InterAction member Africare’s programs have supported women’s empowerment in the areas of education, health, and income generation since its inception in 1970. The NGO’s approach to development is one of sustainability. Programs are developed with the active participation of the communities where Africare works, thereby engendering community ownership and ensuring effective institutional strengthening and capacity building. According to Africare Senior Vice President Jeannine B. Scott, women have and will remain at the forefront of this approach.
“Working in Africa, you have to recognize that women are the backbone of the labor force,” noted Scott. “They are the mothers, farmers, fetchers of water, and all the other essentials of running and maintaining the African family. One of Africare’s goals is to empower these women in their efforts and provide them with the tools they need to succeed.”
WOW! is a program of InterAction member World Neighbors, advised by a visionary group of women, who make up a special subcommittee of World Neighbors board of trustees.
WOW! members are committed to improving women’s lives in poor, rural villages throughout the world. By joining together in this work, our individual efforts are multiplied and truly create change. In keeping with World Neighbors approach, members partner with women in World Neighbors program sites to support collective work that builds skills, community trust and better living conditions. Women are encouraged and supported to join together for development work that moves them beyond subsistence, improves their and their families’ health and inspires increased participation and leadership in their villages and beyond.
The following flash presentation documents a trip by World Neighbor’s staff member Natalie Elwell as she traveled through Central America, extracting and communicating key lessons for learning and sharing, as well as influencing the policies and practices of target audiences.
A man dons a “sympathy belly” as part of another Project Hope project in Kyrgyzstan to communicate health messages and the importance of keeping family members healthy. Photo courtesy of the U.S. State Department
Many people use candlelight to set the atmosphere for a romantic evening, but a project led by InterAction member Project HOPE is helping couples in Kyrgyzstan better understand family planning through glow-in-the-dark beads that visually promote the Standard Days Method.
Indeed, one woman said her husband loves their beads because the phosphorescent string lights up their otherwise dark room at night, reminding him of their purpose.
writes Bonnie Kittle, Director for Health of Women and Children, in this month’s issue of Monday Developments.
“Virtually every woman who used the SDM said they had no trouble comprehending the method because they were familiar with the calendar method. The great advantage of the beads, they say, is they can visually see the “off limits” days… One woman even said after menopause she plans to pass her beads to her daughter as a wedding present.”
Read how Project HOPE worked with the Kyrgyzstan’s Reproductive Health Department and women’s support groups to launch the “Glow in the Dark” family planning project in the October issue of Monday Developments!
InterAction member Mercy Corps has launched a Community Climate Initiative to help vulnerable populations around the world deal with the effects of global warming. The initiative will include a range of projects to boost communities’ efforts to mitigate and adapt to the increasing severity and frequency of floods, droughts, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
A key component of this initiative is taking a look at the way that Mercy Corps itself contributes to climate change through greenhouse gases. The organization has placed a priority on mitigating its own impact on the environment by measuring its carbon footprint and committing to becoming carbon neutral.
Jim Jarvie, Mercy Corps’ Director of Climate Change, Environment and Natural Resources, noted,
“Climate change has become the most serious threat to communities where we work, and we believe that we have an humanitarian imperative to address this problem. Climate change is a 24/7 natural disaster and Mercy Corps is adjusting our programs and initiating efforts to help communities prepare and adapt.”
This resulting carbon footprint study measured on-site energy consumption, owned vehicles, travel, office deliveries, and waste disposal in all of Mercy Corps field offices and international headquarters. In addition, the study proposes ways in which staff can significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
On April 25th, the Academy for Educational Development organized the first Malaria Awareness Day in the United States through NetMark, a collaborative project with USAID.
More than two million Africans die from malaria every year. That is the equivalent of two jumbo jets crashing with no survivors every day. NetMark is preventing malaria by making insecticide-treated bednets available, affordable, and widely used in the countries where it operates.
Is the Global Call to Action against Poverty becoming a growing global movement against poverty and inequality and does it strengthen civil society’s call to force governments and global leaders to halve extreme poverty by 2015?
This month’s Monday Developments features a report from Kumi Naidoo, Secretary-General of InterAction’s partner coalition CIVICUS, on a recent conference hosted by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) on civil society, governance and aid effectiveness. The conference was inspired by the adoption two years ago of the Paris Declaration by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The SIDA conference is, in part, preparation for the crucial conference on aid effectiveness to be held in Accra, Ghana in October 2008. A civil society advisory group has been working for some time, looking at how to ensure that civil society has a legitimate and relevant space to participate in shaping an agenda that improves the way aid flows from rich to poor countries.
To read about the challenges identified by the advisory group and how to share your perspectives with its members, order your copy of Monday Developments.
The international-level organization of InterAction member ActionAid International USA recently produced a new briefing in preparation for the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, to convene in Sept 2008 in Accra. “Making Aid Accountable and Effective” includes an ActionAid 10 Point Plan for real aid reform. The report sets out challenging proposals for the Forum and includes a strong focus on addressing women’s rights through improved aid effectiveness.
ActionAid International is also a partner of the new campaign website, BetterAid.org. The site aims to provide information and updates on aid effectiveness issues, framing in the basic development issues; provide support for advocacy purposes; and provide opportunities to conduct web-based advocacy/campaigning.
The latest issue of In Action, the how-to-do-it newsletter for development practitioners from InterAction member World Neighbors includes a remarkable article on an alternative developed by World Neighbors’ South Asia team to micro-credit financing schemes.
Savings and Credit: An Empowering Strategy for Reducing Poverty details local asset mobilization approaches that enable communities to self-fund and self-manage rotating loans to support community development. Not only do individuals benefit from access to the loans, but communities benefit from the group’s commitment to utilize profits to achieve collective development goals.
Launched by the World Food Program in 2005, Food Force was the world’s first humanitarian video game. It explores the problem of global hunger and the logistics of humanitarian aid work. The game is available as a free internet download from www.food-force.com, where it has been downloaded about five million times.
Now available in ten languages, the game consists of six missions in which players join Food Force’s crack team of emergency aid workers on the fictitious island of Sheylan. Players are faced with a number of realistic challenges: piloting helicopters on reconnaissance missions, assembling nutritious ration packs on a tight budget, air-dropping food to remote villages, sourcing and purchasing food supplies, delivering truckloads of food through minefields and rebel-held territories, and using food to help people as they rebuild their lives.
The international-level organization of InterAction member 
Launched by the World Food Program in 2005, Food Force was the world’s first humanitarian video game. It explores the problem of global hunger and the logistics of humanitarian aid work. The game is available as a free internet download from 
