Save The Children International

2024 Titukulane Impact Brief

Titukulane, a $75 million USAID-funded initiative running from 2019 to 2025, aims to achieve sustainable, equitable, and resilient food and nutrition security for ultra-poor and vulnerable households in Mangochi and Zomba Districts of Malawi. Implemented by CARE and partners, including Emmanuel International, IFPRI, NASFAM, Save the Children, and WaterAid, the project supports the Malawi National Resilience Strategy (NRS) by guiding investments in agriculture, enhancing shock recovery, promoting household resilience, and improving natural resource management. The project focuses on three key domains: good governance and accountability at all levels; household, community, and systems resilience; and gender equality, women’s empowerment, and youth opportunities. Cross-cutting objectives include gender equality, governance and accountability, youth engagement, and environmental safeguarding.

Baseline Survey on Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice (KAP) for the Addressing Climate Threats to Integrate Children into Education 2023 (ACTIVE) project from Save the Children International, Vientiane, Lao PDR

The ACTIVE project’s objectives align with Save the Children’s broader mission, seeking to empower children, caregivers, and local authorities to understand and address the multifaceted challenges posed by the climate crisis. This involves enhancing knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to climate change adaptation and resilience-building in daily life. With a focus on Sepone District, where school enrollment rates are notably low and dropout rates are concerning, the ACTIVE project aims to bolster climate resilience in education. Climate change poses significant risks to children’s education, including disruptions to schooling, health impacts, and exacerbation of existing vulnerabilities in rural communities and among marginalized groups. The research questions are as below: RQ1: What level of knowledge (RQ1-I), attitudes (RQ1-II), and practices (RQ1-III) do school children, teachers, village authorities and caregivers in the target area have about the potential or actual impact of climate change on their everyday lives and the education sector? RQ2: Are potential or actual impacts of climate change on children’s school attendance known (RQ2-I), perceived (RQ2-II), and reacted to (RQ2-III) by the target groups? RQ3: What effects do children’s gender (RQ3-I), ethnicity (RQ3-II), and disabilities (RQ3-III) have on the conditions investigated above? RQ4: What are the most appropriate ways to convey topic-related information to the target groups?

Gender and Power analysis of Child Marriage in Cabo Delgado Province June 2024

Child marriage remains a deeply entrenched issue in Cabo Delgado, with far-reaching implications for the health, education, and well-being of young girls. Girls married young are far less likely to stay in school, with lifelong economic impacts. They are often isolated and more easily exposed to physical and sexual violence. Adolescent girls are also at greater risk of experiencing sexual transmitted infections and somehow ever married girls are obliged to go into recurrent marriages due to lack of income alternatives and pressure at home. Save the Children in collaboration with the government, child parliamentarians, and locally-based civil society organisations – Wiwanana, Promura, and Associação Juntos em Acção (AJA) conducted a gender and power analysis in Cabo Delgado province. Using intersectional and child-centered approaches, this comprehensive report provides detailed insights into the causes and impacts of child marriage in conflict affected populations, and aims to inform and drive effective design and implementation of key actions to address the issue. One of the most concerning findings is the seeming acceptability and normality of child marriages. Girls aged 12 to 13 years are the most vulnerable and at risk of child marriage. This risk increases for those who do not live with a parent or primary caregiver or are orphaned. This includes the acceptance of young girls marrying dangerous individuals in order to keep the family ‘safe’, and tragically, the inability for girls to have a voice in shaping their own futures. Additionally, the lack of available services, such as secondary schools, health and social services means that by the time these girls enter puberty and are at risk of child marriage there is nowhere for them to find support, and nowhere to go for help.

Logros de la oficina de Bolivia año 2023

Les compartimos el boletín que presenta las actividades y los logros alcanzados en este 2023. Dentro del documento encontrarán los principales logros y actividades realizadas por área temática. Son muchos los retos y desafíos que tenemos, pero también hemos logrado avances significativos que queremos compartir con ustedes.

NSA CASE Project-Using Digital Data Management to Guide Agriculture Sector Nutrition Initiatives

In the current era of data revolution, addressing the prevalent challenges of food and nutrition insecurity necessitates the establishment of a robust monitoring and evaluation system founded on a proven and reliable data management protocol. In the contrary, the Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia employs a manual-based reporting system, utilizing methods such as phone calls and both soft and hard copy reports to gather data from various federal-level technical directorates, tracking the progress of planned activities and monitoring and evaluating achievements. The M&E Directorate from regions relies on manual-based reporting systems to communicate data to MOA directorates at the federal office through scanned copies of reports and phone communication. Data from district agriculture offices follows a manual-based system to reach the regional BOA, while data from kebeles is reported to district offices manually by Development Agents (DAs) or experts conducting supportive supervision at the lower levels of government (kebeles and woredas). The use of a manual-based reporting system to aggregate and develop annual and bi-annual NSA (food and nutrition) reports is not reliable, replicable, or validated for its intended purpose. Reliance on a third-party data source like Central Statistic (CSA) annual or five-year surveys, independent research works, and project reports are often not fully aligned with the Ministry’s nutrition objectives as well as its data needs for effective planning and decision-making. AGMIS indicators, including nutrition indicators, lack uniformity, coherence, and integration, presenting challenges in monitoring NSA implementation. Furthermore, AGMIS lacked standardized reporting formats, a well-organized data management system, and an established mechanism for sharing data within the Ministry. This has resulted in gaps in meaningful data reporting, analysis, and utilization for decision-making by the MOA, RBOA, and District offices regarding food production, access, and utilization. To address the issue, MOA with the support of NSA CASE project piloted Agriculture Management Information System (AGMIS) to digitize the agriculture data reporting management to improve effectiveness of data collection and reporting, its reliable and validity for targeted planning and implementation of NSA initiatives.

Gender and Power Analysis of Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) in Madhesh Province, Nepal

Save the Children International (SCI) Nepal, in collaboration with Rural Women Upliftment Association (RWUA) and Girls Not Brides Nepal (GNB) conducted a Gender and Power (GAP)Analysis to examine the root causes and intersecting power differentials that contribute to the prevalence of child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) in Sarlahi and Mahottari districts of Madhesh province in Nepal. The study also examined the implementation of national and local laws, policies, institutional practices as well as existing CEFM programming, systems, and services aimed at preventing and responding to CEFM at the provincial and national levels. Using Save the Children’s (SC’s) GAP Analysis tool and Guidance, the research applied feminist, inclusive, and child-centred research methodologies, enabling children’s meaningful participation as co-researchers. The study is based on evidence generated from a literature review, in-depth key informant and triad interviews, and focus group discussions with a variety of stakeholders across Sarlahi and Mahottari districts. The approach supports a comprehensive and intersectional analysis of key CEFM drivers and enables a set of context-specific recommendations to prevent and respond to this harmful practice and human rights violation.

Impact Evaluation Report for Adolescent Girl’s Empowerment Through Education (AGREE) Project in Bangladesh

The Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment Through Education (AGREE) project was implemented across 34 villages in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh from January 2022 to January 2024. This impact evaluation aimed to assess the impact of the Life Skills for Success programming on academic outcomes and social and emotional learning skills using two comparative treatment groups. The overarching goal of AGREE was to support adolescent girls to further develop their agency by making connections between academic skills, transferable life skills, and vocational training. While the evaluation found that LS4S and vocational training did not have an impact on academic skills above and beyond the blended learning component, a small positive impact was found on three non-academic skill domains: freedom of movement, decision-making, and gender norms.

No War Forward, No Way Back: A qualitative study of the conditions, aspirations and capabilities of Ethiopian youth and child migrants and returnees in Metema

This report focuses on the needs, protection risks, journeys and intentions of Ethiopian child and youth migrants and returnees transiting or effectively stranded in Metema, an Ethiopian town in the northern Amhara Regional State (henceforth the “Amhara region”) that lies on the border with Sudan. Drawing on interviews and focus group discussions conducted in Metema, the report offers recommendations to policymakers, humanitarian programming actors and other migration stakeholders. This study puts forward the following key findings: The vast majority of Ethiopian child and youth migrants residing in and transiting Metema originate from drought-stricken areas elsewhere in the Amhara region. Frequently cited reasons for leaving home related to poverty, hunger, inability to attend school, family responsibilities, peer pressure and a culture of migration, risks related to intercommunal violence and a perceived lack of life prospects. Almost all the children and youth interviewed said they had engaged with brokers who facilitated all or parts of their journey, particularly for movements out of Ethiopia and through Sudan. Since they tend to travel with minimal financial resources, little knowledge and few contacts—in Ethiopia as well as in Sudan—a cycle of dependency is created, leaving children and youth vulnerable to abuse. Children and youth returning from Sudan generally spend less time in Metema than those who are seeking to move on to Sudan, who often find themselves in the town for extended periods. The reasons for immobility in Metema include the current conflict in Sudan, emerging economic opportunities in Metema, lack of financial resources to pay a broker, reluctance to return home empty-handed, and—especially in the case of women—having married and started a family in Metema. None of the interviewed children and youth who intended to move on to Sudan said they had received services in Metema. Returnees fared better, although they said the assistance provided was insufficient, especially with regard to shelter, medication and food. Because of the conflict in Sudan and their lack of savings, most of this study’s participants said they intended to stay and work in Metema for the foreseeable future. Very few were considering returning to their areas of origin in the Amhara region, because to do so empty-handed would constitute a humiliating failure to not have achieved their migration objectives.

Participatory Action Research on Online Safety and Resilience

Stateless and undocumented indigenous, ethnic, and migrant children in rural Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, Thailand, including those with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, are at heightened risk of sexual exploitation due to the prevalence of sex trafficking and online abuse in these areas. To address these vulnerabilities, Save the Children’s ROAR project empowered migrant and refugee youth to protect themselves against online exploitation through youth-driven research, development of safety tools, and advocacy efforts. Building on its success, the program, with support from Westpac Group’s Safer Children, Safer Communities program, will expand to new areas in northern Thailand, engaging Thai government public schools and local communities to implement youth-led solutions to combat sexual exploitation and strengthen advocacy at both national and ASEAN levels.