The challenge:
Today, more than 136 million people around the world live in areas experiencing humanitarian crises; millions of these people are unreachable by traditional humanitarian aid delivery (USAID). 30 of the biggest donors and aid organisations have recently signed ‘The Grand Bargain’ agreement to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian action. Donors are looking for innovation and creative ways to improve the delivery of goods and services to alleviate the growing need. Continue reading
Tag Archives: NGOs
Creating chaos for CARE International UK
When you’re sitting in your UK office on a rainy day, working on a report or spreadsheet, it can be difficult to appreciate the crucial role that you are playing in helping the world’s poorest. How do you help all your staff – from finance to fundraising; IT to HR; programmes to policy – to understand and feel part of your overseas work?
That’s just what Aid Works helped Care International UK to do in our interactive, fast-paced and fun simulation for over 120 staff in central London. Continue reading
Be inspired this International Women’s Day!
17-year old Nyawal gave birth to her one-month-old son Kan Kuol at a primary health care facility funded by HPF. “I came to the clinic to deliver because of my past experience. I gave birth once before at home but the child died during delivery. This time I was lucky, it was a normal delivery but I felt safer with trained staff and they gave me medicine to prevent bleeding.” Credit: HPF/Liz Pick
To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th March, we have asked our clients and partners to share their inspirational stories about women in aid and development. Even though we have first-hand knowledge of the fantastic work these organisations do, we have been bowled over by the positivity and impact of their projects. To read more, select Women from our news menu and be inspired!
Training a new generation of women humanitarians
Read about the new generation of women humanitarians in Bangladesh, in this guest post by the Talent Development Project for International Women’s day.
Women and children are often disproportionately affected when a disaster strikes. Yet they are rarely consulted, let alone involved, in humanitarian response initiatives. The humanitarian sector workforce is traditionally male-dominated, and this is particularly the case in countries such as Bangladesh, where women are discouraged from humanitarian work by cultural norms and expectations and are vastly under-represented in humanitarian leadership positions. Continue reading
Breaking taboos around family planning in Wajir
Find out how the Talent Development Project broke down socio-cultural barriers to family planning in Wajir, Northern Kenya, in this guest post for International Women’s Day.
Wajir, an arid land in Northern Kenya which is pre-dominantly Muslim-Somali, is reported to have one of the highest numbers of child-brides in the country. Continue reading
How to clear a space for strategy and planning
As part of our commitment towards helping aid organisations work more effectively, we run a pro-bono workshop for one organisation every year. This year, we facilitated a strategic planning workshop for UK registered charity Sircer Pasha Welfare Trust (SPWT). SPWT cares for the poor in rural village areas of Bangladesh, reaching over 230,000 patients through their medical health centre and mobile health clinics since 2005, with over 70% of those attending living in extreme poverty. Continue reading
Applying for an overseas job? Have you considered duty of care?
We’re really pleased to bring you this guest post from Christine Williamson, founder of Duty of Care International, which works with organisations globally to support and protect employees. In this post, Christine advises us of the top ten things you should consider when deciding whether to work for an aid organisation overseas.
We all want to work for organisations who take good care of their employees, but it is a two-way street. Employees need to be able to determine if a potential employer provides appropriate duty of care, know their own responsibilities under duty of care and know when to speak up if there’s a problem. Continue reading
Evaluating DFID’s Ebola Emergency Response Fund in Sierra Leone
Aid Works recently evaluated DFID‘s Ebola Emergency Response Fund in Sierra Leone, as managed by GOAL. This effective and responsive fund filled critical gaps in the response at the height of the Ebola crisis. It provided patient facilities, training for health care workers, ambulances and food/non-food items for households under quarantine. To find out more about the fund, read our report or - if you’re short of time - listen to our podcast.
Dispatches from the Field: “But, is it safe?”
We’re delighted to bring you this guest post from Kelsey Hoppe, an experienced aid worker and Chief Editor of Chasing Misery: an anthology of essays by women in humanitarian responses.
While travelling recently, I had a conversation that almost every other aid worker will have experienced. I was talking to a woman I didn’t know very well and she asked what I did for a living. I said that I worked with NGOs in Pakistan. After the obligatory explanation of what an NGO is, she exclaimed, “Oh, Pakistan! You must be very brave!” Continue reading
Making Training More Engaging - Top Ten Tips
Here at Aid Works, we spend a lot of time helping organisations to improve their training sessions. Training is an essential part of aid organisations’ work, whether it be for staff (both local and international), government workers or local communities. PowerPoint is the ‘go to’ choice for most trainers, but it’s hard to create really effective presentations - we’ve all experienced boring and confusing training sessions with jumbled slides containing too much information! Better learning leads to better project implementation and training is about so much more than just giving people information. Here are our Top Ten Tips for improving how you train others. Continue reading