Welcome to CARE Insights

By Tom Aston and Jay Goulden

Measuring the impact of advocacy may be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Yes advocacy is different, but it’s not necessarily more complex or ‘hard to measure’ than governance or market systems programming, let alone ‘blue marble’ change. We think we’ve made some real progress in this area across CARE, and this blog aims to share some of our insights – and contribute to recent lively discussions across the sector.

“Even as a child, we were always told to fear the police. But seldom were we taught that the police is there for us. We need to work together to change this narrative, and one of the approaches is participating in the Community Score Card,” says Inspector Ram Chandra Ghimire of the Area Police Office in Jaubari, Gorkha. So how has the Community Score Card process, under the DFID-funded Safe Justice project, helped the Nepal Police to strengthen police and community collaboration?

“Other young people discouraged me from joining the savings group, because this was not our culture. My peers laughed at me. But I was strong and I knew what I wanted, so I joined anyway.” These are the words of Emelenziana, a young woman in Tanzania. Since CARE launched the Ishaka programme in Burundi in 2009, we’ve been working specifically with young people through our Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) approach to support women – starting with savings – to transform their world. Here’s a sample of some of the impacts we’ve seen with VSLAs for young people.