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Savings for Change (SfC) is one of Oxfam America’s flagship programmes, reaching 680,000 members, mostly women, in 13 countries. Here Sophie Romana, Oxfam America’s Deputy Director of Community Finance, reports on some findings from an innovative qualitative and quantitative survey of the groups in Mali, published today (click through to summary or full report).

How do you save money and borrow when you live in rural sub-Saharan Africa?  Millions of women do just that every week, through their Savings Group.  Formed and monitored by teams of field agents from local organizations, 20 to 25 women gather every week at the same time and place to put a few cents in a wooden “savings box”. Once there is enough money in the box – i.e. the saving fund – members who need a small, short-term loan come in front of the self-managed group to explain the purpose of the loan (food purchases, life’s emergencies or working capital for an income generating activity).  The loans are paid back to the group with interest, which provides them with a return.  In a nutshell, savings groups provide basic financial services to poor rural women underserved or ignored by commercial banks and microfinance institutions.

But does belonging to a group actually improve the lives of members, their families, and their villages? To answer this, Oxfam America and Freedom from Hunger commissioned Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) at the University of Arizona to conduct a unique piece of joint research on Saving for Change groups in Mali: a randomized controlled trial (RCT) combined with a qualitative longitudinal study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  The RCT included 500 villages: in 210 of them we introduced SFC, the other 290 were “controlled” (intentionally left out of the intervention) to try and measure the difference, hence the impacts. The qualitative survey focused on 19 villages included in the RCT and interviewed members, husbands, women non-members, villagers etc… This mixed-methods approach combines the benefits of ‘quant’ and ‘qual’ to try and get under the skin of the impacts of savings groups.

The findings of the three-year study (see chart) show encouraging results in terms of increased saving (up 31%) and lending (12% more women took a loan from a savings group), increased food security, and an increased investment in livestock (households in SfC villages own on average $120 more in livestock, which buys you four goats, three ewes or one calf).  The findings also demonstrate that savings groups reach the poorest of the poor with 82% of households in study villages living on less than $1.25 a day.

The results from the RCT also show that there was almost no change in income and health and education expenses. We hope that these results will come with longer study, but we are not sure.

Social capital, one of the outcomes most valued by group members, is proving to be a puzzle. The group offers a safe space for women to share family problems and seek advice from each other. Outside the meeting, women have also reported over the years that they tend to greet each other more in the village, and engage with each other more often than before they joined.  But here’s our evidence puzzle: this is what the anthropological findings support, but they were not captured at all by the quantitative-RCT.

Take up rate: how do groups get created in zones where we don’t run the program?

Based on feedback from our partners and staff, Oxfam started to train “volunteer replicators” members who themselves train new groups. They have been responsible for SfC “going viral” In treatment zones the take up rate is 40.5% of women – by comparison in other similar approaches such as microcredit, the take up rate is 15% to 22.5%.

But the replicators have unexpectedly ‘spilled over’ into control villages, far away from a treatment village. This may mess up the control zones by “contaminating” the sample for the RCT, but it’s potentially good news for the women in those villages, and a testament to the attraction of savings schemes like SfC.

Depending on how strict a definition of a Saving for Change group we used (other traditional groups resemble SfC groups), we see a take up rate in control zones varying from 6% to 12% of women.  So how did that happen?  Did a conversation in the market lead to the replicator offering to go and create a new group there?  Did a member get married, move to another village and start a group there? Did a woman decide to help her daughter in another village to set up a group? Traveling to another village to form a group is challenging for many Malian women, yet SfC groups were created with no encouragement or promotion from the project, no visits from paid field agents.

We also found that women who are more socially integrated and already have an income generating activity are more likely to join earlier, but that more marginalized women do indeed join later on. When women want to save money together, they find a way to make it happen.

Are members of SFC more resilient?

Whatever your own personal definition of resilience may be, in the Sahel any sign of resilience is a success. The study took place in the Segou region of Mali, where 40% of the households experienced a ‘shock’ last year (food price increase, drought, or illness) and 40% are food insecure (unable to produce or buy nutritious food). Households in SfC villages experienced an 8% increase in reported food security and were also eating more during the hungry season – spending 39¢ more per adult per week on food during this difficult time of year and eliminating the seasonal dip. In Mali 39¢ buys you a plate of nutritious beans or a few large cassava roots.  We also found that this impact is greatest for one of the most marginalized groups of women, those women married to younger brothers in large households.

From my point of view as a program manager, I see a value in combining an RCT with a qualitative study because I need to know if the program produces the impacts we designed it for and if it does not, what needs to be corrected.  However I do have a lot of questions around the findings, which I regularly debate with my Monitoring, Evaluating and Learning colleagues. That being said, would I run another RCT if a donor asked for (and funded!) one? Why not? Would I look for funding to run another RCT? Not necessarily – there are other less expensive tools to measure program impacts.  But for the time being, I’ll say with the confidence that only statistical evidence can give me: belonging to a savings group does make your life better!

Sophie Romana. with Janina Matuzeski and Clelia Anna Mannino. Today also sees an important Mali donor conference. Oxfam report here.

 

Position: Funding Program Coordinator

Location: Lusaka, Zambia

Contract type: Open ended

Eligibility: Zambian National

Salary Grade: C2

Statutory deductions: Pay As You Earn & NAPSA

Work hours per week: 36.25

Reports to: Deputy Country Director

Staff reporting to role: None

Job Purpose: To lead on the planning, coordination, securing and management of restricted and unrestricted income to enable Oxfam in programme in Zambia to deliver on the country program strategy.

Benefits: 100% medical cover for staff, registered spouse and biological/legally adopted children up to the age of 18 years; 2 leave days per month; and gratuity of 10% of annual gross pensionable salary for each completed year served- payable at time of leaving Oxfam.

Interviews date: mid June 2013, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

[Read full job description]

Tipo  Voluntariado Descripción 

En nuestro comité de Guadalajara necesitamos personas dinámicas y comprometidas que deseen formar parte del equipo.

Referencia  VGCG 0513

Intermón Oxfam somos personas que luchamos, con y para las poblaciones desfavorecidas y como parte de un amplio movimiento global, con el objetivo de erradicar la injusticia y la pobreza, y para lograr que todos los seres humanos puedan ejercer plenamente sus derechos y disfrutar de una vida digna. ¿Quieres formar parte de nuestro equipo?



¿Cuáles serán tus funciones?

- Colaborar como voluntario o voluntaria en una TIENDA DE COMERCIO JUSTO consiste en realizar al menos un turno a la semana (mañana o tarde) y colaborar en la realización de las actividades propias de un establecimiento comercial: pedidos y colocación de mercancía, atención al público, inventarios, gestión del almacén, etc. además de participar en las reuniones de equipo, formaciones y actividades de sensibilización de comercio justo.
- Colaborar como voluntario o voluntaria en los EQUIPOS DE MOVILIZACIÓN SOCIAL consiste en colaborar en la difusión de nuestros mensajes de campañas para lograr que lleguen al mayor número de personas, a través de acciones muy diversas: contribuir al diseño y participar en nuestras actividades de sensibilización, actos de calle, recogidas de firmas y difusión de nuestro trabajo en diversos actos públicos, a través de las redes sociales, etc.

¿Qué estamos buscando?

- Personas con motivación por la solidaridad, la cooperación al desarrollo y la lucha contra la pobreza.
- Voluntad de adquirir un compromiso estable de al menos una mañana o una tarde a la semana (para el equipo de tienda de Comercio Justo)
- Posibilidad de colaborar algunos fines de semana (algunas actividades de Movilización Social)
- Compromiso de participar en las reuniones y sesiones formativas de los equipos.

¿Qué te ofrecemos?

- Unirte a un gran equipo humano de personas voluntarias y contribuir a la misión de Intermon Oxfam integrándote en los equipos de comercio justo y Movilización Social y en la dinámica de nuestra organización.
- Formación en temas globales de Intermón Oxfam, Campañas y comercio justo y formación específica en las actividades en las que contribuirás.
* Si te interesa esta oportunidad, escríbenos a cmadrid2@intermonoxfam.org o inscríbete a través de nuestra web.

¿Te interesa?

Si te interesa esta oportunidad, entra a través de este link. El plazo de presentación de solicitudes finalizará el próximo 04/06/2013.

Tipo  Voluntariado Descripción 

En nuestra Tienda de comercio justo de C/ Goya, necesitamos personas dinámicas y comprometidas que deseen formar parte del equipo de voluntariado.

Referencia  V-TG

Intermón Oxfam somos personas que luchamos, con y para las poblaciones desfavorecidas y como parte de un amplio movimiento global, con el objetivo de erradicar la injusticia y la pobreza, y para lograr que todos los seres humanos puedan ejercer plenamente sus derechos y disfrutar de una vida digna. ¿Quieres formar parte de nuestro equipo?



¿Cuáles serán tus funciones?

- Atención a las y los clientes y ventas, colocación de mercancía, decoración de la tienda, control de stocks e inventario, tesorería.
- Participar en las reuniones del equipo de tiendas.
- Asumir conocimientos específicos de Comercio Justo y funcionamiento de tiendas.
- Sensibilizar y transmitir los criterios básicos y valores del Comercio Justo.

¿Qué estamos buscando?

- Motivación por la solidaridad, la cooperación al desarrollo y la lucha contra la pobreza.
- Formación y/o experiencia en actividades comerciales y de venta al público.
- Capacidad de trabajo en equipo y habilidades para las relaciones interpersonales.
- Voluntad de establecer un compromiso de colaboración estable.
- Disponibilidad de cubrir 1 turno semanal (sábado tarde o lunes, jueves y viernes al mediodía)

¿Qué te ofrecemos?

- Te integrarás en un equipo de trabajo y en la dinámica de nuestra organización.
- Participarás en nuestros espacios de reflexión y de debate interno.
- Te formarás en las actividades en las que contribuirás, así como en temas globales de Intermón Oxfam.
* Si te interesa esta oportunidad, escríbenos a rrhhmadrid@intermonoxfam.org o inscríbete a través de nuestra web.

¿Te interesa?

Si te interesa esta oportunidad, entra a través de este link. El plazo de presentación de solicitudes finalizará el próximo 30/05/2013.

Tipo  Voluntariado Descripción 

En nuestra Tienda de comercio justo de C/ Goya, necesitamos personas dinámicas y comprometidas que deseen formar parte del equipo de voluntariado.

Referencia  V-TG

Intermón Oxfam somos personas que luchamos, con y para las poblaciones desfavorecidas y como parte de un amplio movimiento global, con el objetivo de erradicar la injusticia y la pobreza, y para lograr que todos los seres humanos puedan ejercer plenamente sus derechos y disfrutar de una vida digna. ¿Quieres formar parte de nuestro equipo?



¿Cuáles serán tus funciones?

- Atención a las y los clientes y ventas, colocación de mercancía, decoración de la tienda, control de stocks e inventario, tesorería.
- Participar en las reuniones del equipo de tiendas.
- Asumir conocimientos específicos de Comercio Justo y funcionamiento de tiendas.
- Sensibilizar y transmitir los criterios básicos y valores del Comercio Justo.

¿Qué estamos buscando?

- Motivación por la solidaridad, la cooperación al desarrollo y la lucha contra la pobreza.
- Formación y/o experiencia en actividades comerciales y de venta al público.
- Capacidad de trabajo en equipo y habilidades para las relaciones interpersonales.
- Voluntad de establecer un compromiso de colaboración estable.
- Disponibilidad de cubrir 1 turno semanal (sábado tarde o lunes, jueves y viernes al mediodía)

¿Qué te ofrecemos?

- Te integrarás en un equipo de trabajo y en la dinámica de nuestra organización.
- Participarás en nuestros espacios de reflexión y de debate interno.
- Te formarás en las actividades en las que contribuirás, así como en temas globales de Intermón Oxfam.
* Si te interesa esta oportunidad, escríbenos a rrhhmadrid@intermonoxfam.org o inscríbete a través de nuestra web.

¿Te interesa?

Si te interesa esta oportunidad, entra a través de este link. El plazo de presentación de solicitudes finalizará el próximo 30/05/2013.

Tipo  Voluntariado Descripción 

En nuestro comité de Guadalajara necesitamos personas dinámicas y comprometidas que deseen formar parte del equipo.

Referencia  VGCG 0513

Intermón Oxfam somos personas que luchamos, con y para las poblaciones desfavorecidas y como parte de un amplio movimiento global, con el objetivo de erradicar la injusticia y la pobreza, y para lograr que todos los seres humanos puedan ejercer plenamente sus derechos y disfrutar de una vida digna. ¿Quieres formar parte de nuestro equipo?



¿Cuáles serán tus funciones?

- Colaborar como voluntario o voluntaria en una TIENDA DE COMERCIO JUSTO consiste en realizar al menos un turno a la semana (mañana o tarde) y colaborar en la realización de las actividades propias de un establecimiento comercial: pedidos y colocación de mercancía, atención al público, inventarios, gestión del almacén, etc. además de participar en las reuniones de equipo, formaciones y actividades de sensibilización de comercio justo.
- Colaborar como voluntario o voluntaria en los EQUIPOS DE MOVILIZACIÓN SOCIAL consiste en colaborar en la difusión de nuestros mensajes de campañas para lograr que lleguen al mayor número de personas, a través de acciones muy diversas: contribuir al diseño y participar en nuestras actividades de sensibilización, actos de calle, recogidas de firmas y difusión de nuestro trabajo en diversos actos públicos, a través de las redes sociales, etc.

¿Qué estamos buscando?

- Personas con motivación por la solidaridad, la cooperación al desarrollo y la lucha contra la pobreza.
- Voluntad de adquirir un compromiso estable de al menos una mañana o una tarde a la semana (para el equipo de tienda de Comercio Justo)
- Posibilidad de colaborar algunos fines de semana (algunas actividades de Movilización Social)
- Compromiso de participar en las reuniones y sesiones formativas de los equipos.

¿Qué te ofrecemos?

- Unirte a un gran equipo humano de personas voluntarias y contribuir a la misión de Intermon Oxfam integrándote en los equipos de comercio justo y Movilización Social y en la dinámica de nuestra organización.
- Formación en temas globales de Intermón Oxfam, Campañas y comercio justo y formación específica en las actividades en las que contribuirás.
* Si te interesa esta oportunidad, escríbenos a cmadrid2@intermonoxfam.org o inscríbete a través de nuestra web.

¿Te interesa?

Si te interesa esta oportunidad, entra a través de este link. El plazo de presentación de solicitudes finalizará el próximo 04/06/2013.

Tipo  Voluntariado Descripción 

En nuestra Tienda de comercio justo de C/ Goya, necesitamos personas dinámicas y comprometidas que deseen formar parte del equipo de voluntariado.

Referencia  V-TG

Intermón Oxfam somos personas que luchamos, con y para las poblaciones desfavorecidas y como parte de un amplio movimiento global, con el objetivo de erradicar la injusticia y la pobreza, y para lograr que todos los seres humanos puedan ejercer plenamente sus derechos y disfrutar de una vida digna. ¿Quieres formar parte de nuestro equipo?



¿Cuáles serán tus funciones?

- Atención a las y los clientes y ventas, colocación de mercancía, decoración de la tienda, control de stocks e inventario, tesorería.
- Participar en las reuniones del equipo de tiendas.
- Asumir conocimientos específicos de Comercio Justo y funcionamiento de tiendas.
- Sensibilizar y transmitir los criterios básicos y valores del Comercio Justo.

¿Qué estamos buscando?

- Motivación por la solidaridad, la cooperación al desarrollo y la lucha contra la pobreza.
- Formación y/o experiencia en actividades comerciales y de venta al público.
- Capacidad de trabajo en equipo y habilidades para las relaciones interpersonales.
- Voluntad de establecer un compromiso de colaboración estable.
- Disponibilidad de cubrir 1 turno semanal (sábado tarde o lunes, jueves y viernes al mediodía)

¿Qué te ofrecemos?

- Te integrarás en un equipo de trabajo y en la dinámica de nuestra organización.
- Participarás en nuestros espacios de reflexión y de debate interno.
- Te formarás en las actividades en las que contribuirás, así como en temas globales de Intermón Oxfam.
* Si te interesa esta oportunidad, escríbenos a rrhhmadrid@intermonoxfam.org o inscríbete a través de nuestra web.

¿Te interesa?

Si te interesa esta oportunidad, entra a través de este link. El plazo de presentación de solicitudes finalizará el próximo 30/05/2013.

Job Title: Project Manager - Energy Engineer
Division / Department / Location: Southern Africa Region, Zimbabwe, based in Harare Job Family: Programme Salary: National Salary Scale Level: C2 Interviews to be conducted from 27 May 2013 to 29 May 2013 OXFAM PURPOSE: Working with others to overcome poverty and suffering COUNTRY PURPOSE: To work through a Rights-Based and One Programme approach, incorporating, multilevel programming, leverage Oxfam's resources and impact to support, facilitate and enable poor and marginalised people to reclaim their rights and manage their own affairs. TEAM PURPOSE: Using a Rights based approach enable partner organisations to deliver required long term, developmental programmes addressing poverty, inequality and suffering in line with Oxfam's corporate aims and objectives JOB PURPOSE: To manage Sustainable Livelihoods projects, which have a focus on renewable energy promotion, climate change adaptation, income and food security. Transferring technical, operational and organisational expertise from Oxfam to partner organisations, working with other Aims, especially Building Resilience, Gender Justice, and Campaign and Advocacy, to ensure that an integrated approach of meeting needs, capacity building and campaigning is developed for sustainable livelihoods. REPORTING LINES Reports to: Sustainable Livelihoods Program Coordinator Staff report to: Project officer and MEL Officer. BUDGET RESPONSIBILITY Within project funding arrangements.

Hours: 24 per week   Salary: £9,780 per annum   Contract Type: Open-ended   Interviews: TBC   Oxfam GB takes its obligation to protect the rights of children and vulnerable people very seriously, therefore the successful candidate for this post will be subject to extensive background checking, including a Criminal Record Bureau Check (CRB), as this role involves unsupervised access to the above-mentioned groups.

Please ensure that prior to commencing the application process, if successful, you would be happy to complete a CRB check. For more information about CRB please go to: http://www.crb.gov.uk   OXFAM PURPOSE: To work with others to overcome poverty and suffering.   JOB PURPOSE: Operating in an empowered culture, the Deputy Shop Manager will deputise for the Shop Manager and assist them to lead a shop team to maximise the shop's financial contribution to overcoming poverty and suffering. By applying entrepreneurial skills and by putting the shop at the heart of the community, the postholder maximises sales by activity that enhances and never detracts from Oxfam's reputation.   The precise mix of accountabilities that the postholder carries out will depend on the business needs of the shop and the skills and competence of the postholder which will develop as familiarity of the role increases.   REPORTING LINES: Postholder reports to: Shop Manager Reporting to this postholder: Volunteers
BUDGET RESPONSIBILITY: A defined Net Shop Contribution for a specified shop.

La ONU insta a #UE a que impulse nuevo impuesto sobre transacciones financieras internacionales http://t.co/UuIdHfEpFN #FTT #TasaRobinHood

RT @benphillips76: Dear @G8, Tackle the causes of #hunger: Stop #landgrabs & #taxdodging. Letter to Cameron. http://t.co/HIFHS2RoWB

They’re funny things, speaker tours. On the face of it, you go from venue to venue, churning out the same presentation – more wonk-n-roll than rock-n-roll. But you are also testing your arguments, adding slides where there are holes, deleting ones that don’t work. Before long the talk has morphed into something very different.

So where did I end up after my most recent attempt to promote FP2P in the US and Canada? The basic talk is still ‘What’s Hot and What’s Not in Development’ – the title I’ve used in UK, India, South Africa etc. But the content has evolved. In particular, the question of complex systems provoked by far the most discussion.

I started off with the infamous US military mindmap of Afghanistan. Although ridiculed at the time, the map looks like a genuine and nuanced effort to understand the country and is probably fairly typical of the complexity of power and relationships in any given country. The point is that such a system is complex, not complicated. Complicated means if you study it hard, you can predict what happens when you intervene. In contrast a complex system has so many feedback loops and uncertainties that you can never know how it will react to a stimulus (say $100m in aid, or an invasion….).

The crucial point is that most political, social and economic systems look like the map. Yet the aid business insists on pursuing a linear model of change, either explicitly, or implicitly because a ‘good’ funding application has a clear set of activities, outputs, outcomes and a MEL system that can attribute any change to the project’s activities – a highly linear approach. Other organizations – say forest fire managers, or the military, seem more able to cope with complexity, although I found out from a woman in one seminar who had served in Afghanistan that the power map was actually drawn up by a consultant, who was promptly sacked after showing the slide to General Petraeus, so maybe the soldiers aren’t so comfortable with complexity after all.

In denying complexity is obliged either to seek islands of linearity in a complex system (vaccines, bed nets), which may not always be the most useful or effective places to engage, or to lie – writing up project reports to turn the experience of ‘making it up as you go along’ that epitomises working in complex systems into the magical world of linear project implementation, ‘roll out’, ‘best practice’ and all the rest. That not only wastes a lot of staff time and energy, it also reduces the ability to learn about how to work best in complex systems.

So how should the aid system change? Overall, we need to think though ‘How to plan when you don’t know what is going to happen’ (my best effort at explaining complexity without resorting to jargon). Here are my bullet points, and brief explanations:

Fast feedback: if you don’t know what is going to happen, you have to detect changes in real time, but also have the institutions to respond to thatinformation (as was not the case recently in the Sahel).

Focus on problems, not solutions: Drawing on Matt Andrews’ work, the role of outsiders is to identify and amplify problems, but leave the search for solutions to local institutions. (At the World Bank, Shanta Devarajan pointed out the contradiction between this approach and NGOs’ preference for big, simple solutions – end land grabs, no to user fees. Ouch.)

Rules of thumb, not best practice toolkits: I am told that the US marines do not go into combat brandishing Oxfam toolkits and online resources on best practice. They operate on rules of thumb – take the high ground, stay in communications and keep moving. They improvise the rest. Aid workers on the ground operate far more like this than our project reports admit. If we were honest about it, we could have a better discussion on how to improve those rules of thumb.

Some possible approaches that spring to mind (and I would love to hear examples of others)

Work on the ‘enabling environment’ rather than specific projects: things like norms, rights or access to information

Evolutionary/Venture Capitalist approach: run multiple experiments and then zero in on what seems to be working best. Example, the Chukua Hatua project in Tanzania

Convening and Brokering: Get dissimilar local players together to find solutions – the outsiders’ job is to support that search, not do it themselves. Example, the TAJWSS water project in Tajikistan

But any attempt to move in this direction raises some fundamental challenges to the current structures of the aid industry:

Results for grown ups: The current approach to measuring results favours linearity. But rejecting results altogether is the wrong approach – both because even those who recognize the central role of complex systems still want to know if they’re doing any good, and because the results people control the cash. No results, no funding. We need to get much better at ‘counting what counts’, and reclaim the idea of ‘rigour’ for qualitative and other methods better suited to complex systems.

Who to employ? Risk-taking, entrepreneurial, maverick searcher types have a hard time in an aid business dominated by bureaucratic procedures and risk aversion. Moreover, working in complex systems requires deep local knowledge of formal and informal power maps, something expats on a two or three year posting are unlikely to acquire. How do we turn the tables to attract and retain searchers, and value locally embedded knowledge?

Short Term v Long Term: Funding and project cycles are short term, change in complex systems is often long term. How can we bridge the gap, for example by combining good, plausible stories about the short term, with more rigorous impact assessment in the long term (how often do we go back and study the effects of an intervention 10 or 20 years after the funding has ended?)

How to keep/build political support given that working in complex systems means acknowledging a lack of control over what takes place and limits to attribution (no you can’t ‘badge’ the Arab Spring as created by Oxfam, USAID or anyone else, sorry). It also means greater tolerance of failure – a venture capitalist approach means accepting 9 failed start-ups for every 1 big success, but imagine what aid critics would do with a 90% failure rate. And how do we communicate and sell this approach to the public after systematically dumbing down the aid and development story for decades? (From buy a goat and save the world, to a post-goat narrative….)

Ben Ramalingam has been thinking about this for years, and writing about it on his Aid on the Edge of Chaos blog. His book of the same name is due out later this year, so let’s hope it can settle a lot of these issues (and doubtless raise many more).

 

Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations working together in 94 countries and with partners and allies around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. In Vietnam, Oxfam is recognized as one of the leading international NGOs, especially in rural development, disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response, civil society development, ethnic minorities, and women's empowerment.

We are looking for an experienced and dynamic candidate to fill the following position:

Team Lead - Advocacy Coalition Support Programme

(Oxfam - Level: Global C1)

Reference number: INT6231

The post is will be contracted through March 2016, based in Hanoi.

 

The Programme: The Coalitions Programme is an innovative effort designed to increase opportunities for Vietnamese citizens to engage in decision-making, by supporting coalitions to engage in policy advocacy, monitoring and outreach on key issues of public concern. Coalitions consist of multi-stakeholder cooperation among Vietnamese NGOs, state agencies at different levels, media, universities and research institutes, and the private sector.

 

The Role: To ensure effective delivery of the Coalitions Support Programme through provision of strong leadership and high quality overall management of project cycle from planning, implementation, Monitoring & Evaluation, to documentation of programme results and learning.

RT @benphillips76: Dear @G8, Tackle the causes of #hunger: Stop #landgrabs & #taxdodging. Read charities letter to Cameron. http://t.co/XJV…

Tipo  Voluntariado Descripción 

En nuestra Tienda de comercio justo de C/ Goya, necesitamos personas dinámicas y comprometidas que deseen formar parte del equipo de voluntariado.

Referencia  V-TG

Intermón Oxfam somos personas que luchamos, con y para las poblaciones desfavorecidas y como parte de un amplio movimiento global, con el objetivo de erradicar la injusticia y la pobreza, y para lograr que todos los seres humanos puedan ejercer plenamente sus derechos y disfrutar de una vida digna. ¿Quieres formar parte de nuestro equipo?



¿Cuáles serán tus funciones?

- Atención a las y los clientes y ventas, colocación de mercancía, decoración de la tienda, control de stocks e inventario, tesorería.
- Participar en las reuniones del equipo de tiendas.
- Asumir conocimientos específicos de Comercio Justo y funcionamiento de tiendas.
- Sensibilizar y transmitir los criterios básicos y valores del Comercio Justo.

¿Qué estamos buscando?

- Motivación por la solidaridad, la cooperación al desarrollo y la lucha contra la pobreza.
- Formación y/o experiencia en actividades comerciales y de venta al público.
- Capacidad de trabajo en equipo y habilidades para las relaciones interpersonales.
- Voluntad de establecer un compromiso de colaboración estable.
- Disponibilidad de cubrir 1 turno semanal (sábado tarde o lunes, jueves y viernes al mediodía)

¿Qué te ofrecemos?

- Te integrarás en un equipo de trabajo y en la dinámica de nuestra organización.
- Participarás en nuestros espacios de reflexión y de debate interno.
- Te formarás en las actividades en las que contribuirás, así como en temas globales de Intermón Oxfam.
* Si te interesa esta oportunidad, escríbenos a rrhhmadrid@intermonoxfam.org o inscríbete a través de nuestra web.

¿Te interesa?

Si te interesa esta oportunidad, entra a través de este link. El plazo de presentación de solicitudes finalizará el próximo 30/05/2013.

Tipo  Voluntariado Descripción 

En nuestra Tienda de comercio justo de C/ Goya, necesitamos personas dinámicas y comprometidas que deseen formar parte del equipo de voluntariado.

Referencia  V-TG

Intermón Oxfam somos personas que luchamos, con y para las poblaciones desfavorecidas y como parte de un amplio movimiento global, con el objetivo de erradicar la injusticia y la pobreza, y para lograr que todos los seres humanos puedan ejercer plenamente sus derechos y disfrutar de una vida digna. ¿Quieres formar parte de nuestro equipo?



¿Cuáles serán tus funciones?

- Atención a las y los clientes y ventas, colocación de mercancía, decoración de la tienda, control de stocks e inventario, tesorería.
- Participar en las reuniones del equipo de tiendas.
- Asumir conocimientos específicos de Comercio Justo y funcionamiento de tiendas.
- Sensibilizar y transmitir los criterios básicos y valores del Comercio Justo.

¿Qué estamos buscando?

- Motivación por la solidaridad, la cooperación al desarrollo y la lucha contra la pobreza.
- Formación y/o experiencia en actividades comerciales y de venta al público.
- Capacidad de trabajo en equipo y habilidades para las relaciones interpersonales.
- Voluntad de establecer un compromiso de colaboración estable.
- Disponibilidad de cubrir 1 turno semanal (sábado tarde o lunes, jueves y viernes al mediodía)

¿Qué te ofrecemos?

- Te integrarás en un equipo de trabajo y en la dinámica de nuestra organización.
- Participarás en nuestros espacios de reflexión y de debate interno.
- Te formarás en las actividades en las que contribuirás, así como en temas globales de Intermón Oxfam.
* Si te interesa esta oportunidad, escríbenos a rrhhmadrid@intermonoxfam.org o inscríbete a través de nuestra web.

¿Te interesa?

Si te interesa esta oportunidad, entra a través de este link. El plazo de presentación de solicitudes finalizará el próximo 30/05/2013.

Just got back from a two week immersion in the US & Canada aid and development scene (well, the East Coast version, anyway). Boston, New York,Washington and Ottawa, talking at universities, NGOs, multilaterals and aid agencies and experiencing a wonk version of groundhog day + powerpoint, brought on by giving the same presentation 16 times (I’m getting pretty good at it now).

Overall impressions?  Lots of really smart and committed people caught between what Oxfam America’s Greg Adams calls the ‘high and low politics’ of aid. High politics is about policy – thoughtful discussions of how to make aid better; low politics is fending off the ‘aid doesn’t work/charity begins at home’ counter attack from right wingers and fiscal conservatives.

In Canada, it felt like low politics is in the ascendant – the aid community seems besieged as the government takes the axe to a number of institutions, including ‘merging’ CIDA with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (feels more like an acquisition than a merger).

The US felt more finely balanced – lots of good reform proposals coming from the Administration, and a really interesting discussion with USAID on how to move from funding relationships to partnerships like its triangular relationship with Brazil, where USAID and Brazil jointly support aid programmes in Lusophone Africa. They’re wondering how to expand that approach as more middle income countries set up their own aid agencies.

For all my admiration for their blogging, I found my day or so at the World Bank pretty depressing in terms of politics and policy. The Bank seems stuck in a ‘technology + private sector = solution to everything’ mindset. I’m not against either, but you have to take politics, power, institutions etc at least as seriously.

A Band for the Bank?

I’ve already covered my exchange with Marcelo Giugnale. At my staff talk, Bank uberblogger Shanta Devarajan stated ‘poverty is a series of government failures’ and came out with examples where ‘governments intervene, but make people worse off.’ Unfortunately his conclusion seemed not to be that the Bank should help strengthen states, but that it should bypass governments/find private sector solutions to everything. An approach that is unlikely to reduce inequality and has little historical foundation, I fear.

As for the evidence debate, Shanta reckoned ‘results always have to be relative to a counterfactual – that’s what they’re about’. So how do you assess things with no counterfactual, like the fall of apartheid, or the invasion of Afghanistan? Or the impact of international conventions on the rights of women?

[update: Shanta says I got him all wrong - see his comment below]

Meanwhile a discussion with the team producing the forthcoming World Development Report on Managing Risk suggested that the Bank still cannot get past its traditional technocratic approach of ‘if a state wants to improve, here are some suggestions’. On fragile states, what if a state isn’t interested in solutions? Reply – private sector + foreign investment. Oh dear. No theory of change for how fragile states turn around, finding nuclei of good governance in otherwise fragile states, building coalitions of civil society, faith-based institutions, media, academia, traditional authorities, shifting norms in the next generation. Nope, just a fairly barren state v private sector dichotomy. Still, these were rushed conversations, and I’d be delighted to be proved wrong.

Other impressions? Great intellectual capacity at the UN, frustrated by the lack of clarity and political constraints of the system. A professor who still remembers her first class with Robert Chambers. Robert had pinned up a map of the world, with the North at the bottom. Then he just sat in a corner as his new students filed in and commented that he’d put the map up upside down. You can imagine the rest. Genius.

And a great suggestion from someone (sorry can’t remember who) – a ‘voices of the activists’ study on lightbulb moments: what were the life-changing experiences that set you on your present course – a meeting with an individual? A personal experience of violence or injustice? A seminar (hey, it happens)? Something you read? That is research I would love to read.

Dogs that didn’t bark? Surprisingly little discussion on the rise of China, depressingly little on climate change. Otherwise, my over-riding impression of the trip is the network of smart, committed people who read this blog, comment, think and argue with passion. Thankyou – you have definitely renewed my commitment to keeping this forum going, even though it can be daunting when (as this morning) I wake up jetlagged, with nothing ready to post. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Update: here’s the video of one version (at Oxfam America) of my ‘what’s hot and what’s not: new thinking in development’ presentation.

Location - Colombo, Sri Lanka   Contract Type - National C1 - 02 year Fixed Term contract   Salary and benefits - Provident Fund, Medical, Life and Travel Insurance cover, 14+ annual leave and other substantial benefits