8th Annual
Development
Conference Presented by
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP COMPENDIUM
8th Annual
Development
Conference Presented by
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3 The Work You May Not Know You’re Doing and How to Do It Better Chemonics 7 Migration, Economic Recovery & COVID-19 Creative 10 Monitoring in the Context of COVID-19 Tetra Tech
The Work You May Not Know You’re Doing and How To Do It Better
By Stacia George and Heather Seeley, Chemonics International
You may be carrying out security sector reform (SSR) work without knowing it. Becoming better acquainted with SSR best practices and integrating them into your development programming can improve program effectiveness and durability — even if your work does not directly involve security services or if you have no experience in security or governance projects. Why? Ultimately, all development projects benefit from secure, stable operating environments in which a functional, equitable security sector upholds human rights and citizen safety. Health services can operate more smoothly in settings where medicine and supplies reach destinations without theft, and where health workers can safely access health centers without worry over civil insecurity. The investment required for economic growth activities is more attainable when strong government systems protect and enforce those investments without corruption. More children can attend school when they do not live in fear of violence in their neighborhoods. Regardless of the development work you do, you likely knowingly or unknowingly implement SSR programming as part of your project’s strategy to improve your program’s effectiveness and sustainability.
What Is SSR and Where Is It Applied? SSR work is often linked directly to “working with the police,” but SSR is far more comprehensive than most people think. It incorporates the policies and programs that build the capacity of governing bodies to use legal authority to maintain peace, stability, and safety for their citizens and civil society. While these bodies include the police and military, they also include the justice system, legislature, corrections facilities, and civil society. There are indeed many ways that projects, including USAID’s, can work with the police to improve accountability through methods such as community policing and building capacity for forensics and investigations; communications; citizen engagement; and human rights and gender sensitivity training as well as support with efficiency and anti-corruption. For example, the Ghana Case Tracking System Project is building a system to track cases from police to prisons, ensuring the justice chain is more effective as well as that cases are appropriately handled. Beyond police programming, we find SSR in action across the 10 development fields explored in the Inventory of USAID’s Security Sector Governance and Institution Building Programs. You may be surprised to learn how SSR has been integrated across such a range of activities: •
Human rights and rule of law. In Mexico, the EnfoqueDH activity supports reforms in the Mexican security sector that address human rights abuses through civil society advocacy about abuses committed by state actors, particularly in prisons; improving the national search system of missing persons; technical assistance to specialized prosecutors’ offices dedicated to disappearances/torture; victims’ access to justice related to forced disappearances/torture cases; and strengthening federal and state-level legislative frameworks for aligning procedures with international human rights standards.
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Violence prevention. The Youth and Gender Justice Project assists the Guatemalan government in reforms that protect the security of vulnerable groups including youth, women, and LGBTI+ individuals. The project helps to reform the government’s juvenile justice system by convening government and non-government service providers to help reduce youth’s vulnerability as well as offender’s recidivism; assist existing legal systems with security sector reforms that improve the underfinanced juvenile justice system; create a national referral system for vulnerable groups; and enhance police, immigration officials, hospital staff, and labor inspectors’ ability to detect human trafficking and other instances of gender-based violence.
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Public health. As illuminated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the crowded nature of corrections facilities can create major public health issues for its residents that can also later be transferred to the general population. Development projects can work with corrections facilities to help reform services and improve detainee health outcomes by providing education on transmittable diseases, also including HIV/AIDS. For example, the Health Services in Corrections Facilities Program in Afghanistan provides health services to improve corrections institutions’ ability to ensure appropriate treatment for detainees.
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Conservation. USAID VukaNow works with the Southern Africa Development Community, national governments, and park wildlife officials and game rangers to improve customs, legislation, and judicial processes for prosecuting wildlife crime; increase application of forensic science; enhance field surveillance technologies; and share lessons and best practices between landscape partners and other implementers. These reforms have changed how the security sector captures, processes, and impedes traffickers to protect communities, resources, and livelihoods from pressures of illegal use of natural resources.
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Economic growth and trade. Recognizing that many of Afghanistan’s economic and trade challenges are linked to corruption, smuggling, and other illegal activities at the border, the Afghanistan Trade and Revenue Project worked with customs and border control institutions to enhance trade, spur economic growth, and increase revenues. The project reformed border management, promoted legal trade agreements, and implemented anti-corruption measures in customs and taxation. These efforts sped up the movement of goods across the border (also important for the safety of individuals transiting borders), reduced illicit trade, and generated customs revenues.
Each of these programs is a testament of SSR’s contributions to development goals outside the specific realm of police and law enforcement programming. They also reinforce the notion that SSR is not necessarily an outcome or even an explicit strategy in many projects. It can instead be woven through a program’s fabric, laying the groundwork for the conditions required for effective, equitable development. Development programming is best supported when the security sector of a given country is intact and can uphold its people’s fundamental rights and security.
Call to Learning and Action You may now begin to see how you could integrate SSR and working with SSR institutions into your own programs. But perhaps you’re unsure of how to best integrate SSR best practices, especially if you’re not an expert in the security or governance space. Not to worry. There is a breadth of user-friendly resources adapted for practitioners from all development sectors to better understand and integrate SSR into current and future projects.
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Want to understand SSR basics including what is legally permitted? Chemonics supported USAID in developing this quick, user-friendly Security Sector Assistance E-Learning Training that gives an overview of SSR, its links to overarching development goals and USAID’s Journey to Self-Reliance, and how USAID successfully works in the security sector. This tool teaches general SSR concepts, program design, and development strategies that support human rights, open governance, and equal access to justice for all.
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Want to take a deeper dive into specific themes or policies within SSR? The USAID Center on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance Technical Resources Page includes field guides, capacity development guidance, policy documents, indicator guides, and assessment frameworks for implementing best practices in SSR-related programming (institution building, court
automation, trafficking in persons, anti-corruption, and police accountability) as well as integrating rule of law and justice frameworks into other sectors (food security, climate change, public health, and biodiversity protection). As you may have gathered from the examples and resources above, SSR can contribute to crosssectoral collaboration that is important for ensuring secure and stable environments for improved, more holistic development. Collaborative actions that you can take include: •
Reaching out to experts who work on security sector reform for advice
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Connecting with colleagues you do not traditionally work with in other sectors to share your experiences in SSR and to find ways to leverage each other’s programs to support SSR objectives
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Advocating for SSR programming so that citizen security, human rights, open and transparent governance, and justice for all can be improved, in addition to your other development goals
The stability provided by a just and functional security sector and its institutions is often a key ingredient for improved sustainable development programming across sectors and regions. Regardless of the sector or country in which you work, we implore you to proactively integrate SSR best practices into your strategy to reinforce the impact and longevity of your development contributions. This article originally appeared on chemonics.com/blog.
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Migration, Economic Recovery & COVID-19 Q&A with Manuel Orozco
International migration has continued to grow more complex, and globalization fosters an increasingly interconnected world and global economy. In this Q&A, Orozco shares some insights on migration, remittances and the impact of COVID-19.
Manuel Orozco, Ph.D. Director, Center for Migration and Economic Stabilization Creative Associates International
Manuel Orozco, Ph.D., has been on the forefront of research and programming related to trends around migration and economics for more than 20 years. As Director of Creative Associates International’s new Center for Migration and Economic Stabilization, Orozco leads the company’s expertise in the intersections between migration flows and the stabilization and recovery of fragile economies.
Since then, my work has aimed to understand how person-to-person transfers involve — and have evolved into — an intricate ecosystem of global payment value chains that create wealth between the remittance origin and destination. In turn, I have worked in more than 100 countries with remittance flows capturing between 2 percent (like Mexico) and 35 percent (like Tajikistan or Haiti) of a country’s national income. I’m also interested in how this ecosystem shapes a competitive money transfer industry focused on technological innovation, regulatory compliance of financial activities and low-cost services. Remittances are a financial transaction that represent a portion of a migrant’s income and add wealth to the recipient’s family income. Family remittances increase disposable income among recipients, and in turn increase their savings capacity. In most cases, those savings are kept informally. However, when considering economies of scale, if these funds are formalized, they can serve as a key to unlock many development solutions.
Q: How did you first begin working in
migration? What has kept you committed to this topic throughout your career?
Manuel Orozco: My work on migration is informed by personal and professional experience. I am a product of the Cold War, leaving Nicaragua for Costa Rica in 1983 due to political reasons.
That experience and an intellectual interest for all things international led me to study African refugee flows and Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees in Costa Rica. One critical issue that kept my attention on migration was the understanding that labor and even forced migration is the human face of globalization. The economic ties that people forge between families and societies, or what I call “transnational economic engagement,” have significant impacts and answers to many development challenges.
Q: Tell us about your work focusing on remittances.
Orozco: My work on remittances stemmed from observing how people materially express their family ties by sending money to relatives. The first study I conducted on remittances was in 1995 and sought to understand how migrants from countries in conflict reconnect with their homelands.
Q: What can remittances tell us about migration as a phenomenon?
Orozco: Remitting and migrating are separate realities. However, remittances reflect migration and globalization. That is, they indicate many of the dynamics in the global economy, including economic asymmetries and labor complementarities between countries, obsolete models of economic growth in one country that increase the probability of migration, and a labor force calculating their economic options.
Concurrently, remittances also present themselves as an economic opportunity to increase investments in human capital in the homeland as a means to modernize and increase competitiveness in the global sphere.
Q: How do you think about migration as a development issue?
Orozco: Migration is a development issue in that it reflects the economic weaknesses and failures in the migrant’s origin country and also because transnational economic engagement offers development solutions.
Therefore, the challenge is to set a strategy that leverages the dynamics of transnational ties to create economic opportunities. For developing countries and emerging economies that are increasingly becoming hosts or in-transit stops for migrants, it is also important to introduce economic and social integration programs.
Q: You talk about migration as not
just a result of economic challenges, but also a contributor. Can you expand on how migration can help and harm local economies?
Orozco: Migrant transnational economic ties, like remittances or nostalgic trade, bring untapped wealth that once leveraged, creates solutions for greater economic growth and complexity.
For example, savings formalization increases financial access and liquidity in the financial sector, funds that can be mobilized into credit in the local economies to increase productivity. Similarly, investments in nostalgic trade businesses can lead to greater economies of scale in exports, expanding production and value chains to markets outside the host country. However, when the growth in outbound migration exceeds demographic and labor force growth across age groups, it can adversely affect a country’s economy. This situation is particularly complex when no development policy interventions are made to leverage the flows from remittances, the demand for nostalgic commodities, or migrants’ capital investments. For example, in countries where weak or fragile economies give way (by neglect or lack of expertise) to continued irregular migration, that outward migration is unsustainable due to other countries’ border controls. Eventually irregular migration is reduced and inflows of funds also fall, causing further economic decline. More importantly, in the absence of policy interventions to capitalize on the flows of
Creative Associates International works with under-served communities by forming partnerships, sharing expertise and experience in education, economic growth, governance, citizen security and transitions from conflict to peace. Based in Washington, D.C., Creative has active projects in 30 countries from Central America to Central Asia. Since 1977, it has worked in more than 90 countries and on almost every continent. Recognized for its ability to work rapidly, flexibly and effectively, Creative is committed to generating long-term sustainable solutions to complex development problems. CreativeAssociatesInternational.com
remittances, currency artificial appreciations can occur, what is referred to as the “Dutch disease,” a condition by which those productive sectors lose further competitive capacity.
Q: How you foresee COVID-19 impacting global migration?
Orozco: The impact of COVID-19 in many developing countries will be more devastating in those that are more dependent on the global economy (that is, on exports, remittances and tourism) and highly informal sectors.
Looking at evidence from the 2009 global recession, outbound migration emerged years after an economic recovery that wasn’t enough to rebound from compound economic losses. This outmigration was higher in those more externally dependent countries with informal economies that employ more than two-thirds of the labor force.
Q: What is the role of the development community to respond to the long-term effects of COVID-19 as they relate to migration?
Orozco: The development community is strategically positioned to offer technical expertise and financial collaboration to focus on migration prevention programs and economic stabilization designs that create conditions to mitigate further deteriorations. Development players are also well-positioned to integrate the reality of migration as a factor that intersects with global system forces and faulty economic performance in developing countries.
Monitoring in the Context of COVID-19 Ali Hayat, Tim Reilly and Gwynne Zodrow
Introduction In the span of a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many facets of political, economic, and social life around the globe, posing challenges for every region, country, and community. Among its many impacts, the virus has threatened the delivery of humanitarian and development assistance; the most vulnerable populations will be hit hard. Internally displaced persons, refugees, or members of a marginalized community cannot “self-isolate,” as survival depends on their daily wages or the provision of regular assistance. Continuation of aid to the most vulnerable populations is critical during these times. International donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and philanthropic organizations are marshalling efforts to provide assistance. Monitoring the delivery of this assistance is critical to ensure it is provided
effectively and in an ethical manner based upon “do no harm” principles. As implementers adapt their interventions to address the new needs and challenges posed by COVID-19, monitors will also have to adapt their approaches and methods. The best approaches will be context specific. However, certain modifications to research and monitoring activities can reduce risk for all involved. Below are examples of adapted practices that can help protect monitors, communities, and beneficiaries. These practices are currently being implemented by Management Systems International (MSI), a Tetra Tech Company, on our third-party monitoring (TPM) projects. These projects continue to adapt and update practices as they monitor the specific situations in each of these countries.
This paper was prepared by MSI staff to contribute to the discussion and understanding of the important development challenges facing policymakers and practitioners
Monitoring in the Context of COVID-19
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Adapting How We Monitor Emphasizing the Rights and Safety of Field Staff
Field staff face risks in this environment, since TPM necessitates considerable contact, or opportunities for contact, with the general populace. In some cases, it requires visiting such areas as humanitarian distribution points, where people very often congregate. We believe it is a professional and moral obligation to discuss these risks with field monitors at the outset and take whatever steps are available to increase their safety. We recommend that TPM activities: • Provide monitors with the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) guidance and ensure they are fully aware of the risks, mitigation measures, and their rights to refuse to participate. • Provide all monitors with basic protective equipment, including gloves and masks, to be used when physically evaluating interventions conducted in hospitals and mobile health clinics. • Train monitors in, at least, the minimum mitigation practices related to COVID-19, including washing hands thoroughly and frequently for 20 seconds and practicing physical distancing during field research. • Ensure at the start of any monitoring activity that neither monitors nor any of their household members have displayed COVID-19 symptoms. If a household member is symptomatic, that monitor should not be assigned to the monitoring activity.
Monitoring in the Context of COVID-19
Sampling Adaptations
The benefits of specific monitoring activities should be balanced against the risks of COVID-19 transmission. This means taking precautionary measures to mitigate transmission to the most vulnerable individuals by reducing contact. We recommend that TPM activities: • Avoid collecting household data in person. If household data collection is essential, it should be conducted only through remote methodologies such as phone or online interviews. Conducting in-person surveys with specific household members at locations other than the household may also be possible if COVID-19 mitigation practices are employed. • Avoid interviewing persons in high-risk COVID-19 groups, such as the elderly and persons suffering from autoimmune diseases or underlying health conditions. • Focus monitoring efforts on key informants or immediate beneficiaries who may be easier to reach remotely rather than in-person. For example, these would include shop owners (for voucher modalities), bakery owners (for food assistance modalities), and contractors (for infrastructure and civil works interventions).
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Monitoring Instrument Adaptations Adapting monitoring instruments and relying on other forms of monitoring can minimize unnecessary contact between monitors and respondents. We recommend that TPM activities:
• Modify introductions to interview instruments to highlight COVID-19 risks and measures that have been introduced to minimize those risks (e.g., interviewing from a distance, phone or online interviews, etc.). • Shorten monitoring instruments by including questions designed to collect only essential information during beneficiary interviews; this would reduce the time required for interviews.
• Consider replacing focus group discussions and group interviews with alternative forms of research that limit the physical distance between respondents. • Identify, in advance, safe locations for data collection at the periphery of any congested areas such as distribution points. • Require monitors to conduct interviews from the maximum allowable distance (six feet or more) — far enough to avoid direct contact, but close enough to allow the monitor to ask questions and listen to responses. Monitors should inform respondents of the purpose of this social distancing as part of the introduction to the interview.
• Identify opportunities to observe delivery of assistance to minimize the number of interviews. • Include questions and observations that assess whether and how partners are applying WHO and other appropriate COVID-19 guidance when implementing distributions or delivering other assistance.
Field Research Adaptations
When conducting in-person research, monitors should be directed to take common sense steps to reduce transmission risk. We recommend that TPM activities: • Conduct remote data collection rather than in-person interviews, where possible. This may require beneficiaries to share their phone number or call a certain number if they want to provide feedback or participate in data collection.
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Adapting What We Monitor Types of Humanitarian Assistance
Restructuring how we monitor a modality to reduce inter-person contact, while monitoring the full breadth of humanitarian assistance during the pandemic is advised. We recommend that TPM activities: • Focus on real-time rather than postdistribution monitoring. This may require more observations at distribution points but will reduce the need to meet beneficiaries in their homes. • Conduct more frequent verification activities in lieu of beneficiary-focused monitoring activities. A valuable perspective on the delivery of humanitarian assistance can be obtained by verifying the technical aspects of delivery, such as the results of water quality tests and inspections of infrastructure, and the contents of food and non-food kits at warehouses. • Conduct monitoring visits at health facilities outside of regular working hours to minimize personal contact with beneficiaries and allow health care professionals to attend to their core tasks with few distractions. Observations could be limited and focused primarily on documentation. In areas heavily hit by COVID-19, it may be advisable to forego monitoring at health facilities altogether.
Compliance with World Health Organization Good Practice
While assisting affected communities to deal with the crisis, humanitarian partners should adapt their own approaches to protect their
Monitoring in the Context of COVID-19
staff. Third-party monitoring can help partners identify the extent to which their systems are complying with good practice to prevent disease transmission. We recommend that TPM activities: • Monitor the extent to which humanitarian partners are adopting measures to reduce crowding at humanitarian sites. Monitors should specifically observe whether the following measures have been adopted, where applicable: ■ Have beneficiaries been notified in advance and given specific times to receive assistance (e.g., through WhatsApp) to reduce potential crowding at the site? ■ Are distribution sights clearly signed to facilitate the efficient movement of persons - with separate reception, verification, and distribution areas and separate entry and exit points? ■ Are distributions conducted in areas that are sufficiently large to accommodate the expected number of beneficiaries with appropriate space between individuals? • Monitor the extent to which humanitarian partners are adopting measures to promote good hygiene and COVID-19 sensitization. Monitors should specifically observe whether the following measures have been adopted, where applicable: ■ Are materials displayed at the site providing information about COVID-19 transmission risks and mitigation measures?
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■ Has the partner provided handwashing facilities at the site with disposable towels? ■ Has the site, specifically reception and registration areas, been properly cleaned and sanitized at the beginning of the day? How often is it cleaned throughout the day? ■ Are staff or beneficiaries who appear ill or have persistent coughs instructed to
leave the site and are they referred to the nearest primary healthcare center? The approaches outlined in this brief are intended to help monitoring programs and humanitarian partners adapt to the impacts of COVID-19. They should be re-assessed regularly in consultation with our donors and humanitarian partners, as our understanding of COVID-19 increases.
CONTACT THE AUTHORS
Ali Hayat Chief of Party, Third Party Monitoring Project in Syria, ali.hayat@msi-inc.com Tim Reilly Practice Area Leader and Technical Director, treilly@msi-inc.com Gwynne Zodrow Technical Manager, gzodrow@msi-inc.com
Learn more about our COVID-19 response services here.
Monitoring in the Context of COVID-19
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