Podcasts about africare

In this episode, I talked with Kendra Davenport, CEO of Easterseals.Easterseals is a disability services organization that envisions all people having choices and opportunities to reach their potential. Since 2022 Kendra has served as President and CEO of Easterseals and has also held other leadership positions at organizations such as Operation Smile, the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation, and Africare.In this episode, she'll share how her tendency to be a control freak caused her all sorts of problems while she was serving as chief of staff at Africare and how she solved those problems and went on to be very successful as a leader, now serving as the CEO of Easterseals.  If you would like to read the show notes on this episode you can find them on my website:https://matttenney.com/kendra-davenport-on-inspire-greatnessIf you enjoyed this interview and would like to hear more interviews like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast.Also, if you'd like to help other people benefit from this podcast, please take a minute to leave a review.By sharing your thoughts, you'll help the podcast reach more people and help them decide whether it might be of value to them.

SummaryWhat are the indicators with regard to DEI in US-founded international development organizations (both for-profit and nonprofit), and how have these stats changed since 2021? Where have we seen follow-through on declarations of DEI related intentions ? And where has progress stalled?In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Shiro Gnanaselvam, President and CEO at Social Impact, a well-known development management and evaluation consulting firm, on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) trends in US international development agencies. Social Impact has been measuring these trends since 2021 through successive rounds of survey data. Shiro's Bio:CEO of Social Impact, a US-based development management and evaluation consulting company that offers MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning) services to the international development sectorFormer Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Social ImpactCOO at AfriCare, the largest and oldest African-American-founded international NGO focused exclusively on the continent of AfricaSenior Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC)We discuss: Racial and ethnic minorities remain under-represented in positions of powerThe global development sector remains predominantly white and female, including at the topDisability reporting shows signs of greater awarenessOrganizations have invested in establishing governance structures for DEI: policies, strategies, and staff with dedicated responsibilities as well as collective staff bodies (DEI councils, etc.). There are modest improvements in how diversity data are capturedCommitment to DEI remains, but competing priorities and resource limitations are a severe impediment to progressThere are tensions between global lenses on DEI, localization, and US-domestic perspectives on DEI that need to be resolved – but also many points of similarity. Resources:Shiro's LinkedIn ProfileSocial Impact websiteSocial Impact's blog post on overall survey resultsSocial Impact blog post on 7 actions the US development sector must take YouTube video of this podcastClick here to subscribe to be alerted when new podcast episodes come out or when Tosca produces other thought leadership pieces.Or email Tosca at tosca@5oaksconsulting.org if you want to talk about your social sector organization's needs, challenges, and opportunities.You can find Tosca's content by following her on her social media channels: Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Youtube

Melissa speaks with Oge Chukwudozie about the Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub's exciting pilot project accompanying 10 local Nigerian organisations as they work to change their organisational cultures.  Oge emphasizes the value of cultivating a safe and supportive workplace culture and the importance of leadership “walking the talk.”   Organisations often issue written policies without addressing the underlying social norms of the organisation that block the full implementation of these policies. A good place to start is for leaders to develop qualities like awareness, self-acceptance, empathy, curiosity in the face of criticism, and a learning mindset in the face of mistakes. Work relationships that are friendly and filled with laughter – rather than tension - can motivate and energise people to do their best work. Leaders who are nice are not necessarily weak. Mental health challenges and burnout are real. You want to ensure your staff are okay.  Oge Chukwudozie is a safeguarding and protection professional with 18 years' experience in the aid sector. She has worked with different organisations, including Africare, Christian Aid and Save the Children. Oge has experience in various thematic areas such as education, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, nutrition and emergency response. She is currently the National Representative for the Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub (RSH) Nigeria Hub. Her six-month pilot project is currently providing mentorship to 10 local Nigerian organisations to assess their organizational cultures, create a vision and prioritized action plan for change, track progress in reflection journals, and share learning with peers.  To learn more, check out: -       The Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub (RSH) website:https://safeguardingsupporthub.org/ and Nigeria specific page:https://nigeria.safeguardingsupporthub.org/ -       Twitter: @SafeguardingRSH   -       LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oge-chinenye-chukwudozie-96164a2bTo learn more about the CHS Alliance work on organisational culture and well-being, see: -       https://www.chsalliance.org/get-support/article/cultivating-caring-compassionate-aid-organisations/***Thanks to Ziada Abeid for editing the show.***

Africare’s work has been built on a “strong belief that community mobilization and local capacity building and innovation are the cornerstones of successful development, and that, for us, includes resilience,” says Franklin Moore, Chief of Programs for Africare, in a podcast from a recent Wilson Center event. “Community engagement, capacity building, and looking at locally driven behavior and social change is what empowers communities.” Africare organizes community committees to identify innovations and behavior changes to make themselves more prosperous and resilient, including climate-smart agricultural techniques and women’s empowerment. In Niger, agro-pastoral communities rehabilitated land through the use of zai pits and half-moons, traditional farming techniques that retain rainwater for crops. Along with planting drought-resistant cowpea and forage sorghum, these steps enabled the communities Africare worked with to stockpile 57,000 tons of animal forage. During the 2011 drought, these communities were able to feed their livestock using the stored forage even when grazing land was degraded. Livestock death rates dropped 14 percent, and communities that might have otherwise had to sell off their livestock were able to keep them. Engaging women is key. “In Niger, food security committees are required to have at least 30 percent of their members [be] women,” says Moore, and in Zimbabwe, women make up 80 percent of Africare’s food distribution committees, because in these communities, “food distribution is really something females know a whole lot more about than males.” Child spacing also contributes women’s empowerment by improving women’s health and ability to participate in livelihood activities. Africare’s “husband schools” teach men about the importance of reproductive healthcare. “When we talk about child spacing, it is critically important that the men know as much or more about this as the women do,” Moore says. Community-based capacity building programs can change lives. “The organization of the community affects what the community is doing, who the community is, and in fact the size of the community,” says Moore.

The African American Odyssey of John Kizell (A South Carolina Slave Returns to Fight the Slave Trade in His African Homeland) Join host Bernice Bennett and co-host Natonne Elaine Kemp for an engaging conversation with author and historian Kevin G. Lowther about the the life of a Sierra Leonean who survived slavery in Charleston, South Carolina, and served with British forces during the American Revolution. He eventually returned to his homeland, where he campaigned among his people to end slave trading. Lowther majored in history at Dartmouth College before joining the Peace Corps and teaching, in 1963-65, at the Sierra Leone Grammar School in Freetown. In 1971 he helped to found the non-governmental organization, Africare, and later managed its humanitarian programs in Southern Africa for 29 years. Theme music - Sweet Mello Spice by composer / producer Alvin K. Alexander. 

Similar to essentially any other industry, the problem of efficiently collecting project or program level data that can be readily crunched, analyzed and, ultimately, used by managers for decision making has been, and will continue, to be a conundrum for the development and humanitarian aid community for the forseeable future. I have often heard the frustration from professionals in the field, who wonder out loud why we haven't be able to put together one, or perhaps a small set of, technology solutions that can be used for monitoring any output, anytime. Beyond the actual technology itself, a key part of this conversation is the question of how to implement such a solution in a way that is not only relevant for a project, but also for the workers tasked with the actual data collection. And, going further, how to build a tool that doesn't add a massive time burden to those who are already tasked with the impossible. Dimagi is one company who are attempting to solve these problems and today's guest on the 110th Terms Of Reference Podcast, Mohini Bhavsar, is on the front lines for them in Dakar, Senegal. She is Dimagi's Deputy Regional Director in West Africa and she has extensive experience supporting mHealth (or Mobile Health) projects at scale. Currently, she provides strategic guidance for scale-up and trainings for Dimagi’s largest mHealth projects in West Africa, including a partnership with Terre des Hommes in Burkina Faso for the implementation of a tablet based clinical diagnostic tool for eIMCI protocols, a pregnancy danger sign and referral management application developed with Africare in Senegal and a multi-pronged health services and stock management application developed with URC for community health workers in Benin. Formally based in India, from 2011 to 2014, Mohini supported over 50 local and international NGO partners pilot mHealth applications. She has worked closely with partners such as Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, Save the Children, and the Indian Council of Medical Research. Prior to Dimagi, Mohini worked with Tula Salud in Guatemala to evaluate and support scale-up of their mHealth initiatives.

This episode brought our expert guest Ntal Alimasi to discuss ways Congolese and its government could engage in creating mechanisms for accountability and strong governance. Ntal Alimasi is a Capacity Development and Governance Consultant, and has worked with academia, the private sector, government and international organizations, including AFRICARE, A.L. Nellum & Associates, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, Christian Children Fund, the International Youth Foundation, USIP, USAID, the US Department of State, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank (AfDB). Alimasi has worked with senior government officials as well as CSOs in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and USA. He lectures on Governance in Africa at the US Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute. He has worked in Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, DRCongo, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Haiti, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia, and the USA. He provided technical assistance to the International Youth Foundation and its research team on the challenges and opportunities for Congolese youth. Currently President of NAACUS (National Association of African Catholics in the US), Alimasi coordinated the AGOA 2012 CSOs Forum rapporteurs team, and delivered the Civil Society Network’s Communiqué at the AGOA 2012 U.S.-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Ministerial Forum. Alimasi is a PhD candidate in International and Development Education at the University of Pittsburgh, and holds two master degrees, respectively in Community Economic Development and in Education. He speaks English, French, Swahili, Lingala, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, and Mashi.

Darius Mans, President & CEO of Africare, discusses working in partnership with African people to build sustainable, healthy, and productive communities.

  The African American Odyssey of John Kizell (A South Carolina Slave Returns to Fight the Slave Trade in His African Homeland) Join host Bernice Bennett and co-host Natonne Elaine Kemp for an engaging conversation with author and historian Kevin G. Lowther about the the life of a Sierra Leonean who survived slavery in Charleston, South Carolina, and served with British forces during the American Revolution. He eventually returned to his homeland, where he campaigned among his people to end slave trading. Lowther majored in history at Dartmouth College before joining the Peace Corps and teaching, in 1963-65, at the Sierra Leone Grammar School in Freetown. In 1971 he helped to found the non-governmental organization, Africare, and later managed its humanitarian programs in Southern Africa for 29 years. Theme music - Sweet Mello Spice by composer / producer Alvin K. Alexander. 

As part of The University of Findlay's Winterfest celebration, Julius Coles, past president of Africare and the University's Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, delivered a public lecture, "Africa in the New Millennium".