.

The Obama Administration reports it is launching several initiatives to boost its messaging efforts, including a peer-to-peer challenge empowering university students to produce digital content to counters extremists’ messaging online, as well as technology trainings to help social media companies and other stakeholder create content to discredit violent extremists’ online material.

Wheelock says that U.S. CVE programs are able to support local efforts to produce and disseminate messaging that promotes peace, unity and tolerance.

Social media is a particularly potent tool for reaching vulnerable youth, a demographic using social media in greater proportions than other age groups.

By supporting social media campaigns around tolerance, unity and peace and by providing technical assistance to broadcast media disseminating anti-radicalization content, CVE programs have “been able to help build and brand an identity for youth in urban areas that emphasizes community…and use that as a starting point to gain confidence of the community, civil society and the local government,” says Wheelock.

‘While this is not a counter-narrative to violent extremism,” he says. “It is an alternative narrative that also needs to be in place.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Creative & OAS partner to boost electoral monitoring

March 30, 2015

3 min read

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Creative & OAS partner to boost electoral monitoring

By Jillian Slutzker

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Creative and the Organization of American States signed an agreement to develop handbooks and training to identify and eventually mitigate electoral threats, violence and malpractice, it was announced March 25.

Speaking at the signing ceremony on March 25, Creative President Leland Kruvant praised the partnership as another significant step toward ensuring electoral integrity and promoting good governance for Organization of American States member countries.

The Creative-OAS agreement will result in new handbooks and indicators to better asses threats to electoral integrity. — Creative President Leland Kruvant and OAS Director of the Dept. of Electoral Cooperation and Observation Gerardo de Icaza sign an agreement to boost electoral monitoring in OAS member states.

“It is an honor for Creative Associates to be a part of this important project and apply our electoral expertise to develop training curriculum to allow OAS delegations to better assess the impact of violence, malpractice and fraud on election outcomes among OAS member states,” Kruvant said.

At the partnership signing ceremony, Kruvant emphasized the importance of safeguarding elections from violence and malpractice as part of a larger mission to ensure democratic governance and meaningful citizen engagement.

Creative’s Director of Electoral Education and Integrity, Jeffrey Carlson, echoed Kruvant’s comments and stressed the importance of these new materials.

“The resulting handbooks will provide important guidance to those conducting electoral observations and to those implementing subsequent recommendations in the OAS region and beyond throughout the electoral cycle,” says Carlson.

Creative will support OAS Electoral Observer Mission teams in developing the Handbooks on Electoral Violence Observation and Malpractice Observation, which will contain integrated qualitative and quantitative indicators for assessing threats to electoral integrity, including electoral violence and malpractice.

Information gathered through these tools will better equip the OAS in making recommendations to countries whose elections it observes, says Creative’s Senior Electoral Advisor Jeff Fischer.

“This methodology will include a vulnerabilities assessment in order to identify structural, procedural or behavioral weak links in electoral integrity so that the consequences of these vulnerabilities can be flagged for scrutiny,” says Fischer.

Fischer says the methodology will help overcome challenges to identifying and tracking electoral malpractice, which is often harder to detect than electoral violence.

“While electoral violence can be monitored in real-time, that is incidents are reported when they are observed, electoral malpractice may not be obvious on the surface. Its perpetration can occur early in the electoral cycle, for example during voter registration,” says Fischer. “As a result, the consequences of fraudulent registration are seen on Election Day, but the original crime took place months before.”

In 2014, the OAS deployed nine electoral observation missions throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean. In the first three months of this year, the organization has already deployed electoral observation missions to St. Kitts and Nevis, El Salvador and Bolivia.

Electoral security expertise

Having conducted electoral security assessments in environments as diverse and challenging as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burundi, Colombia, Guatemala, the Philippines, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Creative’s Elections team has experience developing practical and accurate electoral monitoring and security frameworks.

Creative staff has also engaged in two internationally supervised electoral audits in Afghanistan and Haiti.

In partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the team, led by Fischer, published two handbooks on Best Practices in Electoral Security and an Electoral Security Framework.

These handbooks lay out approaches to identifying risk factors for electoral violence, and designing and implementing strategies to prevent, mitigate and mediate it when it does occur. Creative’s Elections team will draw on these best practices in its support to the OAS electoral violence observation methodology.

The methodology will also employ features of Creative’s “Monitoring and Observation for Violence in Elections” (MOVE) template and incorporate insights from the global survey of experts in the development of the Primer on Electoral Malpractice.

The Primer was created in collaboration with Sarah Birch, Ph.D., of the University of Glasgow, the developer of the Index of Electoral Malpractice[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]