5 Minutes of Inspiration – How Krishi Utsho Improved Income in Bangladesh by 31%

by Stephanie Carey Yeargan Leave a comment

How the Avon Lady Improved Income in Bangladesh by 31% by Emily Janoch

Krishi Utsho (KU) in Bangladesh has improved farmer incomes by 31% using a model that make-up sales in the United States pioneered more than  century ago.  Find out how below.

The Avon Lady in rural Bangladesh: it’s actually a more apt metaphor than you think. Avon uses a direct sales model that aims to get products to people who would not normally be able to access them, and that’s exactly what Krishi Utsho is—a way to get products closer to people.

Instead of selling makeup, they’re selling fertilizer, feed, and veterinary services. They may be getting more beautiful cows (IFPRI refers to some of these approaches as the “pampered cow project”), but the real impact is on the farmers.  With the support of the Finn Brooks Family Foundation, they’ve been working since 2012 to improve access to goods for the poorest families in Bangladesh.

What did we accomplish?

  • Higher Incomes: Farmers in areas covered by Krishi Utsho had a 31% increase in their incomes, and vendors were able to earn $1,394 per month.  That’s more than 8 times what the average farmer makes in a month, so being a vendor is an attractive option.
  • Cheaper, easier access to products: Because the shops are closer to home, farmers cut the time they spent going to get inputs in half (a 58% reduction), and dropped their cost on items like feed by 92%.  So people have more money to spend from income, but also on savings from the goods.
  • Stronger businesses: Besides the income, shop owners saw a 25% increase in their sales—and now they’re serving nearly 17,000 people a month.
  • Healthier families: Farmers in Krishi Utsho areas increased their spending on protein and vegetables by 15%, so they have better diets.  56% of families increased their spending on health care and education with the new money they had available.
  • More empowered women: in Krishi Utsho areas, women were 84% more likely to be able to influence household decisions in 2015 than they were in 2012.  They were 250% more likely to be able to make decisions about income generating activities at home.

How did we get there?

  • Set up shops with a quality brand standard: Krishi Utsho helped set up 64 branded shops that have a common brand, but are individually owned businesses—the franchise approach.  To be a Krishi Utsho approach, they have to stock quality products and provide high quality services.
  • Build Better Businesses: Krishi Utsho trained shop owners in business skills, and helped them make connections to providers of quality agricultural products. Once they have the necessary training, CARE can provide certificates and quality of service standards that people trust. CARE also serves as a trusted broker between the big brands and the KU owners.
  • Got the extra (last) mile: because the KU shops reach thousands of people that normally would never access products in bigger cities or farther away, they are attractive options for makers of inputs like fertilizer, vet services, and seeds to change their marketing and pricing to reach new customers.  It also makes products more accessible for women, who have less mobility, and for people who cannot spare the time or money to travel.
  • Build demand: By training poor, rural farmers in improved agricultural techniques and the need for services, and then connecting them to solutions that work, CARE helps the local market strengthen for everyone.  CARE’s Monitoring & Evaluation and technology platforms also help track demand and see what needs to change in the future.

Want to learn more?
Check out the Krishi Utsho Innovation Brief  and the Impact Assessment.

Meet the Teams: Team Based Goals and Incentives (TBGI)

by Stephanie Carey Yeargan Leave a comment

Bihar is one of India’s largest states, home to almost 100 million people. It is also one of its poorest states, affected with high maternal and infant mortality rates, malnutrition, anemia, poor family planning services and a plethora of diseases claiming lives. The lack of motivation in Community Health Workers (CHWs) is a critical barrier in the delivery of relevant health services and messages to clients. This lack of motivation is compounded by the fact that a CHW has to solely survive on incentives for services provided, or is paid a nominal honorarium. Amplifying the problem is the absence of functional integration of health programs. In Bihar, there are three cadres of CHWs – Auxiliary Nurse & Midwifes,  Accredited Social Health Activists from Department of Health, and Anganwadi Workers from Department of Integrated Child Health Services under the Social Welfare ministry – who are supposed to be serving the same clients. Yet these three groups function disparately and do not coordinate or collaborate with each other since they belong to different departments.

Drawing from the business world, CARE developed an innovation that aimed to strengthen the teamwork and motivation of the CHWs, called Team-Based Goals and Incentives (TBGI). It integrated both the motivational power of incentives and the virtues of teamwork. We facilitated the formation of a ‘team’ that brings all three cadres of CHWs together on a single platform. We let the team mutually decide and set goals for the provision of services in their catchment area with specific numeric targets on predetermined health indicators for each quarter. The team then worked together to meet the targets. All operational challenges were alleviated through mutual support and leveraging of individual competencies.

TBGI was piloted in 76 Health Sub Centers (38 treatment + 38 control) in the Begusarai district of Bihar. An independent randomized controlled trial showed encouraging results after just one year of implementation in exclusive breastfeeding (71 percent in treatment area versus 61 percent in control) and use of modern contraceptives (26 percent in treatment area versus 15 percent in control), among other areas.

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Meet the Team

HEMANTKUMAR G. SHAH | Chief of Party, Bihar Technical Support Project | CARE India

Dr. Hemant Shah was the Director of the State RMNCH+A Unit, Bihar, prior to being promoted to the COP position. He has successfully established the biggest State RMNCH+A Unit in India and has helped the Government of Bihar develop various policies/ revise existing policies on public health for the state, rationalize deployment of specialist doctors, assisted the government in gap analysis of procurement systems, helped prepare specifications for equipment and provided guidance in the preparation of state PIPs etc. Being the main interface with the government, Dr. Shah’s role is critical in establishing buy-ins, planning and implementing the scale-up.

AMITAVA BANERJEE| Communications Specialist | CARE India

Amitava Banerjee heads all communications for the program and is an expert on IEC/BCC strategies and advocacy communications. He is responsible for positioning, branding and dissemination of all program initiatives to different national and global stakeholders, and the media by translating complex implementation and impact data into comprehensible creative outputs for diverse audiences. Amitava joined the social sector after spending close to 17 years heading marketing and communications for multi-million dollar businesses in the Indian sub-continental and APMEA markets. He has been supporting advocacy efforts for scale up of TBGI since last 1 year through the strategic use of the media. His communication skills will prove invaluable when advocating the need of addressing the “motivation” barrier and the potential of TBGI to impact lives and transform the health landscape.

SUNIL MOHANTY | Program Manager, Gaya | CARE India

Sunil Mohanty has more than 14 years of experience in managing large scale health programs and implementing them at scale through the government. Sunil has been associated with Team Based Goals and Incentive Pilot Program (TBGI) right since conceptualization and design of the innovation. He was involved in preparing the concept notes, tools and sharing of the concept with government counterparts and securing the necessary approvals. Also, Sunil was the Manager of the pilot district of Begusarai and led project implementation and assisted the CML team in conducting the baselines assessments for Begusarai.

MOHAMMED AFTAB ALAM | Program Manager, Saharsa | CARE India

Aftab has been working in the project since inception and has more than 7 years of experience working with the government health system. He is skilled at mentoring and managing teams, collaborating with the government, implementation on ground and anticipating barriers to implementation. He brings in the experience of implementing the pilot for the first year and having supported the formative phase with development of indicators, identifying factors driving motivation of FLWs, designing and testing of tools, budgeting costs and identifying possible barriers to implementation and finding ways around them. During implementation, Aftab had built the capacity of other team members involved in the pilot.

AMARJEET PRABHAKAR | District Manager, Begusarai | CARE India

Amarjeet Prabhakar has more than 12 years of experience in managing health and ICDS programs. His skills lie around mentoring and managing teams, collaborating with government counterparts and program implementation. Amarjeet has been working with this innovation since last two years in Begusarai. He is responsible for inclusion of TBGI in the government PIP. He has been involved in many research and evaluations for the innovation including supporting the end line assessment by Mathematica.

 

5 Minutes of Inspiration – CARE’s impact at scale

by Whitney Pyles Adams Leave a comment

This month, the accelerator teams are jumping into our “Designing for Scale” lab.  To kick us off, Emily Janoch, Senior Technical Advisor and communicator extraordinaire, gives us the big picture of CARE’s impact at scale.  We are so proud to work here and humbled to think about the impact that the ideas currently in the accelerator might have one day!

Meet the Teams: Social Impact Incubator (SII)

by Stephanie Carey Yeargan 2 Comments

In Burundi, as in most of CARE’s presence countries, civil society organizations (CSOs) struggle to develop their full potential and this contributes to CSOs’ low capacities and weak internal systems and impact. Not only does this require CARE to invest in heavy compliance systems and in direct capacity building of implementing partners but this is an obstacle in finding strategic partners and allies to reach shared goals and multiply impact.

The Social Impact Incubator (SII) is an innovative approach to institutional development based on CSOs needs. It is available free of charge to any selected local emerging CSOs and targets their institutional capacities and relations with peers and potential donors. Through a seven-month strengthening process, these participating organizations (called Champions) receive support in donor engagement, learning, mentorship programs, networking and capacity building.

A recent evaluation of the SII assessed its effect on the two first cohorts (2013 and 2014) totaling 33 Champions. It found that 78% of the Champions increased their revenue after the training through 40 new donor connections directly attributed to the SII (total USD 1.2M). Most Champions have strengthened their strategic planning and have become professional organizations (65% have increased the size of their paid staff and 66% have improved management systems). Two-thirds of the participant note increased collaboration and networking with peer CSOs and 81% of Champions have gained new partners.

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Meet the Team

Rose-Marie Nkubiri | Director of Finances and Administration | CARE Burundi

Rose-Marie Nkubiri has spent 12 years with CARE Burundi. She joined CARE as Support Program Officer of a Sub office. Now she is the Director of Finances and Administration. Rose Marie Rose Marie plays a critical role strategic decision making and operations within CARE Burundi to enhance the following areas: finance, business planning and budgeting, human resources, administration, and IT. Rose Marie is also responsible for all aspect related to ensure Gender, Equity and Diversity within CARE Burundi. Previously before joining CARE, she was a Director of an NGO, “Penal Reform International.” She also occupied a position of Administrative Assistant in a UNDP project called “National Communication on Climate Change.” She holds a Bachelor Diploma in Management, completed a training course in Business Administration at the Pan-African Institute for Development (IPD) in Douala / Cameroon.

Josée Ntabahungu | Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Program (GEWEP) Lead | CARE Burundi

Josée Ntabahungu is a formal journalist. She has presented news for 8 years at national television. She is among the first women journalists who founded women’s journalist association, and was very active in women empowerment and gender promotion. From there she joined CARE International in Burundi 12 years now, were she has been a strong advocacy and communications person. She was writing CARE Burundi Newspaper, called “Did you Know?” Today she is leading the gender equality and women empowerment program, in which 8 national NGOs are partners. She holds a degree in social science, history, and has followed many others trainings in women rights and leadership. 50 Years old, Josée is a very dynamic person full of energy and committed for gender equality and women’s rights and leadership.

Marie Louse Nzosaba | Monitoring and Evaluation Officer | CARE Burundi

Marie Louise Nzosaba is very active in the area of preventing VGB and supporting survivors of VBG and is among founders of a local association that is running a well known center that support survivors of VGB. SERUKA: Coming Out of the Dark! She has been working with CARE for 11 years. In her current position she is supporting CARE partners to put in place effectiveM&E tools for conflict resolution and promotion of women participation post conflict resolutions formal and informal mechanisms. Previously she work for CARE as a psychosocial officer. She also worked at Centre Seruka and was a teacher in secondary schools for 4 years.  She hold a bachelor degree in Psychology.

Bosco Ntirivamunda | Internal Auditor Manager | CARE Burundi

Bosco Ntirivamunda  has been working with CARE Burundi as an Internal Auditor Manager since January 2008 up today. He is supporting the organization to achieve its mission by participating in strategic decision-making, ensure that effective accountability, governance and compliance mechanisms are in place for both CARE and partners. He also provide assurance that resources are safeguarded, operations are cost-effectively managed, and policies and procedures regulations are in compliance with donors rules. As Internal Audit unit was new position in CARE Burundi, Bosco helps CARE Staff and Partners to have better understanding of internal audit unit roles and responsibilities. He helps CARE Burundi starting implementation partnership and works on strengthening Burundi civil society, on partnerships governance and accountability. Bosco start working with CARE Burundi in 2004 as Grants and Contracts Manager of Consortium Livelihood program under USAID Funds. He has good understanding of different donor’s compliance and regulations such USAID, EU, Norad and ADA. Before joining CARE Burundi, he works as Accountant and Administrator Manager with Oxfam GB from 2001 to 2004. Previously, he had worked as provincial delegate Chamber of Commerce and Industry helping economics operators and government’s policy and regulations complied. He had developed skills to work with different persons with multi-culture and nationality and vertical and horizontal collaboration. He holds Accountant Institute diploma degree from Burundi University.

Jimmy Mategeko | Knowledge Management and Partnership Coordinator | CARE Burundi

Jimmy Mategeko has been working with CARE for 10 years.  He is supporting the CO to enhance its Knowledge Mangement (K&M) systems (sharing, documentation and reflection) and he is also supporting the CO in its road map toward Effective Partnership to strengthen CSO and engage in innovative partnerships.  He has been the focal point for the SII for the last 2 sessions. Previous to the position, Jimmy managed for 7 years several projects and this has enable him to gain a proven experience in project management on the following areas: livelihood, women economic empowerment, prevention and response to GBV, sexual and reproductive health right. Jimmy has also an experience in working in cross sectorial partnerships. Prior to joining CARE, Jimmy worked in different NGOs including Solidarite and ASI. Jimmy is curious and a long live learner, he is committed to gender equality and define himself as “feminist.”

Sébastien Fornerod | Civil Society Program Advisor | CARE Norway

Sébastien Fornerod has been working with CARE Norway as a Program Advisor since 2012. He follows up the Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Program (GEWEP) funded by the Norwegian Agency for Cooperation Development (Norad) in Burundi and in DRC. He also works thematically on strengthening civil society, on partnerships and on accountability. Previously, some other positions he had over the years were: Communication Advisor with the Drylands Coordination Group (Sahel); Program Coordinator for Norwegian Church Aid (LAC region); Strategic Advisor for the CIPCRE, an environmental and social NGO in Cameroon; and Advocacy Advisor for the Joint Advocacy Desk of the East Jerusalem YMCA and the YWCA of Palestine. He holds a Master degree in Religious Hermeneutics.

Laurent Uwumuremyi | Country Director | CARE Burundi

Laurent Uwumuremyi is the Country Director of CARE Burundi. With 20 years of international development and humanitarian experience in East, Central and Western Africa, Laurent has strong background in developing and optimizing corporate efficiency and leading its strategy and operations at national level. He is adept in community and country-wide development, restructuring and rebuilding management, and has significant experience in structural change management and organizational development. He is an excellent mentor, a team builder and player. He is recognized for high standards of professionalism and integrity, positive mental attitude and commitment to excellence.  He is keen in provision of strategic and operational management oversight to programs and operations (finance, logistics and administration ensuring that each department is efficient, effective and accountable). He also has proven experience in promoting learning across teams and programs.

Meet the Teams: Journeys of Transformation

by Stephanie Carey Yeargan 1 Comment

Globally, women have lower literacy and numeracy rates than men, less access to financial services, lower rates of school completion and less access to current information or technology about banking or financial entrepreneurship. A growing “digital divide” reflects how women also have lower adoption rates for digital technology, including mobile banking. In Rwanda, the mobile phone penetration is relatively high, with 77.8 % of the total population owning mobile cellular telephones. But despite the fact that women’s main work is done inside their household contexts, the majority of women’s financial empowerment approaches (including VSLA) typically take place outside of the household. This does not recognize that many women operate and need to negotiate relationships within the household and can result in interventions that may not support women’s economic empowerment or improve their low status in households.

The intervention proposed is based on experience of adapting and adding to classic VSLA methodology to specifically address household power dynamics, domestic violence and division of unpaid workload issues that are often at the core of inequitable gender norms. This “Journeys of Transformation” approach has been tested in one country (Rwanda) and shows promise. The families of men who participated in these group sessions saw significantly higher income gains compared to those families who did not participate.

CARE Rwanda is experienced in engaging men for gender equality and women’s empowerment program. Research on CARE’s engaging men interventions has shown that if they are effectively engaged with an appropriate model, men can support their wives to fully enjoy their rights in a broader sense and challenge inequitable gender norms that prevent women from reaching their development potential.

Meet the Team

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Doris Bartel | Senior Director, Gender and Empowerment Unit | CARE USA

Doris Bartel leads CARE USA’s Gender and Empowerment unit which works to achieve meaningful progress on women’s rights and gender equality in CARE’s programmatic strategies.  She works with teams around the world to apply innovation and best practice for more targeted gender transformative strategies in addressing root causes of poverty and injustice.  She has led qualitative and participatory action research to explore sensitive topics such as intimate partner violence, expression of sexuality, and child marriage as well as issues affecting children and their families at the end of life.  She leads CARE USA’s representation in gender related consortia, including co-chairing the Interagency Gender Working Group’s Gender-Based Violence Task Force led by USAID’s office of Population and Reproductive Health.

Janvier Kubwimana | Project Manager | CARE Rwanda

Janvier Kubwimana is the Project Manager of a NORAD-funded Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Project, Janvier joined CARE Rwanda in 2011with 6 years of experience working in Development and Health sector in Rwanda where he specifically worked for UNFPA coordinating its Gender, Sexual & Reproductive Health, Population, and HIV/AIDS interventions in different districts of Rwanda. He holds a Master of Arts in Development Studies and a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health.

Bena Musembi | Country Director | CARE Rwanda

Bena Musembi is a results-oriented development professional with 20 years of experience in international development. Currently as CARE Rwanda’s Country Director since September 2015, and previously as CARE Burundi’s CD, she has successfully lead organizational change management processes, and overseen diverse development and humanitarian interventions in roles as Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party, Head of Programming and Learning, Senior Program Officer and Market Researcher in multi-country contexts.

Lea Liliane Niyibizi | Project Manager | CARE Rwanda

Lea Liliane Niyibizi is the Project Manager for Indashyikirwa Project, a GBV prevention project funded by DFID, Lea joined CARE Rwanda in November 2014 with 12 years’ experience working in Gender, GBV prevention and GBV response in Rwandan Health Sector; She has worked especially with Ministry of Health to develop Health providers training manual for management of GBV cases and she has worked on integrating GBV OSC (One Stop Center) in District Hospitals. She holds a Master of Arts in Project Planning and Management.

Sidonie Uwimpuhwe | Program Coordinator | CARE Rwanda

Sidonie Uwimpuhwe is the Coordinator of Vulnerable Women Program in Rwanda since 2012, she has joined CARE Rwanda with 10 years of experience working in the public health sector as a senior civil servant. Sidonie is a seasoned senior professional with a wider range of experience in gender equality and women empowerment that includes women economic empowerment; prevention and response to violence against women and girls; women’s leadership and political participation; engaging men and boys for gender equality; grassroots activism and women collective action, advocacy, civil society strengthening, etc. She holds a Master degree in Public Health and a Master of Science in Gender and Development.

Meet the Teams: Gender Equity and Diversity Training

by Stephanie Carey Yeargan 3 Comments

CARE’s bold vision and 2020 program strategy is a call for transformative change. Its success comes down to our core asset: people. We can design the most advanced technology and cutting edge program strategies, but ultimately, our impact is dependent on people— our staff and partners—to implement them successfully. We will reach short of our impact goals if we do not fully equip our staff and partners to address unconscious bias and negotiate diversity and power in their lives and work.

CARE has an incredible solution to address this problem: our Gender Equity and Diversity training. And yet, we have failed to fully scale it and tap the full potential of our staff. When CARE walks the talk on gender equity and diversity (GED), we not only bring legitimacy and authenticity to our engagement with communities and advocacy with stakeholders, but we also increase performance, inspire creative solutions, and build more trusting, effective partnerships with others. CARE’s GED trainings equip participants with communication tools, self-awareness and sensitivity to the context of others by building awareness of one’s own values, beliefs, biases and privileges across varying lines of diversity (gender, age, class, ethnicity, work style) and how they change in different contexts. Done in a group setting, individuals build deeper understanding of their peers as well.

The training also connects the experiential training exercises with program design and implementation, inspiring staff to think about how they engage with communities, stakeholders and power-holders, and partner with others in ways that change power dynamics and support vibrant social and feminist movements globally. For example, in CARE Uganda, trained staff went on to train local partner staff and have added GED methodologies into programming, which they cite as critical to their advocacy and rights work with disenfranchised communities.

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Meet the Team

Kassie McIlvaine | Manager – Gender, Equity and Diversity Solutions | CARE USA

Kassie McIlvaine has 20 years of experience as a manager of non-profit organisation in post-conflict environments, strong leadership and change management skills, promotes innovation in design, monitoring and evaluation so that impact and change can happen. She has  passion for addressing gender, equity and diversity in the organisation but also in programming.

Theresa Hwang | Gender Director | CARE USA

Theresa Hwang provides strategic guidance for integrating gender into program design, implementation, M&E across diverse technical programming areas, and creates supportive organizational policies & practices on gender and diversity. She is a highly skilled trainer and facilitator on gender programming and mainstreaming. Theresa has designed and managed multi-country initiatives utilizing participatory action research and learning, focusing on gender equality, child marriage, GBV, HIV prevention, and engaging men and boys. Prior to CARE, she has worked with Doctors of the World in Sri Lanka, and the Global Fund for Women. She holds an MPA from Princeton University.

Kalkidan Lekaw | GED Officer | CARE Ethiopia

Kalkidan Lekaw is passionate and dedicated to changing the world with women having more opportunities. She is responsible for addressing gender, equity and diversity issues within the organisation of CARE Ethiopia and focuses on capacity building, policy development and creating space and opportunities.

Walter Fordham | Senior GED Advisor | CARE USA

Walter Fordham is a high energy Organizational Development (OD) Professional with over 23 years of successful and progressive experience. He has proven expertise in group facilitation, training, agenda design, organizational development and employee relations and an effective leader with cultural sensitivity, exceptional facilitation and coaching skills, and strong employee development. He has demonstrated ability to develop and maintain a high level of rapport with all levels of employees.

Rose Amulen | WE Coordinator | CARE Uganda

Rose Amulen has over 13 years experience working in the field of development, gender and peace building, particularly focusing on gender mainstreaming, capacity-building, and participatory development. She also has hands on experience working with highly vulnerable people including internally displaced persons, refugees, victims of war, rape and trauma, and people with disabilities. Rose has strong skills in project design, implementation and evaluation, proposal writing and formation of partnerships and collaborations.

Nancy Bryan | GED Facilitator | CARE USA

Nancy Bryan has 29 years of experience at CARE in human resources and supporting the capacity development of staff and teams. She is a GED trainer and is passionate about building a network and taking these trainings to scale