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Theme: Economic empowerment

Just because they care: developing the capacity of family carers to advocate for their rights

Posted on by Victoria Nicholson

Family carers are an invisible force who care day in, day out for sick or disabled loved ones, without receiving payment and with little chance of respite. The effects of caring on the physical and mental health of carers can be devastating. Carers often face loss of employment, missed education opportunities, and social isolation due to their caring responsibilities.

Carers’ needs have traditionally been neglected by Governments, NGOs and other agencies in low and middle income countries. Since 2012 we have been working in The Global South to improve the lives of carers and to advocate for official recognition of the important role they play in society. Our vision is a world in which the needs of every carer – physical, emotional, economic and social – are routinely met. We want to achieve this through building strong partnerships with our carers, their families and wider communities, as well as with local, national and international NGOs, Governments and academics.

‘Our holistic “Carers Worldwide Model” […] is designed to create systemic changes for carers’

In 2014 we received funding from the Commonwealth Foundation to implement a three year project promoting the recognition and inclusion of carers in three states of India: Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Working with three local partners in India, this project focused on developing the capacity of carers and ensuring carer-specific services were developed to lessen the burden of caring. This involved disseminating our holistic ‘Carers Worldwide Model’ which is designed to create systemic changes for carers. The model comprises carers’ support groups; access to health services; respite and short breaks; access to employment, training and education; and advocacy activities. Our model is successful because it addresses the needs of carers at all levels – emotionally, physically, mentally and economically and encourages carers to advocate for themselves.

The results of the project exceeded expectations. A total of 1,963 carers as well as 2,012 care recipients and approximately 9,800 additional family members benefited. The benefits obtained by the carers included the establishment of new livelihood activities, access to medical and counselling services, and being provided with respite breaks. As a result of their advocacy activities, 90% of the carers involved in the project are now also accessing government or other NGO programmes and schemes. Such schemes include the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act – an employment guarantee scheme for the rural poor from which carers were previously excluded. As a result of the project 431 carers are now accessing employment through this Act.

Caregiver support groups To reduce loneliness and isolation, create social networks and support emotional wellbeing
Health services To provide access to physical and mental health services, including locally available counselling services
Respite and short breaks To offer a break from caring responsibilities along with the development of alternative high-quality care options such as day care centres
Employment, training and education To facilitate access to employment, training or education, tailored as appropriate to co-exist with caring responsibilities
Recognition To strengthen the collective voice of caregivers to advocate for their needs and the provision they require at community, regional and national level, leading to changes in policy and practice

To increase impact at a district level, 148 village level carers groups were federated into three Carers Associations, one in each of the three project states. Each Carers Association is comprised of carer representatives who have been elected by the village level carers groups. The Associations meet quarterly to formulate responses to issues raised in the village groups, plan engagement with government officials and other stakeholders, and to organise events at district level. Government officials are now recognising the individual and collective needs of carers. For example, the Commissioner of Disability for the Government of Karnataka announced in 2018 a 100% commitment to supporting carers and scaling-up the work of our project across the state.

A district level carer group meet in Jharkhand

Last year we received further funding from the Commonwealth Foundation to develop a new project that will upscale and complement the previously funded project in India. We intend to make use of existing partnership operations, carers groups, and Carers Association networks and increase the reach we have in India. Key priorities include:

  • Implementing services at a local level that directly support carers, and ensuring the services become enshrined in policy
  • Designing an approach to engagement that is capable of influencing local, state and national level policy, immediately enriching our plans not only for our work in India but also further afield in Bangladesh, and informing our longer-term South Asia strategy

Leveraging the infrastructure and capacity created by our work to date, we feel that the project is positioned to capture and capitalise on the momentum already created at village and district level, and achieve significant steps towards establishing a robust civil society movement, able to petition for the recognition of the human rights of Indian carers. Through increasing momentum, we intend that this project will enhance the capacity of the Carers Associations and help sustain the representation of the population of carers overtime. Ultimately, we anticipate that this new funding will support the project’s transition from a grassroots carers initiative, to a robust movement of civic society poised to achieve the aims of a global strategy to reach 100,000 carers and their family members by the end of 2019.

To find out more about this current project and to learn about our other work, please visit our website and our Facebook page today.

Victoria Nicholson is a Communications Officer at Carers Worldwide.

Blue economy conference: reflections

Posted on by Renwick Rose

What role is there for the literal ‘salt of the earth’ – fisherfolk, farmers, and the endangered people living on islands and along low-lying coastlines of developing countries – in the push towards a ‘Blue Economy’?

That was the big question facing representatives of those sectors as they arrived in Nairobi at the end of November 2018 for a grand international conference on the theme ‘The Blue Economy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. It was a highly relevant topic given the present state of affairs in the world today and, in particular, the challenges facing developing countries.

‘The most urgent questions are: how do we understand and interpret what “Blue Economy” means to us, our development and sustainability?’

Unfortunately, in spite of intensive discussions at the conference, the major questions seem to remain unanswered and without a consensus as far as government to civil society relations are concerned. The conference itself was organised in such a manner as to virtually prevent a consensus from emerging. The civil society delegates were for the better part of the conference confined to ‘side event’ silos, so common in official international gatherings, and there was little space or opportunity for the results of their rich discussions to be fed into official conclusions.

The Caribbean was represented both at the official and popular sector levels and I was honoured to have been part of a Caribbean delegation supported by the Commonwealth Foundation. The composition of the delegation provided for input from sectors of Caribbean society that were highly relevant to the theme and content, including fisherfolk, farmers, women, and environmentalists. It was a pity though that there was not greater governmental presence and that there was insufficient interaction between these two critical elements of Caribbean society.

Yet the issues are critically important to our people and require more active participation from countries like ours which are on the front line of climate change challenges.  For us, ‘Blue’, whether sea or skies, is a far greater expanse than ‘Green’, the concept to which we have been historically linked. The most urgent questions are: how do we understand and interpret what ‘Blue Economy’ means to us, our development and sustainability?

How do we identify ‘our’ resources and how do we work with them? How do we prevent the plundering and pillage of our marine resources? How do we collaborate to arrest and prevent the plundering and pillage of such resources as has occurred on ‘green’ Mother Earth?

‘For us, “Blue”, whether sea or skies, is a far greater expanse than “Green”, the concept to which we have been historically linked’

For countries such as ours in the Caribbean and those in the Pacific, these matters are crucial to our survival if a mockery is not to be made of the touted ‘Blue Economy’. Critical and practical ideas were advanced by civil society representatives during the ‘side events’ of the conference, including those from the Caribbean. These included:

  • The essential role of fisherfolk in the process. They depend on marine resources for their livelihood and are crucial to the economies of small developing countries. The conference did not seem to recognise this
  • Continued interactions between government and civil society in formulating policies and programmes for the Blue Economy
  • The treatment of Blue Economy issues as integral to the development process in such countries
  • The absorption of the lessons from unrestrained pillage of land-based resources, so as not to repeat the mistakes and ensure the sustainability of Blue Economy approaches

Finally, thanks to the Commonwealth Foundation for the opportunity afforded and an appeal to those Caribbean participants not to drop the baton but to deepen our exchanges and interaction in the common cause.

Renwick Rose is coordinator and CEO of the Windward Islands Farmers Association. 

Editor’s note: other delegates to the Blue Economy conference, whose attendance was also funded by the Commonwealth Foundation, have shared their thoughts in the following places online:

Mitchell Lay, Program Program Coordinator Caribbean Network of Fisherfolk Organisations

Nicole Leotaud, Director, Caribbean Natural Resources Institute

Commonwealth insights: inclusive governance

The Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF) is a biennial event held prior to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. CPF 2018 took place on 16-18 April in London and was jointly organised by the Government of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Foundation. CPF 2018 critically explored policy based actions under the theme of ‘Inclusive Governance: The Challenge for a Contemporary Commonwealth’. It provided an innovative opportunity for civil society organisations to share knowledge and learn from each other as well as to interact with governance institutions on key policy issues. The CPF 2018 series elaborates on the issues covered in the London Declaration on Inclusive Governance for a Renewed Commonwealth.

For a more detailed analysis of some of the issues and strategies discussed at CPF 2018 and covered in this brief, readers should refer to the Commonwealth insights: inclusive governance series.

Download Commonwealth insights: inclusive governance

Commonwealth insights: inclusive governance series

These papers draw on discussions had at the Commonwealth People’s Forum 2018 and share the strategies employed by civil society across the Commonwealth to achieve specific policy goals.

Topics include legislative reform, re-imagining migration, and inclusion of persons with disabilities.

The Commonwealth Foundation encourages the use, translation, adaptation and copying of this material for non-commercial use. We only ask that appropriate credit be given to the Commonwealth Foundation.

Commonwealth People’s Forum 2018

The Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF) is a biennial event held prior to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. CPF 2018 took place on 16-18 April in London and was jointly organised by the Government of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Foundation. CPF 2018 critically explored policy based actions under the theme of ‘Inclusive Governance: The Challenge for a Contemporary Commonwealth’. It provided an innovative opportunity for civil society organisations to share knowledge and learn from each other as well as to interact with governance institutions on key policy issues. The CPF 2018 series elaborates on the issues covered in the London Declaration on Inclusive Governance for a Renewed Commonwealth.

Download CPF 2018 London declaration and call to action Download Commonwealth insights: universal health coverage Download Commonwealth insights: legislative reform Download Commonwealth insights: inclusion of persons with disabilities Download Commonwealth insights: reimagining migration Download Commonwealth insights: climate justice Download Commonwealth insights: women negotiating peace Download Commonwealth insights: inclusive governance

Waste pickers discussed on the John Maythem show

Posted on by Commonwealth Foundation

Recycling in Johannesburg has become compulsory as of last year due to persisting landfill issues. However, the new separation at the source initiative is threatening the livelihoods of thousands of informal waste pickers, whose contribution has gone unrecognised.

Listen to John Maytham’s discussion below on the impact this is having on the income of waste pickers.

India’s transformation to a cashless society: what does this mean for the financial inclusion of refugees?

Posted on by Aman

The Ara Trust is a women-led organisation that seeks to use innovative methods to expand the space available for forced migrants and refugees in India. Aman, Financial Consultant at The Ara Trust, discusses the transformation of India into a cashless society and the access of refugees to financial services.

With over 200,000 asylum-seekers and refugees, India is at the heart of refugee movements in the South-Asian region. As per the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the majority are from Tibet, Sri Lanka, and neighboring countries other than Myanmar, and are issued documentation directly by the Indian Government. The others, such as those from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Somalia and DRC, are supported and issued documentation by the UNHCR. Despite these numbers, refugees, particularly the ones under the UNHCR mandate,  encounter difficulties in accessing the formal labour market due to ambiguity around their legal status. As a result, this has led to them encounter difficulties in accessing mainstream systems, including financial services.

India: Aadhaar and Financial Inclusion for refugees from Migration & Asylum Project on Vimeo.

Our project, conceived by The Ara Trust under its Migration and Asylum Project (M.A.P), aims to assist in the integration of refugees into the financial system, particularly after the move, by the Indian government’s November 2018 demonetization policy. The policy sought to remove existing 500 rupee and 1000 rupee notes from circulation, rendering them illegal.  As per the Government, besides targeting black-money, this was also a step towards achieving complete financial inclusion by transforming India into a cashless economy. Every individual would need a bank account, thereby eliminating the underground economy.  With no access to banking services because of the lack of identity documents, cash savings that were rendered worthless, and the difficulty in acquiring the new currency – the impact of the policy was severely felt by the country’s refugee population . The project, thus, focuses on refugees, especially women refugees, who work in the informal sector and earn their income exclusively in cash.

Aadhaar, the government-issued biometric identification card has been designated as an almost-indispensable proof of legal residence, and as a core tool of the government’s drive for socio-economic inclusion. Over the past 9-months of the initial project implementation, it has emerged that those who lack access to Aadhaar, including refugees, are unable to access financial services (including bank accounts) and find themselves excluded from the economy and relegated further to the margins. The Aadhaar Act is not linked to citizenship, and states that anyone residing in India for at least 6 of the 12 months preceding the date of application is eligible to enrol if they furnish proof of identity and address from a  wide range of options available. It should follow that refugees are issued Aadhaar if they meet the residence and the documentation requirements. However, many refugees report that they have been turned away by Aadhaar centres. To add to this, many have not applied for Aadhaar due to the fear of being wrongly prosecuted, as local authorities often incorrectly equate them with illegal immigrants.

‘The project, thus, focuses on refugees, especially women refugees, who work in the informal sector and earn their income exclusively in cash.’

The lack of Aadhaar has paralyzed refugees. Post-demonetization, employers are reluctant to pay wages in cash; thus, even refugees with professional qualifications are confined to the informal sector as daily-wage laborers because of the lack of bank accounts.  Aadhaar is also being increasingly enforced as a precondition to access many services that they could once avail – such as education and healthcare. Further, many refugees report facing day-to-day difficulties like getting a SIM card, leasing accommodation, or receiving money transfers from outside India. This is resulting in refugees being steadily excluded from mainstream systems and leaving them extremely vulnerable to exploitation.

At M.A.P, we carried out a pilot study to assess the roadblocks refugees face in enrolling for Aadhaar. We discovered that most enrolment centres were not clear about whether refugees were eligible, and refugees reported that they were turned away by centres due to the lack of clarity on their legal status. Further to this, we observed that their documents were also not recognised as valid proof of identity or residence; it did not help that these refugees presented varying sets of documentation (stay visas issued by the government, others their UNHCR-issued refugee cards, yet others with their national passports or rent agreements).

Above: Members of The Ara Trust with colleagues from the Commonwealth Foundation.

The requirement of Aadhaar for accessing essential services has been challenged before the Indian Supreme Court, and its decision is pending. However, for now, we acknowledge that Aadhaar is indispensable in allowing refugees to access essential services, and, in turn, integrate them into the mainstream economy. We at M.A.P therefore, find it necessary at this stage to sensitize and seek clarity from the relevant authorities, so that standardized guidance can be issued to include refugees within the purview of Aadhaar and consequently ensure their socio-economic inclusion.

Aman is a Legal Consultant for Ara Trust. 

Fin 24 reports on waste pickers project

Posted on by Commonwealth Foundation

Informal waste pickers in South Africa have been committed to improving the environment as well as their livelihoods. Waste pickers make an income by combing through waste and selling recyclables from cardboard and plastic bottles to metal, providing a useful service for thier communities.

Fin 24 reports that ‘now they are fighting, not only for recognition, but also for assistance to end their dependence on a series of “middlemen” companies that buy salvaged material to sell on to large corporations.’

Read Fin 24’s report on the waste pickers’ struggle for recognition here.

 

Frank Ferro reports on waste pickers for the South African Broadcasting Coporation

Posted on by Commonwealth Foundation

The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s segment documents the impact of privatisation of recycling on the waste picker community in South Africa and provides an illuminating discussion on how the waste picker community are treated in society.

 

Enhancing localisation of the Papua New Guinea informal economy act

Issue

In Papua New Guinea, the informal economy is central to the livelihoods of approximately 80 to 85% of the population. The informal economy revolves around women’s food production, distribution and trade, and street trading. Since early 2000s, the Papua New Guinea government has made efforts to develop laws and policies for the promotion and protection of the informal economy. The Informal Sector Development and Control Act 2004 opened the doors to legalise informal trade by facilitating and encouraging the development of informal businesses in urban and rural areas. However, challenges in implementing laws and policies at provincial and local government level have resulted in vendors, who are mostly women, sometimes working in unsafe and unhealthy environments.

Project

PPPA, alongside partner organisations, is using a comprehensive approach to improve conditions for informal vendors. They are strengthening the capacity of the vendors to better understand the relevant laws and policies and to be able to plan, organise and advocate with local governments, and strengthening the knowledge of provincial and local governments on relevant laws and policies, as well as facilitating gender sensitising and social inclusion trainings. Meetings are being facilitated between the vendors, their organisations, local government and key stakeholders on the collection, analysis and the use of data in support of enhanced planning. The scheme is also piloting a new model of participatory governance, in local informal economy development, through the development of a business case that can be scaled up for replication by provincial and national governments.

At the end of the project, it is expected that East Sepik and Jiwaka provinces will be more committed to effective local implementation of the relevant laws and policies, with informal vendors benefitting from a safer and more conducive working environment.

Photo Credit: HELP Resources

Pacific People’s Partnership Association

Pacific People’s Partnership Association (PPPA), has been working in the South Pacific region for over forty years mainly in the areas of peace building, environmental sustainability, social justice and community development. PPPA is currently focused on promoting climate resilience and gender equity in South Pacific communities, and on facilitating knowledge exchange between Pacific Islanders and the Indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand and Canada. www.ckc.victoriafoundation.bc.ca/org/pacific-peoples-partnership-association

HELP Resources

HELP Resources, established 1999, has experience of working on human rights, gender equality and social development. HELP Resources has served as a partner working on projects with PPPA, for more than a decade particularly in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. In the past, HELP Resources has been supported by UNICEF, UNDP, DFAT Australia and New Zealand Aid.

Voice for Change

Voice for Change, established in 2003, has grown from a small NGO working with rural women famers to become a provincial NGO working on advocacy, women’s empowerment and gender based violence. VFC has been successful in mobilising men and women in a major campaign to against violent conflict and violence against women. VFC has received funding support from Global Fund for Women, OXFAM PNG, and the UN Global Trust Fund.

Australia Volunteers International

Australia Volunteers International, is an Australian not-for-profit organisation committed to achieving economic and social development outcomes by connecting people to share experience and knowledge. They have experience of providing technical assistance to local NGOs in Papua New Guinea and are able to contribute to bring about economic, social and environmental change for communities.