MOROCCO: A Way Forward for Middle School Students

November 28, 2011

3 min read

At Halima Saadia Middle School in El Jadida, a coastal Moroccan city, teachers are experiencing a new way of teaching. From their traditional monologue-style of instruction, teachers now communicate and interact with students during school-based club meetings that focus on developing personal skills, such as self-confidence, listening, respect for others, and negotiation.

During a visit by Project ITQANE staff to the school in May 2011, project staff observed Mrs. Meryem Chahbi El Alaoui, one of 9 teachers in her region selected to participate in the first “portable and adaptable skills” training session held in March 2011, giving her 6th lesson to 24 seventh graders. The students were excited about this new activity, discovering that there are different ways of learning, and were interacting and participating energetically with the teacher and amongst themselves.

Mrs. Alaoui was selected to lead school club activities at Halima Saadia using the International Youth Foundation (IYF)’s Passport to Success program, which supports the Moroccan National Ministry’s competency-based curriculum and is being implemented in the framework of the Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education (ITQANE) project activities. ITQANE is a four-year project implemented by Creative Associates International and made possible by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project’s aim is to support the Moroccan National Education Ministry in the implementation of its Emergency Plan for education by improving the quality and relevance of education offered in middle schools across Morocco.

IYF’s contribution to the project consists in developing training materials and conducting training sessions on portable and adaptable skills that are derived from their Passport to Success Program for teachers, trainers and school leaders in the targeted middle schools. The Passport to Success program equips young people with a range of skills that will help them stay in school and get the education, professional skills, and confidence they need to succeed in life.

Self-esteem, negotiation, and teamwork are competencies that impact the quality of student learning, which is why ITQANE is working with the Ministry’s School Life department in order to integrate IYF’s Passport to Success methods and activities into its curriculum, developing and adopting new approaches that enable teachers to explore students’ abilities and make them feel better at school.

“When other teachers learned about the new club’s activities, many of them wondered why they were not selected and asked to be part of the training sessions soon”, said Mrs. Naïma Abu Lyatime, Halima Saadia’s principal, “I noticed a very positive impact of the activities on teachers and pupils and sincerely hope that these trainings will be shared with all schools.”

“Since the beginning of the training session and the development of the new modules for students, I realized the role these activities have had in changing my own behavior and those of my students. My teaching approach is different,” Mrs. El Alaoui said; “I also noticed that my relationships with students are better, right from the first session.”

“I love those activities, especially the way our teacher is treating us” said Fatima Zohra El Karkachi, a 7th grade student at Halima Saadia. “Before attending this club, I had no self-confidence. Now I can speak to a large group, even people I don’t know. I wish all teachers could have the same behavior – it really makes us love school!!”

Observers were impressed by the quality of participation and the great enthusiasm of the students during the activity. At the end of the class, a young girl came in and asked for the permission to register in the club activities.

-Mounya El Asri, ITQANE Communications Specialist

Q & A: Stephen N. Ndegwa on Fragility, Conflict and Development’s Shifting Perspectives

July 20, 2011

11 min read

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Q & A:

Stephen N. Ndegwa on Fragility, Conflict and Development’s Shifting Perspectives

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]In April, the World Bank released its much awaited World Development Report (WDR) 2011, the influential trend-setter for development. Notably, the Report diverges from the Bank’s previously narrow focus on economics, which until now served as the underpinning of international development goals, especially that of alleviating poverty. That said, poverty remains an intractable development problem. The Report states that some 1.5 billion people are stuck in a “poverty trap” that is fueled by conflict, violence and ineffective governance. While the number of civil wars has diminished, violence and conflict are still widely a perennial occurrence that roots 1 in 4 people on the planet in an unending cycle of poverty. The recurrent nature of violence hampers economic development, security and justice in affected states leaving them incapable of achieving not even one of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. Perhaps the million dollar question is how is it possible in 2011 that piracy – a problem of the pre-industrial era – persists as a result of the lack of opportunity created by the vacuum of a failed state. Still, the Report highlights that rather than discounting the development community’s efforts of the last six decades as a quixotic quest, it is more productive to look upon and put into practice the hard lessons learned by the sector so that it can better serve the underserved. Creative magazine interviews the World Bank’s Stephen N. Ndegwa, Adviser, Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations Unit and Core Team Member of the WDR 2011, on the critical shift in thinking about international development that the WDR proposes.

Q. Titled Conflict, Security and Development, the WDR2011 calls for a paradigm shift in the thinking of development’s delivery –why a paradigm shift and why now?

I would not say it [the WDR2011] is a catalyst, what we are actually trying to create is a catalyst to shift peoples’ perspectives. We’re saying that over the years cumulatively the nature of violence in the public space has changed, the global environment has changed. There now exist an almost pedestrian nature to violence. One can be in New York and create a cell in Mumbai. So, that creates new challenges that we as global institutions, local and regional, and national governments have not actually caught up to. We need to change our own analytical and policy lens on how we respond to violence. We’re saying actually there is a role for institutions like the Bank to be more helpful in hedging against violence and to work in partnership with others so that more programs are implemented collaboratively and coherently. It does fundamentally mean a readjustment of the paradigm that economic development by itself will resolve violence. We must think of development in the context of security and justice, and security here does not just mean people in boots and guns, rather it means raising the confidence of a typical citizen to invest, move freely and have hope that the political and economic arrangements in place are fair and that they reward individual enterprise and diligence with increasing welfare. At the core of this paradigm shift is the idea that partnership with all stakeholders is the way to secure development.

Q. What surprised you about the conclusions drawn from the WDR2011?

We knew that violence recurs. But what we didn’t know and, it was quite surprising, is how violence mutates. In other words, there could be a civil war that’s ended and then many years later one finds that violence persists in the form of very high homicide rates, or very high domestic violence rates, or criminal networks that run amok. For example, in the Central American countries that experienced civil wars in the 1980s, they have now higher homicide rates than the death toll sustained during the war years. This reality supports the WDR’s call for a paradigm shift because it underscores that violence endures in mutated forms long after civil wars have ended.

Another case in point outlined in the WDR is that insecurity actually has much more of a global and regional impact than we thought. Another study for the WDR showed that in Northern Uganda, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which we conventionally think of as a problem restricted to Ugandans, has perpetrated quite a number of attacks across all the neighboring countries. These LRA attacks are not less disruptive to the villages and communities on which they visit violence than they are to Ugandans caught in the throes of civil conflict. If a violent movement like the LRA attacks a school or village outside of its normal area of operation, the impact on that village is the same as if it, too, were involved in that civil war. The dynamics of community and commercial life are no less disrupted when violence is perpetrated by outsiders and causes the destruction of schools, businesses and civilian casualties and death. This finding undergirds the policy shift advocated in the WDR, especially because the infringement of LRA like movements on territories outside their conflict zone was not grasped by the international community. This oversight is evidenced by the absence of any mention of extra-territorial attacks as a topic of discussion at the Security Council, which means that the international community lacks a coherent regional, national or international policy to respond to the needs of communities and countries affected by external conflicts.

And, finally the WDR sheds light on the pressures exerted on governments by international criminal trafficking networks, including illicit drugs and smuggled goods such as oil or pharmaceuticals. Foremost among these is the economic pressure exerted by the amount of money circulating in the underground economy created by these networks. This we think is an important development challenge that we need to respond to because it debilitates the energy and legitimacy of the state, and our response to this has not been typically as creative as it should. The huge governance challenge posed by these criminal elements is among the surprises highlighted by the Report.

Q. How do you see multilateral organizations and government being impacted by this report?

This report pushes very hard on prevention, we all know it costs less to be proactive than reactive in any situation. What we’re suggesting is that prevention comes with reexamining the lens we use to assess risk, because we’re saying that in many situations the cost of inaction is higher than the of preemptive action. We think there are ways to understand in a broader sense the context from which dysfunctional governance emanates so that we can enhance the scope of preventive measures we take to avoid its occurrence or at the very least minimize it. We can achieve this by utilizing better metrics to understand what drives violence so that we can counteract it. Our view is premised on the reasonable assumption that when you provide justice, you minimize the complaints that tend to drive violence while jobs and broad economic opportunity provide everyone with a stake in building and maintaining peace. So there are true public goods that we can provide or help government to provide so that eruptions of conflict and violence are minimized. For instance, the transfer of power from one elected government to another creates a particularly fragile moment in fledgling democracies. One way to prevent the descent into political chaos during these transitions is for the international community to assist countries to create conditions that promote peaceful resolution of contests and minimize violence. Much like when public health specialists promote both general hygiene and specific interventions to when public health is threatened – and which requires action at multiple levels. This approach at eliminating or minimizing threats to public health by preventing the spread of disease can be replicated at the political level by putting in place measures that help identify at-risk individuals and communities thereby providing them the necessary resources to overcome the challenges they face. In short, the Report advocates a proactive approach that emphasizes the better justice outcomes and better job development with the goal of giving everyone a stake to keep at bay the violence that arises when these are in short supply. Moreover, it insists that the way to durable peace is by building institutions that deliver these outcomes. An additional important recommendation is for relevant actors to base action on greater understanding of context, and results based on better metrics and better means of anticipating and preventing violent outcomes.

Q. What are some of the predictors, indicators of violence to look for that can inform the design of a development program?

World Development Report (WDR) 2011 Cover This is a hard one, because one of the things we push for is first to understand very well the political context and second to assess the capacity of institutions to foster a climate in which decision makers are accountable to citizens and civic groups who in turn recognize and accepts their legitimacy to make and implement decisions for the public good. The triggers for conflict could and/or would be varied in different circumstances. A country with fairly robust institutions in economic management and resource allocations is less likely to provoke citizens into violent reactions although inequality exists among citizens. Take for example the disputed 2000 elections in the U.S. A similar dispute would trigger massive fragility in half the countries in the world. But in the U.S., 250 years after independence, a peaceful resolution put an end to the crisis in a matter of days without shaking the system whose institutions are very, very, very robust. Now, imagine this situation in a country that’s only been in existence for 50 years, has deep ethnic or regional divisions where party affiliations is determined according to one’s membership in specific ethnic or religious groups. So, to design a water project in such a place we want to look at local institutions available to resolve conflicts that may arise if one or more groups perceive that access to water is distributed unequally because distribution is based on discriminatory practices related to ethnic or religious identification. So, if government doesn’t provide security, vigilante groups arise and they tend to ossify into gangs later on. The point is design is context specific and thus the need to examine the institutions in place in order to understand in real time and in historical terms their legitimacy to administer development programs so that aid recipients will not resort to violence to resolve potential conflicts.

Q. How do you gain public trust in a post-conflict situation?

We try to stay away from this “post-conflict” notion. In fact, the underlying point of the Report is that there is no such thing as post-conflict. Look at some countries in Central America that formally ended their civil wars and yet citizens are still killing each other at a greater rate than during the wars. The New York Time disclosed a year ago that Venezuela has a higher civilian homicide rate than Iraq, and Venezuela is not in a “post-conflict” situation. So, we want to talk about fragility, conflict and violence as cyclical events and about the vulnerabilities at each stage. For development, it means that building trust is an important step against vulnerability descending into outright violence. And, yet it’s difficult because we want to deliver justice in a way that conforms to cultural norms while adhering to its traditional methods so that a business person knows that his/her property and profits are secure, and that he/she won’t get killed for trying to run a business. The authority of the state gains legitimacy when it provides security to persons, their goods and property. The repeated theme here is that good governance is fundamental to building trust in the state. We see this played out all the time in the developed economies of the West or Asia where public trust erodes significantly in the aftermath of catastrophic events or public health threats when governments fail to respond timely and appropriately due to corruption or ineptitude or both.

Furthermore, in the modern age, legitimacy is conferred on states when their actions conform to the standards of international norms related to the rights of citizens, compliance with the rules of international treaties and adherence to the behavioral criteria of a good global citizen. A state that fails to meet these standards risks being ostracized by the international community, leaving it without protection from the Security Council or unable to access development funds from donors or international organizations, which in turn deprive its citizens the means for improving their welfare. Consequently, justice, public good and international good citizenship are the core elements for stemming the cycle of conflict and violence that obstruct the progress of development.

Q. What has been the response of other governments or organizations such as USAID to this report?

It’s been fabulous, there is a strong recognition that its messages resonate with many of our partners. Governments across the entire income spectrum and other organizations have all been very supportive. At its core, the WDR underscores what good governance is about — the security of citizens and their increasing welfare. Its recommendations are aligned to a great extent with the literature on understanding conflict and the recurrence of violence and within that context the provision of economic opportunity. In short, its genius is to have stitched together a compelling story that helps us re-envision the challenge of fragility, conflict and violence in all types of countries and to try to change the international response.

Q. What are some options for international support, for any country now in violence?

We can’t use a cookie cutter approach. Now that we understand violence not only recurs but also mutates, we can no longer think of these situations as “post-conflict” for example, and this is a fundamental shift. The challenge is continuous and context specific, which means that helping a country after a catastrophe is hardly the way to “fix it” enough to allow it to go back to normal development. In fact, normal development for such a country should assume that the specter of violence remains and is sometimes elevated. Hence, we need to understand the context and know under what conditions the specter of violence gets elevated. If we say it takes a long time to create institutions that will help these countries resolve problems that trigger violence then our instruments need to respond to that long term need. Typically, most of our support tends to be 2 or 3 years, and it means that the ability to sustain support in a particular area, let’s say public finance or governance for 10 or 12 years in order to sustain robust institutions in challenging early phases is nearly impossible.

It means figuring out how to acknowledge the risk of inaction, to determine what to do about it and how to act in preventive ways. We have found that there is some evidence of volatility in funding going to certain countries. If there is a crisis in the news, a country tends to get lots of money, but if is simply going into crisis, it tends not to get funding until it hits the wall. Is this something that can be addressed so that deteriorating conditions, which are politically very difficult to discuss, can be dealt with timely and appropriately. One way around that is to have a long term perspective for every country, including the seemingly stable ones.[/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]

USAID Doing the Right Thing, Fifty Years and Counting

July 20, 2011

2 min read

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USAID Doing the Right Thing, Fifty Years and Counting

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Creative Associates International congratulates USAID for 50 years of hard work on behalf of the American people in battling hunger, poverty, desperation and conflict in the developing world, giving literally millions hope for a better future.

It is hard to imagine the state of the world today without the tireless leadership and commitment of the U.S. Agency for International Development to address the needs of millions in countless ways from rebuilding communities to providing education and health services and fostering a revolution in farming that helps to feed many.

For over 35 years—the better part of USAID’s half century of existence—Creative has been intricately involved in the implementation of the Agency’s investments that have quantitatively and qualitatively lifted up the world’s most marginalized and underserved populations. Among the projects implemented by Creative as USAID’s partner in building a more just world are the post-apartheid era reconciliation in South Africa, promotion of literacy among former Liberian combatants, and outreach to girls and women in Afghanistan to propel them toward self-sufficiency.

Creative salutes the courage and professional dedication of the many thousands of Americans who have selflessly and very ably served our country in the ranks of USAID—often in places others would dare not go. Without doubt, much remains to be done to improve the circumstances of those still struggling to establish democracy and achieve economic well-being through economic opportunity. Still, it is worth celebrating America’s tremendous breakthroughs and accomplishments over half century toward that objective led by USAID. Over the years, USAID’s work has contributed to the decline of poverty in many countries, helping some of the poorest countries to make great strides in education reform, reduce child mortality and curb the spread of HIV.

In many ways, USAID and its partners have acted in accordance with the American belief that with effort, commitment and leadership almost anything can be accomplished. Moreover, USAID’s work exemplifies the biblical teaching which states that, “to those whom much is given, much is required,” and shows American generosity and the American people’s commitment to fairness and opportunities for all. USAID’s accomplishments represent what is best in the American spirit with its hope and optimism that is so much admired the world over. Creative is honored to be a part of USAID’s important work and effort make a genuine difference in the lives of so many and looks forward to a continued partnership with USAID for the long-term.

Young USAID beneficiaries give the Agency a thumbs-up.

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MOROCCO: USAID’s ITQANE Project Praised in Parliament

July 13, 2011

1 min read

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MOROCCO:

USAID’s ITQANE Project Praised in Parliament

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]In a highly-charged context of striking teachers and changing exam dates, the Parliament’s May 11 session provided an opportunity for the Minister of National Education, Mrs. Latifa El Abida, to answer critical questions about Morocco’s education scene. Included among such crucial issues as management of the Baccalaureate exams period and the difficulties of implementing the Ministry’s Emergency Program in the field, the Minister praised USAID’s ITQANE Project as a real partner in the process of improving the quality of teaching in the Moroccan middle schools.

Parliamentarians had previously addressed questions to the Minister based on interest generated by ITQANE, specifically with regard to reducing student drop-out. Mrs. Latifa El Abida gave an overview of how the project supports the Ministry in implementing its Emergency Plan for Education (2009-2012) by improving the quality and relevance of education offered in middle schools across Morocco and increasing the fight against middle school dropout. She also emphasized the importance of joint actions taken by both Ministry and ITQANE teams in the field, attesting to the Project team’s hard work with Ministry counterparts.

Morocco IQTANE Staff

Project ITQANE staff.

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MOROCCO: Promoting a Student School Life Culture

July 13, 2011

5 min read

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MOROCCO:

Promoting a Student School Life Culture

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text] Abdelkader Ezzaki, Deputy Chief of Party of the ITQANE project

Dr. Abdelkader Ezzaki, ITQANE Deputy Chief of Party, during a visit to Creative’s Washington headquarters.

Even in Morocco where strong family traditions prevail, along with a national commitment that allots 25 percent of the country’s GDP to education, adolescents in the middle school years face immense challenges to completing school. These are the transition years; hormones are raging, boundaries are being explored and crucial dimensions on the pathway to establishing a stable identity and life direction are emerging.

“The middle school population is at a crossroads. They are adolescents and vulnerable,” said Abdelkader Ezzaki, Deputy Chief of Party of the ITQANE project, a USAID-funded education program that seeks to mitigate the critical factors causing middle school students to fail. “Middle school is a crucial time as it is a determinant of what direction an adolescent will pursue in terms of education and ultimately life,” said Ezzaki.

That said, in the 2009-2010 scholarly year, 380,000 students dropped out of school. And, in the 2008-2009 school term there were 859,000 repeaters. In sum, 1 in 5 Moroccan adolescents are drop-outs or school repeaters. These statistics have been worrisome enough for the Moroccan government to develop an Emergency Program for 2009-2012 to speed up education reform and improve education outcomes as dictated by Education Charter launched in 1999. ITQANE works within the education system to help the education ministry carry out reforms that will decrease the number of dropouts and school repeaters and improve student success rates.

Among these reforms is the commitment to promote a Vie Scolaire or school life culture which encourages participation in school clubs that provide kids with non-classroom activities where they can develop psycho-social skills, such as positive attitudes, sharing, listening, team work, and communication skills. These types of characteristics complement education instruction and help students identify the choices they must make to build lives. ITQANE hopes to help teachers develop skill sets that will further student culture by promoting learner-centered interactions that can help to identify a child’s interest and motivation to learn by doing. As such, the Vie Scolaire is a departure from Morocco’s primarily cognitive and rote learning tradition that rarely addresses adolescents’ psycho-social needs, and draws instead on directing students’ attention to also learning non-academic skills in creative way or learning collaboratively.

“When I was asked to participate in an initial club activity, I had no idea of the point of the exercise, but my school director insisted that I attend and, I thought to myself, I would not participate beyond the first session,” said Essaid El Ouarid, a professor at Lycée Ibn Abbad, an ITQANE target school. “Today, however, I feel privileged to have had the chance to participate in this excellent program that has immensely enriched me and enabled me to realize how simple things, actions, can lead to important changes for the students.”

A response to Morocco’s Emergency Program, the ITQANE project, or the Improving Training for Quality Advancement in National Education, is the latest project in USAID’s long-term investment in Morocco. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of State, ‘Morocco was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with the Government of the United States in 1777 and remains one of our oldest and closest allies in the region.’ In the past fifteen years, USAID has actively supported Morocco’s education sector and Creative Associates International has implemented several USAID-supported education projects bringing innovative and technically savvy interventions into the country. Among these interventions was the six year Morocco Education for Girls project, known as MEG, which integrated into its professional training modules Morocco’s first computer assisted teacher training program. Now, under ITQANE, some 21 teacher training modules developed over the last decade by various USAID implementers, including Creative, are being adapted for the teaching institutes to help make classroom instruction more flexible, and these modules are being transformed into e-learning training.

Young girl requesting permission to join school club.

“The need for training teachers is critical, especially middle school teachers — 60 percent of whom will retire in the next ten years,” said Kristen Potter, USAID’s education representative in Morocco. “This restructuring of teaching institutions and the focus on middle school students is an opportune moment for us [USAID and the Ministry of Education] to have real and lasting impact on the system.”

Beyond addressing cross cutting issues in the Program such as teacher education and an integrated youth strategy, both of which are critical to Morocco’s future, ITQANE’s other strength is its integration into the structure of Morocco’s Ministry of Education. This alignment of goals between ITQANE and the ministry bode well for the long-term continued impact of these interventions. In fact, the ministry contributes financially to some of the training interventions for teachers and school leaders, with the goal of improving performance in schools.

“International organizations bring not only resources but ideas to the Ministry of Education. For the education ministry, international projects are like the lungs within which the system breathes, opens up to new ideas,” said Ezzaki. “ITQANE is a masterpiece in reform, planning and design. It is a timely project, unlike others, it is a response to an institutional need from the MOE to support an ambitious program.”

Launched in April 2010, ITQANE now covers close to 200 middle schools in two pilot regions, Fez-Boulemane and Doukkala-Abda. In 2011, the project will extend interventions from middle schools in the two regions to selected provinces in another eleven regions. Formally apathetic towards school, students in the Vie Scolaire programs are reporting on its impact on them. “I did not know how to listen to others, which caused me many problems,” said a young boy at College Omar Ibn Khattab in Fez. “But, since I’ve been involved in these activities, my family has remarked that my attitude has changed; also, they [my family] too have changed their attitude towards me. So, I thought to myself that if I had received this guidance earlier, I would have avoided many problems. I hope that these activities will continue.”

ITQANE’s report card may not yet be ready for parents’ signatures, but anecdotal feedback from the team to teachers, students and school directors seems to bode well.

“Morocco needs several ITQANEs and more inspiration, faith and the dedication of everyone involved in education, especially teachers,” said Ezzaki. “You know, ITQANE, the acronym itself captures the essence and intelligence of the project’s goals. In Arabic, it means quality, mastery, excellence because we believe that this project is moved by values of quality, mastery, excellence and capability….a piece of the education culture we would like to provide, giving value to quality and for the sake of quality.”[/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]

KYRGYZSTAN: Social Pedagogues Set to Battle Inter-Ethnic Conflict in School

July 12, 2011

4 min read

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KYRGYZSTAN:

Social Pedagogues Set to Battle Inter-Ethnic Conflict in School

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Children perform during the “Festival of Nations” celebrations.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure says the old adage. For a few days last June in Kyrgyzstan, the politics of inter-ethnic tensions flared up spilling out into the most underserved communities. Though the outbreaks of violence subsided within days, it was clear that tensions remained and were simmering just beneath the surface, waiting for any small incident to spark further violence.

While an unlikely source to respond to such tensions, in August 2010, the USAID-funded Quality Learning Project, or QLP, provided the swift action that the situation demanded.

Managed and implemented by Creative Associates, QLP addresses broad education reform by putting in place systems that will improve learning, teacher education, curricula and budget allocation. In the aftermath of last summer’s events, QLP launched an additional initiative to ensure that schools would provide a safe space for children to learn by training teachers, administrators and community leaders in conflict resolution. As such, QLP was the first organization to directly address the issues of ethnic conflict and violence in Kyrgyz schools during this critical period.

“Training sessions were designed and conducted at just the right time. Sessions covered in the training were practical and important. To me, the training content is like helping a person who is searching for water in the desert, or how to provide medical treatment when a patient is ill,” said Amangeldi Asanov, principal of Manas-1000 school.

To ensure buy-in of all ethnic groups in the troubled areas, thirty trainers working in three languages — Russian, Kyrgyz and Uzbek — trained 2,300 participants in 420 schools. Training sessions included exercises and materials that provided participants with the skills to help guide a school through the difficult process of bringing students and communities together after ethnic conflict. Participants were provided with information about child behaviour during and after crisis situations. The session also provided specific competencies for school and community leaders on how to assist students and parents after emergency situations, and techniques on how to deal with stress in communities and schools. Participants included school principals and deputies, social workers, inspectors for juvenile offenders, local committees for youth affairs, District Education Boards, parent committees and social counsellors.

One year later, QLP has continued its school normalization process by introducing social pedagogues into schools to support teachers, administrators and community leaders to increase their capacity to address issues related to violence. Social pedagogy literally means leading the child. It is a pedagogy that is comprehensive emphasizing community learning and individual development that help instill cooperation and builds on various elements of a child-centered education. As such, social pedagogy implies that the upbringing of children is not simply the responsibility of parents but a shared responsibility of school and community.

Working in close collaboration with the Kyrgyz Ministry of Education and Sports, QLP helps train social pedagogues to identify students at risk and to support the development of appropriate interventions. Also providing safe school environments helps boost the legitimacy of the current transitional government in that it shows they can deliver basic services such as education. Given that last June’s outbreaks occurred primarily in the south’s Jalalabad Oblast, much of the training of social pedagogues has been concentrated there and in the settlements around Bishkek where many from the south migrated after the conflict.

Guests sample various ethnic foods during the “Festival of Nations” activities.

While it’s too soon to measure the full impact of the introduction of social pedagogues into schools, there are a few indications that the intervention is helping to mitigate the fear and suspicion levelled at each group – Russian, Kyrgyz and Uzbek — by the other. In addition to working with children, social pedagogues are organizing activities to bring the various groups together. The principal of School #2 in Nooken District, Malika Abduvahapova who is also the school’s social pedagogue initiated a “Festival of Nations” in which students who are normally separated during activities according to their native language built teams across language and ethnic groups and united under the common slogan, “We are all together!”

Situated in one of the 45 new settlements on the outskirts of Bishkek, the Orok School caters to the children of internal migrants whose families make less than $21 monthly. Built to serve 396 children, the school now has a population of 845. Gulnaz Mokishova is the school’s social pedagogue and received training from QLP last September. Among her interventions has been to identify four siblings whose mother is unemployed and the father an alcoholic and who were unable to attend school due to lack of adequate clothing. Mokishova organized a charity event and raised $250 to provide clothing and food to the children, all of whom now attend school regularly.

“Thanks to USAID’s QLP, I learned clearly my responsibilities as social pedagogue. Before I was not sure about my direct responsibilities and did not know what to do exactly…Now, I do enjoy my work since I make kids happier.”[/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]

EGYPT: Modern Teaching Practices Spur 15-Year Old to New Beginnings

February 24, 2011

3 min read

Safaa is 15 years old and lives in the small village of Abou Harb, 50Km north of Menia. Dropping out of school at 10 years old, she had received little education, and was intimidated by teacher attitudes. “I believe the school environment was the main reason I dropped out. Mainly, I didn’t feel that I was learning anything. Teachers preferred using force and intimidation instead of listening to the students. I wasn’t able to understand a thing during class, and was constantly so scared.”

Safaa passed from grade to grade due to a law that stipulates that a student cannot be held at the same grade level for more than 2 years. She was then transferred within the system to Abou Harb School, one of 44 primary schools in Menia governorate receiving USAID assistance through the Technology for Improved Learning Outcomes Project (TILO). Through TILO, USAID has provided school management, teachers, administrators and supervisors with intensive, hands on training on effective teaching methods (Student Centered Learning, Classroom Management, Critical Thinking) and leadership. Furthermore, each school is equipped with an effective technology model and a Digital Resources package, which aims at helping teachers integrate technology in learning to improve student-learning outcomes.

Safaa was apprehensive about returning to school, however the encouragement she received from the Abou Harb staff, social workers and students was overwhelming.

“I thought many times of going back to school, especially since my new school is very close to home. But at the time, my parents said I was too old to go back and that I’ll soon get married and have a home of my own. I still felt something missing from my life, and it was difficult for me to see my peers at the preparatory level going to school every day, while I stayed home.”

“School social counselors, Ms. Nadia Edward and Ms. Heba Hussein sent some 6th grade girls from the school to convince me to return. From them I heard of all the positive changes in the school such as computers, new programs, activities, and no intimidation by teachers.” Upon returning to school, Safaa was surprised by the changes in mindset, in teaching practice, and in the classroom environment as a whole. Although she was overwhelmed to be returning to the 6th grade after leaving school in the third, the changes she witnessed motivated her greatly to overcome her obstacles. “My first impression was my amazement with the class set up. The girls were sitting in groups, thinking together, discussing, and working as a team. No punishment, no intimidation, and everyone trying to help each other learn.”

Attending classes with teachers who have been well trained to integrate the use of technology in their everyday teaching, is a significant shift for most students and for Safaa, it was exactly what she needed to give her a new outlook on learning. “To my amazement, we spent our science lesson in the TILO lab, and the teacher demonstrated experiments on the computer. I was amazed and excited. I began to work on a computer for the first time in my life, using software called Crocodile. The following lesson was math, and we used the Geo-Gebra program. Since then, I decided to stay in school and challenge all obstacles before me. “

Safaa had the unique chance to tell her story to the USAID Mission Director, Mr. Jim Bever, on a surprise visit to Abou Harb School. “It was a really nice visit and had a huge impact on me. People came from such a far off place to visit our school, and spend time to talk to me! It really made a difference to me personally. I felt important and people were interested in listening to me and what I had to say.”

“I have something to say to every girl thinking of dropping out of school: you will regret every day you spend away from school and from learning, for the rest of your life. I am very happy and would like to thank everyone who helped me and encouraged me to return to school. “Thank you TILO for helping my school to change and for helping me to learn again.”

For additional information on the Creative Associates-implemented TILO project, please see Chief of Party Andrea Bosch’s article published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of International Education, “Introducing Learning Technologies into Egyptian Schools: Where There is Demand, There is a Way.”

www.tiloegypt.com

WEST BANK: Local Organizations Strengthen Effectiveness, Promising Tangible Community Services

February 23, 2011

4 min read

It’s a workday afternoon in Nablus City, seemingly like any other. Yet, at the Yalu Society for Development Studies office, representatives of eleven community-based organizations are developing their strategic and executive plans under the watchful eye of Shahnaz Jubran, technical team member of the Community Leadership Empowerment Program (CLEP). Funded by the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, the success of the CLEP program is due in great part because it promotes community-based needs.

Thanks to CLEP’s training in Strategic Planning and participatory application, sessions such as the one being led by Jubran are being replicated all over the West Bank. In Nablus, the Yalu Society focuses on income generating projects that promote economic empowerment for women and children, raising awareness of their political, social and economic rights. Its offices were refurbished by a CLEP in-kind grant in August of 2009. Today, seven women, several of whom are volunteers, join a member of the village council of Azmout in eagerly awaiting Jubran’s introduction to the strategic planning session. They met a week ago as a committee and now need to develop the various elements that will lead them to their first strategic plan incorporating vision, mission, strategic goals, objectives, and strengths among other requirements.

Now in its second month, CLEP’s second phase has generated remarkable dedication and commitment for Yalu participants and other community-based organizations. CLEP differentiates itself by not only providing training, but also by providing opportunities where these skills can be applied, such as in these strategic planning sessions. This emphasis on the linkages between training and application resonates with participants. This Creative-led strategic planning training is helping local organizations formulate a five-year strategic plan for the continuity of their services.

For Yalu’s director, Insaf Odeh, who is responsible for overall management including fundraising, program design, partner identification and resource management, hands-on Strategic Planning training is a very new experience. “We took a three-day strategic planning workshop in the past which was good but nothing like what we are doing now. We will actually have a five-year plan by February,” she said.

Today’s Strategic Planning session focuses on the institutional needs of partners to grow in proportion with their community’s demands and to promote a more robust and sustainable institutional capacity. Following this critical and participatory milestone, the community-based organizations will submit proposals for in-kind awards based on the plans they have drafted.

“Community-based organizations or “CBO’s” target grass roots groups (women, youth and children in remote areas). These are the institutions that provide these groups with services such as awareness-raising in specific issues; health, politics, economy and gender,” said Jubran. “Strategic Planning will help with sustainability and independence and raise awareness of the needs of the local communities and target groups. The sessions have helped CBO representatives learn more about participatory leadership and engagement. Volunteers, general assemblies and other local organizations are now involved in internal decision making.”

CLEP’s initial phase made grants available to 114 CBOs. Most organizations are first time grant recipients representing local governments, youth clubs and women’s groups often in remote communities with limited access to public services such as health, education and basic infrastructure. The success of the grants has generated a higher community demand for CBO services.

The Palestinian Child Home Institute serves the town of Bethany just three miles from Jerusalem through civic education for youth and women. There, young men are gathered for their second Strategic Planning session led by Creative’s technical advisor, George Akroush. “This second phase is true development work,” said Akroush. “We address participation and decision making in the design of the programs. Strategic planning itself is a process based on community needs rather than a document. It is the backbone of any organization that wants to help local society through designing responsive programs that meet community needs.”

For Mayor Sulaiman Al Assa of Obaydiyeh, a town at the lowest geographical point in Bethlehem district where sewage and rainwater naturally accumulate, rainwater collection and wastewater management are a priority for the municipality. “Strategic planning eases communication with potential donors and is teaching us to design need-based programs,” said Mayor Assa. He makes sure to attend each Strategic Planning session noting he is enthusiastic to finalize the strategic plan that includes municipal wastewater and other infrastructure projects to have a professionally crafted document to submit to various donors.

“I majored in management and have my own small business, yet, I have never been able to apply the theory I learned to real world scenarios,” said Ammar Ghabbash, a CBO member at the Bethany session. “Strategic planning is a requirement of donors that we didn’t know how to deal with in the past. It expedites the grant process. It has also helped the organization identify a real developmental plan.”

CLEP is funded through the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). MEPI is a unique program designed to engage directly with and invest in the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). MEPI works to create vibrant partnerships with citizens to foster the development of pluralistic, participatory, and prosperous societies throughout the MENA region. MEPI partners with local, regional and international non-governmental organizations, the private sector, academic institutions, and governments. More information about MEPI can be found at: www.mepi.state.gov.

– Jack Melcki

EGYPT: Dreams of a Village Preparatory School Realized Through TILO/DCGEP Intervention

February 23, 2011

3 min read

During a visit to Cairo in June 2009, President Obama told the Egyptian public, “I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous.” For the community of Ali Said Village, in the Nasser District of Beni Suef, some 70-miles from Cairo, landowner Azmy Hassan Said has made a tangible commitment to education in his community by donating a tract of agricultural land to build a village school. “I never had an education, but I am giving a chance to others,” said Hassan Said, after signing the land donation contract. Girls especially will benefit from having a school within safe walking distance.

The land in question is located in rural Beni Suef where farming provides for nearly all of a family’s needs. A lush area where small irrigation canals dot the land, much of which is planted with potatoes that farmer’s sell to potato chip factories. With little opportunity for farmers’ children to attend school beyond the six primary school years, land and farming is passed from one generation to the next. The challenge of not having a secondary school within walking distance has been a burden to parents and the community as a whole.

Yet, Hassan Said’s land donation was not serendipitous. The initiative came as a result of Community Outreach Training provided by the USAID-funded Technology for Improved Learning Outcomes (TILO) and its collaboration with the Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership (DCGEP). The TILO/DCGEP association is part of a larger mandate to introduce technology into Egyptian classrooms to enable students to navigate an increasingly globalized world in which computer literacy and knowledge are critical assets. In fulfilling its mandate, the TILO/DCGEP team has transcended expectations including evidence of lowering drop-out rates and in bringing communities together to identify gaps in educational services and by assisting in creating plans to solve challenges.

Led by DCGEP Rabab El Sayed, villagers learned at a meeting that the TILO/DCGEP team has had great outcomes with Community Outreach Training for some 60 schools throughout designated Egyptian communities. Like a ripple effect Sayed’s training has led to offers of land donation by others. In addition to Hassan Said, two more families came forward offering land to build additional schools. These families were upset that they hadn’t been contacted before Hassan Said, because they were the ones that had previously donated the land for the Ali Said School, and they want to contribute to building more schools in their village.

On December 28, 2010, Ali Said villagers gathered for the signing of the land donation raising parents hopes that their children will have a local high school to attend without fear of them walking a long distance to the district school, which caused many girls to discontinue their schooling for fear they would be harassed as they made their way through open fields on their journey to school. Making an unexpected appearance, Suzan Mohammed, a mass communication college student who formerly attended Ali Said School spoke to the Ali Said community.

“When I graduated from Ali Said School, I had very a torturous decision to make — whether to continue my education or put my safety at risk, because I would have to travel a long distant on a daily basis through those open fields. I chose the hard way,” said Mohammed. “When I got out of preparatory school, I faced the same problem, but I again chose the difficult and unsafe way. Now I am a college student and when I found out that my old school has taken the initiative to solve this problem that faces every girl in this village, I decided to come and speak out on behalf of all those girls, who you are giving a chance to continue their education. I thank you all!”

Asked if it was difficult to give away such a large sum (the land donated is estimated at 300,000 L.E.), Hassan Said noted that, “Whatever money I would get from selling this piece of land, I know that giving this money up is for a good cause, my credit with God will always be full.”

WEST BANK: CLEP in Action, Young Leader Envisions Future Through Strategic Planning Skills

December 3, 2010

3 min read

The New Ramallah Club is opening doors to opportunity for young Palestinians like Mohammed Hadia. A second year student at BirZeit University, Mohammad combines his study time with gaining leadership skills at the New Ramallah Club (NRC). You can find Mohammed at the NRC most afternoons. The NRC not only gives him access to computers and computer training that he needs to pursue a major in communications and media, but also offers an opportunity to serve his community.

Established by a group of young men and women in January 2009 and located at the heart of the city, this is one of the few urban youth clubs in the area. Mohammad’s uncle was one of the club’s pioneers. Energetic and bright, Mohammad has thrown himself into the club’s new ventures promoting sports and social activities, volunteer work, cultural events, summer camps and other youth events.

In October of 2009, the NRC received a grant of computer lab and office furniture from the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative’s Community Leadership Empowerment Program. CLEP is implemented by Creative Associates. Mohammad says the NRC is much more than a place to study because its outreach to the community helps him develop personally. Encouraged by a new strategic planning component of the Creative grant, Mohammad is planning to run for the NRC’s elected board to reinforce his own professional development.

Strategic planning and grant management are helping young members of this club broaden their knowledge and acquire new leadership skills for the future. “The new grant is necessary for the club. It creates new opportunities for youth and supports their development to lead the club in the future” says Sa’ed Al Natour, NRC’s chairperson. He adds: “The process of Strategic Planning helps club members apply what they learn in strategic planning to their practical lives whether in career or education. These young people’s involvement adds strategic value to planning activities and programs.”

CLEP’s participatory strategic planning phase began in August and now reaches 24 partners in 8 districts in the West Bank. The ‘Strategic Planning Phase’ is led by a committee of partners and community leaders. The Creative team accompanies the planning committee over a period of four months to produce a realistic strategic plan. This ensures that community members are fully engaged in the process and develop their leadership skills. Participatory planning allows each organization to realistically identify community needs, challenges, and opportunities in a working document that is owned by the entire community. Roles and responsibilities within the committee for project implementation are also reinforced.

Mohammad was one of three NRC volunteers at that first strategic planning meeting in the town of Salfit in the northern West Bank. Speaking with the other participants, Mohammed said, “You are talking about a living experience. I was very encouraged to attend and when I was told that Creative was going to help us with Strategic Planning.” He added that, “Strategic planning helps me in my life and career; I was very enthusiastic about this project. Had we been given a Strategic Planning course in high school I would have been better equipped to decide on my major in college. A strategic plan will also help me in my future career; how to decide what position I want to take and how to excel in my work. Life is built on the principle of strategic planning.” He concluded, “If I run for [club board] elections and know nothing it won’t work, but if I have a strategic plan this will help me.”

—Jack Melki, CLEP Communications Officer

This project is funded through the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). MEPI is a unique program designed to engage directly with and invest in the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). MEPI works to create vibrant partnerships with citizens to foster the development of pluralistic, participatory, and prosperous societies throughout the MENA region. MEPI partners with local, regional and international non-governmental organizations, the private sector, academic institutions, and governments. More information about MEPI can be found at: www.mepi.state.gov.

David Barth, the director of USAID’s Office of Education, speaks with Creative Times about Technology and Education

December 3, 2010

4 min read

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David Barth

the director of USAID’s Office of Education, speaks with Creative Times about Technology and Education

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Q: What benefits and caveats do you see with regard to the use of computers and information technology in educational reform and in the classroom?

Technology in education is highly contextual. One has to ask what technology – if any – is the most appropriate and accessible for what intended educational outcomes are fundamental questions, particularly in many of the low-resource countries where we are working. Even research in more developed countries, including the US., suggests that the utilization of technology in classrooms will not produce learning gains independent of time in the curriculum, proper integration into subject matter context, and teacher training There are indeed 21st century skills which classroom technology can facilitate – problem-based analysis, online collaboration, teamwork – but you would need creative learning opportunities and space within the curriculum within a classroom to maximize technology utilization in these areas. A particularly promising area where technology could prove extremely useful is in education system strengthening. For example, we are supporting the development of both national and school level education management information systems which can track school level administrative data, such as number of students at a school, teacher and student attendance, and other data points that can substantially improve school effectiveness and ultimately learning.

Q: Is USAID seeing a demand for this technology in schools from host countries? Are there recent examples of this that stand out?

Yes, in many of our countries there is keen interest in technology as these are seen as visible reference points of progressive and relevant 21st century skills development. One of our roles is in helping our country clients think about the associated total cost of ownership implications for various technology-supported interventions. We have a wide range of technology interventions that we have supported, from Interactive Radio Instruction in several African countries, the development of children’s television programming in Indonesia and elsewhere, and teacher training college and classroom ICT integration in Egypt, Jordan, Jamaica and Kenya just to name a few. We do insist that we will only fund technological solutions where the interventions are appropriate and where there is a demonstrated commitment to utilizing and maintaining systems. There are too many cases where technological solutions have been left to atrophy because of a failure to maintain and keep current a particular system.

Q: USAID’s implementing partners at times find it is difficult to get beneficiaries, who are just starting out with education technology, to focus on how the technology is used to improve learning or school management rather than just the infrastructure itself. Based on USAID’s experience, what is the best way to engage beneficiaries on this deeper level?

To start at the ground level in discussions with these partners and government stakeholders and to ask the fundamental questions identified above – what learning impacts are you hoping to obtain, what are your human, technical and financial resource constraints (total cost of ownership). And it is very important to assess the trade-offs. If we undertake this particular course, what are we NOT doing? Because of the relative newness of many of these programs, countries need to understand that results are not guaranteed. And without a more comprehensive program of reform, results from technology alone are not likely to be great.

Q: How has USAID used public-private partnerships to promote the effective technology in schools? Are there particular successes that come to mind? Are there cautions or limitations that readers should be aware of?

We are enormously excited by a number of current and proposed Global Development Alliance Partnerships with private sector organizations, including with Microsoft, Cisco and Intel. We are particularly proud of the models piloted in Kenya and now Tanzania, where these three organizations along with local partners have collaborated together to strengthen education programming. Being able to harness the vast experience of private providers has deepened our knowledge pool and is allowing for the flourishing of all manner of innovation. Interestingly, we find that much of the innovation is coming from our local partners. The private sector partners bring in brilliant ideas, but it is the local partners that help us understand how to put them to work for the benefit of their citizens.

Q: From your perspective, what are the main reasons why technology projects succeed or fail?

Individuals and organizations are keen to explore new approaches for education impact. Technology is often seen as a short-cut in this regard. As previously noted, it’s just one tool among many in bringing about improved learning outcomes. Its proper contributing role needs to be contextualized within a broader education framework and dialogue. In technology projects, the hardware and software typically represent 20-30% of your total project/program implementation costs. Countries fail to factor in teacher training, maintenance, upgrading, evaluation etc. They severely underestimate the cost of the programs and overestimate the immediate impacts.

Q: What role do you see donors playing in the future with regard to information technology in education?

Donors have a vital role in supporting innovative pilots, in helping evaluate program successes, and in disseminating the most current and useful information about the role of technology in education. We have the benefit of working in over fifty countries and have seen the programs that both success and fail. Donors can also play a pivotal role in helping to scale-up promising practices. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, donors can help broker the public-private alliances around technology that will provide the sustainability of the project long after our particular program has ended. If we can help in these three areas, we will have done well.[/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]

WEST BANK: Ban Saraf – In Pursuit of the Just King

November 29, 2010

5 min read

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WEST BANK:

Ban Saraf – In Pursuit of the Just King

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]It’s a sunny, breezy afternoon in Beirut. It is 1970 and the city is bustling with passers-by and the sound of various regional dialects. Business is booming and Beirut is seen as the hope of the Middle East. On this particular afternoon, there is no hint of the encroaching storm that will in a few years fracture the very foundations of the city. The Mediterranean Sea that borders the city’s coastline is glistening under the afternoon sun. A man about sixty walks along the seaside with a small bright eyed little girl, as they often do. While they stroll, the man recounts for the small girl the story of the Just King. The storyteller is captivating and the child listens intently. Photo Bio.

“I will always remember the stories he used to tell me about the Just King, probably it was from One Thousand and One Nights. From these stories I always realized I had to see the Just King within a just society or community,” said Ban Saraf, recalling her late father whom she describes as an ‘extremely pragmatic and spiritual person’ whose influence on her remains lasting. Growing up with Conflict.

Saraf, now heads a U.S. State Department-funded Middle East Partnership Initiative project in the West Bank and Jerusalem providing direct rapid-response support to Palestinian civil society organizations. “Our project is not a huge grant, it’s not a huge budget, however, especially in the West Bank, a lot of people are used to having sponsored infrastructure, roads, schools and what have you, they’re used to them. So, while there are huge road openings, our small lab literally in a small village where they have no computer access, no meeting place, becomes the source for a great deal of change,” said Saraf. “What we provide, and I am honored to do that, are the tools, including mentorship or in-kind grants.” In other words, the MEPI approach has enabled the community to make use of their ideas and move forward. “And, we’ve seen that in many communities, at many levels.” Thoughts on Father.

Neither a rebel nor conformist, Saraf is a realist with good common sense. That’s one reason she often encourages men to join training sessions and workshops. “The idea of gender should not be confused with women. Gender is understanding the level of conflict between men and women, and also the level of harmony, dependence and codependence. At one training, one man actually left the training, and I quote him literally, ‘he said, I didn’t know women had such a sense of leadership.’ He didn’t know, he wasn’t being sexist – he simply didn’t know.” Gender. In another example of MEPI’s success under Saraf, she refers to a 20-year old men’s club where women never went. “Suddenly, the club got a computer lab through Creative’s award, and some women started going there out of pure desperation, on off hours. Within six months, they, the women, started seeking membership and started a dialogue about the reason the club did not have a partnership with them. Now, the club is thinking of changing its name to the Women and Men’s Club, and that happened not because it was a criteria that we requested of them, but because they wanted it.”

Born in Iraq and the youngest of a family with 12 children, Saraf grew up mostly in Lebanon after fleeing the Saddam Hussein regime, when she was 8-years old. She came to the U.S. in her 20s and after earning a master’s degree in Culture and Society from Georgetown University, she founded a software company with her sister in Northern Virginia. “Unfortunately, the Iraq war happened and I watched it on TV like everybody else. Until that point, honestly and truly, I was established in the Washington area, I never thought I would do this work.” New Opportunities.

Saraf launched her development career during the reconstruction period in Iraq in 2003. Since then, she has created a niche for herself working in conflict and post conflict areas to resolve conflict in a more sustainable way through civil society. “It’s nothing that I planned, it’s very beautiful, I always knew there was a place that I was going to go to,” said Saraf referring to her current work in the West Bank and the development field in general. Working in the West Bank.

Over the years, she’s taken on some tough assignments working with communities and groups in volatile environments. She recalls a session she held after the recent local elections were cancelled in June. Feelings were high with a barrage of verbal exchanges as to who was wrong, who was right.

Though petite, Saraf is commanding and told those assembled that at 48-years old, she was probably the oldest in the room and so deserved to be heard. They accepted. “I told them rather than fuel tensions about having to make a point of who is right or wrong, the objective, to start with, was to hear the other. They understood that they had a space to speak. In the evaluation that followed, they noted that dialogue does not negate reality. Honestly, what works is common sense and truly appreciating each group’s point of view while keeping the real objectives in mind. And the objective can’t be rhetorical and just seek “buy-in,” that’s cliché; it has to come from members of the community. That’s what’s doable.”

As proof that the community has embraced the goals of the West Bank project, Saraf says that in some cases grantees put the Creative and MEPI logo at the front of their computer lab, which MEPI supported. “We never ask for that.” Understanding a Region.

The morals and lessons from the stories she remembers from her walks along the shore with her father remain with Saraf to this day. She wisely points out that development is a long and continuing process, “In a sense there is no end to development, there is only progress. There is development within the NGO and the community it serves, because there are always new demands that come about.”

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