“From safe drinking water and healthy sanitation to agriculture, water is essential for life,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian Missions has made building wells and other projects that supply fresh, clean water a top priority for every community in every country in which Salesian missionaries work.”

The construction of a simple well improves the health of residents, increases agricultural production and leads to a better quality of life for families, especially for girls and women. Women and children often bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households and globally, spend 140 million hours a day collecting water. Children in communities without access to local wells are forced to walk for hours to collect drinking water—water that often proves contaminated and seriously sickens those who consume it. Many others are unable to attend school regularly because they must spend time searching for distant wells.

Salesian well projects in Ethiopia utilize construction techniques compatible with cultural traditions, practices and customs of the region and use locally sourced materials. The new wells will improve sanitation and provide safe drinking water and water for agriculture and food production.

Residents of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia are experiencing chronic food insecurity made worse by recurring periods of drought, low soil fertility and an unsustainable use of natural resources. Agriculture is the primary source of sustenance and survival for communities in this region and the onset of drought has negatively impacted all aspects of family life. In order to address this situation and provide access to clean, safe water, Don Bosco Missions in Turin, Italy is planning to implement a well project. Each well equipped with pump is expected to cost just over $11,000 U.S.

A collaborative project between Salesian missionaries and International Voluntary Service for Development (VIS) volunteers began in 2011 and has successfully completed five wells in the Gambella area of Ethiopia. The wells are operated by a hand pump and are between 50 and 60 meters deep, guaranteeing water to local villages that will benefit close to 1,200 people. To ensure that the wells last as long as possible, a village committee has been set up to oversee their management and maintenance.

Salesian missionaries have a long history of providing educational and support services to poor youth in Ethiopia. Missionaries operate six primary schools, three secondary schools and six vocational training centers in the country. At all these Salesian-run educational facilities, youth are able to gain an education while accessing support services including family sponsorship and school feeding programs. These supports reinforce the missionaries’ goal of keeping youth in school as long as possible. Missionaries at these programs continue to assess water and sanitation issues for the programs and surrounding villages. New water well projects are planned and implemented as needs arise.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world with more than 38 percent of its population living in poverty, according to Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative. Close to 85 percent of the country’s workforce is employed in agriculture but frequent droughts severely affect the agricultural economy leaving more than 12 million people chronically, or at least periodically, food insecure. In addition, more than two-thirds of the population is illiterate.

The country has 4 million orphans which account for nearly 12 percent of all children and according to UNICEF, more than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS crisis that has affected the country. Thousands more children run away each year seeking a better life on the streets.

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Sources:

ANS – Spain – Wells in Ethiopia to improve the lives of people in the poorest regions

UNICEF – Ethiopia

The post ETHIOPIA: Water Well Projects Provide Safe Drinking Water and Improved Sanitation during Recent Droughts first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Residents of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia are experiencing chronic food insecurity made worse by recurring periods of drought, low soil fertility and an unsustainable use of natural resources. Agriculture is the primary source of sustenance and survival for communities in this region and the onset of drought has negatively impacted all aspects of family life. In order to address this situation and provide access to clean, safe water, Don Bosco Missions in Turin, Italy is planning to implement a well project. Each well equipped with pump is expected to cost just over $11,000 U.S.

The project will utilize construction techniques compatible with cultural traditions, practices and customs of the region and use locally sourced materials. It will also establish village committees that will be responsible for the management of the wells and water-collection systems in addition to the training of community members in appropriate sanitation practices.

The new wells will provide water for agriculture and food production and access to safe drinking water in addition to improving sanitation. Women and children often bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households and globally, spend 140 million hours a day collecting water. Children in communities without access to local wells are forced to walk for hours to collect drinking water—water that often proves contaminated and seriously sickens those who consume it. Many others are unable to attend school regularly because they must spend time searching for distant wells.

“From safe drinking water and healthy sanitation to agriculture, water is essential for life,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian Missions has made building wells and other projects that supply fresh, clean water a top priority for every community in every country in which Salesian missionaries work.”

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world with more than 38 percent of its population living in poverty, according to Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative. Close to 85 percent of the country’s workforce is employed in agriculture but frequent droughts severely affect the agricultural economy leaving more than 12 million people chronically, or at least periodically, food insecure. In addition, more than two-thirds of the population is illiterate.

The country has 4 million orphans which account for nearly 12 percent of all children and according to UNICEF, more than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS crisis that has affected the country. Thousands more children run away each year seeking a better life on the streets.

Salesian missionaries have a long history of providing educational and support services to poor youth in Ethiopia. Missionaries operate six primary schools, three secondary schools and six vocational training centers in the country. At all these Salesian-run educational facilities, youth are able to gain an education while accessing support services including family sponsorship and school feeding programs. These supports reinforce the missionaries’ goal of keeping youth in school as long as possible.

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Sources:

ANS – Ethiopia – A comprehensive water project

UNICEF – Ethiopia

The post ETHIOPIA: Salesian Missionaries Start New Well Project to Provide Clean Water to Communities across Ethiopia first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The country has 4 million orphans which account for nearly 12 percent of all children, and according to UNICEF, more than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS crisis that has affected the country. Thousands more children run away each year seeking a better life on the streets.

Through various programs, Salesians in Ethiopia are meeting the most basic needs of poor youth while providing educational opportunities to enable them to break the cycle of poverty and find hope for the future.

One such Salesian program, the CARING Orphans and Vulnerable Children project is funded by USAID to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS in the country. It provides holistic care, community reintegration and support for 60,000 orphans and street youth who are living at-risk due to HIV/AIDS. A shelter where youth are able to access medical care, clothing and food is available as well as formal and non-formal education opportunities. As a result of the program, more than a quarter of the youth have been reintegrated back home with their extended families.

“Salesians in Ethiopia are helping the most poor and vulnerable children in the country,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “As a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, children have been left alone to fend for themselves. Salesians are working hard to make sure that these children have a chance at a brighter future.”

In Ethiopia, the Salesians’ primary focus is on the education of poor youth. They accomplish this through the operation of six primary schools, three secondary schools and six vocational training centers for older youth. At all these Salesian-run educational facilities, youth are able to gain an education while having access to support services, including family sponsorship and school feeding programs, that provide care for them and their families all with the goal of keeping youth in school as long as possible.

In Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa, a Salesian Center provides a variety of programs designed to instill confidence and self-respect to 750 at-risk youth. The Center features dormitories, classrooms, a recreation hall and cafeteria and serves hundreds of poor youth by providing for their most basic needs of food and shelter. While educational programming is offered at the Center, the Salesians there believe in meeting the basic needs of youth first, so they are better able to focus on their studies.

“Education is always our primary focus,” adds Fr. Hyde. “But we know youth in Ethiopia are dealing with much more than just having access to education. Salesian programs are tailored to meet the needs of the youth in the communities they serve. Homeless and malnourished youth are simply not able to focus effectively on their studies while they struggle to meet their basic needs. Our services provide food and shelter so youth are able to focus on the education provided.”

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Sources

Feed the Future – Ethiopia

UNICEF – Ethiopia

The post ETHIOPIA: Salesian Programs Help Break Cycle of Poverty and Give Youth Hope for the Future first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Touch and Nouv are both reaping the benefits of the market connections and training they received as part of Feed the Future’s work in Cambodia to build the capacity of local businesses to support the country’s growing agriculture sector. Input suppliers – who sell things like seeds, farming tools, and fertilizers – are vital in the process of getting crops from farms to markets to tables, providing smallholder farmers with the means to grow enough food to feed their families and generate income.

But in Cambodia, many rural inhabitants – who comprise over 80 percent of the population – lack access to technical services, modern technologies, and affordable working capital, all of which are critical to a thriving agriculture sector. Most input suppliers inherit their businesses from their families and operate informally, lacking the business management skills and technical expertise to expand the products and services that can support farmers in their communities.

That’s why Feed the Future is training rural Cambodian input dealers in basic business operation and agricultural production skills, empowering them to become not only better entrepreneurs, but also mentors and technical advisers in local agricultural markets. With access to hundreds of smallholder farmers who regularly buy their products, input suppliers are ideally positioned to improve local agriculture by disseminating the knowledge and skills they acquire in training. Since their advice typically leads to better crop yields and more income for farmers, the training is a win-win for rural communities as agricultural businesses grow their client base and farmers get better access to critical tools and services.

Feed the Future also trains smallholder farmers, processers and other agricultural enterprises in Cambodia to improve their chances of securing long-term, small- and medium-size loans from banks and microfinance institutions, which traditionally have been extremely conservative in their lending and require rigorous management standards. With assistance from Feed the Future, rice miller An Sina became eligible for and received a $10,000 loan to upgrade the aging equipment in his mill. He also has purchased more rice from local farmers, which in turn has improved their cash flow and helped them expand their own businesses.

As part of its efforts to improve food security by expanding access to finance, Feed the Future also supported USAID’s Development Credit Authority to guarantee Thaneakea Phum Cambodia, a local microfinance institution, $2.71 million for loans to farmers and small businesses. These loans are larger and have longer repayment schedules and, to date, 80 percent of the borrowers are women.

With better access to working capital, Cambodian smallholder farmers and micro and small business owners are gaining the flexibility to increase their profits over the long term. Feed the Future also trains credit officers in microfinance institutions on agricultural production so they can better understand the risks, costs and production cycles involved in their clients’ work. By building understanding and trust between lenders and borrowers in the agriculture sector, Feed the Future is supporting the design of financial products that are uniquely suited to rural entrepreneurs in Cambodia.

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See this Feed the Future article at its original location >

Posted on the Feed the Future Newsletter on January 30, 2014

Photo credit: HARVEST

The post CAMBODIA: Feed the Future Supports Businesses to Boost Agriculture in Cambodia first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index—developed by USAID, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)—tracks women’s engagement in agriculture in five areas: production, resources, income, leadership, and time use. Unlike any other tool, it also measures women’s empowerment relative to men within their households, providing a more robust understanding of gender dynamics within households and communities.

The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (or WEAI) makes empowerment a solid and quantifiable concept Feed the Future and partners can work toward. It also helps us improve the way we do our development work. We’re using the tool to systematically assess and improve our food security programs in regard to women’s empowerment and gender equality.

We asked Emily Hogue, the acting team leader for monitoring and evaluation in the Bureau for Food Security at USAID, to reflect on the one-year anniversary of this innovative tool, which she helped create.

1. How is Feed the Future currently using the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index?

We’re using the WEAI to track changes in women’s empowerment that occur as a direct or indirect result of Feed the Future programs. There’s a couple of different ways we do that. First, in our focus countries, we’re monitoring changes within the targeted geographic regions where Feed the Future works to track the contribution our food security programs make to women’s empowerment. Second, we’re collecting WEAI data within our impact evaluations on specific activities to learn more about the approaches we’re using and how effective they are. This helps us understand and assess how different approaches impact women and men and identify which program approaches are showing the most promise so we can expand their use.

2. What’s happened over the past year with the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index? What’s new?

In 2012, we collected data for the WEAI through population-based surveys in 16 of the 19 Feed the Future focus countries, alongside other Feed the Future indicators. We’re collecting data in the additional three focus countries in early 2013. This has allowed us to calculate baseline values for the WEAI so we can measure change from these baselines in future years. USAID and partners are also analyzing the large amount of data collected in the surveys to learn more about the relationships between empowerment, poverty, and nutrition, as well as relationships between WEAI indicators. Through our analyses, we’re also exploring how to further refine the tool to make it as practical and broadly useful as possible.

The WEAI team (USAID, IFPRI, and OPHI) produced a number of materials over the past year to support use of the tool, such as a brochure (PDF), a video, a webinar, and a discussion paper (PDF). So far, we’ve trained more than 600 people on how to use the tool—and that doesn’t include the number of people who have viewed our webinar training.

USAID is also funding the WEAI Resource Center at IFPRI, which offers assistance to users on fine-tuning the questionnaire for new contexts, tabulating and analyzing data, and interpreting the WEAI data to inform program design. Through IFPRI, WEAI partners selected four dissertation grants, funded by USAID, for research related to the WEAI. This research is helping build evidence on how women’s empowerment relates to other development outcomes, such as improved nutrition.

We’re excited to roll out a new instructional guide this week, published by IFPRI, that provides detailed information to users on how to use the WEAI questionnaire, analyze the WEAI data, and use the findings of the WEAI to inform program design.

3. How are you using the WEAI to improve the way Feed the Future works?

We created the WEAI as a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tool to track the effects of our programs over time, but one of the most exciting uses of the WEAI has been as a diagnostic tool to identify constraints women face in the agriculture sector. Because the WEAI examines several dimensions and uses direct measures of empowerment rather than proxies, it can identify specific obstacles to women’s advancement in agriculture, such as limited access to credit or limited involvement in leadership roles. Once we identify those constraints, we tailor our programs to address them.

We’re currently examining WEAI baseline data to better understand the primary constraints and how our programs are addressing them. Then, we use the WEAI to track change over time in those specific areas, along with all five dimensions. We’re closely tracking how our programs impact equality and empowerment so we can strengthen and replicate practices that work well and reorient programs that aren’t working.

4. What has been the development community’s response to the WEAI?

Many development partners have expressed interest in using the WEAI for tracking their own programs.  Several international organizations like the International Fund for Agricultural Development, non-governmental organizations like CARE International, and a number of universities are planning to use or are already using the tool for program monitoring and research.

The WEAI team is developing tools and guidance to help our partners use and replicate the WEAI beyond Feed the Future’s focus countries and the targeted regions we work in. With the help of our development partners, we believe we can greatly increase the potential for learning through the WEAI. What started as a fairly modest effort to develop a monitoring tool for Feed the Future has greatly exceeded our expectations and provided the development community with a robust and accessible instrument to tackle one of the most complicated development challenges.

5. What’s next for the WEAI in its second year?

Now that we have a tremendous amount of data on the WEAI, most of our focus for 2013 is on analyzing and learning more about the context of empowerment in the areas where we work, as well as how the WEAI is working as a tool. The WEAI Resource Center and M&E partners are helping us conduct analyses to make this learning happen.

In 2013, we will also be designing and collecting baselines for a few impact evaluations of Feed the Future activities that use the WEAI. The WEAI team has many other materials in the works, so stay tuned in the coming months for baseline reports and a few case studies interpreting the results of the WEAI in our baselines. We’d also love to hear from others about how they are using and learning from the WEAI, so please let us know* about any work you will be doing in 2013 related to the WEAI.

While just a first step to improve learning and programming in this critical area, the WEAI signifies the commitment of the U.S. Government to prioritize empowerment as an essential development outcome that we will measure and strive to achieve.

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This originally appeared on the Feed the Future Blog.

Posted by Emily Hogue, Team Leader for Monitoring and Evaluation, Food Security on Wednesday, March 13th 2013

Photo credit: Elisa Walton, USAID

The post USAID: Celebrating the One-Year Anniversary of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index first appeared on MissionNewswire.

“We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Brazil and take advantage of our countries’ relative expertise in agriculture,” said Mark Feierstein, Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean at USAID. “By combining efforts, our countries can help others improve nutrition for rural communities and increase incomes for poor farmers.”

In Haiti, the partnership will primarily focus on sharing new technologies and implementing exchange programs and training opportunities. The three governments will: 1) test new varieties of maize, rice, beans, cowpeas and other crops; 2) implement new farming systems that use less water, fertilizer, and seeds; 3) improve mango production; 4) adopt technologies to store and process grains and vegetables; 5) enable farmers to use their land to sustainably produce both food and wood; 6) conduct exchange and training programs for farmers and researchers; and 7) promote nutrition, specifically for mothers and children.

“This partnership leverages the expertise of Brazilians and Americans to make a difference in food security in the region and directly help Haitians,” noted Paul Weisenfeld, Assistant to the Administrator for the Bureau of Food Security at USAID.

The partnership builds upon the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative to help nearly 567,000 vulnerable Haitian women, children, and family members escape hunger and poverty and to provide 176,000 children with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality.

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See related article about the Salesian program: Opportunity Grows at Agriculture School in Haiti

See ProgressInHaiti.org for more stories of progress in Haiti.

The post HAITI (USAID): U.S., Brazil Partner to Improve Food Security in the Americas first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The campaign includes television, radio and internet ads featuring well-known actors and public figures, and will direct audiences to visit www.usaid.gov/FWD to find more information about the crisis and a listing of U.S.-funded humanitarian organizations—including Salesian Missions—working in the Horn of Africa that are accepting donations to aid in disaster relief.

The FWD campaign was developed in response to the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. The campaign encourages Americans to do more than just donate by providing tools to spread awareness of the crisis, support the humanitarian organizations conducting the relief operations, and learn more about the solutions through President Obama’s Feed the Future initiative.

Across the eastern Horn of Africa, more than 13 million people—a number greater than the populations of Los Angeles and New York City combined—are now in need of emergency assistance to survive. The crisis is the most severe humanitarian emergency in the world today, and the worst that East Africa has seen in six decades. Crops have failed, livestock have died, and high prices in local markets prevent many people from buying what is needed to feed their families. Millions of people are affected in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, and in Somalia where tens of thousands of people have died as a result of the crisis.

Through the Feed the Future initiative, the United States Government is addressing the root causes of chronic hunger by helping foster better farming, stronger markets, and greater resilience to climate shocks.

“We know that these types of crises don’t need to happen. Through Feed the Future, we are working to end hunger around the world,” says Rajiv Shah, USAID administrator. “By partnering with governments, the private sector and smallholder farmers, we can help nations build resilient agricultural sectors and break the devastating cycle of food riots, famine and failed states.”

Despite the magnitude of the crisis, according to a national survey released today by the Ad Council, conducted online by Harris Interactive among 2,226 U.S. adults aged 18 and older in September 2011, more than half (52 percent) of the general public say that they have not seen, heard, or read anything about the drought and famine occurring in the Horn of Africa.

The campaign aims to change those numbers with television and web ads featuring Dr. Jill Biden and actors Uma Thurman, Josh Hartnett, Geena Davis and Chanel Iman. The campaign will also be engaging high-profile athletes such as Lance Armstrong and writer and television host Anthony Bourdain. In addition to the traditional ads, the campaign includes an extensive social media program via USAID’s Facebook and Twitter channels, as well as blogs and other sites.

“We are extremely proud to be among the humanitarian organizations partnering with USAID,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions headquartered in New Rochelle, NY. “We are very thankful for the Ad Council’s work on the FWD campaign and are hopeful more people will become aware of the crisis and take action to help save lives.”

Salesian Missions supports programs in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya which have all been affected by the crisis in the region. In refugee camps served by Salesians in the area, more than 80,000 people are in need of assistance, according to Brother Cesare Bullo, executive director of the Salesian Planning and Development Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“They arrive after having walked more than 600 kilometers,” says Br. Bullo, emphasizing the urgent nature of the refugees’ needs. “We are working to distribute food outside the refugee camps while they are waiting to be registered,” he says, referring to the area of Dolo Ado in the Southern part of Somalia. “We estimate we can provide 2,000 daily rations which means 1,000 people will benefit from the daily distribution for at least three or four days before entering the camps.”

The Salesians specialize in assessing specific needs and identifying best possible emergency interventions to aid as many people as possible. Since they are already established in the communities working to help those in need, they are in a unique position to assess situations and respond. Amid the growing numbers of refugees and declining food and water supply at the Kakuma camp, the seemingly impossible is happening. Young people are receiving job training and children are attending school.

Salesian Missions calls on the public to make donations, as they are urgently needed to fulfill these essential life-saving projects. To make a donation, go to www.SalesianMissions.org, click on Donate Now and select “African Famine Fund.”

Salesian Missions is the U.S. arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, which operates in more than 130 countries around the globe with a focus on providing education and opportunity to youth. Since registering with USAID as a private voluntary organization, the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs has implemented 70 projects totaling more than $50 million in financial support.

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Source: USAID | Salesian Missions

The post HORN OF AFRICA: Salesian Missions Among USAID Partners, Ad Council Launches New “FWD” Campaign first appeared on MissionNewswire.