devinitorg/iati-policy-markers huggingface dataset:
Social and Economic development of Northern Sierra Leone Communities The civil war in Sierra Leone ended in 2002 and with four years of support from a Comic Relief-funded project, many communities in the north are now engaged in economic development activities and the potential for entrepreneurship and small businesses is huge. However, poverty is still widespread. Young people, PWDs and women are economically and politically marginalized due to unemployment, poverty and bad governance. Many artisans and petty traders have rehabilitated their businesses, but are operating on a very small scale due to inability to meet credit requirements to expand them. The follow-on project will reach more communities and support small businesses to improve and expand. It will strengthen and work with CBOs and through them target young people, petty traders (with a focus on women), PWDs and artisans to provide them with micro-credit loans, support apprenticeship and train beneficiaries in numeracy and literacy, business and financial management. This will create employment opportunities, promote entrepreneurships and make small businesses more sustainable. The CBOs will be linked with advocacy networks to lobby and hold government and chiefs accountable. As a result, small businesses will thrive, employment opportunities will increase especially for marginalized groups, and poverty will be reduced in the area.
Take All My Friends To School?: Increasing the access, quantity and quality of i This project will work with schools, teachers, government staff, children and communities to develop inclusive early childhood education for children with disabilities. Working across 8 primary schools with Nursery classes, Child Support Tanzania and AbleChildAfrica will train teachers in inclusive approaches, develop a teachers training and resource guide, develop support groups for parents and work with children and communities to identify 'hidden' children with disabilities further referring them for assessment. The aim will be that a model for inclusive education is replicated across early years schooling and into Primary schools ensuring children with disabilities stay/learn in school.
Education and Livelihoods for Girls and Women (Ethiopia) Girls and disabled children in Ethiopia often never go to school. This is especially so in poor families and in rural areas. Girls that start school often drop out because families need them to work, or because of early marriage. Provision of education for disabled children is scarce. This project will provide training to teachers to enable them to work with disabled children, and support schools to make them more accessible. Loans to families will generate sufficient income so that children are not forced to work. The project will engage parents and community leaders to discuss the importance of education to children. Part of these community discussions will focus on the practice of early marriage, and the practice of genital mutilation. As a result, thousands of girls and disabled children who have never been to school, or who would have dropped out, will receive a basic education. The project also aims to reduce the incidence of early marriage and genital mutilation.
Empowering young slum dwellers for the social and economic transformation of slu Over 90% of the population of Freetown live in slums, which are characterised by poor housing, overcrowding, poverty, unsanitary conditions and vulnerability to natural hazards. Over 60% of young people are unemployed and have little influence on the development of their communities. This project builds on a previous Y-Care International (YCI)/YMCA project in Freetown which enabled slum dwellers to access clean water, to develop new livelihood options, to access savings and loan services and to influence government's policy on slums. This follow on project will expand the work to another 6 slums in Freetown. There will be a focus on vocational training and enterprise development, life skills and literacy training, youth-led hygiene and health programmes, youth-led advocacy and community disaster preparedness and management planning. New water and toilet facilities will be installed and a small grants programme will be established for use by participating communities. YMCA will also support the further development of the Centre for Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOHSAPA) and its work in carrying out community mapping and enumeration, establishing community savings and loan schemes and organising communities to take a lead role in their own development.
Disability and Development Partners - OD Grant Disability and Development Partners (DDP) works directly with local organisations of and for disabled people in developing countries in Africa and Asia to bring tangible changes to the lives of disabled people. It does this by developing and implementing programmes on rehabilitation, education and livelihood opportunities, advocacy and inclusion. Over the last fifteen years DDP has built up a considerable network of local partners and wide experience of disability and development issues, but it lacks capacity to leverage the learning from its work and to maximise its impact. This application aims to strengthen DDP’s governance and management team, to create a fully accessible DDP base for nurturing new partnerships with organisations including for example, fledgling UK Diaspora groups and Disabled people’s organisations. Alongside these two strands it intends to develop better ways of building the organisational capacity of its partners (both current and future). This includes supporting and strengthening financial management systems so they are more robust and transparent, which will then lead to better general management, growth of productive activities and increased sustainability.
Organisational Development of Theatre for a Change UK TFAC is a small organisation with a track record of attracting donor funds: Comic Relief currently funds a TFAC Malawi project, which promotes female sex workers' access to legal and health services. This application builds on a number of recommendations outlined in a recently completed external review, including: developing more transparent and effective communication between different sections of the organisation; raising the external profile of the organisation, its ‘value added' and cost effectiveness; documenting the organisation's approaches; consolidating and refining tools and materials; and strengthening overall M&E quality at different levels. These have become a central part of TFAC's Organisational Strategy 2012-2015. To address these issues this grant will support a workshop for all UK Trustees on the TFAC methodology; four UK trustees will travel to Ghana and Malawi to increase their understanding of the work and establish a partnership scheme; the TFAC training modules will be documented and accredited; and an operations manual developed. An external consultant will undertake an M&E review and develop a framework with common outcomes and indicators for all partners. A value for money (VfM) assessment will be conducted to ensure programmes are cost effective and that staff consider VfM in programme development. Finally, an external review of external and internal communications systems will be undertaken and staff will be supported to implement recommendations. A number of the organisational development activities outlined in the proposal rely on the intervention of an external consultant. Therefore it is important that the organisation finds ways to ensure the learning from this grant is institutionalised, including by sharing learning with its Federation partners.
Capacity Building for Protection of Girls and Young Women?s Rights in Education This project will deepen previous activities with in-school Girls Peer Mentoring Clubs, and training and a peer-mentoring programme in Universities alongside training and advocacy work with teachers and other community support structures to build the agency of girls and young women and support the building of a violence free learning environments in institutions of learning,
Agri-Enterprise in Sunflower, Soya bean, SIm sim and Sorgham for Small Scale Far This project works to enable communities in Northern Uganda to establish small scale sustainable commercial farming operations generating incomes for families supporting orphans. The project will establish 3 new Farmer Co-operatives, supported by agricultural, business, financial & land-rights awareness training. It also work with whole communities to empower women to achieve equal rights and voice through training ‘Community Land Advocacy agents’ who improve understanding and respect for land rights, with a focus on wider gender and community relations. Previous projects have demonstrated this approach to be successful.
Education for Girls: Malawi In Malawi, girls’ access to education is low. One in three women is illiterate and of the girls who do enrol in school, few even complete primary education. Link Community Development Scotland (LCDS) and its local partner, Link Community Development Malawi (LCDM), have identified that by improving the collection and use of data, schools can improve their performance and provide a better service to children. Additionally, they will undertake research to find out the impact of late enrolment on girls’ retention in school and raise community awareness about he importance of girls’ education. Finally, the partners will work to increase the coordination and activism of mothers’ groups and female teachers to improve the school environment for girls. As a result of this work, girls in two Districts of Malawi will stay in schools and schools will better serve girls and all children.
Gedo Education Capacity Building In Somalia, secondary schooling is crucial to create professionals who will rebuild the country. Somalia’s secondary school system is very poor, and many girls, disabled children and boys (to join militias) drop out. In Gedo region, the project’s target area bordering Kenya and Ethiopia, the education sector was deserted and became dilapidated during the conflict. The region has only three public secondary schools, built mainly by Diaspora communities. Secondary teachers are often untrained or poorly trained, with no in-service training or skills upgrading available. Many local teachers only enter the profession as a survival strategy. This project will widen access for pupils, especially girls and disabled children, to quality secondary education. It will focus on developing an improved curriculum, training teachers, supporting Community Education Committees, (CECs) to manage schools, working with 70 community leaders to raise awareness of the importance of education, and applying learning gained to advocate for replication in other parts of Somalia. Overseen by HIRDA UK, it will be implemented by respected local organisation, Action for Relief and Development, (ARD), and should result in a new curriculum, 35 teachers trained to deliver it, a 30% increase in girls and disabled students enrolling.
Improving Target TB?s monitoring, evaluation and learning systems Target TB is a specialist charity working with partner organisations in Africa and Asia. As a dynamic, growing organisation we are increasingly seeing the need to develop our monitoring and evaluation systems to: 1) Improve how we monitor project and organisational objectives, with systems clearly understood by Target TB and our partners 2) Evaluate our work more effectively, to help us evidence the impact of our work, highlight key learning points, and disseminate information to others so as to build best practice 3) Use learning from monitoring and evaluation to input into future programme development, share findings with other stakeholders, influence policy discussions, and showcase the value of our work. This project will enable Target TB to undertake a review of existing systems through which we monitor, evaluate and learn. Review recommendations will lead to the development of new systems which we will train both Target TB and partners on prior to implementation. The improved systems will help us to plan high quality, more effective programmes, demonstrate the significant value of our partners’ work in contributing to global health and poverty-alleviation goals, and improve our contribution to relevant policy and decision making forums in the UK and internationally.
PADEAP Umoja (Unity) - OD Grant PADEAP was established in Uganda in 1997. The UK office was established in 2000, to access international donors and harness the skills and expertise of the African Diaspora to support work in Africa. In 2003, they opened an office in Nigeria. Today its work focuses on supporting these two partner organisations; in Uganda working with refugees and asylum seekers to access information and training to reduce xenophobia and increase integration, and in Nigeria to support the development of isolated rural communities. In the UK PADEAP works on development education and identity and cultural issues faced by young people of African heritage living in London. This application will enable PADEAP to plan and develop strategies for greater organisational sustainability and enable them to better support their partners. This will be achieved through the development of their governance and leadership, financial systems and management, fundraising and communication strategies. Once completed in the UK, this process with then be rolled out to their partner organisations in Uganda and Nigeria, ultimately strengthening their work and support to their beneficiaries.
Improving the mental health of perinatal women in Nairobi's informal settlements Women living in Nairobi’s informal settlements (slums) face situations during pregnancy and after birth that put their mental health at risk. Their pregnancy may be unwanted. Lack of partner support, sexual and gender-based violence, and poverty are common. These can lead to maternal anxiety and/or depression and result in poor health for their children. This project will educate communities about common mental health conditions in women during pregnancy and after birth. It will help detect women with these conditions early and refer them to the care and support they need. This will result in better health of women and their babies.
Schools for IDP Resettlement in Katakwi (SIRK) (Uganda) For 20 years conflict has shaped the lives of children in Northern Uganda. Many have been confined in refugee camps for their entire childhood and during this time only 10% of children in the region received any form of education. The situation in some areas has improved in recent years and families are starting to leave camps and return to their home areas, but the schools they are returning to are woefully ill prepared. Many children are traumatised by their experience of the conflict and need specialist support and schooling that is relevant to their situation. This project aims to establish a model for education that can be replicated across Northern Uganda. It will improve the quality and relevance of education increasing basic literacy and numeracy rates, but also providing training in skills lost during years of displacement. Parents and communities will be involved in the process with the aim of rebuilding confidence in education and the government as a provider and so increasing attendance rates. District education staff will be supported and trained to ensure sustainability. Over 14,000 pupils will directly benefit, helping to raise the standard of education and reduce the risks of future insecurity. An additional £10,000 has been added to the request amount to fund a mid-term and final evaluation which it was felt had been under budgeted for.
Breakfasts For Primary School Children: A Feasibility Study Children in Tanzania suffer from high levels of poverty, malnutrition and poor health. Hunger is common, making it difficult for children to attend school and perform well. Girls are particularly affected – their enrolment in school is lower than boys, their drop-out rates higher and their performance worse. This research will gather evidence from a breakfast feeding programme which feeds 984 children in 3 primary schools every day and which has so far increased their attendance by 28%. Much of the food eaten by the children is grown in the schools, reducing the costs of feeding them. By providing these children with a nutritious breakfast every day, children are performing better because they are no longer hungry. This research project will result in a fully costed proposal for extending the feeding programme to another 25 primary schools in the region, which would mean that 16,700 children could learn better, free from hunger.
Sustainable Production and Marketing of Forest Products The project will respond to poverty and high deforestation rates in western Ethiopia by supporting communities to create forest management co-operatives that make legal agreements with the government to conserve the forest and use its resources sustainably. The co-operatives will develop incense and honey value chains to increase household incomes and participation of women and young people. Two enterprises to market incense and honey are project partners, together with two civil society organisations who specialise in community training and women's leadership and life skills. The project will build their capacity and demonstrate the viability of Ethiopia's participatory forest management policy.
Improving Cassava Processing Enterprises in Northern Communities Sierra Leone Cassava is a staple food crop in Sierra Leone but the Northern Province, struggling to recover from the effects of the protected civil war and the Ebola crisis, imports expensive cassava from other parts of the country. Local cassava farmers and processors, unable to access the services and support they need to increase yields and produce reasonably priced cassava products, are unable to fill this gap in the market. This project aims to enable cassava farmers and processors to form commercially viable cooperatives able to access the training, machinery and financial support needed to bring high quality, locally sourced cassava products to market and, as they grow, create local jobs.
Empowering women small-holder farmers in the rice value chain in Tanzania Women do 70% of the work in rice production in Tanzania but see little of the income.  There is a growing internal demand for good quality rice yet 20% of rice is imported.  A 2 year pilot showed how linking women farmers directly with processors in a village-based contract farming model led to a 67% increase in price and almost doubled profit.  This project will scale up this model by supporting 25,000 women to form producer groups to have contracts directly with processors.  They will provide women with inputs and credit to improve quality and yields leading to increased income into their own pockets.
Community Based Advocacy  for Access, Gender Equality and Reduced Stigma 7.2% of Uganda’s population is living with HIV and the rate has been rising since 2006. Stigma continues to marginalize people with HIV and is a key barrier to accessing services. This project will work across five districts in Uganda. It will strengthen and expand the work of two community grassroots organisations that will establish and support a wider network of support groups of people living with HIV. There will be close links with government clinics to improve the quality and availability of HIV services. It will help establish village savings schemes and strengthen opportunities for livelihoods, improving the lives of more than 15,000 people living with HIV.
Strengthening capacity and access to quality health services for people affected HIV prevalence is 5% among adults in Tanzania, but in the rural Arusha district, people living with HIV are a hidden and excluded population due to very high levels of stigma and discrimination.  ACE Africa Tanzania will reach 20,000 people directly to address the unmet needs at individual level.  At community level, the project will expand the number of those involved in supporting people affected by HIV and to fight stigma, and people will be brought forward to test for HIV.   The project will work with teachers and young people, including orphans and vulnerable children, to increase life skills and access to reproductive health services.  The project will also support the Ministry of Health to improve health data management from community to district levels.
Signing Safe Futures (South Africa) Deaf children and young people are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. They can be seen as easy prey by abusers because they are unable to communicate or report what is happening to them. Anecdotal evidence of such difficulties experienced by deaf children has emerged in South Africa and other countries. This research will look at the situation in South Africa to understand the prevalence and nature of the abuse suffered by deaf children there. The results of the study will be used to design a nationwide programme to address these problems. The outcome will be that deaf children are better protected from exploitation and abuse.
Capacity Building & Programme Consolidation for AHISDO and CBISDO Many people living in the slums of Addis Ababa survive on less than $1 a day.  Housing, water, sanitation and other services are of poor quality.   Sustainable community-led programmes responding to the needs of slum dwellers are therefore needed desperately. This project will support local organisations helping communities improve housing and community infrastructure, support work that enables the poorest members of the community to gain vocational training and loans so they are able to earn a living and ensure they have access to basic health and other services.  As a result of this, more people will experience better health, and be able to earn a living.
Improving access to mental health services in Kenya Kamili will diagnose and treat 12,000 people with mental health issues through existing Kamili clinics and an additional six government nurses and two community health workers, who they will provide with training, work experience and supportive supervision. Nurses will deliver mental health outreach. Kamili will run awareness raising events to reduce stigma, and provide life skills training, savings and loans to beneficiaries, and help them return to their communities after treatment. Kamili will lobby Government to roll out the Kamili community mental health model across Kenya. They will invest in patient management software, to enable easier sharing of mental health data with Government.
Strengthening organisational development and strategies Wherever they are, as girls become women they face huge challenges.  Where men remain firmly in control, and tradition is strong, violence against these young women is often common.  FORWARD works with organisations of women and girls to campaign against this, and to support its victims.  They have focussed on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) – which is still widely practiced in some communities despite worldwide recognition that it contravenes human rights. Working both in Africa and the UK, they are recognised as a leading agency in this. As they have become more successful in terms of profile and campaigning, FORWARD have increasingly struggled to balance this with supporting programmes and fundraising. They are largely dependent on programme fundraising to cover core costs.  Recent new trustees have helped form a new 2010/15 strategy and business plan which highlights the need to focus on different areas of work, and build expertise in each of these - currently covered by multi-tasking individuals.  Increased campaigning profile, well linked into fundraising, is intended to meet both those needs.  Providing greater technical support to African partners may require an African base.  And to underpin this, FORWARD need monitoring and evaluation systems to be able to track and demonstrate their effectiveness.