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Author: Tim Magee

Become the Solution

Are you a donor, a development practitioner, in a job transition, or a student who wants to learn more about what works in designing impact-oriented projects?

Courses Begin March 15. Online course participants are using our courses to develop real, on-the-ground projects with real communities—both individually and through North/South student partnerships. People like you from 92 different countries and 200 organizations used CSDi online courses to develop projects in 2010 impacting 70.000 people.

CSDi Online Courses Capture a True Field Experience.
Our online courses use each class assignment as a concrete step in developing a real project within a real community. You will take an assignment into the field and use it as a solution-oriented activity that you do together with community members—thereby finishing one component of the project you are developing in the class. And there you have it: an online field course with tangible, concrete results.

Don’t have community access? No problem: we partner you with a fellow student in a developing nation who does. Click on the course links below to see syllabi, course fees, and to enroll.

Here’s a sample of the courses that are available starting March 15:

Course partners work in all development sectors—but here is an example of the types of projects that students develop in just one representative sector—water:

  • resilience to weather variability & extreme weather conditions
  • community flood resilience program; flood preparation, response & recovery
  • forming community based flood management (response) committees
  • community awareness-raising of disaster risk and response
  • bio-engineering for slope stabilization & land slide/flash flood reduction
  • insufficient community water
  • emergency preparedness/disaster risk management
  • contaminated water and poor health
  • water purification
  • rainwater harvesting
  • protection & restoration of community springs & watersheds
  • livelihood adaptation in Caribbean island communities
  • agricultural water conservation & management
  • developing water infrastructure systems
  • adaptation in Small Island Developing States

We look forward to the opportunity of working with you online!

Be sure to join CSDi’s Development Community. Join 400 colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.

Learn how to develop an community centered project.

Like us: CSDi Facebook.

Would you like to learn more about what the courses are like? Just visit these pages:

Student Testimonials

International Partnerships

Learning Environment

Student Field Projects

Example Assignment: Kenya

Student Countries, Organizations, Project Challenges

What Works in Development? Impact Evaluation Conference: Mind the Gap

I’m going–are you?

The best conference I’ve been to was organized by 3ie in Cairo in 2009: Perspectives on Impact Evaluation. 3ie is very serious about finding out “what works in development” through impact evaluations. This June-Mind the Gap-will be equally stimulating with sessions on response to natural disasters, health & nutrition, diversifying livelihoods, entrepreneurship & agriculture & rural development.

Minding the Gap:  Cuernavaca, June 2011
Each year billions of dollars are spent on tackling global poverty. Development programs and policies are designed to build sustainable livelihoods and improve lives. But is there real evidence to show which programs work and why? Are government and donor policies based on concrete and credible evidence?

The Mind the Gap conference on impact evaluation will address these questions and offer possible solutions. The conference will take place in Cuernavaca, Mexico, June 15-17, 2011, and it’s co-hosted by The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (INSP), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and the Center for Labor and Social Distributive Studies in coordination with the Impact Evaluation Network (CEDLAS-IEN).

This conference will provide a platform to share and discuss experiences on how to best achieve evidence-based policy in sectors that are highly relevant for countries in all developing regions.

Do you think it is a good idea to design development projects using programs that have shown evidence of having worked? Join in the discussion.

Be sure to visit the adaptation working group at CSDi’s Development Community. Join colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.

Learn how to develop an community centered project.

Join: CSDi Development Community.

Like us: CSDi Facebook.

Project Sustainability: Put the Community in Charge

Project Sustainability: Put the Community in Charge
Online Courses Beginning March 15:
 
What is development? Certainly, one of the goals in community-based development is for community members to cultivate their capacity to lead productive, healthy, meaningful, self-reliant lives—and to be able to contribute to the development of their communities—autonomously.
 
Last month we talked about how developing community ownership is a cornerstone of sustainable project development. This month we explore the next step of empowering the community: creating a community based project management team. Engaging community members in a committee where they will learn leadership, decision-making skills, organizational management, and gain a sound understanding of the tools and activities included the development project—is like on-the-job training.
 
How to Lead a Participatory Teambuilding Workshop:
Steps to Forming a Village Committee
1. Read the entire March 2011 Newsletter.

2. Visit these following course documents:

 

This community-based planning and oversight committee—is the community team that you will partner with on your project’s final planning stages, launch, implementation, and community takeover. Examples could be committees on water, health, education, disaster preparedness, flood control, soil restoration, reforestation, agriculture, or alternative livelihoods. I’m going to walk you through the steps of planning and organizing a workshop to do this.
Let’s analyze why you would want a village water committee. If an NGO arrives in the community with funding to develop a water system, spends a year designing and installing the water system, and then leaves, who will oversee and maintain the water system into the future?

In many development projects, as the NGO’s project nears completion, the beneficiaries have not been prepared to receive the continuation of project activities (e. g. maintaining a new water system). For example, in a recent report, it was noted that almost 50% of village water projects in developing nations fell into disuse within two years. One of the reasons cited is that community members were not trained in the management of the systems nor in their maintenance. The formation and training of community-based management committees can work to solve this challenge.

When a community is engaged in developing a project that meets their needs, and is involved in project implementation, is trained in the maintenance of project outputs—and when this process is overseen by a responsible committee—the project has a much greater likelihood of being successful in the long term.

What are your thoughts on communiity members partnering in an NGO supported project?

 

Learn how to develop an community centered project.

Join: CSDi Development Community.

Like us: CSDi Facebook.