UPDATE: The SAHED Foundation in Colombia has successfully begun implementing their WASH programme to of diseases for vulnerable families affected by the armed conflict and lack of access to health". In the districts of Chocó and Antioquia, communities have been affected by floods, displacement and armed conflict. The project provides workshops on hygiene, deploys health brigades , provides water filters and conducts water quality analysis water. This project has been carried out with the support of company of local leaders, community councils and indigenous councils.
A child utilising a hygiene kit provided by the SAHED Foundation project
NEAR recently had the pleasure of meeting with the team from SAHED Foundation, a NEAR member and Change Fund grantee in Colombia, to hear about the complexities of their context as well as the contribution they are able to make to communities most in need.
Jorge Cardenas (Director): Working with the Change Fund was a really different experience, because we usually work with UN agencies and NGOs as intermediaries, not direct implementers.
We are using this grant to implement projects in communities of two areas, Antioquia and El Chocó, which are quite isolated and to where people have been displaced by floods and political violence. This is a complex problem because it is a combination of several decades of internal conflict and the results of repeated natural disasters.
At present we are the only ones implementing in that area, and we are working on water, sanitation and hygiene, education, public health, social support, on protection issues such as gender-based violence and psychosocial support.
Our experience of the Change Fund application and granting process was positive because the format and process was simple. Sometimes we apply to UN funds like Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which is very complicated and time consuming, we have applied to them twice and never been successful. The only real challenge we had with the Change Fund was a delay receiving the funds transfer, but that was because of delays caused by the banking systems in Kenya and Colombia.
The Change Fund is clearly the easiest funding process I have experienced over the years.
It is a good example that we need to document, because not only was it a learning process for us, but it also helped to show that we have the strong capacity to run such projects.
Actually, we first heard about localisation from NEAR. We need to build up local NGOs, so providing overhead costs - as the Change Fund did but most donors don’t - is a good example of building the sustainability of local and national organisations.
Paola Petro (Technical and logistical support): in terms of implementation, we had some difficulties beginning assessments because we could not access certain communities due to insecurity. Of the three municipalities that we identified, only one has access by road, the other two only by river. In several of the communities they did not allow us to take photographs, due to the fear and insecurity in the area, although they did give us the required information.
Yanie Diaz (Monitoring and Evaluation officer): while we understand this is a short-term emergency response, it can take time to show impact in the communities. We would like to ask NEAR to support us with a longer-term monitoring and evaluation project so we can really measure the impact of this response.
Wladimir Mosquera (project coordinator): we are currently finalising our baseline study, while delivering water filters, hygiene kits, psychosocial support and protection assistance for victims of gender-based violence. We have identified a solution to the water supply issue and will work to restore the water infrastructure to provide clean water to the communities.
To be honest, the needs are so vast, and the solutions are so few. Some problems are structural, and some are emergencies, but it seems some emergencies are almost permanent, so that becomes a structural issue too. These types of projects help us boost resilience and generate development.
Yhonattan Mendez Nobles (Project Advisor): when we talk about reimagining a new aid system for the future, there are some areas that are absolutely crucial:
We need funding of overhead running costs to help maintain local NGOs and help them become self-sustaining. We also need capacity building, but not just on technical and administration skills but also advocacy. It is also very important for local and national NGOs to share their methodologies and learn from each other about what works and doesn’t. Possibly the most important change we would like to see in the aid system is longer term funding that allows for projects to make a sustained impact over a number of years.