CARE Failing Forward

Fe Kagahastian from CashCap ’s Syria response and Reem Khamis from UNFPA talk about the importance of getting Cash practitioners and experts in supporting GBV survivors. Doing it wrong sets off all kinds of alarm bells, because if we do it wrong, we can hurt the people we’re trying to support. We need to speak “not necessarily the same language, but at least an understandable language.” This podca...

Madj Sawan from Ihsan for Relief and Development Organization  and Ola Batta from the  Shafak Organization  talk about the challenges they see while working on cash responses to protect women and girls and support survivors of Gender​-based Violence​ in Syria. Some of their recommendations are to speed up the cash process so survivors can get services fast, to make sure there is a referral system...

ARABIC Podcast. Madj Sawan from Ihsan for Relief and Development Organization  and Ola Batta from the  Shafak Organization  talk about the challenges they see while working on cash responses to protect women and girls and support survivors of Gender​-based Violence​ in Syria. Some of their recommendations are to speed up the cash process so survivors can get services fast, to make sure there is a...

Nour AlSaaideh and Heba Abu Deyak reflect on what they learned doing cost efficiency analysis with the Dioptra tool. When they look at Conditional Cash Transfers for Education , cost is one metric, but it's not the only--or maybe even the most important one. Learn more about how we can focus on effectiveness AND efficiency so that when we lower costs, we don't compromise on impacts. Focusing on ju...

In this English version recorded based on translations from the original Arabic podcasts, Fatima Azzeh from CARE interviews Samar Karamo and Baraa Bobaki from IHSAN Relief and Development , who talk about what they've learned on designing cash programming so it supports and protects women facing gender-based violence. This interview his interview covers why cash is important, how to make sure we d...

Fatima Azzeh from CARE interviews Samar Karamo and Baraa Bobaki from IHSAN Relief and Development , who talk about what they've learned on designing cash programming so it supports and protects women facing gender-based violence. The second in a 2-part series (check out part one here ), this interview covers how important it is to set up safety plans, think about potential harm, and build in holis...

In our first ever Arabic podcast, Fatima Azzeh from CARE interviews Samar Karamo and Baraa Bobaki with IHSAN Relief and Development , who talk about what they've learned on designing cash programming so it supports and protects women facing gender-based violence. The first in a 2-part series, this interview covers why cash is important, how to make sure we don't retraumatize survivors, and the imp...

Holly Radice reflects on 3 years of cash and voucher programming at CARE, where we've grown, and where we need to invest more. Working with cash and vouchers to ensure that we're supporting gender equality and reducing risks of GBV is possible, but it's also a challenge. Here are some places that we need to strengthen: get participants more involved in design, listen to feedback, and understand th...

Amani Idfonce from CARE Tanazania talks about how reinforcing the whole health system--especially with community health workers--makes it possible to get an even better COVID response than focusing on the disease alone would have done. How did they manage it? They worked on aligning with existing priorities, thinking about infectious diseases more broadly, and remembered to keep regular services r...

Mona Sherpa from CARE Nepal reflects on lessons learned in responding to emergencies in true collaboration with local partners. "We are not superior. Learning has to go both ways," she says. It's not just about your plans on paper or your commitment to principles, but also your actions and your systems.

Zachary Vinyard from the One Acre Fund talks about how digital projects in Rwanda failed because of too many assumptions about what worked for farmers. His team has a new report on Digital Innovations , and how to get better. Key tips? Break inward. Design experiments so if they fail, the organization bears all of the extra risk and extra work, and the farmers you serve don't have to take it on. A...

"Don't try to win for yourself. Try to win for impact." Rahul Chandran talks about what he terms the catastrophic failure of innovation in the humanitarian sector, why importing the Silicone Valley model of innovation and scale doesn't work, and how collective action and anti-racism are the only solutions. "Scale isn't about big" is just one of his provocations to the sector at large.

Dr. Tanmay Mahapatra and Dr. Shridhar Srikantiah from CARE India’s Bihar Technical Support Program explain how they use data to catch failures and make adjustments in real time with their Concurrent Measurement and Learning approach. Learn more at: bihar.care.org

Fiona Cooper talks about her experience leading the research for round two of CARE's Learning From Failure initiative , and…I know this will surprise everyone…we haven’t stopped failures yet. We do have some hopeful signs that we’re failing better. Fiona talks about the importance of looking internally, acknowledging that everyone fails, and finding ways to be honest about failure in a sector that...

Clement Bisai from CARE Malawi talks about what he and his team are learning about how to do better remote data collection. Focus, listen to communities, and reflect regularly are his key takeaways. Don't expect to outsource everything. Digital remote data collection may be the best way to work in COVID-19, but we're already learning how to do it better.

Hazem Fahmy from CARE Egypt talks about the journey from being a country office to becoming an independent member of the CARE family. What are some of his key lessons? First, don't spend all your time planning--test out actions and adapt. Second, learn to listen for what people aren't telling you; trust is critical for organizational change. Third, keep your principles firmly in mind as a north st...

Tatiana Bertolucci --CARE's Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean--talks about what she learned closing the CARE Brazil office. We need to engage with curiosity and treat organizations in the global south as powerful allies, not people who merely implement our agenda. We also need to invest in more diverse boards. "There is knowledge everywhere if we will listen to it." Another les...

Deyanira Nevarez Martinez from UC Irvine talks about the challenges of doing research in COVID-19, and the importance of contingency and risk management planning. How would you plan if you thought everything might go wrong? What are your alternatives for each step of your process? When COVID-19 turned everything upside down, Deyanira talks about strategies for moving research forward. Deya's resea...

Salah Hamwi from CARE Turkey talks about lessons learned in fighting rumors and misinformation about COVID 19. "We're fighting against time," he says. You have to get good information out first so that rumors don't have the space to grow and spread. Using digital platforms, getting leaders involved, and using evidence to shape your programs are all other key steps.

Ryan Shepard talks about launching CARE's first US-focused project , creating jobs and feeding kids impacted by #covid19. It wasn't an easy lift and "depended on a lot of things all going right at a very uncertain time." What are Ryan's takeaways? Listen for the truth that will make you stronger, even when people's feedback is discouraging. Believe in the core of what must work, constantly refine...

Puji Pujiono of the Pujiono Center and Victoria Palmer from CARE Canada talk about their paper based on the Sulawesi response in Indonesia .This time, they talk about what organizations can do once a crisis has already started to have better success with partners, and help them achieve their goals rather than hurt them.

How do international NGOs create problems when they team up with local activists? It's the CARE of 1000 papers, where our processes are so focused on reducing risk that we bury local groups under the weight of our expectations, and don't give them the support they need. Puji Pujiono of the Pujiono Center and Victoria Palmer from CARE Canada talk about their paper based on the Sulawesi response in...

Jay Goulden talks about designing a data system to collect information on pandemic response in 78 countries--a first for CARE. He says act quickly, iterate fast, and think what your system might need to be in two weeks or a month as the situation evolves. He also talks about reducing burdens on over-taxed staff, streamlining systems, and connecting data collection to data use. Oh--and make it beau...

Holly Radice talks about how people have limited bandwidth to adopt new things in crisis, and how cash transfers in Ebola failed at digital solutions because of unrealistic expectations. Her recommendations: do everything you can to adapt and expand existing systems to push out cash safely, examine your context very carefully and frequently to see what market approaches work, and start planning no...

In this translation from the French Episode, Sandra Georges from CARE Cameroon talks about the CHAMPS project, and how they have had to move from "make others do" to "do together" to "let others do." It involves changing the way we think about partnership, gradually handing over responsibility, and believing local teams and communities about what approaches work best.