English
The Final Evaluation of the Opportunities for Mother and Infants Development Project
The Opportunities for Mother and Infant Development (OMID) is a three year project (from 2018 to 2021), funded by The Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK). The current phase of the project has been implemented in the two districts (16th and 17th) in Kabul city. The main purpose of the project is to improve the health and reduce the mortality among mothers, newborns and children in the most vulnerable communities through community-based interventions facilitated and delivered by Community Health Workers (CHWs) and Community Midwives (CMWs).
Overall, the project has been effective in achieving the intended outcomes. Access and utilization of Maternal and Neonatal Child Health (MNCH) services have improved as demonstrated by achievement of the project’s key performance indicators across the continuum of care.
This included increases in the %:
- of women reporting ANC utilization
- of women who undertook the first ANC visit before by the 3rd trimester of their pregnancy
- of those who knew the date that the baby was expected to arrive
- of those women who had a plan where she would deliver the baby
- of those women who believed health facility is safer to deliver there
And decreases in the %:
- of those who didn’t go for ANC and believed it is not important
- of those who didn’t go for ANC and indicated the high cost of care as reason
The community systems strengthening undertaken by the project through establishment of community based health facilities and CHWs was effective in increasing health awareness and adoption of positive MNCH behaviors and practices. Read More...
Overall, the project has been effective in achieving the intended outcomes. Access and utilization of Maternal and Neonatal Child Health (MNCH) services have improved as demonstrated by achievement of the project’s key performance indicators across the continuum of care.
This included increases in the %:
- of women reporting ANC utilization
- of women who undertook the first ANC visit before by the 3rd trimester of their pregnancy
- of those who knew the date that the baby was expected to arrive
- of those women who had a plan where she would deliver the baby
- of those women who believed health facility is safer to deliver there
And decreases in the %:
- of those who didn’t go for ANC and believed it is not important
- of those who didn’t go for ANC and indicated the high cost of care as reason
The community systems strengthening undertaken by the project through establishment of community based health facilities and CHWs was effective in increasing health awareness and adoption of positive MNCH behaviors and practices. Read More...
FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR THE PROJECT “NEW ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR RETURNEES AND LOCAL PEOPLE IN SOUTH-EAST SERBIA”
This study has been elaborated in order to respond to the needs of CARE International Balkans for the design of the project “New economic opportunities for returnees and local marginalised local people in South-East Serbia”. The research is comprised of several approaches with the aim to deliver sufficient information and data on prospects for the successful implementation of the planned action: information on possibilities for socio-economic inclusion of returnees (in Serbia) and prospects of economic improvement for other groups of citizens vulnerable to migration to western countries.
Purpose of this study is to provide a sound basis for developing a project concept and proposal, by identifying project preconditions, opportunities and risks for its implementation. This study provides relevant information on the socio-economic status of returnees and vulnerable local population, their capacity for economic engagement and employment, access to the labour market, as well as economic potential of local business environment.
CARE International Balkans as the lead organization has selected two partners from civil society organizations, ENECA and NEXUS, as project partners which are situated in the regions in which the project would be implemented. The initial project idea has defined geographical coverage which would include 6 administrative districts in Serbia, concentrated in South East Serbia (districts of Pcinj, Jablanica, Nis, Pirot, Bor and Timok). According to the Population Census conducted in 2011 in Serbia, the population of 6 identified districts totals to 1 089 142 inhabitants of which 481 576 are females. These 6 districts make up 15.15% of the overall population of Serbia according to the 2011 Census. Of the 32 local self governments, 21 are classified in the 4th category of development, 5 are in the 3rd category of development, 4 are in the 2nd category and only 2 (Nis and Bor) are in the 1st category of economic development defined by the Regional Development Agency of Serbia. Additionally, a large number of the LSGs in the 4th category are additionally classified into the group of devastated areas/LSGs.
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Purpose of this study is to provide a sound basis for developing a project concept and proposal, by identifying project preconditions, opportunities and risks for its implementation. This study provides relevant information on the socio-economic status of returnees and vulnerable local population, their capacity for economic engagement and employment, access to the labour market, as well as economic potential of local business environment.
CARE International Balkans as the lead organization has selected two partners from civil society organizations, ENECA and NEXUS, as project partners which are situated in the regions in which the project would be implemented. The initial project idea has defined geographical coverage which would include 6 administrative districts in Serbia, concentrated in South East Serbia (districts of Pcinj, Jablanica, Nis, Pirot, Bor and Timok). According to the Population Census conducted in 2011 in Serbia, the population of 6 identified districts totals to 1 089 142 inhabitants of which 481 576 are females. These 6 districts make up 15.15% of the overall population of Serbia according to the 2011 Census. Of the 32 local self governments, 21 are classified in the 4th category of development, 5 are in the 3rd category of development, 4 are in the 2nd category and only 2 (Nis and Bor) are in the 1st category of economic development defined by the Regional Development Agency of Serbia. Additionally, a large number of the LSGs in the 4th category are additionally classified into the group of devastated areas/LSGs.
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South Sudan: The True Cost of COVID-19 Vaccines
By July 18, South Sudan was able to administer the nearly all of the 60,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine they had in stock through a series of smart investments in delivery, training, and social mobilization coordinated with several different partners. As new doses are projected to arrive in country in August, South Sudan continues to reinforce gaps in the health systems to make COVID-19 vaccinations possible without disrupting existing health services.
CARE’s estimated delivery costs from “tarmac to arm”1 for vaccines in these areas are $9.97 per dose of vaccine administered, or $22.22 per person fully vaccinated.
This is six times more expensive than current global estimate for delivery costs. For some actors providing vaccinations in South Sudan, the cost has been as high as $20 per dose administered when they include all costs. That’s because the health system in South Sudan is fragile, and it was already struggling to deliver even routine services. South Sudan is one of many health systems around the world that will need additional personnel, resources, and infrastructure to effectively deliver COVID-19 vaccines to at-risk populations, especially in hard-to-reach areas. The exact cost will continue to evolve as new vaccines arrive in country and the country vaccinates new groups of people. Read More...
CARE’s estimated delivery costs from “tarmac to arm”1 for vaccines in these areas are $9.97 per dose of vaccine administered, or $22.22 per person fully vaccinated.
This is six times more expensive than current global estimate for delivery costs. For some actors providing vaccinations in South Sudan, the cost has been as high as $20 per dose administered when they include all costs. That’s because the health system in South Sudan is fragile, and it was already struggling to deliver even routine services. South Sudan is one of many health systems around the world that will need additional personnel, resources, and infrastructure to effectively deliver COVID-19 vaccines to at-risk populations, especially in hard-to-reach areas. The exact cost will continue to evolve as new vaccines arrive in country and the country vaccinates new groups of people. Read More...
McGovern-Dole Food Fore Education Program HATUTAN – Midline Evaluation
The HATUTAN program (Hahán ne’ebé Atu fó Tulun ho Nutrisaun no Edukasaun or Food to Support Nutrition and Education) is a five-year initiative to build a partnership between schools and communities in order to improve literacy, learning, healthy, and nutrition for children and adults in Timor-Leste. The program works in partnership with the Government of Timor-Leste and development stakeholders to address two strategic objectives: improved literacy of school-aged children and increased use of health, nutrition, and dietary practices. The HATUTAN program is funded by the U.S. government through the Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States Department of Agriculture under the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. The program is implemented by a consortium led by CARE International with Mercy Corps and WaterAid. The lead Timorese government partner is the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of State Administration, and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
To achieve these objectives, the program supports, among a variety of activities, the Government of Timor-Leste’s school feeding program (SFP) to fully operate in all basic education and preschools throughout the school year. Key project activities include strengthening and supplementing the government-sponsored SFP and building school capacity through trainings for teachers and administrators and provision of resource materials. Additionally, the HATUTAN program seeks to support farmers to boost the production of local produce to increase yields and help create sustainable sources of nutritious food for local schools. In addition to activities related to literacy and SFPs, HATUTAN seeks to conduct trainings related to nutrition, health, and other topics, and to promote gender equality and the reduction of gender-based violence.
This report presents the midline evaluation of the HATUTAN program, which began in early 2019. It is important to note that restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had a substantial impact on program activities and target outputs and outcomes. In March 2020, HATUTAN field activities were halted, field offices were temporarily closed, and staff began to work from home due to a State of Emergency issued by the Government of Timor-Leste. This State of Emergency remains in effect to date, with varying levels of restriction on school activities, movement, and group gatherings. As a result, the HATUTAN program is behind schedule in terms of some major deliverables due to COVID-19. Read More...
To achieve these objectives, the program supports, among a variety of activities, the Government of Timor-Leste’s school feeding program (SFP) to fully operate in all basic education and preschools throughout the school year. Key project activities include strengthening and supplementing the government-sponsored SFP and building school capacity through trainings for teachers and administrators and provision of resource materials. Additionally, the HATUTAN program seeks to support farmers to boost the production of local produce to increase yields and help create sustainable sources of nutritious food for local schools. In addition to activities related to literacy and SFPs, HATUTAN seeks to conduct trainings related to nutrition, health, and other topics, and to promote gender equality and the reduction of gender-based violence.
This report presents the midline evaluation of the HATUTAN program, which began in early 2019. It is important to note that restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had a substantial impact on program activities and target outputs and outcomes. In March 2020, HATUTAN field activities were halted, field offices were temporarily closed, and staff began to work from home due to a State of Emergency issued by the Government of Timor-Leste. This State of Emergency remains in effect to date, with varying levels of restriction on school activities, movement, and group gatherings. As a result, the HATUTAN program is behind schedule in terms of some major deliverables due to COVID-19. Read More...
GENDER AND COVID-19 VACCINES Listening to women-focused organizations in Asia and the Pacific
More than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed across at least 176 countries, with over 1.7 billion doses administered worldwide. Combating the pandemic requires equitable distribution of safe and effective vaccines, however, women and girls are impacted by gaps both in the supply side and the demand side that hamper equitable distribution of the vaccine. Evidence reveals that 75 per cent of all vaccines have gone to just 10 countries, and only 0.3 per cent of doses have been administered in low-income countries. Very few of COVID-19 vaccines are going to those most vulnerable. The vaccine rollout in Asia and the Pacific has been relatively slow and staggered amid secondary waves of the virus. India, despite being the largest vaccine developer, has only vaccinated 3 per cent of the population and continues to battle a variant outbreak that, at its peak, was responsible for more than half of the world’s daily COVID-19 cases and set a record-breaking pace of about 400,000 cases per day.5However, the small Pacific nation of Nauru, reported a world record administering the first dose to 7,392 people, 108 per cent of the adult population within four weeks. Bhutan also set an example by vaccinating 93 per cent of its eligible population in less than two weeks. That success could be at risk, given the situation in India and the suspended export of vaccines. Read More...
Rapid Needs Assessment Gaza May/June 2021
CARE conducted a rapid needs assessment in Gaza between May 28 and June 3, 2021 to understand people's evolving needs in the crisis there. This graphic underlines what they found, with a survey of 62 people, including 68% women, 32% men, and 16% people with disabilities. Read More...
CROSS-BORDER MIGRATION INTO INDIA AND DEVELOPMENT – Advocacy Paper
The migration discourse has not remained confined to focusing upon the mobility of people from low income countries to high income countries. There has been growing attention to migration from higher-income countries to lower-income countries. The current literature, however, is increasingly taking note of human movements within any of the two regions – the higher income countries and the lower income countries, also described as the global north and the global south respectively. Based on the level of development of the countries of origin and destination, the United Nations has therefore identified a typology of two inter-regional and two intra-regional streams of contemporary international migration: south-north and north-south, south-south and north-north (United Nations 2013). This typology also subsumes the category of a transit country in its roles of being an origin and a destination country at the same time. [26 Pages] Read More...
Women, Migration and Development: Investing in the future
On the 17th and 18th of July 2014, the International Conference on Women, Migration and Development: Investing In The Future was convened by CARE
International and hosted at the Overseas Development Institute in London. The objectives of the conference were to: 1) highlight the challenges faced by vulnerable migrant workers, especially women, 2) advocate, based on CARE and others’ experiences, for strategies, policy and practical responses which need to be taken to protect migrant workers’ well-being, particularly with respect to safe mobility and access to healthcare, 3) recognize women migrants’ contribution as economic actors and advocate for policies and planning processes that ensure their protection, 4) advocate for recognition of the role of migration as a key development enabler in the post-2015 development agenda. CARE and ODI presented the findings from their five year EMPHASIS (Enhancing Mobile Populations’ Access to HIV and AIDS Services, Information and Support) programme in South Asia. EMPHASIS, a project which started as a HIV and health intervention, was successful in surfacing and addressing other aspects such as safety and dignity of migrants, economic empowerment, financial inclusion and safe remittances, access to education for migrants’ children, and women’s empowerment. The conference was a response to the call at the May 2014 Stockholm Global Forum for Migration and Development both for civil society/government cooperation around regional systemic approaches to migration and for urgently needed programmatic data and evidence on migration. EMPHASIS is considered among very few projects globally which comprehensively cover the migration experience from source, through transit, to destination countries. The EMPHASIS Learning Series report, which provides a comprehensive overview of
the EMPHASIS programme, was launched during the conference. [5 Pages] Read More...
International and hosted at the Overseas Development Institute in London. The objectives of the conference were to: 1) highlight the challenges faced by vulnerable migrant workers, especially women, 2) advocate, based on CARE and others’ experiences, for strategies, policy and practical responses which need to be taken to protect migrant workers’ well-being, particularly with respect to safe mobility and access to healthcare, 3) recognize women migrants’ contribution as economic actors and advocate for policies and planning processes that ensure their protection, 4) advocate for recognition of the role of migration as a key development enabler in the post-2015 development agenda. CARE and ODI presented the findings from their five year EMPHASIS (Enhancing Mobile Populations’ Access to HIV and AIDS Services, Information and Support) programme in South Asia. EMPHASIS, a project which started as a HIV and health intervention, was successful in surfacing and addressing other aspects such as safety and dignity of migrants, economic empowerment, financial inclusion and safe remittances, access to education for migrants’ children, and women’s empowerment. The conference was a response to the call at the May 2014 Stockholm Global Forum for Migration and Development both for civil society/government cooperation around regional systemic approaches to migration and for urgently needed programmatic data and evidence on migration. EMPHASIS is considered among very few projects globally which comprehensively cover the migration experience from source, through transit, to destination countries. The EMPHASIS Learning Series report, which provides a comprehensive overview of
the EMPHASIS programme, was launched during the conference. [5 Pages] Read More...
Evaluation of Enhancing Mobile Populations’ Access to HIV and AIDS Services (EMPHASIS)
EMPHASIS is a 5 year project funded by Big Lottery Fund, UK, which was initiated in August 2009 and is due to conclude in July 2014. It has been implemented in Nepal, India and Bangladesh to address both HIV and AIDS vulnerability and safe mobility issues of cross border migrant populations. Its overall goal has been to contribute to reduction of vulnerability of mobile populations (particularly women) to HIV infection across selected cross border regions within India, Bangladesh and Nepal. There has however, appropriately, been an increased focus on safe mobility issues within the last two years of the project. The three main outcomes of the project focus on: 1) the development of an effective and integrated cross border model of HIV prevention, care, treatment and support to benefit mobile populations and their families and target groups at source, transit and destination locations who are vulnerable to acquiring and spreading HIV and AIDS, 2) building the capacity of partner organizations (including regional authorities, government agencies, border police, customs officials, research institutions, NGO, Community Based Organizations [CBO] and key stakeholders) to deliver improved and integrated services to mobile populations vulnerable to HIV, 3) Increasing recognition of the vulnerabilities of mobile populations and demonstration of ways to address them in source and destination communities that will inform policies and produce evidence based advocacy messages with which to lobby government stakeholders. The aim of this evaluation is to assess the project according to its three outcomes areas and to assess the effectiveness and relevance of different interventions. One week visits to India, Nepal and Bangladesh were conducted at the end of January/ early February 2014 by a team of three people, during which interviews and focus group discussion were conducted, and a Lickert Scale tool administered. These visits were then supplemented by some additional meetings in Bangladesh in April, following the production of the first draft report. An endline study was conducted in parallel to the evaluation, and its conclusions are also drawn upon in this report. [88 Pages] Read More...
A Qualitative study comparing the effects and outcomes of HIV-related interventions for Nepalese migrants – at source, transit and destination
The qualitative study, commissioned by Care Nepal, sought to explore the effects and outcomes of the EMPHASIS project, launched four years ago to reduce HIV and AIDS vulnerability among cross border migrants; and to influence national and regional policies relating to safe mobility through evidence generated regionally. The project, working along a continuum of source, transit, and destination areas, provides HIV prevention and treatment services to migrants and their families. Additionally, the project partners with local stakeholders to ensure safe passage of migrants on transit besides providing other support services. The study was, thus, designed to assess the influence of the project in addressing HIV vulnerabilities, and at the same to enquire into whether inter-country passage has been made safer for migrants. The study aimed to answer the following research questions: a) How has the EMPHASIS intervention impacted HIV vulnerabilities among Nepali migrants, b) What are the qualitative differences between HIV related attitudes and behaviors between migrants reached at destination and their spouses reached at source and those not reached either at source or destination, c) What are the qualitative differences between HIV
related attitudes and behaviors between spouses who have been reached by the project and those who have not been reached by the project, d)) What are the benefits and barriers of support services provided to migrants for safe mobility and empowerment. The study was conducted among 60 migrants and family members, and 5 key informants in four locations- two at the destination site of Delhi and two at the source site of Nepal. In depth interviews by trained researchers were conducted with the help of semi structured interview guides. [39 Pages] Read More...
related attitudes and behaviors between spouses who have been reached by the project and those who have not been reached by the project, d)) What are the benefits and barriers of support services provided to migrants for safe mobility and empowerment. The study was conducted among 60 migrants and family members, and 5 key informants in four locations- two at the destination site of Delhi and two at the source site of Nepal. In depth interviews by trained researchers were conducted with the help of semi structured interview guides. [39 Pages] Read More...