Monday, March 13, 2006 [ Entry by: Mina Alaghband ]

Jurist talks to CARE officers about food security in Tobala refugee camp.

Possibly the most interesting part of this project for me, is how productive partnerships with coordination of activities must be formed among different NGOs for optimal success. Where the World Food Program is giving food out in these camps, for example, CARE complements the activity by teaching inhabitants how to preserve food and prepare nutritionally rich meals with their newly donated items. While this coordination is widespread, the mechanisms vary from one site to another: in some, NGOs parcel out different activities according to their specific skills, whereas in others, some NGOs are ancillary to other leading ones, often those sponsored by the United Nations.

A Le-We-Lan seminar on human rights, attended by more than 50 representatives of villages in the district.

For the Le-We-Lan project, CARE works with seven national NGOs and task forces to facilitate dialogue and policy. This exercises the 'capacity building' aimed to influence policy makers, providing 20 to 25 daily visitors with access to a database and network building. The program has a Law Reformation Commission to encourage policy makers to push for legal change. One example is the Equal Opportunities Act passed in September, 2005. The project also mentors and coaches organizations that promote civil society based on Human Rights framework, gives feedback on Human Rights violations, and provides citizens access to structural justice.

The main objective of the third and final project, ProFARM (Promoting Food Access and Community Mobilization), is to contribute to the government’s effort towards food security and good governance by supplying seeds, expanding production capabilities, and training local political and religious leaders in good governance, transparency, and accountability. So far, ProFARM, a relatively new, but quickly expanding project, has set up farmer field schools wherein the Ministry of Agriculture has introduced new techniques. These include encouraging farmers to go to lowlands, creating new market opportunities by finding undersupplied areas for trade, and teaching storage and transaction mechanisms.

As with many of CARE's programs, there is also a rights-based element. The first step is highlighting the link between the violation of rights and societal disorder and subsequent negative outcomes. This is achieved through the accounting of rights violations in log books, the celebration of both rights and peace days, and the sponsorship of workshops in which youth and women's rights are discussed in the context of improving the community. The second step facilitates mobilization. CARE motivates communities to become proactive, for example, in building their own roads creating links between local government and the people they serve, and working to integrate youth and women into local decision-making. CARE attempts to increase transparency in a non-confrontational manner so that these first two steps can be implemented without resistance from those who are more powerful in the society. An example of this might be in encouraging dialogues when a chief mismanages community assets. In 2005, several chiefs came together and admitted their mistakes, a huge concession that facilitated an understanding for a need to change and a beginning of increasing transparency.