People’s needs in vulnerable situations fluctuate quickly and often. Relief International has the agility and expertise to design and deliver relief, recovery, and development solutions that meet these needs where they’re at.
Our work in fragile settings focuses on four key sectors: health and nutrition; education; economic opportunity; and water, sanitation, and hygiene. All the work we do in these areas is underpinned by protection measures that ensure groups with high vulnerability or special needs have access to critical services.
Another hallmark of Relief International is integrated programming. Why? It’s unlikely that someone living in a fragile setting has only one need. We take a holistic look at problems and potential solutions, allowing us to design interconnected programs that mount an attack from multiple angles. That’s how we build resilience and sustainably improve lives.
Khartuma Lamar, 22, planted a kitchen garden after training, support, and a referral when her daughter Susan, 2, was a patient being treated for malnourishment.
Before we can start working, we have to understand the context of the setting we’re entering. We use a “systems approach” to explore the essential question: what existed before the crisis struck?
Using a systems analysis equips Relief International to design solutions that reinforce and improve upon existing in-country systems. Where such systems do not exist or are chronically underperforming, our work lays the foundation for long-term, sustainable change.
Accountability is the driving force of Relief International’s efforts to measure our impact. We’re committed to monitoring, evaluating, and learning from our projects throughout their life cycle. These processes equip us to practice adaptive management, and, ultimately, to learn from any mistakes and correct course if a project is not optimally meeting the needs of the communities we serve.
The RI Way sets out the guiding principles we use to design every project.
Guiding Principles
At Relief International, the people we serve are not passive recipients of aid. They are participants in their own solutions. We engage local communities at the program design stage, because programs designed, built, and judged by the community they serve are more likely to succeed. And to last.
Relief International designs projects to cover more than just one slice of life. Because lives are complicated. Education boosts health. Better health improves livelihoods. Stronger livelihoods let families invest in education. Integrated solutions serve people living in the real world.
We partner with communities, governments, and leading international organizations. These relationships let us harness complementary expertise and networks to ensure that each community gets the best solutions available.
People are powerful when they are heard. By engaging communities in project design and execution, Relief International fosters skills such as transparency, accountability, and open public debate — the cornerstones of effective civil society. And a strong civil society supports good governance, the critical force behind long-term development and stability.
At Relief International, the people we serve are not passive recipients of aid. They are participants in their own solutions. We engage local communities at the program design stage, because programs designed, built, and judged by the community they serve are more likely to succeed. And to last.
Relief International designs projects to cover more than just one slice of life. Because lives are complicated. Education boosts health. Better health improves livelihoods. Stronger livelihoods let families invest in education. Integrated solutions serve people living in the real world.
We partner with communities, governments, and leading international organizations. These relationships let us harness complementary expertise and networks to ensure that each community gets the best solutions available.
People are powerful when they are heard. By engaging communities in project design and execution, Relief International fosters skills such as transparency, accountability, and open public debate — the cornerstones of effective civil society. And a strong civil society supports good governance, the critical force behind long-term development and stability.
Resource
Risk Management in Fragile Settings: A Toolkit for Field Practitioners
Relief International has developed a toolkit to guide the management of our day-to-day operations when full access to communities in vulnerable situations is not possible.
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