School Meals Expand the Right to Food for a Better Life and Future
By Joseph Bangnikon, Sr. Technical Advisor, Food Security Many children in low-income countries endure their entire school day without a nutritious meal, a situation that demands urgent attention. They arrive at school hungry and struggle to concentrate. Some even miss entire school days due to lack of food. This cycle of childhood hunger leads to…
Read MoreWomen Forward: Closing the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity
By Chloe Pan While many traditional approaches to improving food security outcomes focus on addressing farmers’ agricultural knowledge and access to productive resources, they may not always use a gender lens to understand the different needs, challenges and capabilities of women farmers. As climate change continues to threaten global food security, it’s crucial to use…
Read MorePromoting Bilingual Education in Multicultural Societies to Enhance Student Literacy
By Leonel Arguello, Director of Integrated School Feeding Programs As a Nicaraguan, I grew up in a multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual country with a large Indigenous population. English and French were the mandatory languages in public and private schools during my school years. Sadly, we were never taught our Indigenous languages, not even simple phrases…
Read MoreIgniting Children’s Potential, One Bite at a Time: Reflections from the International Food Aid Showcase
By Paula Rudnicka, Sr. Manager for Public Affairs Last month, Global Communities participated in the 2024 International Food Aid Showcase at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The showcase brought together diverse stakeholders representing all segments of the U.S. food assistance value chain—from farmers to implementing partners and government agencies. At the beginning of…
Read MoreSchool Feeding Interventions as a Tool for Addressing Child Malnutrition: Experiences from Tanzania, Guatemala and Madagascar
By Betty Adera and Chloe Pan Malnutrition remains a pressing global issue, affecting millions of children and impeding their growth, development and well-being. It manifests in various forms, including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity. Each form has severe consequences for children. In 2022, the World Health Organization estimated that globally, 149 million children under five…
Read MoreStudy Led by Global Communities Generates Novel Evidence on Gender Equality in the Context of Nutrition and Parenting Programs Â
Silver Spring, MD – Global Communities announces the publication of original research in the Journal of Social Science and Medicine on the impact of engaging fathers and bundling nutrition and parenting interventions on household gender equality and women’s empowerment in rural Tanzania. The article titled “Effects of Engaging Fathers and Bundling Nutrition and Parenting Interventions…
Read MorePass the Mic: Advancing Equality through Gender-Transformative Parenting and Nutrition Interventions
By Paula Rudnicka, Sr. Manager for Public Affairs at Global Communities Global Communities has long recognized that advancing gender equality is vital to achieving development objectives, including better health outcomes for women, children and entire families. Where feasible, we integrate gender-transformative approaches in our maternal, newborn and child health interventions. For example, we encourage positive…
Read MorePass the Mic: Reinvigorating Global Efforts to Reduce Maternal and Child Mortality
By Paula Rudnicka, Sr. Manager for Public Affairs at Global Communities In 2012, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) partnered with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Governments of India and Ethiopia to convene the Child Survival Call to Action, which galvanized unprecedented commitments from governments and civil society around the…
Read MoreGlobal Communities Tanzania Partners with USDA to Boost Literacy Rates through School Feeding Program
Earlier this month, Global Communities Tanzania launched Pamoja Tuwalishe (Together, Let’s Feed Them), the next phase of its U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. This USDA investment builds on the successful 10-year partnership between the Government of Tanzania, the United States Government and Global Communities. In this…
Read MoreUsing the New Digital Savings Group Hub to Eliminate Paper, Inspire SavingsÂ
Digitization can feel overwhelming — and even risky when considering inherent equity and access issues. Yet, with the right resources, organizations can go paper-free, or at least reduce that paper output, and save money in the process. We chatted with Paulina Rudnicka, Senior Technical Advisor for Gender Integration at Global Communities, about the launch of…
Read MoreConfronting Climate Change with Bold, Community-Based Actions
By Tanner Roark Climate change is here. It can be seen in every corner of the world, from heatwaves in India and winter storms in Texas to hurricanes in Guatemala and drought in Madagascar. Climate change is cruel. It spares no people or place, and its slow creep of destruction results in the loss of…
Read MoreTogether for our African Girls and Young Women
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the concept of gender equality remains abstract and farfetched. In this day and age, there are still girls and young women who lack access to primary and secondary school due to social, cultural, religious or political reasons; who are not yet reached with comprehensive information on their sexual and reproductive health; who…
Read MoreMeaningful Engagement of Boys and Men: A Pathway to Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence
By Betty Adera, Senior Technical Advisor HIV/AIDS and Health, Global Communities The COVID-19 pandemic has brought discussions of domestic violence and abuse of women and girls into the global public discourse. As I have worked in the space of adolescent girls and young women’s health and well-being at the community level for more than 20…
Read MoreStrengthening School Feeding Systems in Tanzania
For the past 10 years, PCI, a Global Communities Partner, has implemented integrated school feeding programs that help deliver essential nutrition, education, health and development services to more than 240,000 preschool and primary students in the Mara Region of Tanzania. With funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and support from stakeholders across multiple…
Read MoreSchool WASH Protects Students and Promotes Healthy Learning
Almost half of schools worldwide have no hand-washing facilities and around one-third of schools do not have safe water supplies or adequate sanitation (WHO/Unicef 2020). Without access to clean water at schools, student health is at risk and they lose valuable learning time by having to walk long distances to collect water, often from unprotected…
Read MoreNurturing Tanzania’s Future through Early Childhood Development
Many parents, guardians and caregivers want to ensure their children have the building block skills needed for success in school and in life. To promote preschool readiness in Tanzania’s Mara Region, PCI, a Global Communities Partner, in collaboration with the Government of Tanzania, designed a new strategic and community-based Early Childhood Development program. Mwalimu wa…
Read MoreJoining Forces Against the COVID-19 Pandemic in Tanzania
In a bold effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania, PCI Tanzania and the Mara regional government have teamed up to jointly implement interventions that will contribute to slowing spread of the disease. More than 55 million cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide, and the last publicly released data from Tanzania showed…
Read MoreDriving Women’s Financial Inclusion Forward with Digital Technology
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world online, a digital shift was taking place in rural Tanzania, and indeed around the world. In August 2019, following years of design and prototype testing, Project Concern International (PCI), a Global Communities Partner, and DreamStart Labs, a financial technology firm, piloted the DreamSave mobile app with 16…
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