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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...
Promoting Economic Resilience of Syrian Women (PERSEVERE) Annual Project Results Report (April 2020 – March 2021)
“Promoting Economic Resilience of Syrian Women” (PERSEVERE, CAD$8,497,675) is undertaken with the financial support from the Government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada. It aims to enhance the resilience of displaced and conflict-affected Syrian women, including women with disabilities. Led by CARE Canada and implemented by the Syria Resilience Consortium (SRC), CARE, and Humanity & Inclusion (HI), PERSEVERE is designed to contribute to this goal through the following Intermediate Outcomes:
1) Women, including young and older women as well as women with disabilities, participate more actively in community economic governance; and
2) Community members, institutions, and response actors actively support the inclusion of Gender, Age and Disability (GAD) consideration in economic governance. Initial project learning and methods are meant to be shared across the whole of Syria and other SRC members and introduced to wider response actors contributing to resilience.
This year, the program has been continuing to support inclusion of women and persons with disabilities in livelihood activities. More women have been provided with in-depth training to support other women to expand and grow their businesses. Read More...
1) Women, including young and older women as well as women with disabilities, participate more actively in community economic governance; and
2) Community members, institutions, and response actors actively support the inclusion of Gender, Age and Disability (GAD) consideration in economic governance. Initial project learning and methods are meant to be shared across the whole of Syria and other SRC members and introduced to wider response actors contributing to resilience.
This year, the program has been continuing to support inclusion of women and persons with disabilities in livelihood activities. More women have been provided with in-depth training to support other women to expand and grow their businesses. 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...
Lebanon: Cash Transfers for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) within Protection
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.”
On August 4, 2020, an explosion in the port of Beirut left hundreds killed and thousands injured, damaged numerous neighborhoods – including hospitals and residential buildings – and left 300,000 people homeless. The economic, social, and psychological tolls of the blast were added to an already strained population suffering from an economic crisis and the impacts of COVID-19. The Lebanese Red Cross reported in a post-blast study2 that, of those surveyed, approximately 5% of respondents reported having family members who were pregnant or lactating and, of those households, 40% reported needing Maternal Child Health (MCH) services. A UNFPA report identified a decrease in SRH service availability due to facilities destroyed or damaged in the blast.
Prior to the blast, the Interagency Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) Task Force conducted an assessment with 562 women and girls across the country on the SGBV impact since the beginning of COVID-19. This assessment found that 51% of respondents felt less safe in their communities and only 30% reported accessing health services.4 Sixty-seven percent of respondents reported that the main barrier to accessing services was lack of money.5 Read More...
On August 4, 2020, an explosion in the port of Beirut left hundreds killed and thousands injured, damaged numerous neighborhoods – including hospitals and residential buildings – and left 300,000 people homeless. The economic, social, and psychological tolls of the blast were added to an already strained population suffering from an economic crisis and the impacts of COVID-19. The Lebanese Red Cross reported in a post-blast study2 that, of those surveyed, approximately 5% of respondents reported having family members who were pregnant or lactating and, of those households, 40% reported needing Maternal Child Health (MCH) services. A UNFPA report identified a decrease in SRH service availability due to facilities destroyed or damaged in the blast.
Prior to the blast, the Interagency Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) Task Force conducted an assessment with 562 women and girls across the country on the SGBV impact since the beginning of COVID-19. This assessment found that 51% of respondents felt less safe in their communities and only 30% reported accessing health services.4 Sixty-seven percent of respondents reported that the main barrier to accessing services was lack of money.5 Read More...
CASH AND VOUCHER ASSISTANCE FOR SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS LEARNINGS FROM ECUADOR, COLOMBIA, LEBANON, AND SOMALIA
CARE is committed to ensuring that projects with cash and voucher assistance (CVA) are designed with and for women and girls, addressing recipients’ needs, challenges, and opportunities. CARE has invested in research on how to make CVA work for women and girls through gender-sensitive approaches to framing processes and outcomes of the modalities. As a widely accepted method of increasing access to services and improving autonomy, dignity, and resilience, programming with CVA has been integrated into numerous sectors to improve the lives of displaced communities, particularly the most underserved. To date, CARE’s CVA has primarily been used for food security and livelihood outcomes and multisectoral outcomes via multipurpose cash (MPC) transfers. Now, aligned with its strategic intent, CARE is investing in sectoral areas where CVA is less often used and that are of primary interest for women and girls, including gender-based violence (GBV) response and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
Building on extensive experience with CVA and SRHR programming, CARE conducted a study to investigate how outcomes for the pilot initiatives using CVA for SRHR compare to global learnings, and to identify opportunities for strengthening and expanding pilots for long-term programming. The study reviewed programming in four contexts (Colombia, Ecuador, Lebanon, and Somalia). The initial study was undertaken by two consultants, one focused on Lebanon and Somalia and one focused on Colombia and Ecuador. Data collection included 25 remote key informant interviews (KIIs) with CARE staff at the global and country levels as well as staff from partner organizations, followed by After Action Reviews with each country team and a validation meeting. All activities were undertaken in either English or Spanish and transcripts were analyzed using data analysis software. Analysis was conducted both by country and across contexts to identify commonalities and thematic learning, mostly led by CARE technical advisors. Read More...
Building on extensive experience with CVA and SRHR programming, CARE conducted a study to investigate how outcomes for the pilot initiatives using CVA for SRHR compare to global learnings, and to identify opportunities for strengthening and expanding pilots for long-term programming. The study reviewed programming in four contexts (Colombia, Ecuador, Lebanon, and Somalia). The initial study was undertaken by two consultants, one focused on Lebanon and Somalia and one focused on Colombia and Ecuador. Data collection included 25 remote key informant interviews (KIIs) with CARE staff at the global and country levels as well as staff from partner organizations, followed by After Action Reviews with each country team and a validation meeting. All activities were undertaken in either English or Spanish and transcripts were analyzed using data analysis software. Analysis was conducted both by country and across contexts to identify commonalities and thematic learning, mostly led by CARE technical advisors. Read More...
Bersama Menuju Keadilan (BUKA) or Towards Fairness Together SELF-EVALUATION REPORT
Bersama Menuju Keadilan (BUKA) or Towards Fairness Together is a Yayasan Care Peduli (CARE) project which was implemented in West Java from July 2018 to October 2020.1 The project was implemented in Sukabumi and Bandung districts and was implemented by CARE and the Trade Union Rights Center (TURC). The project partnered with 7 trade unions in 21 factories across the two districts.
The goal of the project was to improve working conditions in garment factories in West Java through evidence-based negotiation and collective bargaining between unions and factory management using publicly available data. The project aimed to improve the capabilities of women garment workers and their unions to collect, analyse and use publicly available data in negotiation and collective bargaining with factories, resulting in particular in more gender-responsive Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA). The project was designed on the assumption that publicly-available data could be used as the basis for evidence-based negotiation and bargaining between unions and factories, and that this form of evidence-based bargaining based on public data would lead to more successful bargaining and improved working conditions. The project also aimed to ensure that the evidence-base, data and lessons learned from the project became accessible to the wider labour movement and civil society in Indonesia.
An emphasis on gender justice was mainstreamed within the project objective, outcomes and activities. Women constitute the majority of the garment sector workforce in Indonesia and they are disproportionately impacted by worker’s rights abuses and face differential impacts on the basis of their gender. Women are also inadequately represented within union leadership and in collective bargaining, resulting in their voices and experiences not being reflected in the outcomes of bargaining. The project prioritised building the capabilities of women union members in particular on data and bargaining skills, encouraging the presence of women within negotiation and bargaining teams, developing a peer network of women leaders, strengthening union understanding and identification of the disproportionate and differentiated impacts of poor working conditions on women, and supporting the agreement of CBAs which are more responsive to those realities. Read More...
The goal of the project was to improve working conditions in garment factories in West Java through evidence-based negotiation and collective bargaining between unions and factory management using publicly available data. The project aimed to improve the capabilities of women garment workers and their unions to collect, analyse and use publicly available data in negotiation and collective bargaining with factories, resulting in particular in more gender-responsive Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA). The project was designed on the assumption that publicly-available data could be used as the basis for evidence-based negotiation and bargaining between unions and factories, and that this form of evidence-based bargaining based on public data would lead to more successful bargaining and improved working conditions. The project also aimed to ensure that the evidence-base, data and lessons learned from the project became accessible to the wider labour movement and civil society in Indonesia.
An emphasis on gender justice was mainstreamed within the project objective, outcomes and activities. Women constitute the majority of the garment sector workforce in Indonesia and they are disproportionately impacted by worker’s rights abuses and face differential impacts on the basis of their gender. Women are also inadequately represented within union leadership and in collective bargaining, resulting in their voices and experiences not being reflected in the outcomes of bargaining. The project prioritised building the capabilities of women union members in particular on data and bargaining skills, encouraging the presence of women within negotiation and bargaining teams, developing a peer network of women leaders, strengthening union understanding and identification of the disproportionate and differentiated impacts of poor working conditions on women, and supporting the agreement of CBAs which are more responsive to those realities. Read More...
WAYREP Baseline Report
WAYREP’s overall objective is to “Strengthen the resilience of refugee and Ugandan women, girls and youth to live a life free from violence (LFFV) in Uganda”. WAYREP focuses on women and girls’ empowerment within the context of some of Uganda’s most pressing current challenges such as rapid urbanization, regular and high rates of displacement and migration across and within Uganda’s borders and a very young and largely unemployed population. In 2020, this fragile context was further exacerbated with the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID 19) not only in terms of its health implications, but also in terms of its impact on livelihoods, safety and security. WAYREP is built on the hypothesis that Gender Based Violence (GBV) has two main drivers: gender inequality and poverty. This is exacerbated by displacement whether as a refugee or as an urban dweller coming from rural Uganda. WAYREP’s theory of change therefore states that: if refugee and vulnerable Ugandan women and girls have access to dignified livelihood opportunities, and if the gender, social and cultural norms that perpetuate GBV are challenged and minimized, then the likelihood of resorting to negative coping mechanisms - including GBV like early and forced marriage or commercial sex - will significantly reduce and women and girls’ self- reliance will increase.
The project seeks to achieve four result areas namely;
1. Enhanced sustainable and dignified livelihood for women and youth
2. Reduction of the acceptance of GBV
3. Enhanced psychosocial support to survivors of GBV
4. Increased accountability of the Government of Uganda (GoU) on the implementation of relevant
frameworks for women and girls’ protection and rights
The project is being implemented in Gulu Municipality (Pece and Bardege Divisions), Arua Municipality (River Oli Division, Omugo Settlement zones 4, 5, and 6) and Omugo Sub-county (in Obi, Angazi, Anufira, Duku, Boora and Ndapi Parishes).
This report is 81 pages long. Read More...
The project seeks to achieve four result areas namely;
1. Enhanced sustainable and dignified livelihood for women and youth
2. Reduction of the acceptance of GBV
3. Enhanced psychosocial support to survivors of GBV
4. Increased accountability of the Government of Uganda (GoU) on the implementation of relevant
frameworks for women and girls’ protection and rights
The project is being implemented in Gulu Municipality (Pece and Bardege Divisions), Arua Municipality (River Oli Division, Omugo Settlement zones 4, 5, and 6) and Omugo Sub-county (in Obi, Angazi, Anufira, Duku, Boora and Ndapi Parishes).
This report is 81 pages long. Read More...