After years of the development sector waging the war on poverty and billions of dollars invested, nearly half of the global population still lives on $2.50 a day. Yes. Poverty is a complex and multifaceted issue. However, stereotyping people living in poverty as lazy and helpless is not only an inaccurate portrayal but also exacerbates the issue. Mauricio Miller, founder …
How can all of us in the social sector become more accountable to the communities we seek to serve? How can those of us on the outside, who act as funders, implementers, or intermediaries identify and support community-led approaches to change? GlobalGiving, in partnership with Root Change and other members of the Movement for Community-Led Development, has been shepherding a …
Over the past two years, Root Change, Youth and Society (YAS), and Keystone Accountability have supported district level social labs in Mulanje and Rumphi, Malawi as part of the USAID Local Works program. As USAID-funded support for the social labs came to an end, we worked with the labs to craft a Constituent Report to showcase their activities, highlight the …
The development sector increasingly recognizes the need for organizations to embrace adaptive management practices to achieve lasting change to address systemic and complex social issues. For those who are new to this methodology, “Adaptive rigour: bridging the art and science of adaptive management,” breaks down the concepts well. However, finding the right tools, metrics, or signals to help inform adaptations …
This post was originally published by the Global Partnership for Social Accountability on July 9, 2019. “We need the local people themselves to prescribe solutions to the problems they’re facing, and they must be able to lead in testing and implementing those solutions.” Charles Kajoloweka, Founder and Executive Director of Youth and Society (YAS) in Malawi. The importance of locally led development …
This post was originally published on the CIVICUS blog on June 28, 2019. Real change happens when local communities are in the lead—leveraging their assets, ideas, and expertise to implement solutions to their own problems. Unfortunately, too often, development initiatives bypass local communities and local resources in designing and carrying out programmes. At Root Change, we aim to break this pattern …
Fifty people including citizens, representatives from Community Based Organizations (CBOs), NGOs, INGOs, government, and traditional authorities turned up at the Rumphi Malin Lodge to reflect on their recent efforts to innovate together and address emerging issues of trust and power within their group. They came by bicycle, mini bus, car, motor bike and on foot from almost every corner of …
From 2014 to 2018 the Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement (SACE) project in Nigeria sought to build a stronger, more resilient, and more nimble Nigerian civil society by strengthening the capacities of civil society actors to form common agendas, coordinate strategies, align outcome measurements, and share knowledge. SACE organized 18 clusters of civil society organizations working on clearly-defined thematic issue …
“The idea of an inclusive forum for discussion sits deep in our culture. The idea that we can harness this part of our culture to undertake actions to reform the aid system is new and exciting. We have complained about the jet-set foreign aid experts. But it is on us to step up and become the experts of our own …