Partnership & Capacity Strengthening Newsletter

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In this issue of our periodic newsletter we want to share with you the efforts being made to support our staff and partners in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We will highlight the brave work of a few partner organizations around the globe, share resources to support safe and effective programming, and share resources for CRS staff working to conduct capacity building activities virtually.

Partnership During Pandemic

CRS shapes its operational and programmatic models by the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity. We understand that communities and organizations are artisans of their own development and as an agency we are proud to work with more than 1,900 partners. Though this time has undoubtedly been challenging, we are awed by the resilience, creativity and persistence of our partner organizations and seek to highlight a few of them in this short Partnership during Pandemic presentation.

CRS Virtual Con

Visit the Virtual-Con MyCRS page and join the Yammer Community for up-to-date information about session dates, times and descriptions.

New KPIs to Measure Local Leadership and Influence

The agency has developed new Key Performance Indicators on Local Leadership and Influence. These indicators measure our contribution to increased partner capacity, direct funding received by partner organizations, and successful influence initiatives with governments. The PCS and MEAL teams have collaborated to define each indicator, develop data collection methods and plan for reporting and use in FY20 and beyond.

Virtual Learning Office Hours

While Virtual Con will be an awesome opportunity for collective learning and hands-on sessions, we recognize that you may have questions around specific challenges. We have been working with colleagues in Human Resources to host Office Hours for Optimizing Your Virtual Learning Programs, twice weekly. Signups are limited to enable us to provide more direct support. You can register to attend Office Hours via CRSLearns, and sign up to be notified of future appointments.

We are happy to answer questions around the following:

Adjusting your learning objectives
Adapting your learning content
Optimizing the learning technology
Ensuring high engagement and participation
Leveraging pre- and post-learning activities and group work

COVID-19 Resources

The Institute for Capacity Strengthening now has a dedicated page to housing resources designed to support partners as they adjust their programs in the face of COVID-19. Units throughout the agency have contributed to this effort providing technical guidance around agriculture and livelihoods programming, orphans and vulnerable children, protection mainstreaming and mental health support, justice and peace building, MEAL, and microfinance. The site also features general guidance on community engagement, gender implications and continued support of local leadership. You will find a curated list of external resources which include links to guidance from the World Health Organization, donors and peer agencies/consortia.

COVID-19 Considerations for Partners

This guidance contains a list of good practices, considerations, and resources that we and our partners around the world have learned through many years of responding to infectious disease outbreaks (such as Ebola and cholera), natural disasters, civil conflict and other crises that have significantly impacted operations. While the COVID-19 emergency is an unprecedented global emergency, our shared experience offers a foundation of knowledge and support for our staff, our organizations and the people we serve.

Policy Brief: Policy Principles to Support Effective and Sustainable Local Leadership In Humanitarian Response and Development Assistance

Rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, CRS is committed to locally-led development and supporting local leadership. Strengthening local leadership and their institutions ensures that CRS’ work respects the dignity and agency of each person and community we serve and uplifts CRS’ approach of accompanying local institutions to serve the common good. This policy brief proposes six key policy principles to encourage, support and expand locally-led humanitarian and development efforts: effective partnerships underpin effective transition to local leadership; local leadership requires local actors as implementers AND leaders; holistic, not transactional, capacity strengthening is critical for sustainable change; funding mechanisms and conditions help determine localization success; a broad and inclusive civil society, including faith-based organizations, is important and government matters: localization should not replace an effective public social service sector.

Tackling Virtual Training Presentation

In April, Mandi Ashford and Coniqua Abdul-Malik, the Instructional Designers in the PCS Unit, had the opportunity to do a brief presentation around Tips, Tools and Technology Considerations for Tackling Virtual Training during the PIQA department meeting. The video recordings for each segment are linked above and you can find the PowerPoint deck with additional suggestions for follow-up after your training, here.

You can find additional resources on Designing Virtual Learning curated by Leslie Blanton on MyCRS.

Looking for previous editions of the PCS Newsletter? You can find our newsletter archive on the ICS website.