Emergency|Humanitarian Aid

CARE Afghanistan Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment MULTI SECTOR NEEDS ASSESSMENT – KEY FINDINGS February 2022

The purpose of this MSNA was to identify key gaps and needs where CARE operates, with the view to inform future programming priorities and better understand the impacts of the current situation on humanitarian needs.
A total of 364 households were interviewed from 20 districts across 8 provinces (Herat, Kandahar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktia, Parwan, Kapisa, and Balkh) in December 2021. An average of 18 interviews were collected per district. The survey administered a household questionnaire and a focus group discussion (2 per community –female and male) in each district.

Key Findings on Education, Gender, Humanitarian Access, and Food Insecurity are presented here. For more data and information, please refer to the full MSNA report.

The top 5 concerns raised by the communities were all related to the consequences of Afghanistan’s current economic and humanitarian crisis:
1. food security (72% of respondents),
2. lack of employment opportunities (66%),
3. livelihood and economic empowerment (56%),
4. lack of access to humanitarian aid (36%), and
5. lack of access to shelter/ housing options (36%). 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.
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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...

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...

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...

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...

A Lifesaving GBV, Women’s Leadership, and SRMH Support for Refugees, in Uganda, Arua District, West Nile ENDLINE EVALUATION – FINAL REPORT

CARE International in Uganda commissioned an endline evaluation to establish the performance of the GAC 3 project on outcome indicators and related information to determine reasonable targets and guide for assessing the outcomes of the project interventions. This report presents the results of the end term evaluation for the GAC 3. The results are from the two sampled refugee settlements of Rhino and Imvepi in Madi Okolo and Terego District formerly Arua District in West Nile Uganda. Overall the end term evaluation survey reached a total of 280 household respondents (186F, 94M) within both settlements.
Fieldwork was conducted for five days, using mixed quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods. Quantitative data was obtained through a household survey using mobile data collection devices. A detailed questionnaire was developed, pre-tested for incorporation of relevant information. Primary qualitative data was obtained through six Focus Group Discussions (involving women, girls, boys and men) and twenty Key Informant Interviews that comprised of GAC 3 project staff, district local government officials, health workers, health partners, Office of the Prime Minister, among others. Qualitative data from mainly key informant interviews and FGDs were analyzed using thematic analysis techniques and the findings were used to strengthen the interpretation of the quantitative findings.
The end line evaluation findings indicate that there is improved feeling of safety and dignity. This was measured at household and community level. There was an improved feeling of safety and dignity as shown by the survey at 91% (92%F, M89%). Further interrogated, the respondents indicated that they felt safe at both household and community levels. At the community level people feel safe at 86% (86%F, 86%M) and at the household level they feel safe at 93% (94%M, 91%F). The study findings indicate men as change agents and as clients in relation to Gender Based Violence (GBV) seem to have been successful exhibited by the high values. Read More...

IMPACT ASSESSMENT: CARE’s Psychosocial Support Program

As part of the CARE’s response under the Syria Regional Response Plan (3RP), CARE International in Jordan is providing Psycho Social Support (PSS) to refugee and Jordanian women, girls, boys, and men in urban areas and Azraq camp, covering the second and the third layers of IASC’s intervention pyramid; community and family supports and focused, non-specialized supports. The main purpose of the PSS program is to protect them from psychosocial distress, improve their emotional and social well-being, and strengthen their coping mechanisms and resilience.
With more than twenty-one Jordanian staff as of August 2021, according to CARE, the program has benefitted over 44,627 women, 17,936 girls, 19,265 boys, and 33,049 men including 94,421 refugees and 20,456 Jordanians to date. There are eight safe spaces at CARE’s community centers in urban areas (Amman, Mafraq, Zarqa, and Irbid) and Azraq camp.
This document presents the findings of a qualitative impact assessment that aims to explore the impact of the PSS interventions, including both intended and unintended impact on targeted beneficiaries. The Programs Quality (PQ) Department used the Outcome Harvesting participatory approach, which collects evidence of what has changed “outcomes” and, then, working backwards, ascertaining whether, how, and to what extent the intervention has contributed to these changes.
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The Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Equality and Food Security in the Arab region with a focus on the Sudan and Iraq

This rapid gender analysis (RGA) explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender equality and food security in the Arab region. It is a joint collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and CARE International (CARE). This collaboration recognizes the need to expand the evidence base on gender-differentiated impacts of crises for informed recovery and response planning, while highlighting the imperative of collecting sex- and age-disaggregated data (SADD) more consistently.
This initiative was an innovative pilot project between FAO, WFP and CARE. The aim of the collaboration was to foster multilevel partnerships and strengthen gender analysis for the food security sector in crisis contexts. The initiative brought together technical experts in food security, nutrition and livelihoods across the agencies involved, as well as gender specialists to explore, develop and test tools, methods and approaches. The regional focus of the study identified key themes, challenges and norms across multiple contexts in the Arab region, while highlighting specific findings for Iraq and the Sudan. While sources have varying regional definitions for the Arab region, for the purpose of this review, the denomination includes the countries under the FAO Near East and North Africa region, the WFP Middle East and North Africa region, and the CARi Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The findings and successes of this initiative are intended to strengthen the relationship between gender and food security actors
regionally, and in particular within Iraq and the Sudan, while increasing the availability and transparency of gender analysis in the sphere of food security. Read More...

SOMALI RELIEF AND RECOVERY PROGRAM-SRRP

Due to repeated climate shocks, continued conflict, and protracted displacement mean that Somalia remains one of the most prolonged humanitarian crises in the world. Over 4.2 million people, including 2.5 million children are estimated to need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2019. Significant displacement and destitution driven by the 2016/17 drought and protracted conflict have left more than 1.5 million people across Somalia facing acute food insecurity through June 2019 with 903,100 children under the age of five are likely to be malnourished in 2019 including 138,200 who are likely to be severely malnourished. Women and children like in many other instances of conflicts represented the majority of the 2.6 million people displaced across the country.

The Somalia Relief and Recovery Project-SRRP's main goal was to address the most urgent and basic needs of drought-affected communities in Bari, Galgaduud, Lower Juba, Mudug, Sanaag, Hiraan, and Sool regions that have been severely affected by the recurrent drought crisis. In particular, the project aimed to improve access to safe water and hygiene in drought-affected communities, provide temporary employment opportunities, deliver treatment services for acutely malnourished children and pregnant and lactating women, provide basic health services, and protection services. The project also aimed at improving coordination through the Somalia NGO consortium to a concert and coordinate efforts to adequately address the recurrent humanitarian challenges in Somalia. Read More...

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