Communities, Authorities find common agenda in liberated Syria

December 1, 2021

By Dennis Bailey

4 min read

Community dialogue sessions spur formation of Detainee Affairs Offices in Syria’s liberated areas

When the Syrian regime detained someone, their families were not told why the arrests occurred, where the person is detained or how to get information. Even today in liberated areas, most Syrians remain afraid to ask authorities about the whereabouts of their loved ones.

“People were reluctant to speak up,” said a representative of a community-based organization in Raqqa, Syria. “There was an ingrained fear from living under the previous regime that anyone who criticizes the government will be detained, or that neighbors will see them as collaborating with the Syrian Democratic Forces.”

The Syrian opposition-led Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria (AANES) is trying to change that in Raqqa and elsewhere. Local Syrian actors established the autonomous region in 2017 to govern areas recently liberated from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The AANES quickly established a new Internal Security Force (ISF) to provide basic public safety and security in these newly liberated areas, establishing community dialogue forums to promote their new community policing approach.

These community dialogue forums aim to help the ISF better understand the day-to-day security needs and concerns of communities in which they now operate. Working through local community based organizations and the U.S. State Department-supported Al Rashad project, local families overcame their initial reluctance to meet with security actors and brought their concerns to these dialogue sessions.

Held in September 2021 and facilitated by 10 local organizations, 51 community dialogue sessions provided residents with the opportunity to openly discuss their security concerns directly with the ISF. These included commonplace issues, the role of the security force, its performance and shortcomings, drugs, delinquency, and traffic, but also tougher questions about detainees.

The International Security Force’s leadership listened. On Sept. 30, the ISF announced the establishment of five Detainees’ Affairs Offices in Raqqa, Hasakah, Qamishli, Kobani and Manbij. These offices now allow the families and the legal representatives of the detainees to get answers about arrests, which establishes transparency and accountability that provide a measure of relief for worried family members.

“Our community has been suffering from absence of family’s members and relatives, the absence which may be due to the arrest by the ISF, or due to a security incident such as kidnapping or criminal act,” said the Head of Raqqa Internal Committee, the civilian governance body that oversees the Internal Security Force, who asked not to be name for security reasons. “The establishment of this office is crucial to provide clarity for the families in case their people are detained, and in case they were absent, the ISF takes its mandated actions in the search and follow up.”

Since 2018, Al Rashad has worked to bolster security in Northeast Syria by addressing urgent security concerns and by building the capacity of police to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS. Al Rashad uses a community policing approach, a novel concept in a country where, for the past 40 years, the police have been seen as the backbone of the state intelligence and a key tool of regime oppression.

The need to transform the Internal Security Forces into civilian policing organizations by adopting the community policing principles was recognized and eagerly grasped by ISF’s leadership. They partnered with Al Rashad to design and deliver security services that respond more directly to the population’s needs, even establishing civilian oversight over the security sector. Simultaneously, Al Rashad improves the police’s professionalism by training them on the community policing approach and on other technical policing topics.

As a result, Al Rashad and its local security partners have rehabilitated 31 miles of streetlighting, installed 122 traffic lights and held more than 50 community dialogue sessions on security needs between local leaders and the police. Al Rashad has also trained more than 8,000 police officers in Northeast Syria on community policing topics, including human rights and respect for minorities. In addition, as a direct response to community dialogue sessions in Tabqa, the Democratic Council for the Administration of Autonomous Tabqa passed new legislation in March to end the practice of child labor and mandate punishment for parents and employers who violate this legislation.

The dialogue sessions, which involve up to 20 participants and last four hours, have received positive feedback from Al Rashad’s partners and the field team. But the need to continue such dialogues and initiatives is still present. Discussions around the establishment of another Office of Detainees Affair office in Deir Ezzor and Tabqa are ongoing.

“The establishment of the office is a progressive step and shows the importance of the role of the civil society in facilitating dialogs with the local authorities,” said another community-based organization member. “This step encourages us as civil society and our community to speak up and continue advocacy efforts.”

The great digitization of learning

October 26, 2021

By Ayan Kishore

2 min read

A growing community of education technologists have tried to bring the promise of technology for teachers, students, and caregivers to fruition for decades.

Digitizing learning materials and making them available to beneficiaries can dramatically improve at scale student learning time, parental engagement, teacher training and reading outcomes for students. Yet, these interventions have been on the fringes of international education, particularly in development programming.

All this changed in 2020.

The pandemic shuttered schools globally, and digital was perhaps the only way education could continue. Governments scrambled but adapted quickly, with ministries putting out blended learning policies and setting up and growing their EdTech staffing.

We have seen an epoch of massive digitization of school learning content. In addition to doubling down on existing TV and radio distance learning initiatives, governments also set up new digital learning channels such as learning management systems and virtual meeting communications.

Every Creative education program pivoted, and project staff and teachers upskilled to fill gaps. Learning and training content was digitized and distributed via WhatsApp in Mozambique, eLearning courses and video in Morocco, SMS and radio in Nigeria, and IVR in Ethiopia for example.

There was crucial behavior change beyond the tangibles. The persistent resistance to technology in education was rapidly overcome with forced digitization. Teachers learned how to use distance learning, communication and administrative technologies for reaching and supporting their students. They also gained first-hand experience in learning with technology by receiving professional development virtually.

There is still much to be done.

Some of the rapid changes have missed the EdTech field’s learnings on best practices. What makes for good accessible digital learning content? How does one effectively deliver blended learning across multiple channels? How can learning be assessed remotely?

Much of the digital content is currently inaccessible to the marginalized: people with disabilities, people in remote areas without connectivity, those who cannot afford devices, and so on. The digital divide has become a significant barrier to education equity.

The question on many minds is whether the digital changes brought about by the pandemic will stick. I think so, and so do most country governments.

They are clear about a permanent future of hybrid or blended learning that complements in-person with digital channels, creating for a more resilient education system. Structural capacity is being built, and human spirit has been instigated to find a way.

This is the start of the global era of the Great Digitization of Learning.

We, along with international education colleagues affiliated with the Basic Education Coalition conducted a survey at the turn of this year with 12 developing country governments to understand how they have used education technology to adapt during the pandemic, and their concerns and hopes for the future. You can read the brief report here.

Tapping on culture to promote sustainable development

October 21, 2021

By Semere Solomon

3 min read

Culture is a broad concept and can sometimes be controversial. It embodies who we are, how we perceive our surroundings and how we interact as a society. Culture can influence the course of human progress and has a symbiotic relationship with sustainable development.

Culture has been used to both build empires and raze them to the ground. The obsession with cultural supremacy can create chaos and anarchy, like we saw in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It can also be the driving force behind military action and subjugation of races — the colonization of Africa, the rise of Nazi Germany and the annihilation of indigenous people across the Americas are cases in point.

Culture can also be liberating. For example, culture played major roles in liberating human beings from the servitude of feudal land ownership, spurred the industrial revolution, and drove the revolution to make France a republic.

An understanding of culture can help us harness it as a tool for progress.

Sustainable development depends on culture

I believe that communities who take pride in their culture, identity, history, values and norms are likely to make sustained, albeit slow, progress.

Culture is an effective instrument in building a good governance structure based on societal values and norms. In many developing economies or traditional societies in Africa, traditional governance systems, such as councils of traditional leaders, provide a cohesive connection between local communities and the central government. This link can serve as a support system for sustainable development.

Norms and values anchored in national pride, consensus building, respect for one’s identity, respect for diversity and constructive dialogue can create stable and resilient communities. Norms and values that strongly advocate representation and inclusion can be liberating and constructive. They can solidify and set progress in motion.

There can never be human progress — social, economic, political — when fellow human beings are treated unequally. We can see this with the caste system in India, the subjugation of indigenous communities and the practice of systemic racism in the United States.

Culture Action Europe maintains that the concept of sustainability should add culture as a factor on top of the normally accepted three-pillar paradigm: economic, environmental and social.

It perceives culture as an essential ingredient to create collective narratives, consolidate communities and foster diversity as an essential element in sustainability. It also recognizes it as possessing a transformative power crucial for building a sustainable future for all.

Economic and social development is unsustainable when it does not bring people to the center of the process and when it is not responsive to their social and economic needs.

Applying culture to education development

In the education development sector, it is incumbent upon us to understand that education should be responsive to local needs and culture.

The curriculum should reflect the environment and socio-cultural setting to make it relevant and appealing to pupils. For example, promoting the mother tongue as a medium of instruction in the early grades helps better address children’s educational needs.

The curriculum may also need to be responsive to the skilled labor needs of their surroundings. For instance, communities living along the coastlines, where fishery is the mainstay of their economy, need to learn how to increase productivity in the fishing industry and not forestry or subsistence farming. Netmaking, boat manufacturing, fish preservation, and fish export, for example, are far more relevant.

The curriculum should also address harmful social norms such as traditional societies’ attitude towards women and other marginalized groups, the caste system, and attitudes towards science.

Programs that used religious text to combat gender inequality have been very successful in several countries. Education programs that recruit more female teachers are likely to encourage girls in traditional societies to attend school.

Making education relevant to the needs of society is one way of ensuring sustained social and economic progress.

To read the full publication, please click here.

Semere Solomon is the Senior Director of Creative’s Africa Strategy and Program Director of Northern Education Initiative Plus education program in Nigeria.

Moroccan Ministry and USAID Empower Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Grade Schoolers During Pandemic

September 23, 2021

By Mounya El Asri and Laila Khana

2 min read

The broadcasted sign language courses benefit thousands of deaf and hard-of-hearing primary school students by teaching them different subjects in sign language such as Arabic, French, mathematics, and science

Atika El Alaoui is the mother of eight-year-old twins who were diagnosed with hearing loss before their first birthday.

When Moroccan schools closed during the pandemic, Atika grew concerned that her children, Saad and Fahd, would fall behind in their education, especially because Atika isn’t proficient in sign language.

“I could never learn how to communicate with Saad and Fahd properly or help them with their school homework, as I am illiterate and [have] not mastered sign language,” she says.

Atika feels a sense of relief that the twins aren’t limited or deprived of educational resources during the pandemic. (Photo By: Laila Khana)

But, in an effort to keep deaf and hard of hearing students learning at home, the U.S. Agency for International Development partnered with the Ministry of Education, through the National Program for Reading, to create courses taught in Moroccan Sign Language for Grade 1 through 6 students.

Since May 2020, the courses have aired on Moroccan television, as well as on TelmidTice, an education platform managed by the Ministry.

Atika felt relieved that her twins weren’t deprived of educational resources during the pandemic because of their different learning abilities.

“I thought that because they can’t hear, it would be impossible for them to learn through the phone and television, like other students,” she says. “Thanks to this new sign language program and teachers’ efforts, my twins were able to follow along with the school program successfully.”

The broadcasted courses benefit thousands of deaf and hard-of-hearing primary school students by teaching them different subjects in sign language such as Arabic, French, mathematics and science.

Atika says the sign language courses are also helping her communicate with her children.

“With the help of the distance learning Moroccan Sign Language program, I feel that I can start learning the basics of sign language, too, and better communicate with my twins,” she says.

Reading for Success Program Replaces Morocco’s Early-Grade Arabic Curriculum

August 11, 2021

By Daniel Lynx Bernard

4 min read

Over 4.4 million one through six graders throughout 24,000 schools are expected to build their reading and comprehension skills using the updated curriculum

A cooperative effort between the United States and Morocco to reimagine the teaching of literacy in the early grades reached a major milestone this spring, as educators throughout Morocco convened to finalize a revised Arabic Language curriculum for grades 1 through 6.

When U.S. Agency for International Development and Creative Associates International delivered the final curriculum to Morocco’s Ministry of National Education in late June, it was the culmination of seven years of intensive cooperation between the U.S. and Morocco in a series of projects called Reading for Success: Small Scale Experimentation and National Program for Reading.

A response to Morocco’s longstanding struggle with reading performance, the Reading for Success projects aimed to give teachers what they need to accelerate children’s acquisition of reading and writing through highly interactive activities such as storytelling, movement and role-playing.

Fourth-grader Zeinab, left, reads a USAID-provided booklet to her classmate Khouloud while attending grade school in Kenitra, Morocco last April. (Photo: Daniel Lynx Bernard) Photo by: Daniel Lynx Bernard

“I am thrilled that we finally reached this significant milestone of producing a new Arabic language curriculum for primary schools which corresponds to the new vision for the education system,” the Ministry’s Curriculum Director, Fouad Chafiqi, said during the workshop on June 17. “I consider this a real accomplishment comparing how the curriculum was in 2017 and how it turned out.”

In late July, Morocco’s Minister of Education, Saaid Amzazi, approved the curriculum and decreed that it will be used nationwide starting in fall 2021.

After a research phase, Reading for Success activities launched in 2015 with a pilot project, Reading for Success-Small-Scale Experimentation, that tested a phonics-based approach to strengthen reading in first and second grade in four regions of Morocco.

The Reading for Success program then expanded the pilot to third and fourth grade, before scaling up the revised curriculum nationwide for grades 1 through 4 in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years.

Reaching out at the local level, the project empowered principals and teachers to take leadership in literacy. As teachers reported that the new materials and methods were clearly effective at raising students’ reading fluency, the Ministry asked U.S. Agency for International Development and Creative to expand Reading for Success to include fifth and sixth grade. The revised curriculum for grades 5 and 6 was scaled up nationwide at the beginning of 2020-2021 school year.

More than 1,000 inspectors were prepared as trainers and then trained over 93,000 teachers in public and private elementary schools throughout Morocco. The program institutionalized the new reading approach by integrating it into pre-service training for teachers and teacher trainers.

Lamia Fares, who trained teachers in Morocco’s Souss-Massa region, says she emphasizes to teachers that they can ignite students’ enthusiasm if they use methods that are original and fun.

“Personally, I tried to convey this experience in the context of teacher training and trained my teacher-trainees on how to teach reading in innovative, enjoyable, and effective ways,” Fares said. “In most follow-up meetings, the teachers expressed their satisfaction with the new approach and the impressive results achieved by their students. More students have become masters of reading and oral communication in standard Arabic. They participate enthusiastically in story reading sessions and even produce remarkable writing texts.”

Harnessing the reach of technology, the program is equipping the Ministry to design massive online open courses to introduce the new curriculum to both future teacher candidates and practicing teachers through pre-service and in-service training.

The program also provided 100 supplemental reading materials through a digital library and engaged sign language interpreters to produce 600 Moroccan Sign Language video lessons reaching 4,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

At the end of the project, over 4.4 million first- through sixth- graders in more than 24,000 public and private schools are expected to have improved reading and comprehension skills using the updated materials.

At the national validation workshop in June 2021, which included the national curriculum director and representatives of U.S. Agency for International Development and Creative, academic inspectors from all 12 of Morocco’s regions reviewed and provided final recommendations on the grade 1 to 6 curriculum.

The culmination of the Reading for Success program, the workshop also reflected the authentically collaborative nature of the project, which engaged language and pedagogy experts and educators in testing and refining the curriculum.

Looking to the future, the program places Morocco in a better position to track the performance of students and schools.

The program trained first through fourth-grade teachers in setting benchmarks, and 66 evaluation experts were trained to build the capacity of Ministry staff in designing and conducting evaluations.

Mounya El-Asri contributed to this article.

Vaccines for livestock go a long way in ensuring food security in Northeast Syria

August 9, 2021

By Janey Fugate

5 min read

Fayez Jasim Al-Faris holds a brown and white sheep while a veterinarian pulls apart the animal’s thick wool to reveal a small patch of skin. Quickly, the vet administers a potentially life-saving vaccine to the animal before releasing it to run back to the rest of the herd.

Living in a remote village in Deir Ezzor, a province in Northeast Syria, Fayez is making a living as a livestock farmer in one of the most difficult environments on earth. War, drought, and poverty over the last decade have made it increasingly difficult for farmers to sustain operations.

When the Syrian Revolution erupted in 2011, Fayez lost half his flock as conflict drove feed and supply prices too high for him to continue farming. He was forced to sell over 50 animals to provide for his family. A few years later when ISIS moved into his village, he and his family fled, quickly eating through their savings. When they returned, they struggled to make ends meet.

But through a local organization called Sam for Development, Fayez received vaccines and veterinary care for his remaining flock, as well as training and agriculture inputs to begin growing his own alfalfa to provide for the animals. Since receiving Sam for Development’s support, his flock has expanded to include six new goats and five more sheep.

“After this project, especially due to the technical consultations, my skills and experience improved,” says Fayez. “I now can identify and combat diseases.”

Sam for Development is a grantee of the Agriculture and Livelihoods Stabilization Partnerships (ALSP) program, which implements agriculture and livelihoods projects primarily through Syrian civil society organizations in the Northeast. Through bringing capacity building and funding to these local groups, ALSP has directly impacted over 20,000 people living in difficult situations.

Food security is a major area of emphasis for ALSP. According to a report from the FAO, in the first three years of the conflict, sheep numbers declined by 45 percent, goats by 30 percent, cattle by 40 percent and poultry by 55 percent.

“When we help the farmers and support them to continue, we stabilize not only the farmers’ business but the food security of the region,” says Mesud Ahmed, Senior Program Manager for ALSP.

Chicken Run: Saving the poultry industry

ALSP’s work with vaccinations became suddenly more urgent at the end of 2019 when a deadly disease began quickly spreading through the region’s poultry farms. Called the Newcastle virus, the disease is deadly for birds and threatened the livelihoods of poultry business owners in an already fragile region.

Overwhelmed and with no funding from the Self-Administration of North East Syria’s (SANES) Ministry of Agriculture, the NGO Humanitarian Coordination in Raqqa reach out to ALSP and other INGOs working in the country for aid. Because poultry is a primary source of protein for the region, the need was dire.

The ALSP team then coordinated sending vaccination mobile clinics to the thousands of major poultry farms, working with other organizations in the region to deliver.

“We targeted commercial poultry farms that if we didn’t support them, then it was going to have a major effect on the food security of that community,” Hind Audsley, Chief of Party says.

For Newcastle and other common diseases that affect livestock, the project has administered more than 450,000 dosages of vaccines to livestock owners across Deir Ezzor and Raqqa, successfully preventing a total collapse of the poultry industry in the Northeast.

After this initial slew of vaccines, ALSP recognized how critical assisting these businesses was for the region, so they continued to support the poultry industry, providing fodder, equipment and support in necessary renovations.

“We decided to continue it because it was really about securing the livelihoods of these farmers,” says Audsley. “But also, it really ensured the [region’s] food security, the protein, that needed to be delivered at affordable prices for the Northeast.”

Building trust after years of war

Aside from supporting farmers through providing vaccines, ALSP has worked in a range of other agricultural activities, including beekeeping, potato farming, tunnel gardening and irrigation. But supporting families with technical assistance is only half the battle, reaching villages where they live is another.

“We specifically targeted villages that are hard to reach and that other organizations have not yet gone to or don’t want to,” says Audsley. “In Deir Ezzor most of them are returnees, so those villages haven’t yet been engaged.”

Many of these remote villages are still living under fear of threat from ISIS and other militant groups, distrusting any outside aid or presence. Ahmed says that bringing aid in the form of vaccines, for instance, builds community trust and serves to lay the groundwork for future interventions.

“Because in some regions we cannot go and start with capacity building and peace building,” he says. “They are recently liberated from ISIS, they are afraid… So, you have to provide something material.”

Tribal differences and long-standing cultural barriers add another layer of complexity. The region is ethnically diverse and ALSP relies on its Syrian staff’s understanding of how to navigate these differences.

“We try to understand the tribe’s mentality,” says Ahmed. “We try to understand the security atmosphere and build rapport there.”

‘We belong to each other’

The root of ALSP’s work is a belief that development in a post-conflict zone works best when programs respond to the most immediate needs that the people themselves identify, with an eye to sustainability.

Across Northeast Syria’s rural communities, stabilizing the agriculture industry through vaccines and tunnel gardens, advocacy for fair market prices and technical support, are giving farmers ground to stand on, grow in. In all cases, working within the context is the heart of Creative’s approach in Syria.

Ahmed, a Syrian from the Northeast himself, says it best:

“We have the context in order to help the people,” says Mesud Ahmed. “You all belong to them and they belong to you.”

In Morocco, Teachers Help Choose the Benchmarks For Measuring Reading Success

August 5, 2021

By Daniel Lynx Bernard

3 min read

Fifty-five Moroccan teachers engaged in the workshop-training to share ideas and set benchmarks that monitor students’ literacy performance.

A new intensive workshop welcomed teachers to have a seat at the table with Morocco’s Higher Council of Education to decide on measures of success and consider teaching techniques that will build students’ Arabic listening and reading comprehension skills.

Second-grade teacher Safia Al Ifriki was excited to help decide how to measure progress under the new reading and writing curriculum. (Photo: Mounya El Asri)

Safia Al Ifriki, a second grade teacher, was one of 55 teachers who engaged in the workshop-training.

“This is the best training I have received in 25 years,” Al Ifriki said.

Al Ifriki said she saw clearly how students’ performance evaluation was relevant to her work as a teacher.

“When teachers know the content and performance standards, they can produce texts that adapt to students’ levels and make learning a better experience for pupils,” she said. “I promise I will share my new skills with other teachers for the betterment of our students.”

Typically, the Ministry of National Education decides standards for measuring success, but the Morocco Higher Council of Education and Training is changing the educational framework, as in 2008 it identified that the educational system was weak and students’ literacy rates were below average because of poor standards and benchmarks.

In July, a new effort invited teachers to join the ministerial offices to help create education benchmarks. The pilot initiative, which is under the National Program for Reading, is on par with guidance from the Evaluation Capacity Building activity and international best practices.

Over 50 instructors from four regions in Morocco convened during a benchmark workshop to set desired goals and concrete indicators that measure students’ progress, alongside 10 inspectors and three teacher-trainers. The U.S. Agency for International Development–funded workshop supports Morocco’s already existing strategies for educational reform.

Karen Tietjen, a Principal Technical Advisor with Creative Associates International, says that the new system of including teachers will enhance current efforts and create ideas for new methods.

“The Ministry of Education can develop its curriculum, teacher-learning materials, tools and techniques, teacher professional development program, and other instructional interventions based in part on a robust set of learning standards and benchmarks,” says Tietjen.

Over 50 instructors from four regions in Morocco convened during a benchmark workshop to set desired goals and concrete indicators that measure students’ progress, alongside educational leaders such as the Ministry of National Education. Photo by: Mounya El Asri

She adds that instructors are going to also be thoughtful about chosen curriculum, posters and other material that’s displayed around their individual classroom and other educational tools used to teach students.

“Teachers can backward-map from the standards and benchmarks to determine the necessary [learning plan],” she says.

She adds that teachers like Al Ifriki are more enthusiastic about implementing new protocols since they are involved in the process.

“When you empower teachers, you motivate them. And then they are much more accepting of trying new techniques,” says Tietjen. “That shows an appreciation of what teachers do and considers what they’re capable of.”

Mounya El-Asri contributed to this article.

Gardens and sewing machines

June 23, 2021

By Janey Fugate

4 min read

Fateem Ahmad Al-Hussein and her family were struggling to make ends meet even before war broke out in Syria. When ISIS arrived in her village in the northeastern province of Deir Ezzor, Fateem, her husband and their children fled. Unable to survive in the overcrowded and under-resourced Al-Hasaka City, they returned to their village a few months later.

Tragically, on their return Fateem lost two of her children to ISIS terrorists. Like many Syrians, she had no recourse and was left to care for her grandchildren in the village.

Several years later, the region was liberated, and a Syrian NGO called Bedaya came to her village to offer agricultural services. Bedaya, a grantee organization of the Agricultural and Livelihoods Stabilization Partnerships (ALSP) program, selected Fateem for a training program in tunnel gardening.

Tunnel gardening offers an efficient and low-cost way to grow vegetables in a difficult, desert environment. After learning management and growing techniques, Fateem started growing cucumber, zucchini, okra and eggplant for her family’s consumption and to sell at market.

She’s been expanding ever since, quadrupling her income and adding five more vegetables to her repertoire. Now, she covers her family’s needs and pays for her grandchildren’s schooling.

Growing vegetables became much more than a livelihood, she says. Her garden has become a source of psychological stability and an emotional release.

Locally driven development

Fateem is one of over 20,000 people in Northeast Syria that ALSP has reached through livelihoods support, skills-training and other agricultural activities.

Funded by the German Federal Foreign Aid office and implemented by Creative, ALSP provides grants and technical support to community-based organizations like Bedaya in target communities in Northeastern Syria. Working to improve agricultural productivity and bring more economic opportunities to people in the region, the organizations are engaged in a range of activities, from small-scale vegetable production like Fateem’s garden to commercial olive tree cultivation, and from beekeeping to sewing clinics.

ALSP is unique in the region in that it works in remote villages that other international organizations have yet to access. To do this, they rely on local staff who know these communities and their dynamics.

“In Deir Ezzor, most of [the people we work with] are returnees and they haven’t had assistance for a long time,” says Hind Audsley, Chief of Party for ALSP. “For an NGO to be successful they really need to understand the local dynamics and have some sort of a connection with local leaders to gain access to and approval to provide assistance to returnees since this can cause conflict within the host community.”

Fostering local relationships goes a long way in building trust after a decade of war. ALSP and its local NGO partners rely on practical assistance in the form of workshops and agricultural support to lay a foundation for future work and development in the region.

“But because of the war and ISIS they lost many things, so we start to revive their business and their lands,” Mesud Ahmed, Senior Program Manager for ALSP.

Skills training in refugee camps

In addition to working in rural villages, the program also focuses on several of the region’s camps, which are now home to thousands of displaced persons.

There, ALSP partners with local organizations to offer vocational training in areas such as computer repairs, home repairs, car mechanics, house carpentry, and sewing, providing people the opportunity to learn a skill to generate income for their families.

For women like Iman Ali Al-Ali, a mother and IDP, these skills trainings have become a lifeline. Iman and her family of six were forced to evacuate their home several times over the last decade. Finally, after their town was attacked in 2019, they arrived in the Tel Al-Samen Camp. There, Iman learned about a sewing course offered through an ALSP grantee organization.

“I learned how to take regular measurements, how to cut and assemble cloth,” she says. “I started making bags and then larger bags to store clothes.”

Iman also attended sessions on how to financially manage projects by calculating production cost, and how to promote her products through advertising.

“After participating in the vocational training, I became really motivated to work,” says Iman. “Today, I am able to provide a source of income, even if it is little, to meet the needs of my children and become self-sufficient.”

ALSP has facilitated trainings for 72 people in IDP camps. Forty percent of the participants found jobs as a result, which is a high rate given the lack of employment opportunities in the region.

By offering vocational trainings, support to local organizations via small grants and technical assistance, ALSP is laying the groundwork for broader change in a region ready for change after a decade of devastating violence.

“When you increase people’s capacity and improve their business, you are also indirectly preventing the militarization of society and limiting school dropouts.”,” says Mesud. “So, when we do these stabilization efforts, we increase the capacity of families and farmers so that indirectly also we support the children, families and everyone in the region.”

The laboratory that has been the pandemic year

May 28, 2021

5 min read

The last year has seen major setbacks in global development brought about by the pandemic. Through the year, the Creative Development Lab shared concerns in remote education, the infodemic and more. Yet, as history has shown, global crises, like COVID-19, often bring to focus challenges and spur innovation. The following are reflections from Lab members on potential lasting change to development work that the last year has brought about.

Equity

“While everyone was impacted directly or indirectly by the pandemic, the narrative that the pandemic was somehow an equalizer proved to be patently false. The pandemic laid bare vulnerabilities and put inequities into stark relief that had we not been shaken likely would have continued in the status quo. In the U.S., we saw these inequities in risk exposure, access to testing, relief, and now vaccines,” reflects Joel Masselink, the Lab’s geospatial and data services lead.

It is no surprise that we are seeing even more focus on the marginalized in international development work. In the tech industry, there is a reckoning, and Silicon Valley is growing a conscience. In the years to come, this will perhaps be reflected on as a time that led tech workers to change the industry and digital product evolution to confront race and gender bias, data privacy, internet addiction and other issues.

Digital divide

As human lives became more digitally dependent worldwide, it exposed the glaring current divide in access to digital—internet, mobile connectivity, devices, electricity, etc. Closing this gap has become a common priority and rally for governments, the private sector and the development industry. For example, programming for resilience in international education has become partly dependent on bringing connectivity for distance education.

“COVID-19 has changed spending on telecoms to embrace new infrastructure models that will make last-mile connectivity more affordable. The shift in traffic coming from business centers to households is pushing governments to revive rural household connectivity agendas. New sources of funding are being made available by governments and multilaterals to fill connectivity gaps,” says Leo Senai, the Lab’s key liaison for the Communities in Transition Division. And even where there is abundant access, the information is often incredibly unreliable.

The rapid spread of disinformation has put pressure on governments and the private sector to respond.

(Dis)information Resilience

Four to five years ago, there was an awakening about a global disinformation problem amplified like never before by social media. Over the years, there have been counter messaging activities funded and pressure on social media giants to control disinformation.

Despite the efforts, 2020 saw a dramatic rise in disinformation globally related to the pandemic, elections and other issues, insufficiently curtailed by social media companies. This has led to the realization that disinformation is here to stay, and we need to focus on preparing young people, journalists, governments, businesses and civil society around the world to be resilient to disinformation by imparting digital and media literacy.

There are examples of investments in digital literacy to limit the spread of disinformation working, such as in Taiwan, which incorporated media literacy lessons into its national curriculum from 2017 and has successfully weathered the pandemic and a national election, despite being the number one target for foreign disinformation in 2020.

Amanda Quinn, the Lab’s Data and Media Analyst and a fan of the Digital Minister of Taiwan, shares that “the increasing focus on the infodemic and how people consume information, especially on social media, makes me hopeful that there will eventually be an appropriate response from technology companies, development implementers, policy makers and others.” While social media has been rife with disinformation, it has also provided an avenue for empowering virtuous content creators.

Creator Economy

Social media use staggeringly increased worldwide during the pandemic as people sought to stay connected and entertained. The format of choice became short videos or micro-videos with services like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts growing internationally.

“Aside from saving people from boredom, this genre gave many people an opportunity to speak up about issues that were kept in the shadows for years, a chance to find a niche community, use this genre for activism and even make an income of it by becoming a micro-influencer,” says Tamara Grigoryeva, the Lab’s Media Lead. While the micro-video format might be a passing fad in social media evolution, the ability generate some income is what signals a potential change in social media or influencer media.

It has been hard to earn money via social media with social media giants seeing a majority of the profits, leaving little for content creators. There is now an emerging movement of platforms and services like Patreon and Substack, allowing content creators to have followers subscribe directly to their content by paying—nearly all of which goes to the content creators. As artists, writers and other content producers have had to find replacement income sources during the pandemic, this is where they have turned. If the medium thrives, it can have positive implications for our work, from income sources for some women to spurring independent journalism.

A Moroccan girl takes notes during an online course. — A Moroccan student engages in remote learning with resources from the Ministry of Education.

Remote Behaviors

Beyond entertainment, we’ve also been forced to adopt remote learning, remote work, telemedicine and so on. It has led to an acceleration in the evolutions of these technologies, but it still needs to be more inclusive, reduce fatigue and be effective. “While Zoom, Teams, Jitsi and other tools served us as a lifeline, the videoconferencing exhaustion soon called for developing new, more nuanced features in currently existing videoconferencing apps and new apps all together to increase and ease participation, such as breakout rooms with easier navigation, quick polls, voice chat, etc.,” explains Grigoryeva.

Further, there is a fundamental lack of understanding in online course design and delivery, including in blended learning, technology integration, best instructional practices, the different ways in which online classes need to be designed, planned and assessed.

It is fair to assume that remote technologies, training and process to appropriately use them will see much investment and evolution and will make it easier to provide development services to remote areas in education, health and other domains.

Ayan Kishore is the Director of the Creative Development Lab.

Jordan – Technical Assistance Program

Program

1 min read

Jordan’s public education and youth development systems face significant challenges due to a growing population of school-aged children, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an influx of refugees.

The USAID-funded Jordan Technical Assistance Program (TAP) aimed to improve institutional capacity and enhance service delivery in the education and youth sectors.

The Jordan Technical Assistance Program (TAP) addressed systemic challenges within the Ministries of Education and Youth. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, TAP focused on transforming organizational culture, improving systems (e.g., human resources, budgeting, planning, policies, and monitoring and evaluation), and enhancing institutional and administrative expertise to ensure effective service delivery. Through a blended approach to teacher professional development, TAP improved learning outcomes in foundational skills, while also promoting positive youth development by strengthening youth centers’ activities and supporting effective youth strategy implementation.

TAP was led by Creative and implemented with two Jordanian-based organizations, EdviseMe and ConsultUs, and worked hand-in-hand with both ministries and relevant stakeholders to strengthen institutional and administrative expertise, accountability, and frameworks for improved service delivery to Jordan’s students and youth.

Program Achievements

Strengthened the Government of Jordan’s management systems and policies in the education and youth sectors

TAP recognized the importance of building institutional and administrative capacity within government ministries to ensure effective service delivery. Through targeted interventions focused on improving systems and processes, such as human resources, budgeting, planning, and monitoring and evaluation, the program enhanced the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the Ministries of Education and Youth. The success of these efforts was evidenced by improved coordination among agencies, transparent resource allocation, and timely policy implementation, ultimately leading to better outcomes for Jordan’s children and youth.

Improved the quantity and quality of human resources available in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth

In order to ensure that government partners had the necessary skills and resources to effect change in the education and youth sectors, TAP transformed the organizational culture and increase the institutional capacity within the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth. Through direct technical support, TAP modeled and utilized approaches that promoted positive behavior change and built human resource capacity including training, workshops, embedded support and ongoing assessments.

Assured requisite material and financial resources for effective education and youth programming

To ensure that the partner Ministries had the resources needed to operationalize the program goals above, TAP supported the Ministy of Education and the Ministry of Youth to identify, budget for, develop and procure materials and logistics utilizing its own financial resources, or those provided by USAID, in order to build capacity and sustainability.

USAID-funded Jordan Technical Assistance Program to focus on institutional changes

May 12, 2021

3 min read

A new U.S. government program to improve the Jordanian government’s ability to meet the burgeoning educational needs of the country’s school-age and youth populations has been awarded to Creative Associates International.

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the five-year Jordan Technical Assistance Program seeks to transform the organizational culture and improve the abilities within the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth to ensure officials can implement much-needed reforms.

“The Royal Family and the government have made education and youth high priorities,” says Leland Kruvant, President and CEO of Creative. “With the support of USAID, our team and implementing partners are eager to support Jordan’s renewed commitment to develop and implement modern, results-driven education practices.”

Despite the government’s best intentions, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth continue to confront a myriad of internal challenges, particularly systemic barriers, resource limitations, poor coordination among agencies and reliable metrics, among others. Externally, the public education system is facing overcrowding in schools, an ongoing influx of Syrian refugees and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to the Jordan Technical Assistance Program, the government is undertaking numerous initiatives, including a push to achieve universal kindergarten, a new multi-sectoral National Youth Strategy 2019-2024, a target for building 600 schools in the next 10 years, and shifting from humanitarian to development assistance for Syrian refugees, among other things.

Eileen St. George, PhD., Vice President of Creative’s Education Division, says this new program builds on the extensive investments made to date by USAID, the Jordanian government and multilateral donors. The Jordan Technical Assistance Program seeks to transcend these entities and the talent that resides within them to achieve greater and sustained positive impact, she says.

“This new program offers an exciting opportunity to holistically view the institutions – their organizational culture, capacity and systems – and recognize that the civil servants who make up these institutions are the transformational agents to the change desired,” St. George says.

Creative will implement the program with two Jordanian-based organizations, EdviseMe and ConsultUS, and the Training Resources Group of Arlington, Virginia.

Together, they will provide technical assistance in the development, roll-out, and tracking of policies and procedures to incorporate international best practices for public education and youth programming. Among the many activities in the Jordan Technical Assistance Program, it will support curriculum development, promote inclusive learning techniques, improve the skills of teachers and school managers and other tangible activities that ultimately support changing the organizational culture within the two ministries and relevant agencies.

Externally, the new program will support Jordan’s outreach and behavioral change communications initiatives that are aimed at creating a culture of reading, the inclusion of vulnerable children, and increased youth engagement.

St. George remarks that the new program builds on Creative’s previous, successful programmatic work in the country.

“We are thrilled to be returning to lead the USAID–funded Jordan Technical Assistance Program,” St. George says. “Through our past projects, Creative is known for our collaborative, committed and effective partnership with the Ministry of Education in tackling their major reform priorities.”

Among the previous programs in Jordan, Creative implemented the Education Reform Support Program, Learning Environment Technical Support and the Rural Community Clusters Development Program.

In Morocco, new books and the gift of choice unlock a love of reading

April 23, 2021

By Daniel Lynx Bernard

3 min read

Khaoula El Mouhib used to be too shy to read in front of her classmates. She has autism and struggled to decipher text and pronounce the words. But on a recent sunny day at her grade school in Kenitra, Morocco, the 10-year-old is beaming brightly as she tells the class about the colorful booklet she chose from the classroom’s reading corner.

As she recounts the story of a man so wealthy, he used a new spoon for every bite, Khaoula smiles and speaks proudly.

“Very good job!” says her teacher, Abdellatif Ryany, who then calls on the next student.

The lively and accessible booklets are one element of a comprehensive program to improve literacy from the earliest grades in Morocco. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development in partnership with the government of Morocco, the Reading for Success–National Program for Reading (RFS-NPR) is inspiring a love for reading among young students in Morocco and actively engaging teachers and administrators at the ground level.

In the spirit of World Book Day 2021, Creative Associates and its partners in the Moroccan Ministry of Education reflected on the energizing effect of giving children space to choose their own reading material in the classroom.

Fourth grade teacher Abdellatif Ryany helps student Khaoula El Mouhib read a booklet provided through a USAID-funded program in Morocco. The Reading for Success–National Program for Reading (RFS-NPR) provided sets of 100 booklets to fill “reading corners” in elementary schools in Morocco under the Supplementary Reading Materials (SRM) activity.

The beauty of books

The RFS-NPR program overhauled the reading curriculum and textbooks for elementary schools starting in 2017. But required readings alone cannot ignite a passion for learning for all types of learners. Reading materials typically available in Moroccan schools lacked variety and fun.

Based on materials from the Asafeer Digital Library, the program gathered 100 supplementary reading materials in sets that students can choose from. The USAID program worked closely with Morocco’s Ministry of Education and reading experts in 2019 to adapt the materials to the Moroccan context, ensuring gender equality and social inclusion and increasing representation of people with disabilities.

Copies were printed and delivered to 63 pilot schools. The books are also available online through the Asafeer website so students can extend their reading outside school while teachers track their progress.

Compared to traditional required readings, the new reading materials are more lighthearted in tone and feature more illustrations. Teachers in the pilot schools readily adopted the free-reading approach, saying the attractive materials and the element of choice have transformed more students into independent readers.

“They have helped students improve their linguistic skills,” says Khaoula’s teacher Abellatif Ryany. “Now they read more fluently, learn new vocabulary, and they feel free because they choose the stories themselves.”

The level of positive feedback from students and teachers inspired the Ministry of Education to take the unusual step of changing the official school schedule mid-year to devote 30 additional minutes per week to reading.

These readings are especially encouraging to students who are challenged in understanding text, like Khaoula.

“Before Khaoula started reading these stories, she wasn’t as fluent in reading. She was shy and wouldn’t read aloud even a sentence,” says Khaoula’s mother, Essmahan Echen. “Now Khaoula reads every day a new story,” Echen continues. “She doesn’t stop reading at home. She learned new vocabulary. Her pronunciation improved so much, and she pays more attention to saying the words correctly. She is more open to the outer world. She loves reading more than ever.”

“I love reading these stories every day,” Khaoula says. “I know them all by heart.”

Mounya El Asri provided programmatic support for this article.