USAID applauds Yemen agriculture program

May 13, 2014

5 min read

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USAID applauds Yemen agriculture program

By Maggie Farrand

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A more stable and positive future for Yemen depends on having strong agricultural markets and farmers with the capacity to supply them, said U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Mission Director Herbie Smith.

USAID’s support for Yemen’s farmers and value chain professionals has been evident; it funded Creative Associates International’s four-year Community Livelihoods Project, which provided vital services like basic healthcare, agricultural inputs and technological upgrades, capacity building, recovery of livelihoods and economic growth opportunities.

At the project’s Transition Conference on April 30, Smith addressed a crowd of more than 80 people at the Movenpick Hotel in Sana’a, including Yemen’s Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Mr. Farid Ahmed Mogawar, delegates from the U.S. Embassy and USAID, donor agencies and international organizations working in Yemen.

In his remarks, Smith commended Creative’s dynamic team for what he deemed “outstanding work” from 2010 to 2014.

“The CLP Agriculture Program has built a strong record of success in the agriculture sector,” Smith said. “Working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation to reach farmers and the private sector, CLP has helped demonstrate advanced technology which has significantly increased productivity and farmer incomes.”

The Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation echoed Smith’s comments.

“CLP had big impacts on the livelihood of the farmers in the rural areas…and in a very critical political situation,” said Mogawar. “The results have been excellent.”

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The Best Mother’s Day Gift: Why women around the globe play a central role in creating better economies

May 12, 2014

4 min read

This blog originally appeared on the Building Peace Forum. You can view the original, posted in March 2014, here. – See more at: https://www.creativeassociatesinternational.com/#sthash.W2oUFRWb.dpuf

This blog originally appeared on The Globalist. You can view the original, posted on May 10, 2014, here.

Mother’s Day has become a commercial phenomenon in the United States and elsewhere in the Western world. People living in these countries are flooded with messages about the perfect gift for the one who loves us unconditionally. With one crucial caveat: We regale her with flowers and perfume, but not always with love and respect.

What Mother’s Day 2014 should really celebrate is a little understood statistic about women. Once properly understood, it will change our approach to economic development.

Treating mothers well in the workplace makes good sense for the bottom line. And now, it is proven that the way a nation treats its women is an indicator of its ability to grow economically and succeed.

An economic fact of life

Once upon a time, this type of data was often thought of as feminist propaganda. But this economic fact of life goes beyond women’s studies programs. It is clear that a society that neglects its women as economic actors will fall behind in its capacity to grow.

Janet Yellen, the first woman to lead the U.S. Federal Reserve, said that the benefits of the growing participation of women in the economy are “clear and substantial” as the United States continues to recover from recession.

Yellen added that the success of the United States since the 1970s, including the sustained growth of family incomes, coincided with the fuller contribution of women in the economy.

For that reason, President Obama, in his April executive order to fight pay discrimination and strengthen enforcement of equal pay, was only reinforcing a long-known fact about the way forward for the United States.

While the executive order will not right all the wrongs of income inequality, it has certainly made it harder for U.S. employers to conceal disparate salaries that once were the way women’s participation in the work force was treated.

Stunning pay gap

Women are the primary breadwinners in 40% of U.S. households but are bringing home 23% less than their male counterparts. That stunning pay gap means less for families’ everyday needs, less for investments in our children’s futures – and, when added over a lifetime of work, substantially less for a woman’s retirement.

And that pay gap is significantly greater for women of color, with African-American women earning 64 cents and Latinas earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a U.S. Caucasian man.

What does this mean for economic development in a globalized economy? It’s really simple: Women’s participation in a community’s economy can make or break any investment made by the international community. Their participation improves lives and ensures stability and economic growth.

More important, however, is that sustaining these gains – whether in agriculture, health care delivery, or early childhood education – are not possible unless women are factored into the design and the final outcome of the investment.

And this means that governments and the private sector who invest in any given country must create a strong partnership that values the salience of women’s participation in the economy.

Across the global south, women have always borne the burden of agricultural work, child care and domestic labor. Yet, in spite of tremendous investments in women’s economic development – from micro finance programs to girls’ elementary education and literary programs – the fruits of such programs are often negated.

The reason why is cultures that would keep women in slave-like conditions through forced child marriages and/or total elimination of such simple rights as access to basic health care, primary education, or even contact with family members after marriage.

Too often, women are thought of as consumers of security, as the victims of conflict. Indeed, there is no shortage of real evidence of this type of abuse.

Women as economic producers

But women are also producers of security in their neighborhoods. They are the first line prevention of children becoming gang members. They are the ones who organize neighborhood watches when crime impedes freedom of movement.

And women are often the interlocutors with local police authorities who often seek women out to help them gain access to areas held by criminal gangs.

Partnerships with women in a community by local and national government agencies can create a powerful nexus between security and development. Moreover, more security enables a better climate for investment and growth.

Changing our understanding of women as producers in any economy is the first step to building a culture of equality. If we are to create a movement that values the work of women globally, we must start in our own country. There we must work with the wide range of government programs and civil society organizations that can help take the vision of a world of education and productive women to a global level.

For quick results

All of that is why we should use this Mother’s Day to reinforce a message that will be heard worldwide: Treat women as economic actors and treat women as an integral part of any community’s development program and the results will come quickly.

Ensuring the value of women in any society can become the best gift any mother can get – more than flowers, candy or any other material good. And this gift is affordable and in the national interest.

When our nation invests its tax dollars in helping women in the developing world, and when it encourages foreign direct investment that partners with women, the result will not only be higher returns.

Such investments will also demonstrate that ignoring half of the world’s population will not solve the problems of war, poverty and neglect.

Creative provides valuable training to AAAS Fellows

April 8, 2014

2 min read

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Creative provides valuable training to AAAS Fellows

By Maggie Farrand

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Dr. Bradford Strickland of Creative presents at AAAS.

Conflict analysis training delivered to 18 post-doctoral Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will enable them to provide more conflict-sensitive guidance to federal agencies and future U.S. programming around the world.

The March 26 training session, titled “Diagnosis and Programming in Fragile and Emerging Markets,” focused on policy and programming in conflict-affected settings. It was held at the AAAS headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“Creative has developed great skills in the design and implementation of programming in fragile and conflict-affected areas,” said Charito Kruvant, President & CEO of Creative. “This training was a great opportunity for us to share that expertise with a like-minded audience at AAAS.”

The training, based on the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development fragility framework, familiarized Fellows with key aspects of the framework and discussed some of the often-unintended consequences of international development.

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On World Health Day, ‘WASH’ increasingly important to combat disease

April 7, 2014

3 min read

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Lack of access to clean water and sanitation affects women and girls most acutely. The burden of fetching drinking water from outdoor sources falls disproportionately on women and girls. Every day, young girls travel on foot for miles to collect water—reducing the time girls have available for school attendance.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) at Khorobody primary school in South Sudan, tasked with teaching the school community about the importance of using clean water for drinking and hand-washing, encountered a major barrier to behavior uptake: The school lacked access to water.

By making contributions through Khorobody primary school’s parent-teacher association, the group was able to purchase a donkey and a cart. Now, someone is able to collect enough water for children and teachers and bring it back to the school more easily.

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Sharing the stage for gains in education

April 1, 2014

4 min read

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Sharing the stage for gains in education

By Maggie Farrand

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E-learning experts gathered at Al Akhawayn University for a three-day training. — E-learning experts gathered at Al Akhawayn University for a three-day training on taking teacher training modules to an online platform.

Ifrance, Morocco—We arrived at Al Akhawayn University early Saturday morning. The workshop was already underway, so we snuck in the back of the classroom and found seats along the wall where we could observe and not interrupt. With only three words of Arabic in my vocabulary, my colleague from the local office provided brief, whispered translations.

In front of us, hands were raised and an energetic presenter paced across the room. It was a group of 19 e-learning experts mixed with representatives from Morocco’s Ministry of Education.

The three-day workshop was dedicated to engineering ways to adapt the Ministry’s training program for teachers to their online portal.

It was not the first time Ministry’s teacher training had gone digital. Four years ago, Ministry staff identified online learning as an emerging field they needed to tap into – to keep up with 21^st century technology, but also to reach teacher trainers in rural areas of Morocco. So they transferred eight of 12 pre-service modules (for newly hired teachers) to e-learning training, and then tested it with 600 trainers.

Based on the success of the first round, the same group was tasked with taking two more modules, Support for School Success and the Enhanced Reading Program, to an online audience – this was their task as I observed from the back of the room.

The workshop is part of Creative’s five-year Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education project that supports Morocco’s Education Ministry reform goals of improving teachers’ professional skills to stem the tide of middle school dropouts. It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

I learned the animated presenter at the head of the room, the one scribbling diagrams and notes on the whiteboard, was Dr. Abdelkader Ezzaki, Deputy Chief of Party for the Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education program. I’d seen his name on emails in my inbox, but never met him in person. He was animated, passionate and spewing Arabic at a rapid pace.

He was joined by Dr. Miloud Ahbeddou, the king of all things e-learning for Creative’s program. Dr. Ahbeddou worked for 26 years as a teacher trainer at a university in Rabat, and has become an expert in training, teaching and online applications.

There were three other men at the front: Aziz El Hajir and Abdellatif Fergoug, employed by the Ministry’s Center for Pedagogical Innovation and Experimentation, and Hassane Darhmaoui, an expert in e-learning from the Al Akhawayn University, which has contributed greatly to the development of the program’s e-learning model.

The five men fielded questions and comments, hashing out the strategy for adjusting these courses for an online platform.

During the pause-café, a regular mid-morning coffee break, I was introduced to Mohamed Hosni, the Distance Learning Division Chief within the Ministry’s Center for Pedagogical Innovation and Experimentation.

He applauded USAID for contributing to the development of technology for education through infrastructure improvements and new training materials. Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education, he told me, is now allowing the Ministry to use the infrastructure to strengthen their training systems.

In his words, Creative’s program has “brought the soul to the body.”

Hosni also saw the program providing other advantages: it has allowed him to interact and collaborate with Ministerial groups as he never had before. In fact, the man to his left, Mofaddal Douhid of the Central Unit for the Training of Trainers, was a perfect example.

Before Creative’s program, these two men had never worked together, yet as Ministry employees, their work and ultimate goals are actually quite aligned. The Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education program brought them together during the development of the first set of e-learning courses, and Hosni could not be happier.

“Before, there was no collaboration,” he says. “Now [regional teacher trainers] are requesting training in new technologies from us. And Central Unit for the Training of Trainers is aware of the importance of distance education.”

I realized, as I watched the four presenters from my seat in the back of the classroom that they – just like Hosni and Douhid – have the same ultimate goal: improved teacher training, and improved education quality throughout Morocco. Through Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education, they have come together to work toward that goal.

That day, I learned that Creative’s partnership with the Ministry was not just for show. Two representatives from the program and two from the Ministry presenting at the workshop was not an accident. It was, in fact, very deliberate. It was how the Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education program had been working for more than four years. And their success was the product of a genuine partnership.

In its four plus years, Creative’s program has teamed with the Ministry to develop e-learning courses, improve in-service and pre-service training programs and provide Ministry staff with skills in training and project implementation. These activities have been led by the Ministry, with guidance from the Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education program.

When the program closes in a few months, it will technically end the partnership with the Ministry, but it won’t end the Ministry’s progress. The Ministry will continue its work in improving teacher training; and now, thanks to Creative’s program, it has even more tools to do that.[/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]

The keys to building a lasting reading program in Morocco

March 25, 2014

4 min read

Ezzaki for Voces

In 2001, Morocco endured its first Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the international study of reading achievement in fourth grade. The results weren’t great: Morocco’s reading scores were the second worst of the 35 participating countries. The most recent PIRLS test in 2011 showed no improvement: Morocco was again at the bottom of the list.

In a country whose education system shows severe weaknesses in students’ overall academic achievement, how do you develop a reading program that will change those results – and support improvement of student learning at the middle-school level?

That was the question on my mind more than four years ago when I joined the Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education (ITQANE) project.

The program, funded by USAID, started right as the Ministry of Education instituted its Emergency Education Plan, with a focus on increasing education quality and teacher training. We teamed up with the Ministry to make sure our activities complemented their Plan; this included a huge emphasis on teacher training. In 2012, we combined the need for teacher training with Morocco’s low PIRLS results and launched the four-volume Enhanced Reading Program module for in-service teachers. Today, more than 3,000 teachers have been trained on the module.

Since we started the Reading Program in 2012, I’ve learned a lot about what makes a successful – and sustainable – reading program. Here, I share with you ten of the most important lessons:

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Culture of reading in Yemen is key to literacy

March 18, 2014

3 min read

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Culture of reading in Yemen is key to literacy

By Maggie Farrand

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Toronto, Canada—When Fathi El-Ashry disclosed that the curriculum for first to third graders in Yemen hadn’t been revised since 1995, the audience at the 2014 Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference was alarmed. As education experts, they knew the typical revision cycle for curricula was six to eight years.

That fact does, however, help to explain the country’s troubling statistics: an adult literacy rate of only 54 percent and a report stating that 27 percent of third graders could not read a single word.

“There has been a loss of the reading culture,” said El-Ashry, a Senior Associate in Creative’s Instructional Systems and School Governance practice area.

In 2012, Creative partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development and Yemen’s Ministry of Education to create and deliver the overdue curriculum updates. Called the Yemen Early Grade Reading Approach, it introduced a phonics-based reading program to 400 schools.

El-Ashry joined Joy du Plessis, former director of Creative’s education program in Yemen on a panel titled “Early grade reading literacy: practices, assessments, successes and challenges” at last week’s CIES conference in Toronto, Canada.

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Female-targeted development programs are seen differently by researchers & implementers

March 17, 2014

3 min read

Caption — Initiatives thought to be cut and dry for reducing poverty might not always be that way. Rekha Mehra believes implementers should always revert back to the research. © David Snyder

As a development practitioner, how often have you wished you had a practical and proven tool to reduce poverty? Targeting women has been a simple and effective strategy to meet this goal.

Convincing evidence of this approach is found in conditional cash transfer programs, which are now widely used in more than 30 countries.

For example, through the Bolsa Familia in Brazil, poor households are given regular cash payments if they agree to set requirements—such as keeping children in school and taking them for regular medical check-ups. Money is provided mainly to women in these households since studies show they will more likely spend it on children.

The program is credited with reducing poverty. Factors contributing to success are sound implementation, scale in reaching 13.8 million families (one-fourth of the poor) and the availability of health and education services to meet the demand created by the program.

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Community support essential to improved learning

March 13, 2014

5 min read

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Community support essential to improved learning

By Maggie Farrand

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Toronto, Canada—When a mother in Jordan takes her child to enroll in kindergarten, she is often turned away and told to wait until first grade. With thousands in line and enrollment capped at 25 students per class, this is a regular occurrence.

During the past decade, Jordan has been undergoing comprehensive national education reform. A central focus of that reform is early childhood education, particularly high quality kindergarten. Fifteen years ago, there were only a few public kindergartens. Today, there are more than 1,000.

But still, it’s not enough to meet demand. Kindergarten-age children are consistently refused, and are ill-prepared for first grade.

That’s why Creative Associates International teamed up with the Ministry of Education and Save the Children to initiate the Parent-Child Package, an opportunity for mothers to support the learning and school readiness of their children at home. It is part of Creative’s Education Reform Support Program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Katherine Merseth, Creative’s Deputy Director in Jordan, joined a panel of Creative experts presenting innovative ways to involve communities in programming at a discussion called “Engaging the Community to Support Reading” – part of the 2014 Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Conference held March 10 to 15 in Toronto. This year’s conference welcomed attendees from more than 130 countries.

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Youth Speak promotes girls’ voices

March 7, 2014

3 min read

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Youth Speak promotes girls’ voices

By Maggie Farrand

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Bahija for Voces

Rabat, Morocco – Souad Achehabou was a star student at her school in Jdour, a rural commune in Morocco’s Youssoufia province, 185 miles south of Rabat. She loved studying and was excited to go to school. But she lived far away and was regularly without reliable transportation. Many mornings, she would hitchhike. Worrying about her safety, her parents pressured her to drop out.

“I did not want to,” she said. “I like studying and was eager to continue.”

At times when she was kept home, she would send notes to the school pleading for help. Her teachers would occasionally respond by picking her up in the morning, and driving her home in the evening. But teachers weren’t always available, and pressure from her parents continued; before long, she became yet another middle school dropout.

For young girls in Morocco like Souad, dropping out of school is not uncommon. From 300,000 to 400,000 children discontinue their studies each year, more than half of whom are young girls. They cite a lack of safety and money, being discouraged by teachers and early marriage as reasons for leaving school.

That’s why in a recent youth-led research initiative that investigated the problem of middle school dropout, girls were given the opportunity to tell their stories.

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Educate a girl, educate a nation

March 5, 2014

3 min read

Audrey Mwansa is the Deputy Chief of Party for Creative’s Read to Succeed program in Zambia. In honor of International Women’s Day 2014, we asked for her thoughts on women in her country and her profession, and what inspires her.

Question: Please explain in what ways your program involves women.

Answer: Women are involved in all our trainings. Measures are taken to ensure that of the teachers we train, there is at least a 50/50 representation. In most rural schools where we operate, the majority of the teachers are men. As a program, we have been advocating for more female teachers who could be used as role models to the girls in order to help them aspire for higher positions as well as help them stay in school.

Q: As a woman, what is it like to work on these issues?

A: I find my work with women energizing and more empowering because of my firm belief in the fact that once you educate the girl you educate the nation and if you empower the woman you empower the nation. As an educator, this is why I invest all my energies in issues that empower women and girls.

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Committed to development, despite danger

March 5, 2014

4 min read

Corina López de Mena is the Donations Coordinator for the Crime and Violence Prevention Project in El Salvador. In honor of International Women’s Day 2014, we asked for her thoughts on women in her country and her profession, and what inspires her.

Question: Please explain in what ways your program involves women.

Answer: Our program in El Salvador focuses on crime and violence prevention at the municipal and community level in 20 municipalities and more than 115 communities throughout the country.

Many women who live in these communities are actively participating in our program activities. They identify problem areas that need to be addressed by the program and activities that will contribute to achieve the main project goal, which is to prevent youth from participating in crime related activities.

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