The Women’s Refugee Commission is holding a three-day highly participatory workshop designed to bring practitioners from throughout the region to learn new techniques, share experiences, and collect tools designed to improve practice on the ground. Two days of the workshop will focus on findings from the Women’s Refugee Commission’s three-year research project on livelihoods in refugee, IDP, and returnee settings and will include practice sessions on usage of the newly released Livelihoods Field Manual. A third day of the workshop will cover findings on the Commission’s project on livelihoods as a tool of protection against gender-based violence and how GBV and livelihood programs should complement each other to better protect women.
Apply for this event by July 10, 2009
Participants will be required to cover their own travel expenses. Meals and materials will be provided. There will be a very limited amount of financial assistance available to local NGOs only for partial coverage of travel and hotel expenses.
To request an application or for any questions, please contact Gillian at: gillianda@wrcommission.org
The Women’s Refugee Commission has developed a first-of-its-kind field manual to provide humanitarian workers with important information and practical tools for designing and implementing more effective livelihood programs so that refugees can earn a living and support themselves and their families.
The WRC cordially invites you to attend a reception to celebrate the launch of Building Livelihoods: A Field Manual for Practitioners in Humanitarian Settings, with Dale Buscher, Director of Protection.
The launch will be held on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, at 5:30 p.m. at the Women’s Refugee Commission, 122 East 42nd Street, 11th Floor, New York City.
Please RSVP by May 29 to caitlink@wrcommission.org or 212.551.3115
How can value chains include and support populations affected by conflict, natural disaster, or HIV/AIDS? USAID’s microLINKS is hosting an online discussion, facilitated by Ben Fowler (MEDA), Luis Osorio (Practical Action) and Christian Pennotti (AED) from April 28-30 on this question. Explore how value chain development programs can effectively include vulnerable populations, discuss how use and abuse of power during a crisis can impact value chain programs, and learn how to adjust your activities to the particular position and population you are working with.
Each day, participants are invited to share their own experiences, questions and comments in the discussion forum:
- Day 1: Involving vulnerable populations. What barriers participation are faced by more vulnerable populations? Are demand-driven approaches always sufficient to ensure their participation?
- Day 2: The politics of crisis. How does the use or abuse of power in a crisis affect the impacts of value chain programs for vulnerable populations?
- Day 3: Adjusting practice to context. A look at the practical experiences of people working on value chain development programs for vulnerable populations. What can we learn from those experiences?
On Friday, December 12th, WNCAC will hold a discussion on Child Soldiers and Small Arms with guest speakers Rachel Stohl, Senior Technical Analyst at the Center for Defense Information and small arms specialist; and Jimmie Briggs, journalist and author of Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go To War, whose current work focuses on violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The event will take place at at Search for Common Ground (4th Floor Conference Room, 1601 Connecticut Ave. NW) from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. RSVP to wncac@sfcg.org if you would like to attend.
Unite For Sight’s conference convenes a committed vanguard of thousands from more than 60 countries. The conference challenges students, professionals, educators, doctors, scientists, lawyers, universities, corporations, nonprofits, and others, to develop innovative solutions to achieve global goals.
The conference will feature 200 Speakers, including Keynote Addresses by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Dr. Sonia Sachs, Dr. Susan Blumenthal, and Dr. Harold Varmus. Social innovation sessions by CEOs and Directors of Save The Children, Partners in Health, HealthStore Foundation, mothers2mothers, among others, are planned. In addition, “Young Leaders of Social Change” Speakers are featured on the agenda.
On November 4th, at the outset of the SEEP Annual Conference, AED and the USAID FIELD Program will host a day of workshops, panel presentations and debate to get to the “how” of microenterprise development. In the age of websites, portals, social networks, and blogs, development practitioners are inundated with success stories, research, listserv posts and other information that could improve their practice – if they had time to digest any of it. FIELD Day aims to translate some of these stories and research pieces into learning sessions – sessions at which practitioners will be able to explore new ideas, exchange their own experiences and enhance their skills through panel presentations, small group discussions and dynamic workshops.
The Children, Youth and Economic Strengthening sessions at FIELD Day were facilitated by Margie Brand of AED & EcoVentures International and Ben Fowler of MEDA. The agenda for the day proceeded as follows:
Session 1: Children, Youth and Economic Strengthening
- Welcome and Introduction, Margie Brand & Ben Fowler
- Examples of Effective Programming (Small Group Work), Ben Fowler
- Common Challenges in Youth Programming, Margie Brand
- STRIVE Program Overview, Margie Brand
- Overview of forthcoming USAID MicroReport on understanding the impact of employment, entrepreneurship and training programs on youth, Jason Wolfe, USAID/Microenterprise Development office
- Monitoring and evaluation for youth economic strengthening projects, Anthony Leegwater, IRIS Center at the University of Maryland
- Youth Emploment and Wellbeing Scorecard, Devorah Miller, Christian Children’s Fund
- Children Youth and Economic Strengthening (CYES) Network Learning Platform, Jennine Carmichael, AED
- Wrap-up, Margie Brand
Session 2: Tools and Approaches for Children, Youth and Economic Strengthening Programming
- Welcome and Introduction, Margie Brand
- Cataloging Tools, Materials and Approaches for Youth-focused Economic Strengthening Programs (Small Group Work), Ben Fowler
- Market Development Approach to Youth Employment, David Sturza, EcoVentures International
- Value Chains and Adolescent Girls, Victoria Francis, Emerging Markets Group
- MEDA’s Approach to Youth-Focused Microfinance, Ben Fowler with Jared Penner
- Children Youth and Economic Strengthening (CYES) Network Learning Platform, Jennine Carmichael, AED
- Wrap-up, Margie Brand
For more information, and materials discussed during the sessions, please see the links and files below.
External Resources:
FIELD Report No 2: Economic Strengthening for Vulnerable Children: Principles of Program Design & Technical Recommendations for Effective Field Interventions
