English
Advancing gender equality in coral reef social-ecological systems
Gender equity is considered to be a foundation for the resilience and wellbeing of people dependent on coral reef social-ecological systems. Nonetheless, gender inequality persists, and many interventions are still struggling to meet in practice the commitments they make on paper. Gender transformative approaches (GTAs) are considered the frontier of gender research and development because they challenge and shift the invisible social constructs that underpin and perpetuate inequities. A collaboration between the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, WorldFish, and CARE International sought to determine the extent to which GTAs have been applied alongside or within the management and conservation of coral reefs. The intent of our work is to increase awareness of and knowledge about GTAs among funders, researchers, development agencies, and fisheries and conservation stakeholders who seek to advance gender equality in coral reef-social ecological systems. Read More...
She Told Us So (Again)
COVID-19’s impacts around the world are worse than they were in September 2020. Far from a return to “normal,” women and girls CARE works with around the world are saying that their situation continues to get worse as COVID-19 drags on amid other crises. Fati Musa in Nigeria says, “Women have suffered a lot during the pandemic, and we are not yet recovering from this hardship.” 55% of women were reporting gaps in their livelihoods as a priority in 2020. Now that number is 71%. For food insecurity, the number has jumped from 41% to 66%.
Since March of 2020, CARE—and more importantly, the women CARE works with—have been warning that COVID-19 would create special challenges for women and girls, above and beyond what men and boys would face. Tragically, these women were exactly right. What they predicted even before the WHO declared a pandemic has come true. In September 2020, CARE published She Told Us So, which showed women's and men's experiences in the pandemic so far. In March 2022, updated data shows that the cost of ignoring women continues to grow. For more than 22,000 people CARE has spoken to, COVID-19 is far from over. In fact, the COVID-19 situation has gotten worse, not just for women, but for men, too.
Ignoring the voices of women, girls, and other historically marginalized groups has worsened the situation for everyone—not just for women. Men are more than twice as likely to report challenges around livelihoods, food insecurity, and access to health care as they were in 2020, and are three times more likely to report mental health challenges—although they are still only two-thirds as likely as women to report mental health as a priority. As women burn through their coping strategies and reserves, men are also facing bigger impacts over time.
Women have stepped up to the challenge—especially when they get support from each other and opportunities to lead. They are sharing information, preventing COVID-19, and using their resources to support other members of their communities. 89% of women in savings groups in Yemen are putting some of their savings to help others. Women are stepping into leadership roles, "We are women leaders in emergency . . . we have the capacity to say: I have a voice and a vote, I am not going to stay stagnant . . . (participant, Colombia). In Niger, women are saying, “Now we women are not afraid to defend ourselves when a decision does not suit us. We will say it out loud because our rights are known and we know the ways and means to claim our rights.”
Those accomplishments are impressive, but they come at a cost. The constant struggle for their rights, and for even the most basic necessities, is taking its toll. Women are almost twice as likely to report mental health challenges as they were in 2020. As one woman in Iraq describes, “If any opportunity appeared, the man would be the favorite . . . This psychologically affected many women, as they turned to household work which included preparing food and cleaning only.”
To understand these challenges and create more equitable solutions, CARE invests in listening to women, men, and people from marginalized groups to understand the challenges they face, what they need, and the ways in which they lead through crisis. This report represents the voices of more than 22,000 people in 23 countries since September of 2020.
Read More...
Since March of 2020, CARE—and more importantly, the women CARE works with—have been warning that COVID-19 would create special challenges for women and girls, above and beyond what men and boys would face. Tragically, these women were exactly right. What they predicted even before the WHO declared a pandemic has come true. In September 2020, CARE published She Told Us So, which showed women's and men's experiences in the pandemic so far. In March 2022, updated data shows that the cost of ignoring women continues to grow. For more than 22,000 people CARE has spoken to, COVID-19 is far from over. In fact, the COVID-19 situation has gotten worse, not just for women, but for men, too.
Ignoring the voices of women, girls, and other historically marginalized groups has worsened the situation for everyone—not just for women. Men are more than twice as likely to report challenges around livelihoods, food insecurity, and access to health care as they were in 2020, and are three times more likely to report mental health challenges—although they are still only two-thirds as likely as women to report mental health as a priority. As women burn through their coping strategies and reserves, men are also facing bigger impacts over time.
Women have stepped up to the challenge—especially when they get support from each other and opportunities to lead. They are sharing information, preventing COVID-19, and using their resources to support other members of their communities. 89% of women in savings groups in Yemen are putting some of their savings to help others. Women are stepping into leadership roles, "We are women leaders in emergency . . . we have the capacity to say: I have a voice and a vote, I am not going to stay stagnant . . . (participant, Colombia). In Niger, women are saying, “Now we women are not afraid to defend ourselves when a decision does not suit us. We will say it out loud because our rights are known and we know the ways and means to claim our rights.”
Those accomplishments are impressive, but they come at a cost. The constant struggle for their rights, and for even the most basic necessities, is taking its toll. Women are almost twice as likely to report mental health challenges as they were in 2020. As one woman in Iraq describes, “If any opportunity appeared, the man would be the favorite . . . This psychologically affected many women, as they turned to household work which included preparing food and cleaning only.”
To understand these challenges and create more equitable solutions, CARE invests in listening to women, men, and people from marginalized groups to understand the challenges they face, what they need, and the ways in which they lead through crisis. This report represents the voices of more than 22,000 people in 23 countries since September of 2020.
Read More...
The Cost of Delivering COVID-19 Vaccines in Zambia
While Zambia aims to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to 70% of its people by June 30, 2022, the road to getting there is uncertain. The Zambian Ministry of Health reports that, as of February 21, 2022, 21.6% of people were fully
vaccinated. Vaccine doses available in the country are slowly rising, with 6.2 million doses arrived as of February 11, but less than half of those doses have made it into people’s arms. By February 23, only 2.77 million doses had gotten to people. By December 31, 2021, only 7.2% of people had gotten a vaccine, compared to a goal of 40%. Without significant investments in last mile delivery, especially for people at highest risk, Zambia risks missing its next COVID-19 vaccine targets.
CARE estimates that in Zambia, vaccine delivery costs a minimum of $17.18 per fully vaccinated person, or $7.30 per dose delivered. That is 7.2 times more than current global estimates. Even with its robust childhood vaccination system—93% of Zambian children got their first measles vaccine in 2019—Zambia has not been able to get enough COVID-19 vaccines to the last mile. Read More...
vaccinated. Vaccine doses available in the country are slowly rising, with 6.2 million doses arrived as of February 11, but less than half of those doses have made it into people’s arms. By February 23, only 2.77 million doses had gotten to people. By December 31, 2021, only 7.2% of people had gotten a vaccine, compared to a goal of 40%. Without significant investments in last mile delivery, especially for people at highest risk, Zambia risks missing its next COVID-19 vaccine targets.
CARE estimates that in Zambia, vaccine delivery costs a minimum of $17.18 per fully vaccinated person, or $7.30 per dose delivered. That is 7.2 times more than current global estimates. Even with its robust childhood vaccination system—93% of Zambian children got their first measles vaccine in 2019—Zambia has not been able to get enough COVID-19 vaccines to the last mile. Read More...
Rapid Gender Analysis Ukraine
Like all military operations, this one will take its toll on many communities within Ukraine, with distinct effects on women, men, children and marginalised groups. The starkest example is the current contrast between the requirement that Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 years stay and join the fighting, and media images of mostly women, children and the elderly fleeing the country.
Ukraine has made modest gains on women’s rights in recent years and has a developing state-level ‘gender machinery’. These gains were already under threat from deeply entrenched and persistent gender and discrimination-based inequalities, eight years of conflict in the east of the country, and the gendered social and economic stress wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This current crisis, with mass displacement inside and outside Ukraine, will add to that complex situation and put pressure on any gains that have been made.
Humanitarian actors need to build on the advances in gender equality and women’s empowerment by Ukrainian women’s rights, women-led and civil society organisations, and work with them to identify and respond to the different humanitarian needs of women, men, boys, girls and people of all genders. This Rapid Gender Analysis Brief for Ukraine and the Gender in Crisis Ukraine infographic are a first attempt to identify the gender, age, and diversity issues so that humanitarian responses can better meet people’s different needs as the crisis evolves. Read More...
Ukraine has made modest gains on women’s rights in recent years and has a developing state-level ‘gender machinery’. These gains were already under threat from deeply entrenched and persistent gender and discrimination-based inequalities, eight years of conflict in the east of the country, and the gendered social and economic stress wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This current crisis, with mass displacement inside and outside Ukraine, will add to that complex situation and put pressure on any gains that have been made.
Humanitarian actors need to build on the advances in gender equality and women’s empowerment by Ukrainian women’s rights, women-led and civil society organisations, and work with them to identify and respond to the different humanitarian needs of women, men, boys, girls and people of all genders. This Rapid Gender Analysis Brief for Ukraine and the Gender in Crisis Ukraine infographic are a first attempt to identify the gender, age, and diversity issues so that humanitarian responses can better meet people’s different needs as the crisis evolves. Read More...
Lafaek learning media
The Lafeak Learning Media project puts local language, age-appropriate learning materials into the hands of children, parents, caregivers, and teachers in schools and households across Timor-Leste, with over 1 million magazines currently distributed nationwide each year and more than 6.5 million magazines distributed between 2007 and 2020. Read More...
HBCC (Hygiene and Behavior Change Coalition) Project: Inclusive Communities – Changing behaviors to respond to COVID-19
The “Promoting safer hygiene practices for women and girls to remain safe and live better lives project has been implemented between the 23rd of July 2020 and the 31st of August 2021 through CARE International in Jordan and funded by Unilever-UKAID HBCC (Hygiene Behaviour Change Coalition). The project’s overall objective was to support the most vulnerable women and girls in conflict communities, refugee, asylum and host populations within the Syrian crisis region to improve their key hygiene behaviours and be better equipped to protect themselves from COVID-19 transmission through mass awareness, interpersonal communication and digital media communication.
CARE Jordan implemented a package of multiple interventions which includes mass media, digital communication, and in some cases targeted face-to-face interactions complemented by the provision of hygiene and dignity kits to promote key hygiene behaviours of the targeted beneficiaries. The mass media and digital campaign, which targeted community members who live in Amman, Zarqa/Azraq town, Irbid, Mafraq, and Azraq Refugee Camp, but also reached beyond these areas in particular with the mass media intervention; focused on a variety of messages in line with the national/local Health Service approved guidelines as well as some of the Unilever Global assets like the PASSWORD Campaigns, Snake and Ladder game, and Mobile Doctorni. Messages covered issues of prevention, protection, safety, security and where to seek early support when showing signs and symptoms of COVID-19. Read More...
CARE Jordan implemented a package of multiple interventions which includes mass media, digital communication, and in some cases targeted face-to-face interactions complemented by the provision of hygiene and dignity kits to promote key hygiene behaviours of the targeted beneficiaries. The mass media and digital campaign, which targeted community members who live in Amman, Zarqa/Azraq town, Irbid, Mafraq, and Azraq Refugee Camp, but also reached beyond these areas in particular with the mass media intervention; focused on a variety of messages in line with the national/local Health Service approved guidelines as well as some of the Unilever Global assets like the PASSWORD Campaigns, Snake and Ladder game, and Mobile Doctorni. Messages covered issues of prevention, protection, safety, security and where to seek early support when showing signs and symptoms of COVID-19. Read More...
Dili Flood Response Program 2021 Evaluation Report
Heavy rains across Timor-Leste from 29 March to 4 April 2021 resulted in flash floods and landslides particularly affecting the capital Dili and the surrounding low-lying areas. Responding to the floods, CARE Timor-Leste mounted a rapid emergency response with ECHO funding and proceeded to develop an integrated shelter strategy responding to the acute needs of those affected by the floods.
CARE supported the families who were impacted by implementing an innovative program of community-led recovery projects rehabilitating and repairing the community infrastructure, an emergency distribution of food and other essential items in line with the findings of a consultative gendered shelter assessment. In parallel, CARE played a key role in the development of a national Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign around safer home construction that included distributing a shelter IEC campaign through CARE’s longstanding educational Lafaek magazine.
This support directly benefitted 203 vulnerable households through emergency distributions, 2,500 people living in 10 Aldeias in Manleuana through community infrastructure projects and 103,000+ households across Timor-Leste reached with safer home construction information included in the Lafaek community magazine. Read More...
CARE supported the families who were impacted by implementing an innovative program of community-led recovery projects rehabilitating and repairing the community infrastructure, an emergency distribution of food and other essential items in line with the findings of a consultative gendered shelter assessment. In parallel, CARE played a key role in the development of a national Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign around safer home construction that included distributing a shelter IEC campaign through CARE’s longstanding educational Lafaek magazine.
This support directly benefitted 203 vulnerable households through emergency distributions, 2,500 people living in 10 Aldeias in Manleuana through community infrastructure projects and 103,000+ households across Timor-Leste reached with safer home construction information included in the Lafaek community magazine. Read More...
RANO WASH Final Evaluation
Rural Access to New Opportunities in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (RANO WASH) is a five-year
$30 million bilateral United States Agency for International Development (USAID) water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activity in Madagascar. Its period of performance is June 2017 to June 2022. CARE International leads the consortium implementing the project, and sub-awardees include Catholic Relief Services (CRS), WaterAid, BushProof, and Sandandrano. The program aims to reach 250 rural communes in six high-priority regions of Madagascar: Vatovavy Fitovinany, Atsinanana, Alaotra Mangoro, Amoron’i Mania, Haute Matsiatra, and Vakinankaratra. RANO WASH is built around three interconnected strategic objectives (SOs):
• SO 1: Strengthening the governance and monitoring of water and sanitation
• SO 2: Increasing the engagement of the private sector in the delivery of WASH services
• SO 3: Accelerating the adoption of healthy behaviors and the use of WASH service
The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) project completed a mid-term evaluation between April and August 2021 to assess whether the approaches employed and activities undertaken are successfully contributing to the program’s goal of increasing equitable and sustainable access to WASH services.
Overall, the Evaluation Team assessed the program to be complex, ambitious, and innovative; perceived positively by a large majority of stakeholders; and seen as a sector leader. While water supply provision through the public private partnership (PPP) model is substantially off-track, there are plausible reasons for these delays, and important lessons to be learned. Sanitation results, particularly regarding Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, are above target Read More...
$30 million bilateral United States Agency for International Development (USAID) water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activity in Madagascar. Its period of performance is June 2017 to June 2022. CARE International leads the consortium implementing the project, and sub-awardees include Catholic Relief Services (CRS), WaterAid, BushProof, and Sandandrano. The program aims to reach 250 rural communes in six high-priority regions of Madagascar: Vatovavy Fitovinany, Atsinanana, Alaotra Mangoro, Amoron’i Mania, Haute Matsiatra, and Vakinankaratra. RANO WASH is built around three interconnected strategic objectives (SOs):
• SO 1: Strengthening the governance and monitoring of water and sanitation
• SO 2: Increasing the engagement of the private sector in the delivery of WASH services
• SO 3: Accelerating the adoption of healthy behaviors and the use of WASH service
The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) project completed a mid-term evaluation between April and August 2021 to assess whether the approaches employed and activities undertaken are successfully contributing to the program’s goal of increasing equitable and sustainable access to WASH services.
Overall, the Evaluation Team assessed the program to be complex, ambitious, and innovative; perceived positively by a large majority of stakeholders; and seen as a sector leader. While water supply provision through the public private partnership (PPP) model is substantially off-track, there are plausible reasons for these delays, and important lessons to be learned. Sanitation results, particularly regarding Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, are above target Read More...