Counterpart International

Food security: food security and agriculture programs help communities raise healthy, educated children, and support the country's journey to self-reliance. Early childhood health interventions, such as vitamin a distribution, sustainable infrastructures like community gardens, and market linkages to support sustainable livelihoods, all create a strong foundation for sustainable community growth. (description continued on schedule o) the united states department of agriculture-funded guatemala food for progress program (2016-2024) aims to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in coffee and horticultural value chains. The project's key strategies are supporting the rebuilding of the national agriculture extension system, increasing agricultural productivity via improved agricultural techniques and technologies, strengthening market linkages, and providing access to finance. Focused in the western highlands of guatemala, the project works with and through the following key guatemalan institutions: ministry of agriculture, livestock, and food (maga), university of san carlos (usac), university of California davis (uc davis), national coffee association (anacafe), and the biggest credit union federation in guatemala, micoope. The program is supporting maga's national rural extension system (sner) through the development of the caex program, the only academic professional extension training program in guatemala. Since its development, the caex program has certified 420 maga and private sector extension agents. Through its support to agricultural producer groups, to date the program has increased agricultural yields by more than 30%, created 2,946 new jobs, increased program participants' coffee sales to $6.25 million usd, trained 54,384 coffee producers and smallholders on agricultural productivity or food security, conducted 17 trade promotion activities focused on private sector linkages, and supported buyers and sellers to sign 58 new contracts. The program has also supported 21 coffee grower associations to gain International certification for production and export of coffee. The program provided additional support to farmers and farmer associates by awarding a total of 191 cash and in-kind grants valued at more than $2.8 million usd. The program has also strengthened smallholder farmers' access to finance by working with micoope to design four loan products. To date, a total of 8,891 loans have been disbursed valued at more than $51.1 million usd. The united states department of agriculture-funded sukaabe janngo ("children of tomorrow") mcgovern-dole International food for education and child nutrition project in senegal (2018-2023) supported in partnership the government of senegal's efforts to improve the quality of student learning by providing nutritious daily school meals in 270 preschools and primary schools; improving literacy skills of school age children through the provision of improved literacy instructional materials; improving school infrastructure and increasing access to clean water and sanitation by rehabilitating latrines and water station systems; and increasing engagement of local organizations and community groups to sustainably manage school canteens. In fy2023, the program has reached 54,805 students, with a total of 82,413 students over the life of the project. The program's distribution of deworming and supplementation has reached 69,839 students with 15,972 students who benefited from vitamin a supplementation in the st. louis region. Overall, the project has provided 25,281,375 school meals to students. This project closed on september 30, 2023.the united states department of agriculture (usda) awarded Counterpart International a cooperative agreement (ffe-685-2021-009-00) to implement a mcgovern-dole International food for education and child nutrition project named sukaabe janngo ii ("children of tomorrow") in senegal (2021-2026) with a focus on two regions (kolda and sedhiou) in the southern part of senegal known as the casamance. This follows the sukaabe janngo i project (2018-2023) that was implemented in the north. Sukaabe janngo ii combines imported and locally procured food items and targets school communities, school-aged children, farmers, pregnant women, and government actors. In fy2023, the project distributed 2,646,811 meals to 64,267 students, held several trainings around literacy, health and nutrition practices, commodity management, and safe food preparation and storage targeting teachers, directors, cooks, school management committee (smc) members, master trainers and health agents. Additionally, tutoring was provided in 45 schools including 25 schools for ared with tutoring classic and 20 schools for imagine with tablets. Sukaabe janngo ii is partnering with local and International organizations including ared, cicodev, imagine, world vision, sesame workshop, and Virginia tech.the united states department of agriculture-funded mcgovern-dole International food for education and child nutrition program entitled the future is ours! In mauritania (2019-2024) assists the government of mauritania (gom) to reduce hunger, improve health, and strengthen the primary education systems in the barkna and gorgol regions. In fy2022 the future is ours! Worked in 209 schools and distributed 16,421,596 school meals to 72,547 students. The project team worked closely with the ministry of national education and the reform of the education system (moe's) technical working group and developed a textbook and teacher guides for first grade in arabic. The moe has since gone on to distribute textbooks and teacher guides nationwide. Counterpart's sustainable exit strategy will support the gom to take charge of some of the 209 school canteens at the end of project using the Counterpart mcgovern-dole implementation strategy. Today the gom has completed distributions to 4,200 students in the brakna region (at non-mcgovern-dole schools), and 45,750 outside of brakna.the usaid International food relief partnership (ifrp) project consists of transporting and distributing harvest lentils blend pro and enov' mum, highly nutritious shelf-stable food products, supporting the government of mauritania (gom) in the fight against malnutrition. This project is implemented by Counterpart International (ci) in collaboration with the ministry of health, local municipalities and community health workers (chws). The project operates in the wilaya of gorgol covering the 5 moughataa including kaedi, maghama, monguel, mbout and lexeiba recently established in moughataa (council of ministers of the mauritanian state of september 8th, 2021). The ifrp project complements the united states department of agriculture (usda) mcgovern-dole International food for education (ffe) and child nutrition project implemented by ci in gorgol and brakna, to further target pregnant and lactating women (plw), and children under 5 (cu5) in critical need of food. This program resulted in significant up-take of behavior change in ensure safe handling of food (98% achievement rate), cooking nutritionally diverse meals (99% achievement rate), washing hands (98% achievement rate) and increasing the number of pregnant women attending doctors' appointments (100% achievement rate). This project saw an additional 96% increase in men's engagement in ensuring children are well nourished at home. This holistic approach to changing behaviors and distribution of shelf stable foods with critical nutrients to plw and cu5 was a great success having reached 3,785 plw and 3,180 cu5 across 86 communities.the united states department of agriculture-funded mcgovern-dole International food for education and child nutrition program entitled "our bright future! (nosso futuro brilhante!)" (2020-2025) in mozambique supports the government of mozambique's efforts to improve the quality of student learning by: providing 67,534 students with nutritious daily school meals in 249 preschools and primary schools; improving literacy skills of school age children through the provision of improved literacy instructional materials; improving school infrastructure and increasing access to clean water and sanitation by rehabilitating latrines and water station systems; increasing engagement of local organizations and community groups to sustainably manage school canteens; and increasing the capacity of the national school feeding program--projecto de alimentacao escolar (pronae)--to locally procure and provide oversight of a diversified food basket in school feeding programs.

Peace and security: civil society strengthening, community development, and good and transparent governance are critical to building states that deliver for their citizens and promote long-term peace. Local organizations working in partnership with governments build inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities in which people thrive. (description continued on schedule o) the rights and dignity project in el salvador is a usaid-funded, eight-year initiative (2017-2025) to strengthen governmental and non-governmental human rights protection systems, resulting in a more tolerant, just, and equitable el salvador. Counterpart implements rights and dignity in collaboration with two local partners-- partners el salvador and contextos. During fy2023, the project continued strengthening salvadoran civil society organizations as they pursue human rights objectives, including by awarding two traditional organizational capacity development (ocd) sub-grants, as well as a cascade model ocd sub-grant aimed at strengthening the capacity of more nascent organizations through mentorship by a more mature local organization. In addition, the project issued a sub-grant to a leading human rights organization (hro) to monitor and report on the state of implementation of the human rights and youth policies that the national civilian police (pnc - policia nacional civil) adopted with project support in previous years. Project activities also continued consolidating the growing capacity of hros to document human rights violations through partnering with two local organizations to complete its final sessions of the bootcamp "documenting, connecting, and advocating: public security and human rights in physical and virtual spaces," as well as through helping create and advance this group's community of practice. Meanwhile, the project supported the national observatory for human rights' (nohr) special investigation: "the disappearance of persons in el salvador: the continuum of impunity," which explores the magnitude of the phenomenon of disappeared persons in el salvador, highlighting the lack of justice and response from state institutions in many cases and making recommendations. On the government side, the project continued working with key governmental partners such as the human rights ombudsman's office (pddh - procuraduria para la defensa de los derechos humanos) and the public defender's office (pgr procuraduria general de la republica), including supporting the consolidation of the pddh's specialized victims' unit, and both the pddh and the pgr received assistance in strengthening their educational divisions through consultancies that have improved the platforms and content for staff's continuing education. Finally, the project advanced in its educational efforts, particularly around inclusion and empowerment of communities in situations of vulnerability. Notably, the manuel escalante training program was launched in partnership with "jose simeon canas" central american university (uca-- universidad centroamericana jose simeon canas), aimed to further elevate the advocacy efforts of experienced human rights professionals. The project also helped amplify the efforts of media actors and social influencers through trainings to improve their strategic communications skills, understanding of human rights issues, and ability to translate data into actionable messages. The strength in diversity project in el salvador directly responds to the need to strengthen the salvadoran lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (lgbtqi+) movement's ability to more effectively and collectively express, communicate, and defend the common human rights interests of the salvadoran lgbtqi+ population. In fy 2023, the project supported lgbtqi+ organizations to continue the collaborative advocacy space, including providing training and accompaniment to develop the space's security plan and facilitating exchanges with relevant government partners. Via its advocacy fund, the project supported lgbtqi+ organizations to implement key interventions of the space's inclusive advocacy agenda. In addition, the project awarded five sub-grants to support lgbtqi+ advocacy priorities (e.g. Promoting lgbtqi+ employment rights, enhancing visibility and understanding of certain groups, and disseminating information on services and safe spaces available to lgbtqi+ people), as well as an organizational capacity development (ocd) sub-grant to an lgbtqi+ organization to implement its ocd action plan. The us department of state bureau of democracy, rights, and labor-funded "kagalo: empowered women for change" (september 2019-march 2023) in niger and burkina faso, aimed to improve the quantity and quality of women's participation in political and decision-making processes in both host countries. Kagalo's mutually reinforcing objectives to strengthen women's political participation were: (1) improve women's readiness for and participation as leaders in the democratic development of niger and burkina faso; and (2) increase women's participation in decision-making processes at the local and national levels. The project ensured that women engaged in meaningful opportunities to define and promote issues important to them. Kagalo also engaged stakeholders at the national level to champion the inclusion of women in political parties and policymaking and to support the implementation of the national action plan 2 on women, peace, and security. In collaboration with local ngos, Counterpart organized multi-stakeholder dialogues (msds) to discuss women's integration into politics and security. The msds offered kagalo women the opportunity to discuss important policy priorities and issues affecting women with key authorities and government stakeholders. Discussion topics ranged from women's roles in peacebuilding in unstable security environments to women's engagement in political culture and electoral politics in their respective countries. After the completion of the msds, the kagalo project trained women who intended to run for any level of public office or intended to be more active in the electoral process as a supporter or champion of specific candidates or policies. During a learning event held in niamey, niger, in january 2023, participants noted significant improvements in leadership and participation for kagalo women during local council meetings, as well as an increase in the level of consideration for women's priorities and gender-sensitive budgeting in the communal and regional development planning process. By popularizing the united nation agenda 1325 and the national action plan 2, the team also improved participants and officials' understanding of women's rights and autonomy in niger and burkina faso. The us department of state africa bureau-funded police de proximite a diffa "nallewaro" program (september 2020-october 2022) in niger aimed to improve trust and strengthen communication between the local population, community stakeholders, and civilian security forces in diffa, at the heart of the boko haram-afflicted lake chad region. The nallewaro project provided the first structured opportunity for diffa's communities and law enforcement institutions to exchange views on the collective security needs of their communes, through regular multi-stakeholder dialogues (msds), community events, radio roundtable dialogues, and nallewaro network meetings involving community members and law enforcement personnel. The nallewaro project created 11 nallewaro networks for more effective and organized community policing that involved 90 members and held a total of 20 monthly meetings (four in each of the five communes). The nallewaro project also organized five pre-msds in each of the program communes, as well as a multi-stakeholder dialogue on a regional level, with all relevant stakeholders, including elected representatives, ministry bureaucrats, women's organizations, youth organizations, local law enforcement, national guard personnel, civilian watch committees (cvcs), and traditional and religious authorities. The nallewaro project selected 15 small grants recipients from the nigerien ngo community and supported them to implement activities relating to communal conflict prevention, trust development between youth and law enforcement, and awareness raising on the social consequences of violent extremism. A total of radio 20 episodes were developed and broadcasted in hausa and kanuri in the five communes, while the total broadcast of the episodes was a total of 240 times. The nallewaro project developed and collected everyday peace indicators (epi); this tool regularly measured sentiments on security issues across five different axes, including comfortability with security forces and economic security.

Democracy, rights and governance: delivery of fair and equitable citizen services requires government responsiveness and accountability, as well as resilient civil society organizations with the know-how to mobilize citizens and effectively engage with government to promote and sustain progress. (description continued on schedule o) since april 2018, the promoting advocacy and rights (par) program in bangladesh, a 6.5-year usaid and fcdo funded activity, has supported strengthening the enabling environment for civil society to advance democratic governance and citizen participation. Par has built core organizational capacity, advocacy skills, and technical capabilities for bangladeshi civil society organizations (csos), while also fostering opportunities for them to productively engage local government officials. Par provides grants for local csos to undertake activities which increase community awareness about civic rights and responsibilities, strengthen community mobilization efforts to include historically marginalized populations, and establish openings for public sector engagement, whereby local and national government officials have publicly committed to working in greater partnership with civil society--a marked change in a closing civic space. Upon the program's extension in fy23, six sub-awards were re-issued to local organizations to advance citizen identified priorities such as on environmental pollution, unplanned urbanization, and the marginalization of dalit and cobbler communities. Sub-grantees produced evidence-based policy papers in collaboration with government stakeholders and, following technical support from Counterpart, began applying "thinking and working politically" principles in their cross-sectoral engagement gearing up to the highly fraught january 2024 elections. For example, the International center for not-for-profit law (icnl) developed a policy paper to the 2023 cyber security act, draft 2023 personal data protection act, and the 2023 income tax act and their impact on civil society, while the five other grantees began strengthening coalitions to advocate jointly and compel candidates to prioritize key issues in their election platforms. Shushilan's multi-stakeholder working committee in particular developed plans for monitoring frameworks and the introduction of model wards in the city of khulna to incentivize greater mayoral candidate engagement in the allocation of public resources to unplanned communities. In addition, water keepers bangladesh (wkb) continued its practice of holding "river talkies and other innovative outreach and awareness-raising activities to engage citizens and officials on water pollution issues without these appearing "politicized and threatening to government representatives. The practice has become so popular that other actors have expressed interest in replicating the model in their own activities. The par program also engaged Counterpart's women's leadership institute (wli) to design and deliver two training sessions on gender and social inclusion for the par bangladesh project partners. In fy23, Counterpart continued implementing a new program in ecuador, new partnerships in open government program (npog), funded by usaid (2022-2024). The aim of this program is to support both the government of ecuador (goe) and ecuadorean civil society organizations (csos) in the co-creation and implementation of the open government partnership (ogp) national action plan (nap). The open government partnership is intended to increase knowledge of principles and concepts of transparency and accountability amongst goe and cso representatives in ecuador, as well as to increase citizen and civil society participation in governance through the co-creation process, from which reforms selected by the goe are then implemented in strategic policy areas. In fy2023, npog supported civil society and government entities to implement and monitor the execution of several commitments of ecuador's second open government national action plan; promoted transparency and open government initiatives at the local level, including developing a local open government manual; and continued engaging the private sector to participate in open government processes. In addition, the project launched the monitoring report of the implementation of ecuador's first ogp nap and delivered a training to enhance public officials' monitoring and evaluation capacities for future nap monitoring. Npog also delivered a training course in open government and open state for public officials, which will position them to support the inclusive co-creation and successful implementation of future naps in ecuador and convened a dialogue with private sector representatives to discuss security challenges in the country. Additionally, Counterpart supported local organizations to carry out key activities to promote democratic governance and transparency, such as a workshop on artificial intelligence and open government for women leaders and investigations and communications for informed voting in the lead up to the august 2023 snap elections. In burundi, the turi kumwe ("we are together") project (august 2020 to may 2023) increased burundian youth engagement in peacebuilding and improved economic opportunities through increasing youth-led peacebuilding and violence prevention interventions and enhancing youth access to finance and economic opportunities. Turi kumwe focused on two objectives: 1) increase youth-led peacebuilding and violence prevention and 2) enhance youth access to finance and economic opportunities. Turi kumwe set up 62 new village savings and loans associations (vsla). The vslas were the backbone of the project and afforded youth access to the skills, capital, and confidence building required to set up and manage small businesses. In all, 1,326 youth participated in savings and loans activities and received training in soft skills and entrepreneurship. Turi kumwe also facilitated the issuance of microcredit loans from jjb-twiyunge microfinance to 94 projects worth a total of 31,550,000 bif (usd 14,962) in support of youth's economic initiatives and coached recipients of those loans. The team organized 12 business plan competitions to promote youth's innovative ideas, selecting 78 groups to receive a total of 90,127,563 bif (usd 42,741) in funding and coaching recipients for the start-up of micro-businesses. In addition, the project facilitated 12 multi-stakeholder dialogue sessions with 333 participants to discuss key topics, including youth unemployment, tensions between cattle keepers and farmers, a lack of accountability culture to help communities find a resolution or a way forward. Turi kumwe also organized six inter-communal peer learning and exchange sessions between youth vsla members to discuss peace and entrepreneurship initiatives and produced and broadcasted four short radio shows about youth entrepreneurship and inclusivity. Results from the program's final evaluation revealed 97% of respondents agreed that turi kumwe increased beneficiaries' participation in community governance and local peacebuilding; 92.3% agreed that turi kumwe strengthened women's leadership and community participation; 96.5% agreed that turi kumwe contributed to strengthening social cohesion and reconciliation; 88.9% of respondents believed that p2p initiatives served communities equally and supported peace dynamics in the community; and 88.7% of young participants reported having established positive networks through the project. In fy 2023, Counterpart continued implementing the usaid-funded resilient governance in niger (rgn) activity (march 2021-march 2026, $25 million). Rgn aims to improve social cohesion in niger by improving the performance of 26 communes in the regions of zinder, maradi, tillaberi and dosso, strengthening inter-governmental coordination, and promoting citizen engagement in local affairs. In june 2023, Counterpart secured an additional $5.5 million from the complex crisis fund to support communes with the prevention and management of crises from july 1, 2023, to december 31, 2024. Rgn has continued to support local government officials in place before the government coup of july 26, 2026. (per usaid's guidance, Counterpart does not collaborate with junta or military officials under the program.) Rgn trained 540 local actors including elected officials, decentralization technical services representatives, prefects, cso and traditional leaders, as well as youth and female representatives on understanding their roles and responsibilities within the country's decentralization framework. As a result, elected officials increased their understanding of statutory, legal, operational, and ethical requirements, as well as improved their capacity to conduct day-to-day business effectively and collaborate with the population.

Women's leadership: achieving a brighter future for all requires investing in women as leaders, role models, and decision-makers. Training, capacity building, mentorship, and networking enable women leaders of non-profit organizations and social enterprises to bring a multiplier effect to their own organizations and to realize broader development goals. The women lead institute (wli) works to fuel greater representation of women in leadership positions across different sectors in the united states and worldwide. During this reporting period, wli conducted the following activities: gwim: wli's flagship program gwim, is funded by the exxonmobil foundation and strengthens women's management, leadership, and technical skills to enhance and expand programs that advance women's opportunities. Gwim is designed for women leaders and managers from local ngos, business associations, social enterprises, cooperatives, and community-based organizations that provide women with 1) skills to start or grow a business, 2) income-generating skills and access to markets, 3) access to financial and material resources for business development, and/or 4) employment opportunities. Under this exxonmobil foundation grant, wli implemented in-person and virtual training programs and alumnae activities which included online networking sessions, training on economic advancement and gender mainstreaming, and the gwim coaching program. This year wli also launched its in-person gwim training program for two weeks in september, bringing together 17 accomplished women leaders from 14 countries to be trained in business and leadership skills. The women participated in daily training, at Counterpart's Washington, d.c., office focused on gender and social inclusion, personal leadership and confidence, project design and management, and financial management and sustainability. Women self care- skill building program: this activity was designed for ukrainian women refugees in romania as an immediate and targeted plan to address critical issues. This project aims to equip women with skills, improve their mental health, assist them in becoming more resilient and enhance their skills to enter the job market. The project has two main objectives 1) to provide mental health training to support women cope with hardship, loss, and stress and 2) to build a community, for integration support and networking opportunities that can increase employment opportunities. In fy23, wli continued the implementation of this project and trained ukrainian refugee women living in romania. The project is equipping ukrainian women with leadership and employment skills, improving their mental health, and assisting them in becoming more resilient. Wli trained 45 women in mental health training to support them in coping with hardship, loss, and stress. Furthermore, wli created a community of practice for ukrainian women to support each other and provide peer support. This community of practice was able to reach to larger ukrainian community in romania and help each other to find jobs. Wli conducted an in-person event in bucharest, romania to showcase its commitment to advancing and investing in ukrainian women refugees through this program. The event was put on to celebrate program graduate's achievements and provide an environment to network. Attendees of the event included the graduates, government officials, and other organizations who have supported or could support, the graduates. The graduation ceremony included remarks by key government officials and support organizations, as well as a sharing of a program graduate's motivational story. Economic advancement workshop: wli designed an economic advancement course for surinamese women entrepreneurs. During this reporting period, the team announced the program and designed an application for potential participants to apply. The team has received more than 50 applications to attend the workshop.

Climate resiliency: development challenges around the world are made worse by the impacts of climate change. Mitigating the impacts of climate change through effective natural resource management can help combat poverty, while protecting the livelihoods of those living in coastal and inland communities. The coastal climate resiliency program (ccrp), funded by the frohring foundation, strengthens the resiliency of coastal communities in the dominican republic through integrated strategies at the intersection of education, science, community development, youth empowerment, and national policy. With support provided by the program, dominican and International partners improve the livelihoods of coastal populations while restoring and enhancing coastal marine ecosystems. The overarching goal is to reduce local pressures on biodiversity in coastal and marine ecosystems, while minimizing economic and cultural disruption to the communities that depend on those ecosystems. In 2023, ccrp was able to fully transition from the covid-19 period, which had placed significant restrictions on conducting hands-on education and facilitating collaboration between participating schools, Counterpart, lsi, and the four partner dominican environmental ngos-- agrofrontera, fundemar, cebse, and punta cana foundation. Each of the partners was able to operate without covid-related restrictions, resulting in students benefiting from ccrp's environmental education, including engaging with 1200 students from public schools. The celebration of deep day on october 14 at one of the new partner schools, conexus, was a powerful and edifying demonstration of the value that hundreds of participating students, dominican environmental organizations, and the ministry of environment place on participating in ccrp. Through its small grants program, Counterpart International supported local partners across the dr to provide internship programs, International learning exchanges, and on-the-job training for youth. Ccrp also engaged the government of the dominican republic's ministries of education and environment to further integrate environmental planning, education and job opportunities into the legal, regulatory and budget framework.