Developing Support & Organizational Stability - EDUCATION BRIDGE (FALL 2017)

Client Profile

Education Bridge seeks to create flourishing South Sudanese communities through education and peace-building.  As part of this mission, Education Bridge opened its first school, Greenbelt Academy, in Bor, South Sudan, in February 2017. Led by Notre Dame student Majak Anyieth, the Greenbelt Academy currently serves 240 students from Grades 9-10, with plans to double the school population and have grades 9-12 over the next two years. Greenbelt Academy seeks to provide quality secondary education as well as to develop a generation of South Sudanese peacemakers and transformational leaders.

Definition of Opportunity

In order to maintain and develop its services, Education Bridge must develop a sustainable business plan that includes student tuition and fees, as well as raising funds each year to cover its the remainder of its operating and investment costs.  However, because many of Greenbelt Academy students come from extremely low-income backgrounds, there is only a minimal tuition to remove financial barriers to education for students.  Education Bridge needs to develop additional revenue streams, including fundraising is through private donations and institutional grants.

Our challenge currently is that we have an ambitious set of goals, with limited funds and a relatively small support base for donations and grants. We would like to explore how to most efficiently increase our support base for donors and grants.

Initial Ideas & Options

We look forward to working with a team of Notre Dame students to research how other nonprofit organizations, especially those running educational and/or child development programs in the international context, understand and utilize different business and financial sustainability models.

1.     How do the best non-profit organizations engage and retain donors in ways are satisfying for the donor, and time and cost efficient for the organization?

2.     How do they most effectively tell their story and build partnerships with donors and organizations on an active basis that leads to regular donations/investments?

3.     How can Education Bridge draw lessons from these successful organizations, and build a  business model(s) to become more sustainable as an organization? Can Education Bridge collaborate with other partners in South Sudan, the U.S., or other countries?

Definition of Success

The development of a number of good models of sustainable organizations in the educational sector that will be relevant for Education Bridge, and proposals of concrete ideas that Education Bridge can utilize in the coming year as part of its strategic planning process to become a dynamic and sustainable organization.

Development Advisory Team

Recommendation

Attracting Young Professionals To Teach - Enseña Chile (Fall 2017)

Client Profile

Enseña Chile is based on the successful Teach for America model, recognized for creating a critical mass of leaders committed to improving access to excellent education regardless of socio-economic circumstances. The organization works in Chile to provide quality education to 14- to 18-year-old high school students by bringing for two years outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into classrooms of under-resourced schools. Enseña Chile was founded by Tomás Recart in 2007 in Santiago, Chile.  

Definition of Opportunity

Throughout the past few years, Enseña Chile has noticed a rise in the applicant numbers of young professionals who have completed two or more years of work and want to refocus their careers. Despite not having a formal recruitment strategy to address this specific population, early evidence suggest that young professionals with a few years of professional experience are more successful teachers than those who join immediately after graduating from university. While Enseña Chile is primarily focused on recent graduates, this initial evidence has Enseña Chile interested in learning ways to promote, create an interest, attract and select young professionals with work experience.

Initial ideas & Options

·      Assess the current Enseña Chile recruitment strategy for people with professional experience. Analyze existing data regarding socio demographic characteristic of applicants to gather additional insights and understand better their overall profile.

·      Research best practices in organizations with similar missions (both inside and out the educational arena) to understand how to better increase Enseña Chile's young professional applicant base.  One organization worth analyzing is Teach for America in the U.S.

Definition of Success

Identify a strategy to promote, interest, and attract young professionals to Enseña Chile. If successful in the short-term, the organization believes teacher turnover will be reduced and student achievement will improve. Ideally, many of these young professionals will continue to meaningfully fight educational inequality throughout their careers either directly or indirectly as a result of their Enseña Chile experience.

Development Advisory Team

Recommendation

Education in Emergencies (EiE) Research - AVSI (Fall 2016)

Client Profile

Currently operating in 30 countries, AVSI specializes in education, with deep experience in primary education in a wide array of global contexts, including complex and other emergencies. More broadly, AVSI boasts a record of demonstrated efficacy in both development and humanitarianism, including peacebuilding, water and sanitation, health, nutrition, and food security and livelihoods. Formulated over more than 40 years of development practice, the AVSI methodology is informed by Catholic Social Teachings as well as extensive organizational experience.

AVSI established a permanent presence in South Sudan in 2005 after over a decade of implementing cross-border projects from northern Uganda. It first established a field office in Ikwoto County, Eastern Equatoria State (EES), before consolidating its presence in EES with a field office in the state capital, Torit, in 2009. An administrative office in Juba followed in 2011 and a third field office in Cueibet County, Lakes State opened in 2014. In each location, AVSI has followed in the footsteps of the Catholic Church, leasing Diocesan property and, in two field offices, taking over compounds and programming previously managed by the Comboni Missionaries.

Definition of Problem

South Sudan has been a humanitarian emergency since civil war broke out between competing government factions in December 2013. In this moment, AVSI’s mission and portfolio in South Sudan remains heavily focused on long-term development activities. Given the emergency context, including the violence of July, 2016 and the ongoing aftermath, AVSI is seeking to continue improving its development work within a complex operating environment as well as address critical humanitarian needs in its geographic areas of implementation. Currently, AVSI maintains a geographic presence in an area of both chronic and acute food insecurity and high levels of refugee outflow as well as in an area with one of the highest rates of intercommunal violence, including cattle raids and revenge killings, in the country.

AVSI seeks a DAT that is capable of providing intensive background research and critical analysis of primary and secondary data in support of project design, current and future field research, and ongoing project implementation. This may range from addressing more traditional challenges of international development within a humanitarian crisis to supporting active field assessments within a rapidly evolving humanitarian crisis. AVSI seeks a DAT with strong qualitative research skills as well as high degrees of flexibility and independence. Below are three tentative projects under consideration for the DAT. AVSI proposes that the DAT undertake two of the three listed following a discussion between client and DAT.

Initial Ideas and Options

Education in Emergencies (EiE)

1. EiE transition to long-term activities

   1. Case studies – shifting from EiE to long-term education interventions

   2. The use of EiE in slow-onset emergencies (SOE)

   3. How might community institutions related to EiE, such as a Parent-Teacher Associations or School Management Committees, contribute to community-based peacebuilding?

Definition of Success

The team should develop clear, thoughtful, well-organized and actionable research on the relevant themes that will impact AVSI’s practice.

Development Advisory Team 

Final Report

Intercommunal Violence Report - AVSI (Fall 2016)

Client Profile

Currently operating in 30 countries, AVSI specializes in education, with deep experience in primary education in a wide array of global contexts, including complex and other emergencies. More broadly, AVSI boasts a record of demonstrated efficacy in both development and humanitarianism, including peacebuilding, water and sanitation, health, nutrition, and food security and livelihoods. Formulated over more than 40 years of development practice, the AVSI methodology is informed by Catholic Social Teachings as well as extensive organizational experience.

AVSI established a permanent presence in South Sudan in 2005 after over a decade of implementing cross-border projects from northern Uganda. It first established a field office in Ikwoto County, Eastern Equatoria State (EES), before consolidating its presence in EES with a field office in the state capital, Torit, in 2009. An administrative office in Juba followed in 2011 and a third field office in Cueibet County, Lakes State opened in 2014. In each location, AVSI has followed in the footsteps of the Catholic Church, leasing Diocesan property and, in two field offices, taking over compounds and programming previously managed by the Comboni Missionaries. 

Definition of Problem

South Sudan has been a humanitarian emergency since civil war broke out between competing government factions in December 2013. In this moment, AVSI’s mission and portfolio in South Sudan remains heavily focused on long-term development activities. Given the emergency context, including the violence of July, 2016 and the ongoing aftermath, AVSI is seeking to continue improving its development work within a complex operating environment as well as address critical humanitarian needs in its geographic areas of implementation. Currently, AVSI maintains a geographic presence in an area of both chronic and acute food insecurity and high levels of refugee outflow as well as in an area with one of the highest rates of intercommunal violence, including cattle raids and revenge killings, in the country.

AVSI seeks a DAT that is capable of providing intensive background research and critical analysis of primary and secondary data in support of project design, current and future field research, and ongoing project implementation. This may range from addressing more traditional challenges of international development within a humanitarian crisis to supporting active field assessments within a rapidly evolving humanitarian crisis. AVSI seeks a DAT with strong qualitative research skills as well as high degrees of flexibility and independence. Below are three tentative projects under consideration for the DAT. AVSI proposes that the DAT undertake two of the three listed following a discussion between client and DAT.

 Initial Ideas and Options

Intercommunal Violence: Cattle Raiding and Revenge-Killing

1. Stand-alone Report

   1. Literature Review: East African and South Sudanese intercommunal violence with an emphasis on cattle raiding

   2. Case Studies: What has worked and not worked in other countries in terms of reducing the frequency and lethality of raids for cattle and revenge

      1. Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia as possible case studies

   3. Secondary Research to Support Planned Primary Research

      1. The Dinka Gok of Cuiebet County, Lakes State, South Sudan

Definition of Success

The team should develop clear, thoughtful, well-organized and actionable research on the relevant themes that will impact AVSI’s practice.

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

Recommendations in Colombia: Hagámoslo Bien - Spring 2016

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

Absenteeism in Health and Education - AVSI (Fall 2016)

Client Profile

Currently operating in 30 countries, AVSI specializes in education, with deep experience in primary education in a wide array of global contexts, including complex and other emergencies. More broadly, AVSI boasts a record of demonstrated efficacy in both development and humanitarianism, including peacebuilding, water and sanitation, health, nutrition, and food security and livelihoods. Formulated over more than 40 years of development practice, the AVSI methodology is informed by Catholic Social Teachings as well as extensive organizational experience.

AVSI established a permanent presence in South Sudan in 2005 after over a decade of implementing cross-border projects from northern Uganda. It first established a field office in Ikwoto County, Eastern Equatoria State (EES), before consolidating its presence in EES with a field office in the state capital, Torit, in 2009. An administrative office in Juba followed in 2011 and a third field office in Cueibet County, Lakes State opened in 2014. In each location, AVSI has followed in the footsteps of the Catholic Church, leasing Diocesan property and, in two field offices, taking over compounds and programming previously managed by the Comboni Missionaries.

Definition of Problem

South Sudan has been a humanitarian emergency since civil war broke out between competing government factions in December 2013. In this moment, AVSI’s mission and portfolio in South Sudan remains heavily focused on long-term development activities. Given the emergency context, including the violence of July, 2016 and the ongoing aftermath, AVSI is seeking to continue improving its development work within a complex operating environment as well as address critical humanitarian needs in its geographic areas of implementation. Currently, AVSI maintains a geographic presence in an area of both chronic and acute food insecurity and high levels of refugee outflow as well as in an area with one of the highest rates of intercommunal violence, including cattle raids and revenge killings, in the country.

AVSI seeks a DAT that is capable of providing intensive background research and critical analysis of primary and secondary data in support of project design, current and future field research, and ongoing project implementation. This may range from addressing more traditional challenges of international development within a humanitarian crisis to supporting active field assessments within a rapidly evolving humanitarian crisis. AVSI seeks a DAT with strong qualitative research skills as well as high degrees of flexibility and independence. Below are three tentative projects under consideration for the DAT. AVSI proposes that the DAT undertake two of the three listed following a discussion between client and DAT.

Initial Ideas and Options

Absenteeism in Health and Education

1. Classic Development Challenge – Key staff not showing up to work and undercutting service delivery and public trust

   1. Literature Review – synthesize the latest extant literature and provide an overview of bright spots backed by rigorous evidence

   2. Policy Memo – Provided a detailed contextual analysis, propose adaptations for existing projects, large and small, based upon the literature review

Definition of Success

The team should develop clear, thoughtful, well-organized and actionable research on the relevant themes that will impact AVSI’s practice.

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

Developing a National Surgical Plan - Lancet Zambia (Fall 2016)

Client Profile

Universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care when needed saves lives, prevents disability, and promotes economic growth. In January 2014, President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, called for a “shared vision and strategy for global equity in essential surgical care,” stating “surgery is an indivisible, indispensable part of health care.” This call came at a pivotal time for global health. As focus transitions from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) to a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), commitments to Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and a broader focus on building resilient health systems, the global community must develop strategies to reach these new aims.

Global Surgery 2030, the landmark initial report of The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, describes the role of surgical and anesthesia care in improving the health of individuals and the economic productivity of countries. Developed by a multidisciplinary team of 25 commissioners and collaborators from over 110 nations, the report presents findings on the state of surgical care in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as a framework of recommendations, indicators and targets needed to achieve the Commission’s vision of universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care when needed.

Definition of Problem

Developing surgical systems, like any global health endeavor, can present unique challenges. These challenges need not be met in isolation- learning from successes and failures in other parts of the world can strengthen the impact of individual efforts and accelerate global progress. The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery aims to create new material for mutual learning, and has been working with a series of universities, including Notre Dame, to do so.

Zambia is one of the first countries that has partnered with the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery to design and implement a contextually-tailored National Surgical and Anesthesia Plan based off the framework developed by the commission. The Ministry of Health intends to incorporate this National Surgical and Anesthesia Plan into their overarching 5-year Zambian Health Strategic Plan generated for 2017-2021.  There is a unique opportunity to develop a teaching case on the Zambian experience – that explores both the advances and challenges – as it develops its national surgical plan.

 Initial Ideas and Options

• Review existing cases in the Lancet case series. http://www.globalsurgery.info/teaching-cases/

• Explore other related cases http://www.ghdonline.org/cases/?ref=globalhealthdelivery

• Look at information on case writing  http://www.rsm.nl/fileadmin/Images_NEW/CDC/How_to_Write_a_Good_Teaching_Case.pdf

•  Reach out to client to get background on Zambia. The DAT team will have access in developing the case to the key actors related to the National Surgical Plan in Zambia as well as those from the Lancet Commission.

Definition of Success

Develop a 8-12 page teaching case with additional exhibits that document the development of Zambia’s national surgical plan in an interesting and engaging fashion, that could be used as a teaching case, exploring challenges and opportunities, especially for other countries considering such a plan.

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

Rendering Accompaniment Visible - Partners in Health (Fall 2016)

Client Profile

Partners In Health (PIH) was originally founded as a community health project in Haiti in 1987 and has since expanded to sites in a dozen countries. The main goals of the organization are to provide quality health care to those most in need, while working to alleviate the causes of disease and to share lessons more broadly. PIH partners with governments to build effective health systems, as well as works to train members of the local community.  The great majority of the 13,000 people who work for PIH are community health workers typically called accompagnateurs – “those who accompany.” This approach is deeply informed by Catholic Social Teaching and the work of Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez.  PIH’s approach to service through accompaniment is a vision shared by an increasing number of development organizations, among them the Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI), Catholic Relief Services, and Caritas International.

Definition of Problem

How do we render more visible the concept and work of Accompaniment? Over the past two years, the Kellogg Institute has organized a project called “From Aid to Accompaniment” to explore and enhance the understanding of the concept of accompaniment. Public Affairs will publish a book on accompaniment in the spring 2017.  The lead author is Dr. Paul Farmer, and Steve Reifenberg and Jennie Block are co-editors. The title will be (something like) “A Partnership with the Poor: A Radical New Vision for More Effective Aid, Philanthropy, and Services.” The launching the book in spring 2017 provides a unique opportunity to raise awareness about the accompaniment concept. There will likely a book conference at ND in the fall 2017. The DAT will have access to manuscript as well as other related materials.

 Initial Ideas and Options

• Review the Kellogg Institute’s existing work on accompaniment http://kellogg.nd.edu/events/calendar/spring2016/accompaniment.shtml and the previous DAT projects through the International Development in Practice class https://intdev.squarespace.com/partners-in-health/  

• Survey "what works" to build the understanding and practice of accompaniment by health care providers- what is being done to teach and foster accompaniment as a practice and value right now in current education programs?  Speak with health care educators, curriculum designers and others who are training practitioners in the field.

• Explore the multiplicity of ways to share awareness and expand engagement of accompaniment through social media, film, advocacy campaigns, leadership development, etc. Think creatively. One past DAT developed a curriculum on accompaniment for GlobeMed, while another explored lessons from successful social movements.

• Imagine the concept of accompaniment serving as a feature of training and leadership development programs, exploring ways the practice of accompaniment is teachable and provides a pragmatic approach to implementing patient-centered thinking, community/family engagement, local empowerment and long term, sustainable health care improvement and systems change.

• How can the forthcoming book, conference, and related activities engage people in thinking about and better understanding accompaniment?

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

Hello, World!

Girls’ Education: Attracting, Engaging, and Building Capacity - Education Bridge (Fall 2016)

Client Profile

Education Bridge seeks to create sustainable South Sudanese communities through education and peace building. We believe that education is a reliable bridge to prosperity and autonomy, both for oneself and the community at large. Unfortunately, girls’ education is disfavored in many communities in South Sudan due to cultural perceptions. Without education, girls often end up in poverty and perpetual dependency. In addition, the community is robbed of the skills and talents these girls would have contributed. Beside this problem, education is not affordable for many families, mainly due to poverty. Currently, 51% of the population lives below the poverty line (2016). The organization is committed to promoting education in South Sudan and providing educational opportunities for all, including girls and economically disadvantaged children. 

Definition of Problem

To help further this mission, the organization has built a secondary school in Bor, South Sudan. Greenbelt Academy opens in January 2017. The school will serve grades 9-12. One of the primary areas of focus at the school is to promote girls’ education. Girls’ literacy is alarmingly low in the country, merely at 16%. There are many reasons for these staggering numbers, including:

• Cultures that undermine the importance of girls’ education

• Conflict and civil war in the country

• Perceptions of gender roles among girls and in the general community

• Poverty

• Lack of girls’ necessities, such as sanitary pads, in schools

• Forced child marriage

Keeping these challenges in mind, Education Bridge would like a team of ND students to "look into how we can best succeed in attracting, maintaining & engaging high school-age girls in our school."

Initial Steps and Options

• Talk to Ngor Majak, founder of Education Bridge in South Sudan and Gracie Watkins, a Education Bridge Advisory member (and former DAT student) to understand more about the problem and explore the context that could help address the issues, including to design a culturally relevant seminar that could be used with girls in South Sudan.

• We recommend that students start by reviewing challenges to education in general, and especially girls’ education. Then it would be useful to put this research in the context of South Sudan. With that knowledge, the team can then research bright spots and best practices from other communities that have had similar challenges and from what they did to successfully address those challenges.

Definition of Success

In the end, we would like contextualized recommendations on how Greenbelt Academy can attract, maintain and successfully engage girls’ students in line with best practices globally.

 Development Advisory Team

Final Report

ENHANCING THE IMPACT OF U.S. FOREIGN ASSISTANCE DATA - DIPLOMACY LAB Bangladesh (FALL 2016)

Client Profile

The U.S. is one of the largest donors globally for foreign  assistance. In an effort to bring transparency and accountability to U.S. Foreign Assistance, the Department of State developed the website ForeignAssistance.gov (FA.gov) in 2010. FA.gov makes it possible for anyone to explore how the U.S. government invests its foreign assistance funds in countries around the world through a single website in an accessible and machine-readable format. The website includes detailed foreign assistance financial, award, and performance data from agencies across the U.S. government that implement foreign assistance activities. It provides information on U.S. efforts on issues such as health, peace and security, democracy, environment, and humanitarian/emergency assistance. Users can explore the data in multiple ways, through an interactive map, pre-defined charts and graphs, downloadable datasets, and XML files prepared in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

Definition of Problem

It is a Department priority to increase awareness of FA.gov, and to enhance and expand its usability and impact, including by developing cases studies on how to most effectively use the data contained on this site.  We are looking to find ways to appeal to more diverse stakeholders domestically and abroad, drive them to the site, and encourage them to use the data by demonstrating its value.  We are looking to develop an electronic handbook for outreach to various audiences that includes (in priority order) host country government, U.S. federal agencies, civil society organizations, journalists, academic researchers/ university students, donor organizations, and Congress.

Initial Steps and Options

• The DAT should plan to analyze the ForeignAssistance.gov website and dataset. The team should develop ideas for using the data to identify trends and explore effective ways for people to engage with the data.  

• We would be particularly interested in exploring specific country case studies for use of the electronic handbook from different regions of the world, and have initially identified three countries -- Haiti, Uganda, and Bangladesh, where we might usefully develop, prototype and use the electronic handbook.

Definition of Success

We are enthusiastic to see models and suggestions presented in an electronic handbook (with case studies from Haiti, Uganda and Bangladesh) that show how FA.gov data can be most successfully used.  This might be combined or analyzed with other datasets and tools in ways to tell a compelling and engaging story on Foreign Assistance or US Diplomacy. It would also be helpful to identify key communications messages to appeal to the identified stakeholders, and develop recommendations to make FA.gov more useful to them.

The Managing Director leading U.S. foreign assistance transparency efforts may be participating as a panelist in the Open Government Partnership Summit in Paris in December 2016. If the DAT project is successful, he would like to share some of the results of the DAT as a way to demonstrate U.S.-led efforts to improving foreign assistance data uptake among diverse stakeholders around the world.

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

ENHANCING THE IMPACT OF U.S. FOREIGN ASSISTANCE DATA - DIPLOMACY LAB Uganda (FALL 2016)

Client Profile

The U.S. is one of the largest donors globally for foreign  assistance. In an effort to bring transparency and accountability to U.S. Foreign Assistance, the Department of State developed the website ForeignAssistance.gov (FA.gov) in 2010. FA.gov makes it possible for anyone to explore how the U.S. government invests its foreign assistance funds in countries around the world through a single website in an accessible and machine-readable format. The website includes detailed foreign assistance financial, award, and performance data from agencies across the U.S. government that implement foreign assistance activities. It provides information on U.S. efforts on issues such as health, peace and security, democracy, environment, and humanitarian/emergency assistance. Users can explore the data in multiple ways, through an interactive map, pre-defined charts and graphs, downloadable datasets, and XML files prepared in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

Definition of Problem

It is a Department priority to increase awareness of FA.gov, and to enhance and expand its usability and impact, including by developing cases studies on how to most effectively use the data contained on this site.  We are looking to find ways to appeal to more diverse stakeholders domestically and abroad, drive them to the site, and encourage them to use the data by demonstrating its value.  We are looking to develop an electronic handbook for outreach to various audiences that includes (in priority order) host country government, U.S. federal agencies, civil society organizations, journalists, academic researchers/ university students, donor organizations, and Congress.

Initial Steps and Options

• The DAT should plan to analyze the ForeignAssistance.gov website and dataset. The team should develop ideas for using the data to identify trends and explore effective ways for people to engage with the data.  

• We would be particularly interested in exploring specific country case studies for use of the electronic handbook from different regions of the world, and have initially identified three countries -- Haiti, Uganda, and Bangladesh, where we might usefully develop, prototype and use the electronic handbook.

Definition of Success

We are enthusiastic to see models and suggestions presented in an electronic handbook (with case studies from Haiti, Uganda and Bangladesh) that show how FA.gov data can be most successfully used.  This might be combined or analyzed with other datasets and tools in ways to tell a compelling and engaging story on Foreign Assistance or US Diplomacy. It would also be helpful to identify key communications messages to appeal to the identified stakeholders, and develop recommendations to make FA.gov more useful to them.

The Managing Director leading U.S. foreign assistance transparency efforts may be participating as a panelist in the Open Government Partnership Summit in Paris in December 2016. If the DAT project is successful, he would like to share some of the results of the DAT as a way to demonstrate U.S.-led efforts to improving foreign assistance data uptake among diverse stakeholders around the world.

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

Enhancing the Impact of U.S. Foreign Assistance Data - Diplomacy Lab Haiti (Fall 2016)

Client Profile

The U.S. is one of the largest donors globally for foreign  assistance. In an effort to bring transparency and accountability to U.S. Foreign Assistance, the Department of State developed the website ForeignAssistance.gov (FA.gov) in 2010. FA.gov makes it possible for anyone to explore how the U.S. government invests its foreign assistance funds in countries around the world through a single website in an accessible and machine-readable format. The website includes detailed foreign assistance financial, award, and performance data from agencies across the U.S. government that implement foreign assistance activities. It provides information on U.S. efforts on issues such as health, peace and security, democracy, environment, and humanitarian/emergency assistance. Users can explore the data in multiple ways, through an interactive map, pre-defined charts and graphs, downloadable datasets, and XML files prepared in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

Definition of Problem

It is a Department priority to increase awareness of FA.gov, and to enhance and expand its usability and impact, including by developing cases studies on how to most effectively use the data contained on this site.  We are looking to find ways to appeal to more diverse stakeholders domestically and abroad, drive them to the site, and encourage them to use the data by demonstrating its value.  We are looking to develop an electronic handbook for outreach to various audiences that includes (in priority order) host country government, U.S. federal agencies, civil society organizations, journalists, academic researchers/ university students, donor organizations, and Congress.

Initial Steps and Options

• The DAT should plan to analyze the ForeignAssistance.gov website and dataset. The team should develop ideas for using the data to identify trends and explore effective ways for people to engage with the data.  

• We would be particularly interested in exploring specific country case studies for use of the electronic handbook from different regions of the world, and have initially identified three countries -- Haiti, Uganda, and Bangladesh, where we might usefully develop, prototype and use the electronic handbook.

Definition of Success

We are enthusiastic to see models and suggestions presented in an electronic handbook (with case studies from Haiti, Uganda and Bangladesh) that show how FA.gov data can be most successfully used.  This might be combined or analyzed with other datasets and tools in ways to tell a compelling and engaging story on Foreign Assistance or US Diplomacy. It would also be helpful to identify key communications messages to appeal to the identified stakeholders, and develop recommendations to make FA.gov more useful to them.

The Managing Director leading U.S. foreign assistance transparency efforts may be participating as a panelist in the Open Government Partnership Summit in Paris in December 2016. If the DAT project is successful, he would like to share some of the results of the DAT as a way to demonstrate U.S.-led efforts to improving foreign assistance data uptake among diverse stakeholders around the world.

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

Enhancing Effective Learning Loops - Enseña Chile (Fall 2016)

Client Profile

Enseña Chile is based on the successful Teach for America model, recognized for creating a corps of leaders committed to improving access to excellent education regardless of socio-economic circumstances. Many join straight after finishing college, but others have gathered professional experiences outside the education sector. All applicants need to have demonstrated skills in leading and motivating teams, such as campus initiatives, community organizations or sports teams. Enseña Chile was founded by Tomás Recart in 2007 in Santiago, Chile. The organization provides quality education to 14- to 18-year-old high school students by bringing outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into classrooms of low-quality schools in poor areas for a period of two years. 

Definition of Problem

Enseña Chile provides quality education to 14 to 18 year old high-school students by bringing outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into classrooms of schools in poor areas for a period of two years. Enseña Chile founder Tomas Recart is convinced that to achieve social and economic equality it is necessary to systematically incorporate new leadership into the educational system, and build broad and diverse networks in doing so. Enseña Chile is based on the Teach for America model, recognized for creating a corps of leaders committed to improving access to excellent education regardless of socio-economic circumstances. Many teachers join Enseña Chile straight after finishing college, but others gain professional experiences before working as teachers. All applicants need to have demonstrated skills in leading and motivating teams, such as campus initiatives, community organizations or sports teams. On a long-term basis Enseña Chile is promoting a movement/network of Enseña Chile alumni who will form a critical mass and serve in key leadership positions in society to positively influence change in Chile’s educational system, providing opportunities to bridge Chile’s enormous inequality gap.

Enseña Chile began with 29 teachers in 3 regions in 2009 and today in 2016 has 191 teachers in 8 of the 15 regions of Chile.  This growth has led to the current need to establish more systematic processes and protocols to ensure regular analysis and sharing of key data (such as the student/classroom impact measurements, teacher satisfaction surveys, principals and school administration surveys, alumni impact, etc.) Working with “Learning Loops,” we have identified these cycles, but have struggled to implement clear and concise processes with responsibilities for each step.

Initial Steps and Options

• Contact members of former ND Enseña Chile DATs who have successfully worked with the organization in the past (some who now serve as part of an Enseña Chile international advisory board).

• Identify the experiences of relevant non-profits around the globe who do an excellent job sharing data and information on their work and building community with key shareholders.

• Compare Enseña Chile’s use and sharing of data (including its Learning Loop cycle) with other relevant non-profits.

Definition of Success

• Informed by best practices of other relevant organizations, design a process for the 2017 academic year that allows relevant stakeholders of the organization (from teachers in the classroom to our CEO, including Regional Managers, staff members, the board of directors, principals and students) to be informed of the status of each instrument and its progress.  Ensure that this process allows them to have a say in analyzing the data and proposing changes and strategies for the future in a timely manner. 

• For example, this might be a coherent framework (with suggested documentation, diagrams and dashboards) that can help the organization to learn and improve from the current cycle of “Capturing Data > Analyzing Results > Establishing insights or strategies > Sharing results > Executing proposed actions and Repeating,” Propose effective ways of keeping track of each of these stages, linked to the framework of Enseña Chile’s yearly schedule.

Development Advisory Team

Final Report

A Force for Good: Human-Centered Design at Notre Dame (Spring 2016)

Client Profile:

The University of Notre Dame is a Catholic academic community of higher learning, animated from its origins by the Congregation of Holy Cross. The University seeks to cultivate in its students not only an appreciation for the great achievements of human beings but also a disciplined sensibility to the poverty, injustice and oppression that burden the lives of so many. The aim is to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice.

In spring semester 2016, a group of students from International Development in Practice II served as consultants to Deans of the College of Arts and Letters, College of Engineering, and the new Keough School of Global Affairs on the initiative of human-centered design. Their work has become a cornerstone for the macro movement at Notre Dame of bringing innovation, cross-discipline collaboration, and design thinking to the forefront of the University's mission to serve as a force for good.

College of Arts and Letters

College of Engineering

Keough School of Global Affairs

Recommendation:

Presentation

Team Biography

Assessing and Developing Usability for Foreign Aid Data - Diplomacy Lab (Fall 2015)

Client Profile

The U.S. is one of the largest donors globally for foreign assistance. In an effort to bring transparency & accountability to U.S. Foreign Assistance, the Department of State manages and coordinates the website ForeignAssistance.gov (FA.gov).

FA.gov currently provides budget, financial, and programmatic data from across ten agencies (representing 98% of the total foreign assistance portfolio) that are contributing to U.S. efforts on issues such as health, peace and security, democracy, environment, and humanitarian/emergency assistance. The site includes many different data elements including activity titles, descriptions, partner names, dates of performance, and locations.

Definition of Problem

The site is finalizing a complete redesign, with new interfaces and functionalities, and we want to develop and use cases for the data contained on this site. We are asking universities to review the information in the dataset and develop ideas on how to use the data to identify trends and draw conclusions. Universities can also take on projects to standardize or hack the data to improve the quality, i.e. standardizing vendor names (for example, MSF vs. Doctors without Borders vs Medicines Sans Frontieres).

Initial Steps and Options

The DAT should plan to analyze the ForeignAssistance.gov dataset. The team would develop ideas for using the data to identify trends and explore ways to compare, contrast, or combine data with other datasets. For example, the team might seek to link the data to the new Lives Saved Scorecard, pioneered by U.N. special envoy Ray Chambers, for financing the health MDGs. The team will most likely focus on data from one specific country or region.

Definition of Success

The Diplomacy Lab is enthusiastic to see projects that show how FA.gov data can be combined or analyzed with other datasets to tell a story on Foreign Assistance or US Diplomacy. Foreign Assistance data can be used in its entirety or segmented by country, agency, or sector

Recommendation

Presenation

Healthcare Delivery Expansion in Rural Mexico - Partners in Health (Fall 2015)

Client Profile

Partners in Health (PIH) is a global healthcare NGO founded in 1987 to provide a preferential option for the poor in healthcare. The organization originally developed as a community health project in Haiti and has since expanded to several countries around the world—Mexico being one of the most recent in 2012.  In Mexico, PIH operates through its sister organization, Compañeros en Salud (CES).  CES partners directly with the Mexican government to strengthen healthcare delivery in the rural state of Chiapas (the southernmost and poorest state in Mexico) by providing mentorship to recently graduated Mexican medical students serving in primary health clinics, training community health workers to support chronic diseases patients, and accompanying patients requiring higher level care as they navigate the health system.  

Definition of Problem

A young organization, CES is still working to develop new programs and expand its existing services in order to better deliver care to rural communities in Chiapas.  Beginning in 2012 with clinics in just two communities, the organization now operates clinics in ten communities and supports community health workers in six.  For many years, it was nearly impossible to find medical doctors to serve the rural clinics in Chiapas. Today, CES’s global health education model attracts medical students from top medical schools throughout all of Mexico.  Through its “Right to Health” reference program, CES is able to assist patients requiring more specialized attention beyond just primary care coverage.  Given the diversity of these operations, there are many paths for CES to pursue in the future, and it is still uncertain where the organization should best invest its resources to maximize impact.  CES would like to work with a Development Advisory Team to investigate and evaluate different strategic options for the organization’s future.

 Initial Ideas and Options

• Explore the costs and the benefits of options such as:
  • Expanding the number of clinics supported in Chiapas
  • Expanding the types of health coverage provided
  • Expanding services to another state in Mexico
  • Increasing focus on the policy level
  • Increasing focus on medical education
• Work closely with CES staff to understand the organization and its current operations.
• Identify organizations that have faced similar dilemmas in expansion and development.  Write short case studies that draw lessons from those experiences.

Definition of Success

 A systematic report exploring options for CES’s future activities, based on evaluation of each of the above potential options and comparative analysis of similar organizations, that helps us to understand how each strategy would increase our impact, and provide the basis for dialogue within the organization to consider these strategic options.

Recommendation 

Presentation

Report

Communications Plan on Reimagining Disability - L'Arche (Fall 2015)

Client Profile

L’Arche is an international non-governmental organization that works to provide support for people with intellectual disabilities so that they take their rightful place in our societies as active citizens. As an international organization, it seeks to promote diversity and solidarity across geographical and psychological borders. L’Arche is present in 147 communities in 35 countries around the world.

See all Development Advisory Team projects with L'Arche

Definition of Problem

Since the rise of ISIS, it has become terribly clear that web videos, as a form of mass communication, can be used as weapons of mass destruction. Yet web videos can also be used as tools of mass development.  Notwithstanding important progress in some parts of the world, people with intellectual disabilities live in the shadows of a persistent view—present in all cultures—that they are the undesirables. L’Arche has designed a project to leverage the power of film and the connectivity of social media to move the needle on the invisibility and humiliation of the intellectually disabled across the globe.  From September 6, 2015 to September 2016, L’Arche is launching a web series of 24 short documentaries running 3 - 5 minutes and shot in 12 different countries on 6 continents. The series seeks to reduce disability-related stigma and discrimination by correcting misperceptions about disability and positively changing the public discourse among viewers. 

Initial Steps and Options

• From a strategic point of view, how do you make this go viral, and how do you transform viewership into action? Create a plan for the distribution of L’Arche’s content (which platforms should be used and how) and advise L’Arche on how to make their content actionable.  Included in this plan should be an SEO strategy (Search Engine Optimization), which would require conducting keyword research on the subject of disability and L’Arche. Using Google trends and Google adwords, analyze what people are typing into search engines in the given countries and advise L’Arche on how to create content and build links so their content will be seen.
• Read extensively about the work of L’Arche and organizations interested in changing perceptions on people with intellectual disabilities. Look at social marketing campaigns to change perceptions and behaviors regarding issues such as smoking, obesity, etc. (Karen Gutierrez is teaching a fall 2015 one-credit course through the Eck Institute on social marketing and would be a good resource person.) 
• If you’re not familiar with SEO, these two online tutorials are free through OIT: “Fundamentals of SEO” http://www.lynda.com/Analytics-tutorials/SEO-Fundamentals/187858-2.html  “International SEO Fundamentals” http://www.lynda.com/Analytics-tutorials/International-SEO-Fundamentals/377449-2.html

Definition of Success

A strategic plan, with specific recommendations, that helps the series of L’Arche videos go viral and links them to a growing movement to change perceptions and reduce disability-related stigma and discrimination. 

Recommendation

Presentation

Slide Show

Report on Online Strategy

Report on Offline Strategy

Potential Key Words

Networks for Social Development - Enseña Chile (Fall 2015)

Client Profile

Enseña Chile is based on the successful Teach for America model, recognized for creating a corps of leaders committed to improving access to excellent education regardless of socio-economic circumstances. Many join straight after finishing college, but others have gathered professional experiences outside the education sector. All applicants need to have demonstrated skills in leading and motivating teams, such as campus initiatives, community organizations or sports teams. Enseña Chile was founded by Tomás Recart in 2007 in Santiago, Chile. The organization provides quality education to 14- to 18-year-old high school students by bringing outstanding university graduates with leadership skills into classrooms of low-quality schools in poor areas for a period of two years. 

Definition of Problem

On a long-term basis, Enseña Chile is promoting a movement/network of Enseña Chile alumni that will be active at key positions in society with the possibility to positively influence a change in the educational system of Chile. Enseña Chile has adapted the model for the Chilean and Latin American context. By bringing bright college graduates and professionals to teach in underprivileged schools, they provide a significant contribution to bridging the inequality gap. Although Enseña Chile believes that good teachers have similar characteristics independent of culture, the organization has been adapting the Teach for America model both in the way these competencies are measured and trained, as well as in teacher training.

Founder Tomás Recart is convinced that in order to achieve social and economic equality it is necessary to systematically incorporate new leadership into the educational system and build broad and diverse networks in doing so. 

Initial Steps and Options

• Enseña Chile is currently working to develop a network in which principals and ECh regularly work together and foster long-term relationships in which ECh would continue to supply the same schools with teachers. ECh feels they hear all the time how OECD and US schools and school systems share work/information and build networks.
• Additional advisors: Stephen Zerfas and Mitch Kochanski, Bridgespan, San Francisco & Andrew Weiler, McKinsey and Company, Minneapolis

Definition of Success

An operational guide on best practices for building effective networks in the educational sector from other countries. Which are the best ideas that might be directly related to Chile?

Recommendation

Presentation

Engaging Engineers in Development - College of Engineering (Fall 2015)

Client Profile

Engineering has been offered at the University since 1873, when Notre Dame became the first Catholic university in the country to have a school of engineering. In fact, Notre Dame boasts a long history of engineering developments in a variety of fields … from the construction of the first hand-driven wind tunnel in America (aerospace) and the successful transmission of one of the first wireless messages (communications) in the country to the discovery of a new class of actinyl peroxide compounds (energy) and demonstration of magnetic logic (computing).

When the College of Engineering was officially founded in 1920, most of the students were pursuing civil engineering, due to the nation’s need for surveyors and designers of roads, bridges, and railroads. Today, graduate and undergraduate students continue to explore a wide variety of fields through the five departments housed within the college as they search for ways to address some of society’s most pressing needs.

• Number of Teaching and Research Faculty: 169
• Number of Undergraduate Students, Sophmore-Senior: 1,214
• Number of Incoming First-Year Students: ~500
• Number of Graduate Students: 521

Definition of Problem

Undergraduate engineering programs are typically demanding programs with multiple requirements.  Notre Dame’s undergraduate program is extremely technically demanding.  A number of engineering students, for example, have wanted to pursue the rigorous training of the engineering program while taking advantage of other options, such as the university’s undergraduate minor in International Development Studies or training in human-centered design and design thinking.  At times, they have been unable to take advantage of these options because of the large number of required courses. Notre Dame is currently engaging in a curriculum review where, among other things, some of the traditional requirements are being re-examined in hopes of making space for other opportunities for students.  One area of interest is providing more “soft” skills that directly impact the work of engineers in addressing complex problems of great social importance. Some of these “soft” skills include design thinking, human centered design, negotiation skills, social and political analysis, and more.  

Initial Steps and Options

• Work closely with Jay Brockman and Tracy Kijewski-Correa, as well as engineering graduate student advisors Erik Jensen and Kevin Fink (who are in the master’s program in civil engineering at ND) to define more clearly the project and proposed outcome.
• Identify and analyze other undergraduate engineering programs that have done a good job providing this kind of training (for example, with engineering programs in international development or “humanitarian engineering” or others).

Definition of Success

A clear analysis on best practices nationally and internationally, as well as opportunities and constraints in thinking about ways to enhance Notre Dame’s current engineering curriculum.

Recommendation

Presentation

Report

Program for conflict resolution - Education Bridge (Fall 2015)

Client Profile

Some pastoral communities in South Sudan have for a long time encouraged cultures of violence. These cultures are problematic as they incite youth to engage in violent activities that disturb communal peace and interfere with development in these communities. Education Bridge believes using educational seminars and workshops that introduce youth to non-violent means of conflict resolution and negotiation is one of the ways to break these destructive practices and encourage positive community engagement.

Definition of Problem

Education Bridge would like a DAT team to help look at other successful conflict resolution and negotiation programs in other countries and design a weeklong seminar that incorporates some of the best practices for use by Education Bridge.

Initial Steps and Options

• Talk to Ngor Majak (a junior at ND who is helping build a school in South Sudan) and one of Education Bridge officials to understand more about the problem and explore many questions that could help you design a culturally relevant seminar.

• Research and evaluate four or five successful conflict resolution and/or negotiation programs (ideally targeting young people). Study their practices in depth and determine how elements from a few of them could be best incorporated in the Education Bridge Seminar, keeping cultural relevance in mind.

• If you incorporate games, try them out and have fun!

• Help put together a curriculum that a team could really use.

Definition of Success

Help build an excellent program and teaching materials that would serve for a weeklong seminar that both uses existing materials from other organizations and develops/refines them in a culturally sensitive package relevant for South Sudan. 

Education Bridge hopes to incorporate some of the best practices and methods for conflict resolution and negotiation globally and make them available for students ages 14-20 in ways that both influence their thinking about violence and conflict, as well as help change behaviors.

Recommendation

Presentation

Slide Show

Executive Summary

Report

Background Materials