We are kicking off a review of 2014, to reflect on our accomplishments and other significant milestones. From project successes, to the creation of compelling infographics, even to the move to our new office in Crystal City, we had an eventful 2014. So, join us as we look back to focus on some of the things that made the last year so momentous. Follow this page, as we will continuously update it with new material. #MSI2014
Click here to see A Focus on 2014 Accomplishments Campaign on Facebook.
Day 12: An Innovative, Cultural Approach to Corruption Awareness in Indonesia
To mark Anti-Corruption Day 2014, MSI’s USAID-funded Strengthening Integrity and Accountability Program 1 (SIAP 1) and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) organized an Anti-Corruption Week in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to build awareness and understanding around taking an anti-corruption stance. The week-long event opened with a speech by President Joko Widodo and featured exhibitions, seminars, workshops, movie screenings, activities for children, art contests, a rock concert, interactive theatre, and a creative zone. Tens of thousands of Yogyakarta citizens attended the various events.
Day 11: Helping Promote Transparency in Lebanon
In Lebanon, we implemented a 2-year, USAID-funded project known as BALADI PLUS. Our focus was working with selected municipalities to improve transparency and enhance participatory planning with civil society at the local level. A highlight of the project emerged while working to assist with the increased demands created by the Syrian refugee crisis. We helped to create a specialized Emergency Preparedness Metric (EPM) which works with existing contingency plans that prepare cities to face natural and man-made disasters and emergencies.
Day 10: A Unique Scaling Up Approach
MSI has fine-tuned the Scaling Up Management Framework and Scaling Up Toolkit, and is working to continue spreading these tools to the developing world. In 2014, we launched a campaign site to detail precisely what makes our scaling up work important — and unique. Our approach combines policy change, stakeholder engagement and systems analysis into a flexible yet methodical process to identify and manage large-scale systemic change.
Day 9: Improving Government Services to Iraq’s Neediest Citizens
The MSI-implemented USAID/Tarabot project recently opened its first one-stop-shop service center to aid in public access to services in Iraq. This particular center will address long lines that typically impede the dispersal of social benefits to Iraq’s neediest citizens, including widows, disabled persons and orphans, who need to collect their modest cash stipends. The opening sets a precedent for the one-stop-shop model in Iraq, where interest is growing among key government entities.
Day 8: Listening to Youth Voices in Jordan
A participatory video approach involves training individuals, groups, or communities in basic video techniques, and then implementing a plan for them to capture relevant information. In Jordan, youths were trained in this approach to capture data on school attendance, workforce engagement, and voice and participation. Over the course of two workshops, these youth assessors heard perspectives from their peers, which in turn allowed them to design their own interview questions and focus the interviews. These opinions were then shared with USAID, helping to inform programming.
Day 7: Analyzing the Impact of Organized Crime on Development in West Africa
For USAID’s Africa Bureau, MSI conducted a conflict and crime assessment in Niger that was used to inform inter-agency strategy and programming. We developed two datasets on maritime piracy and cocaine trafficking that showed the negative impact of organized crime on trade and economic investment in West Africa and the role of underdevelopment and weak institutions in fostering organized crime.
Day 6: Helping to Bridge the Gender Divide in Lebanon
MSI’s Building Alliances for Local Advancement, Development and Investment – Capacity Building (BALADI CAP) project completed its first year of implementation with a first-of-its-kind Gender Mainstreaming Survey in Lebanon. It assessed efforts to integrate gender into civil society. These assessments resulted in customized gender action plans designed to help partner organizations bridge the institutional gender divide.
Day 5: What’s the Status of Civil Society Worldwide?
Is civil society flourishing or under threat around the world? This question can partially be answered with the assistance of USAID’s Civil Society Organization (CSO) Sustainability Index. It reports on the strength and overall viability of CSO sectors of more than 60 countries across 4 regions (Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia, Middle East and Northern Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and Afghanistan-Pakistan).
We manage the overall process of the CSO Sustainability Index in all the regions, working closely with USAID and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) to implement the methodology collaboratively with host partners in each country where the Index is compiled.
In December 2014, MSI participated in a USAID and Aga Khan Foundation co-hosted event addressing the subject of Global Trends in Civil Society Resilience. Click here to watch the MSI-produced video highlighting some of the opportunities and challenges facing civil societies around the world.
Day 4: Continuing our Partnership in Iraq
Since 2006, we’ve worked hand in hand with Iraqis to help them chart a brighter future. Our project, Tarabot, supports Iraq’s administrative development and civil service, from public policy development and reform to new governance methods. The National Development Plan (NDP) 2013-2017 is the most visible product of our planning assistance; it came about through a process characterized by transparency and inclusivity.
Day 3: Helping USAID Deliver Improved Health Projects in Ghana
The USAID/Ghana Evaluate for Health Project activities began in September 2014. We are providing overall M&E support to the entire health portfolio, all geared towards data to continually improve the program. Since then, we have recruited a six-person all-Ghanaian project team, opened an office, completed interviews with major implementing partners, visited local health facilities, and submitted a baseline study design and draft indicators to USAID for a portfolio-wide baseline to be launched in February.
Day 2: Helping Pakistan Achieve Reading Goals
We’d like to share with you photos from the Pakistan Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), which contributes to the long-term measurement of improved reading skills. Funded by USAID, it is the largest EGRA conducted to date. Despite challenging conditions on the ground, including a flood and earthquake, our teams interviewed more than 33,000 boys and girls in grades 3 and 5 from 1,120 schools. The baseline will feed into an evaluation that looks at all eight areas of Pakistan and three different languages.
Day 1: Promoting a Better Lebanon Through Citizen Engagement
MSI’s USAID-funded Promoting Active Citizen Engagement (PACE) project increased Lebanese civil society’s ability to act as a catalyst for change.The program has supported the healthy growth of civil society groups in Lebanon and used technology, like social media, to effectively engage and promote its goals. Learn more about the project and its use of social media by checking out the photos from the @SocialMediasPACE social media fair on Facebook, listening to a podcast recorded with former PACE Chief of Party, Hérve de Baillenx, watching the short project overview video, and watching a video from “Inter-Views,” a weekly political talk show that spoke with PACE grantees.
