Call for Youth Researcher
Call for Youth Researcher (ICRW)
COYOQA
NEWS & EVENTS
COVID19 and Mobility
OSSREA recently organized a webinar titled "The Impact of COVID-19 on Migration, Migrants, Refugees, and Internally Displaced People," which featured a range of insightful presentations. Speakers from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda delivered talks on various topics related to the pandemic's effect on displacement and migration. Some of the topics included "Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic in Displacement," "Refugee Strategies to Cope with the Corona Virus Pandemic," "Irregular Cash Transfers and the Impact of COVID-19," "COVID-19 Induced Urban-Rural Migration and Environmental Degradation in Uganda," and "Education Amidst Conflict and Forced Displacement: Whose Agenda Is It?" Following the presentations, there was a discussion period where participants had the opportunity to pose questions to the speakers, who then provided detailed explanations in response. Overall, the webinar shed light on the complex challenges faced by migrants, refugees, and displaced people in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and provided valuable insights into potential strategies for addressing these issues.
Covid-19 and social accountability: Insights from a rapid baseline study in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda
Involving citizens and communities in the processes of governance, so that the decisions and actions of those in power are made public, and can be questioned, is key to an efficient Covid-19 response. The role that social accountability can play in the response is an area that we at the Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA) are researching for the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) project on Covid-19 and the Youth Question in Africa: Impact, Response and Protection Measures in the IGAD region. We are working in collaboration with the Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Associations (CCRDA) of Ethiopia, OSSREA-Kenya Chapter, and the University of Makerere to conduct a rapid baseline study in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Our aim is to try to understand how the community, especially the youth, is involved in ensuring services are delivered and policies related to the pandemic are designed and implemented in an accountable way. What follows are some reflections on our findings so far.
Social accountability for meaningful youth engagement in Kenya
The Covid-19 and the youth question in Africa: Response, impact and prevention measures in the IGAD region (COYOQA) project is a participatory action research project in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Its main objective is to improve youth development through the meaningful engagement of young people and vertically integrated social accountability at various levels of government. It looks into the challenges the youth go through, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, and proposes a social accountability framework to help improve the accountability of decision makers for young people’s rights. One of the project’s key approaches is a training of trainers to build the capacity of youth-based Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and local authorities who work for the youth on social accountability and meaningful youth engagement. The team has now completed this work in all three research sites in Kenya.
COYOQA Planning meeting
OSSREA launched a three years’ project on vertically integrated social accountability and meaningful youth engagement entitled ‘COVID-19 and the Youth Question in Africa: Piloting a Vertically Integrated Social Accountability and Advocacy Framework in the IGAD Region (COYOQA)’. The project funded by IDRC kicked off on Sept 01, 2020. COYOQA is being implemented in three countries in the IGAD region. CCRDA of Ethiopia, TISA of Kenya and UNGOF of Uganda are the implementing partners in the three countries. IGAD CEWARN is the regional policy making partner in the project. A project planning webinar was conducted on Oct 30, 2020 in the presence of representatives of the three countries. The purpose of the webinar was to introduce consortium members and participants to one another and enable the project team to have clear and common understanding about the project. Accordingly, Dr. Truphena Mukuna, PI of the project, introduced the team about the COYOQA project, its objectives and expected impact. While, Mr. Alemu Tesfaye, Communication and Knowledge manager of the project briefed the team about the three years’ project implementation plan and what is expected from each partner. Finally, a six months’ financial matters were presented by Mr. Belete Demissie, Finance and Administration manager at OSSREA. After the presentations by the teams at OSSREA, consortium representatives raised a number of questions, comments and feedbacks and the team responded accordingly and the meeting adjourned achieving its objective of having a common understanding and agreed implementation strategy.
Stakeholder Mapping Workshop
OSSREA held a virtual workshop on Nov 05, 2020 with the COYOQA consortium members to conduct stakeholder mapping in the three countries. Members from CCRDA of Ethiopia, TISA of Kenya and UNGOF of Uganda were present in the workshop. The aim of the workshop was to take the team through the process of stakeholder mapping and the various tools to be used in the process. Mr. Alemu Tesfaye of OSSREA introduced the purpose of the activity and took the team through the process. In his presentation Alemu talked about the three goals of the stakeholder mapping, the methodology to be utilised, the AIIM tool, the stakeholder analysis template, and finally the reporting template.
For more information, please Click here to read the presentation.