Do you want to learn more about what works on-the-ground when designing impact-oriented projects? In our Online Field Courses, you actually work in villages with people in need—difficult to do online you say?

If you are a donor in Chicago, an INGO Grant Writer in Wellington, or a student in Manchester—rather than an NGO Staffer in Nairobi—how will you work in a village? We partner you with a field staffer working with a real community on-the-ground—in countries like Guatemala, Nicaragua, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Kenya, Columbia, Peru, Cambodia, Nepal, Mauritius or Venezuela. And there you have it: an online field course with community-centered impact.

Each class assignment is a concrete step in developing a project in the field. Some of the assignments are done within the communities you serve: do it as a solution-oriented activity together with the community, and advance the project and finish a component of your class project.

Partners communicate with each other about assignments through email, photo exchanges, chat rooms, and Skype. Can’t join the course? Consider the gift of a scholarship.

The Kenyan Partner

Margaret Muthui, Program Director at the Benevolent Institute Of Development Initiatives (BIDII) in Kenya worked with the community of 500 families (3,000 individuals) in Lita that were suffering from a severe shortage of water. Maggie worked with community members to develop a participatory needs assessment — and then partnered with Erin Watson of Canada and one of our courses to develop a sustainable project in this community.

The Canadian Partner

Erin Watson of Montréal, Canada, partnered with Maggie through our course on designing and funding sustainable development projects. ‘I have to tell you that I found the partnership in this course so rewarding and I’m really enjoying working with Margaret. She provides me community information, I do research and send her a draft, then she sends the assignment back to me with her suggestions’. Erin also approached donors in Canada for funding this project.

Learn more about cross-hemisphere partnerships.
 
Learn more about international student field projects.

See a field assignment from Kenya.

Student’s 84 countries, 150 organizations and 100 different project themes.

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What Works in International Development?
Sustainable projects are based upon a series of building block activities that have shown scientific evidence of having worked, and that provide effective grassroots solutions to needs identified by rural communities. These are known as Evidence-Based Best Practices.

All of the following resources can be found on CSDi’s Field Tools page.

We research these best practice activities and package them in easy-to-use: download documents field guides workshop lesson plans workshop posters and how-to cards

Project Resources are Arranged by Sector:

1. Participation
2. Water & Sanitation
3. Health & Hygiene  
4. Food & Agriculture 
5. Education & Literacy 
6. Eco Sustainability  
7. Economic Dev 
8. Infrastructure 
9. Energy  
10. Migration
11. Emergency Relief 
12. Climate Change

We also provide information on how to assemble sustainable projects using the resources above in these pages:

123 Project Development
Here is a simple example of how to use the tools on this website to include evidence-based interventions in:

• the implementation of a grant you have received
• building an impact oriented project from the ground up

Design Projects With Impact
This page shows a step-by-step progression an NGO can take to design compelling projects with these qualities and for presentation to donors.

Example Integrated Projects
Select from individual activities on this website when designing a project, or come here, to the Project Examples Directory, for pre-integrated project ideas.

What are your thoughts on efficent ways to find new evidence-based best practices for projects?

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In May, 2010, partners Ekua Ansah-Eshon, Ghana, and Elsie Reed, Nigeria, began the process of developing a project to help teenage girls rise out of the vicious cycle of teenage pregnancies and poverty through gaining literacy—and job and entrepreneurial skills.

Location: Diabene—a rural community in the Western region of Ghana.

The Challenge

Teenage mothers from Diabene suffer from an inability to fund essential life needs of their children and themselves due to a lack of knowledge of reproductive rights, family planning, healthy family dynamics, a lack of job skills, and vocational and entrepreneurial training. This leads to poor health and nutrition, and an inability for children to remain in school and for the young mothers to participate in income generating activities.

How these young families enjoy improved livelihoods, nutrition and educational access

Learn about this 18-month training program where teenage mothers from Diabene will learn reproductive rights, family planning and develop job skills and literacy. This is allowing young mothers to participate in income generating activities and to provide better nutrition and educational opportunities for their children and leading them to become prosperous, productive members of their communities.

Project Details
	Project duration: 18 months CSDi Partner: Advocates & Trainers for Women’s Welfare Advancement & Rights Project Manager: Ekua Ansah-Eshon, Founder Fact Sheet: 2-page project report Key words: Livelihoods, entrepreneuriship, vocational training, education, nutrition, reproductive rights, family planning.

More in-depth information about this project including locational map.

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