Special Evaluation/Report
Bangladeshi Sailors Vulnerability to HIV and AIDs
Enhancing Mobile Populations’ Access to HIV and AIDS Services, Information, and Support (EMPHASIS) is a 5-year initiative funded by the UK’s Big Lottery Fund. The project has been implemented by CARE in three countries,
Bangladesh, India and Nepal. This study was initiated to generate evidence around the vulnerabilities faced by migrant populations traveling to India. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to explore the vulnerability of sailors and a standard BCC questionnaire was used to assess knowledge around HIV and AIDS. Qualitative methods were used to compliment quantitative findings to reveal other socio-economic dynamics that can contribute HIV and AIDS related vulnerabilities. Data collection was carried out in both Bangladesh and India. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection was done in Bangladesh,. As entry into the ports in India was restricted, only qualitative methods were used there. A total of 154 were interviewed with a quantitative questionnaire and 24 sailors participated in in-depth interviews. Focus group discussions (FGD) and Key Informant Interviews were conducted with selected community members such as doctors, Noujan Srameek Union members, and vendors. [46 Pages] Read More...
Bangladesh, India and Nepal. This study was initiated to generate evidence around the vulnerabilities faced by migrant populations traveling to India. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to explore the vulnerability of sailors and a standard BCC questionnaire was used to assess knowledge around HIV and AIDS. Qualitative methods were used to compliment quantitative findings to reveal other socio-economic dynamics that can contribute HIV and AIDS related vulnerabilities. Data collection was carried out in both Bangladesh and India. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection was done in Bangladesh,. As entry into the ports in India was restricted, only qualitative methods were used there. A total of 154 were interviewed with a quantitative questionnaire and 24 sailors participated in in-depth interviews. Focus group discussions (FGD) and Key Informant Interviews were conducted with selected community members such as doctors, Noujan Srameek Union members, and vendors. [46 Pages] Read More...
Journeys: Experiences of Nepalese and Bangladeshi cross border migrants living with HIV
Enhancing Mobile Population’s Access to HIV and AIDS Information (EMPHASIS), Services and Support is a 5-year project funded by Big Lottery Fund, UK. EMPHASIS is implemented in Nepal, India and Bangladesh to address AIDS related vulnerabilities of cross border populations who are moving between Bangladesh, India and Nepal EMPHASIS is an operations research project and one of the pioneer regional projects to address HIV and AIDS vulnerability among cross border populations. The project aims to address its goals through service provision,
capacity building of relevant partners/stakeholders, and advocacy through generating evidence. As part of generating evidence, EMPHASIS developed a research study to investigate the dynamics associated with accessing services for mobile groups who are already affected by HIV and AIDS. This study examines people and questions that were not covered by the EMPHASIS baseline survey that was previously conducted.
Three separate studies were conducted in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. Bangladesh and Nepal first initiated the study aiming to understand the dynamics of HIV infection among migrant populations and also to assess barriers to accessing services at source. In India the study was initiated later, to assess the barriers to accessing services at destination. The prime objective of the study was to present these barriers to services at the regional level among the regional stakeholders. Sharing the findings at South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could be an important way to initiate dialogue between the governments of Nepal and India to formalize a cross border referral system. Country specific barriers to services will be provided as evidence to inform policy at the national level. [45 Pages] Read More...
capacity building of relevant partners/stakeholders, and advocacy through generating evidence. As part of generating evidence, EMPHASIS developed a research study to investigate the dynamics associated with accessing services for mobile groups who are already affected by HIV and AIDS. This study examines people and questions that were not covered by the EMPHASIS baseline survey that was previously conducted.
Three separate studies were conducted in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. Bangladesh and Nepal first initiated the study aiming to understand the dynamics of HIV infection among migrant populations and also to assess barriers to accessing services at source. In India the study was initiated later, to assess the barriers to accessing services at destination. The prime objective of the study was to present these barriers to services at the regional level among the regional stakeholders. Sharing the findings at South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could be an important way to initiate dialogue between the governments of Nepal and India to formalize a cross border referral system. Country specific barriers to services will be provided as evidence to inform policy at the national level. [45 Pages] Read More...
EXAMINING WOMEN AND GIRLS’ SAFE SPACES (WGSS) IN HUMANITARIAN CONTEXTS: Research Findings from Northwest Syria and South Sudan
Gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian contexts represents a global issue of grave concern, disproportionately affecting women and girls. In light of its detrimental impact on the health, well-being and development of survivors, the international community has placed a strong priority on combatting and responding to GBV in all its forms.
Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces (WGSS) are among the most widely implemented GBV prevention and response programming interventions globally. In spite of their popularity and potential to increase the well-being, safety, and empowerment of women and girls, there is a lack of rigorous evidence regarding the role of these spaces in the lives of participants. Building an evidence base is particularly crucial in order to understand the impact and effectiveness of WGSS as an intervention and determine ways in which existing programming can be adapted to increase overall quality.
In response to the crucial need for evidence around WGSS programming globally, CARE USA conducted a study to examine the effectiveness of WGSS in the lives of women and girls in two conflict-affected settings, Northwest Syria and South Sudan. These locations are particularly relevant for this research as the selected study sites are home to a large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and are settings in which women and girls face a significant risk of experiencing GBV. These contexts are also ones in which CARE has existing WGSS interventions in place. Read More...
Women and Girls’ Safe Spaces (WGSS) are among the most widely implemented GBV prevention and response programming interventions globally. In spite of their popularity and potential to increase the well-being, safety, and empowerment of women and girls, there is a lack of rigorous evidence regarding the role of these spaces in the lives of participants. Building an evidence base is particularly crucial in order to understand the impact and effectiveness of WGSS as an intervention and determine ways in which existing programming can be adapted to increase overall quality.
In response to the crucial need for evidence around WGSS programming globally, CARE USA conducted a study to examine the effectiveness of WGSS in the lives of women and girls in two conflict-affected settings, Northwest Syria and South Sudan. These locations are particularly relevant for this research as the selected study sites are home to a large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and are settings in which women and girls face a significant risk of experiencing GBV. These contexts are also ones in which CARE has existing WGSS interventions in place. Read More...
CASH AND VOUCHER ASSISTANCE IN RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
In April 2020, CARE received a five million dollar grant from MARS to implement a multi-country program, including Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Peru, Thailand, and Venezuela1, with the aim of reducing the negative impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations, especially women and girls, using complementary and multimodal approaches. A key activity of this program was the provision of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) to vulnerable populations to meet their diverse basic needs. Program data indicated that CVA was implemented in Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and Thailand. Monitoring data from different countries showed that CVA was unconditional; with cash modality representing 95% of transfers. Key targets populations for CVA activities vary by country and include: vulnerable households (Cote d’Ivoire, and Haiti); migrants and refugees (Honduras, Ecuador, and Thailand); domestic workers (Guatemala and Ecuador); survivors of GBV and other forms of violence against women (Guatemala and Ecuador); and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer/questioning (LGBTQI+) individuals (Ecuador). Across all projects (or countries), participants reported numerous uses of CVA including purchase foods stuff, payment of health services, hygiene services, rental/housing, savings and livelihoods activities.
Given the nature and scale of this program as well as its organizational commitment to learning, CARE was keen to understand the extent to which the project supported and protected vulnerable populations against the loss or disruption of their livelihoods in a gender sensitive manner. The study seeks to provide open-source learnings for peer
companies and agencies on how CVA was utilized in this program with two major questions: (i) How gender sensitive was the process for CARE’s CVA? (ii) How gender sensitive was the intended outcome of CARE’s CVA?
This documentation report compiles lessons from across the projects implemented in the targeted countries and draws from the diversity of their experiences to provide some recommendations on more gender sensitive CVA in the future. Read More...
Given the nature and scale of this program as well as its organizational commitment to learning, CARE was keen to understand the extent to which the project supported and protected vulnerable populations against the loss or disruption of their livelihoods in a gender sensitive manner. The study seeks to provide open-source learnings for peer
companies and agencies on how CVA was utilized in this program with two major questions: (i) How gender sensitive was the process for CARE’s CVA? (ii) How gender sensitive was the intended outcome of CARE’s CVA?
This documentation report compiles lessons from across the projects implemented in the targeted countries and draws from the diversity of their experiences to provide some recommendations on more gender sensitive CVA in the future. Read More...
MAGNIFYING INEQUALITIES AND COMPOUNDING RISKS The Impact of COVID-19 on the Health and Protection of Women and Girls on the Move
More than one year into the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic—with some countries seemingly on their way out of the crisis while others enter new waves—evidence of its impact is growing. COVID-19 is increasing short-term humanitarian needs and negatively affecting longer-term outcomes for marginalized populations and people in vulnerable situations, significantly setting back hard-won development gains, magnifying inequalities, and compounding risks. Among those worst affected are the more than 80 million people worldwide—approximately half of whom are women and girls—who have been forcibly displaced by drivers such as persecution, conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations.1
The majority of forcibly displaced people live in resource-poor countries with weak public health and social protection systems, and economies that have been hard-hit by the pandemic.2 Yet, to date, there has only been limited research around the unique ways in which women and girls on the move are affected.3 This despite predictions of significant impacts on access to, and use of, basic health services—including for sexual and reproductive health (SRH)—and the overall protection environment, including increases in prevalence and risk of gender-based violence (GBV).
Placing gender at the center of its humanitarian and development responses, CARE undertook new research in Afghanistan, Ecuador, and Turkey between April and May 2021 to better understand how COVID-19 is impacting the health and protection of women and girls on the move. The three countries represent different types of forced displacement across multiple regions: internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugee returnees in Afghanistan; more recent migrants and refugees due to the Venezuelan crisis in Ecuador; and longer-term Syrian refugees living under temporary international protection in Turkey. The primary data collected for this research included more than 1,000 surveys with women on the move and from host communities, to allow comparison; 31 focus group discussions (FGDs) with women and adolescent girls; and 45 key informant interviews (KIIs) with government actors, health and protection service providers, humanitarian organizations, and CARE staff. Read More...
The majority of forcibly displaced people live in resource-poor countries with weak public health and social protection systems, and economies that have been hard-hit by the pandemic.2 Yet, to date, there has only been limited research around the unique ways in which women and girls on the move are affected.3 This despite predictions of significant impacts on access to, and use of, basic health services—including for sexual and reproductive health (SRH)—and the overall protection environment, including increases in prevalence and risk of gender-based violence (GBV).
Placing gender at the center of its humanitarian and development responses, CARE undertook new research in Afghanistan, Ecuador, and Turkey between April and May 2021 to better understand how COVID-19 is impacting the health and protection of women and girls on the move. The three countries represent different types of forced displacement across multiple regions: internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugee returnees in Afghanistan; more recent migrants and refugees due to the Venezuelan crisis in Ecuador; and longer-term Syrian refugees living under temporary international protection in Turkey. The primary data collected for this research included more than 1,000 surveys with women on the move and from host communities, to allow comparison; 31 focus group discussions (FGDs) with women and adolescent girls; and 45 key informant interviews (KIIs) with government actors, health and protection service providers, humanitarian organizations, and CARE staff. Read More...
Community Scorecard in Emergencies Learning Brief
To be effective and equitable towards global populations, humanitarian organizations must adhere to the core standards and principles on quality humanitarian response. Since the inception of ideas on the centrality of local participation in aid in the early 2000s and the more recent evolution of that concept into accountability towards affected populations, the humanitarian community has sought to turn this doctrine into reality.
Accountability in humanitarian response requires that organizations carry out their efforts in an ethically and legally responsible manner that is inclusive of the communities they are seeking to serve. Of UNICEF’s nine Core Humanitarian Standards (depicted here to the right), three specifically refer to mechanisms of accountability towards affected peoples: response is based on communication, participation and feedback; complaints are welcome and addressed; actors continuously learn and improve. In practice this could include centralizing the voices of affected peoples by engaging communities in needs and performance assessments and decision-making. Achieving this is often hindered by the constraints inherent to conflict settings such as lack of localization of assistance, communication between actors, and exploration of needs.
CARE’s Community Score Card
Seeking to actualize these principles of community participation and accountability into our programming, CARE developed the Community Score Card as part of a project aimed at developing innovative and sustainable models to improve health services. Working in crisis settings requires an understanding of the lived experiences of people, the power dynamics, and micro-politics that inform humanitarian response approaches. It also requires bridging the gap between civil society organizations, local and national governments, international non-governmental organizations, and impacted communities. Social accountability approaches do this by connecting citizens with those responsible for providing services. The Community Score Card (CSC) is a participatory social accountability mechanism for assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of services. Designed for ease of use and adaptation into any sector with a service delivery scenario, the CSC brings together users and providers of a particular service or program to jointly identify service utilization and provision challenges, mutually generate solutions, and work in partnership to implement and track the effectiveness of those solutions in an ongoing process of quality improvement. The CSC has five phases: (I) planning and preparation; (II) conducting the scorecard with the community; (III) conducting the scorecard with service providers; (IV) interface meeting where the all parties present their findings in the presence of duty-bearers and then jointly develop action plans; and (V) monitoring of the action plans and evaluation of overall process. Read More...
Accountability in humanitarian response requires that organizations carry out their efforts in an ethically and legally responsible manner that is inclusive of the communities they are seeking to serve. Of UNICEF’s nine Core Humanitarian Standards (depicted here to the right), three specifically refer to mechanisms of accountability towards affected peoples: response is based on communication, participation and feedback; complaints are welcome and addressed; actors continuously learn and improve. In practice this could include centralizing the voices of affected peoples by engaging communities in needs and performance assessments and decision-making. Achieving this is often hindered by the constraints inherent to conflict settings such as lack of localization of assistance, communication between actors, and exploration of needs.
CARE’s Community Score Card
Seeking to actualize these principles of community participation and accountability into our programming, CARE developed the Community Score Card as part of a project aimed at developing innovative and sustainable models to improve health services. Working in crisis settings requires an understanding of the lived experiences of people, the power dynamics, and micro-politics that inform humanitarian response approaches. It also requires bridging the gap between civil society organizations, local and national governments, international non-governmental organizations, and impacted communities. Social accountability approaches do this by connecting citizens with those responsible for providing services. The Community Score Card (CSC) is a participatory social accountability mechanism for assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of services. Designed for ease of use and adaptation into any sector with a service delivery scenario, the CSC brings together users and providers of a particular service or program to jointly identify service utilization and provision challenges, mutually generate solutions, and work in partnership to implement and track the effectiveness of those solutions in an ongoing process of quality improvement. The CSC has five phases: (I) planning and preparation; (II) conducting the scorecard with the community; (III) conducting the scorecard with service providers; (IV) interface meeting where the all parties present their findings in the presence of duty-bearers and then jointly develop action plans; and (V) monitoring of the action plans and evaluation of overall process. Read More...
Rapid Assessment on COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake by Urban Marginalised Population in Bangladesh
As of 31 March 2021, there have been 127,877,462 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including 2,796,561 deaths in 223 countries as reported by WHO. Bangladesh had 6,11,295 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 9,406 confirmed deaths till the end of March 2021. In response to this situation, the administration of the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine officially started on 7 February 2021 in the national hospitals and health complexes all over Bangladesh. Despite acute demand for the vaccine, a great deal of misinformation and misconception is also apparent among general people. With the ongoing vaccine administration, it is very important to understand community acceptance of COVID-19 vaccinations.
People’s knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards COVID-19 are of utmost importance for Government and policymakers to address all barriers to vaccine uptake and ensuring that everyone has access to vaccine. With these contexts, this survey aims to identify the overall COVID-19 vaccination perceptions among the urban marginalized population in Bangladesh based on three main objectives:
Understanding the knowledge and practice related to COVID-19 prevention
Assessing the knowledge and perspective regarding COVID-19 vaccination
program
To know the status of vaccine uptake among marginalized population
The urban marginalized population were purposively selected, as they are more likely to be unaccounted for or have the least access to the COVID-19 vaccine administration process. In this survey, researchers captured only the population that are direct service recipient of the Urban Health Programme (garment workers and people who inject drug) and other groups who are available around the catchment areas of the service centres of the facilities. Read More...
People’s knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards COVID-19 are of utmost importance for Government and policymakers to address all barriers to vaccine uptake and ensuring that everyone has access to vaccine. With these contexts, this survey aims to identify the overall COVID-19 vaccination perceptions among the urban marginalized population in Bangladesh based on three main objectives:
Understanding the knowledge and practice related to COVID-19 prevention
Assessing the knowledge and perspective regarding COVID-19 vaccination
program
To know the status of vaccine uptake among marginalized population
The urban marginalized population were purposively selected, as they are more likely to be unaccounted for or have the least access to the COVID-19 vaccine administration process. In this survey, researchers captured only the population that are direct service recipient of the Urban Health Programme (garment workers and people who inject drug) and other groups who are available around the catchment areas of the service centres of the facilities. Read More...
Somalia: Cash Transfers via Mobile Money for Maternal Child Health Services
This study is part of a larger multi-country study by CARE entitled “Cash and Voucher Assistance for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Outcomes: Learnings from Colombia, Ecuador, Lebanon and Somalia.”
CARE Somalia has used Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) in its programs for over ten years. This includes CVA for food security and livelihoods, nutrition, WASH, and education, as well as multipurpose cash transfers. Since 2018, with support from Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) (now the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)), CARE Somalia has been implementing a food security and Livelihoods, health, nutrition, protection and WASH program. With BHA support, CARE currently supports 19 MCH facilities across Somaliland and Puntland that target children and pregnant and lactating women (PLW). Read More...
CARE Somalia has used Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) in its programs for over ten years. This includes CVA for food security and livelihoods, nutrition, WASH, and education, as well as multipurpose cash transfers. Since 2018, with support from Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) (now the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)), CARE Somalia has been implementing a food security and Livelihoods, health, nutrition, protection and WASH program. With BHA support, CARE currently supports 19 MCH facilities across Somaliland and Puntland that target children and pregnant and lactating women (PLW). Read More...
Ecuador: Vouchers for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights
This study is part of a larger multi-country study by CARE entitled “Cash and Voucher Assistance for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Outcomes: Learnings from Colombia, Ecuador, Lebanon and Somalia.” Ecuador is both a transit and destination country for refugees and migrants from Venezuela and elsewhere. As of July 2020, over 400,000 Venezuelans were living in Ecuador. Venezuelan refugees and migrants have considerable health, psychosocial, and economic needs. Within these groups, women, adolescents, and LGBTQI people face heightened risks of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), human trafficking, and sexual exploitation as well as challenges to earning an income while in Ecuador. Although the public health system in Ecuador is free to all regardless of migration status, not all health – and especially SRH services – are covered in the public system. Furthermore, safe access to available services without discrimination based on nationality, sexual orientation/gender identity, or age is a barrier to access and uptake of SRH services in Ecuador. Read More...
Colombia: Vouchers for Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) Services
This study is part of a larger multi-country study by CARE entitled “Cash and Voucher Assistance for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Outcomes: Learnings from Colombia, Ecuador, Lebanon and Somalia.” As a result of Venezuela’s socioeconomic and political crisis, there have been massive migratory flows of people from Venezuela into Colombia.1 According to the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants, as of May 2020 over 1.76 million Venezuelans had fled to Colombia with many continuing to walk to and across the Southern Border with Ecuador as caminantes.
CARE Colombia began direct operations in the country in 2019, focusing primarily on the needs of Venezuelan
refugees and migrants in Pamplona, Norte de Santander and, later, Bucaramanga, Santander. Cash and Voucher
Assistance then (CVA) are primary modalities for CARE Colombia, particularly for its SRHR and protection portfolio.
Working with populations on the move as was was the case in this program, together with high levels of unmet SRHR needs resulted in a unique operating environment for a voucher intervention supporting SRHR programming.
This case study focuses on the design of the programming only. Due to the timing of the review, no substantive data on the user experience of the vouchers or outcomes could be captured. Read More...
CARE Colombia began direct operations in the country in 2019, focusing primarily on the needs of Venezuelan
refugees and migrants in Pamplona, Norte de Santander and, later, Bucaramanga, Santander. Cash and Voucher
Assistance then (CVA) are primary modalities for CARE Colombia, particularly for its SRHR and protection portfolio.
Working with populations on the move as was was the case in this program, together with high levels of unmet SRHR needs resulted in a unique operating environment for a voucher intervention supporting SRHR programming.
This case study focuses on the design of the programming only. Due to the timing of the review, no substantive data on the user experience of the vouchers or outcomes could be captured. Read More...