4HerPower Challenge: Innovating for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Community Participatory Development Project (CPDP)
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Community participatory development project is a useful data collection that makes findings, lessons and recommendations, is one that is used and acted upon with added value to learning, decision-making, and accountability and evaluations that will give an accurate timely and will be presented
What is your solution?
The Canada Sierra Leone Friendship Society Inc. (CSLFS Inc.) organization understands that good sexual and reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system. One of the CSLFS Inc. organization projects highlighted the values in sustainable development 17 goals: 3.7, access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for young people is a pressing global concern. SRHR services are essential. Limited access to accurate SRHR information, commodities, and services, and inadequate healthcare infrastructure, coupled with limiting cultural norms and stigmatization, among other factors, hinder young people from realizing their right to the highest attainable standard of health. The crisis of sexual and reproductive health has affected the most disadvantaged and vulnerable disproportionately, particularly individuals in the informal economy and in insecure forms of work; those working in low-skilled jobs; migrants and those belonging to ethnic and racial minorities; young girls, and those with disabilities or living with HIV/AIDS.
To address the problem identified above, CSLFS Inc. organization will employ a human rights-based approach to development, where the Community Participatory Development Project joins young women, girls, and boys to open up parental care in each community member, government officials, stakeholders, and teachers will be empowered to take action to support girls' education.
- CSLS Inc. applying for the solution to the "4Herpower Challenge" of the impacts of climate change amplify human vulnerabilities and risks and further challenge the success of our sustainable development trajectories. There are increasingly small windows of time in which to build back from each shock and stressor. Impacts are exacerbated for those most at risk (e.g., women and girls children, elderly, and marginalized groups).
- Responding to the "4HerPower Challenge" on CPDP risks to impacts requires transdisciplinary, cross-scale, and cross-sector action on community participation and collaborations to identify the main key factors that linkages in CSLFS Inc. and developing ways to build adaptive capacity and resilience.4HerPower Challenge on innovating for sexual and reproductive health and rights challenge risks with the transboundary and multilateral system on climate change impacts (eg., food, health, migration, water), together with uncertainties about future manifestations, make risks harder to predict and act upon.
- A focus on 4HerPower Challenge: Innovating for sexual and reproductive health and rights challenges on equity and justice is essential for effective responses in vulnerable poor countries like Sierra Leone West Africa. The comprehensive governance of organizations like CSLFS Inc. responses, transdisciplinary collaboration and integration, and collective decision-making at multiple scales that focus on underlying social and political barriers (i.e., equity, marginalization, institutions).
- There is insufficient financing to support communities to develop locally led resilience activities to respond to increasing 4HerPower Challenge risks and impacts.
- 4HerPower challenge innovating for sexual and reproductive health and rights stimulus packages that will ensure a healthy environment for children, women, and girls' basic livelihoods, as well as access to education, community health centers in the renewable energy CSLFS Inc organization projects, will help build adaptive capacity, resilience and reduce future risks.
What specific problem are you solving?
The Canada Sierra Leone Friendship Society Inc. (CSLFS Inc.) organization "Community Participatory Development Project (CPDP) will therefore target young women and girls aged 2-19 years who are mostly in the hands of vulnerable members, living in poor communities, disabilities, and from lower, upper primary school and lower secondary school, where this problems is most prevalent in Sierra Leone West Africa.
- Traditional gender norms around old men for younger girls aged 2-5 of sexual penetration (putting fingering to younger girls Virginia), 2-6 young boys in their village communities who are nicked unclothed are in the habit of fingering each other while their parents are working in their farms, 6-19 cultural norms around marriage proposal and childbearing often constrain girls' opportunities for education. Many communities in Sierra Leone West Africa have negative attitudes towards the lack of education for girls and as a result, lesser priority is given to boys and government politicians in education.. Girls are seen as relatively transitory assets not worth long-term investment, as they leave their parents' household upon marriage and have children on their own. Spending valuable resources such as money to pay for their education is therefore considered a waste because they are expected to be supported by their husbands once they get married quickly.
- There are higher opportunity costs associated with girls' education in Sierra Leone West Africa. Girls are too often burdened with household chores at the cost of opportunities to build their lives. Compared to boys, girls carry a heavier workload and have less free time than boys. Girls, unlike boys, are expected to conduct most household chores while both boys and girls often help with the farm, fishing, hunting, and local mineral mining work. For poor families, girls work inside the home to subsidize the household economy, through a range of household services such as fetching fuel, firewood, and water to cooking, childcare, and dependent care.
- Poverty, hunger, and lack of economic alternatives lead many young children, young women, and girls to take significant risks. Sexual relationships between young women, girls, and older partners and governments and politicians are a common source of money for food, school fees, and other necessities for poor young women and girls in many settings. Many young women and girls lack access to the most basic sexual reproductive health information, even relating to the significance and management of their menstrual periods. Menstruation causes high levels of absenteeism among young women, girls, and younger girls aged 2-5 as a result of fingering and sexual reproductive actions, and some girls drop out of school after reaching puberty because of the difficulty of managing menstruation while in school. Healthcare services make it difficult for young people to access education, especially more vulnerable young girls such as rural and village youths in their communities. According to CSLFS Inc. CPDP investigation discussions, some family and community members, and even health care staff, often prevent young people from obtaining these services or fail to protect their privacy and confidentiality.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
In Sierra Leone West Africa many adolescent girls lack access to the most basic sexual reproductive health protection information, even relating to the significance and management of their menstrual periods. Menstruation causes high levels of absenteeism among adolescent girls and some girls drop out of school after reaching puberty because of the difficulty of managing menstruation while in school. Health care services are difficult for young people to access, especially more vulnerable adolescents such as rural villagers youth. Family and community members, and even health care staff, often prevent young people from obtaining these services or fail to protect their privacy and confidentiality, which in turn deters young people from using these services. Lack of information on SRH often causes many adolescent girls to fall pregnant and therefore drop out of school, where unwanted pregnancies and early marriages frequently put an end to their aspirations for education and an economic livelihood. Although the education Policy in Sierra Leone is called the "free education system" which allows girls to return to school after giving birth, 95% of the girls do not go back to school. The process of readmission often takes too long, sometimes up to 2-3 years which is a setback for young women already battling community pressure to get married rather than return to school. Lack of financial of by their school items, food, and clothing, and maintaining their standards are very difficult made them drop out of girls.
The project is set to directly benefit 16,200 adolescents from 6 districts out of the 16 districts in Sierra Leone. Of these beneficiaries, 11,340 (113.4%) will be girls while the remainder (4,860) will be boys. The target benefits will be adolescents from 10-14 years in the proposed project areas of the northern, Eastern, central, and southern regions of Port Loko District, Lunsar Massimirah, Themebo, Makeni, Bo, Lungi, Kabala, Kono. These direct beneficiaries will be trained and sensitized on their right to education, gender, and sexual reproductive services. Furthermore, 3,240 (32.4% of the total beneficiaries) adolescents will be trained as peer-to-peer educators who will be going for international training workshops to communicate and collaborate with a clear picture of the transformation of their international education to train and support other adolescents in their respective district communities. Another set of direct beneficiaries will be 216 members of school management committees (SMC) and 216 head teachers and teachers from 27 schools that will be selected from the proposed project areas. These teachers and SMC members will have their capacity built and strengthened in school leadership and management. In addition to this, 6 district-level government officials will directly benefit from this project in the form of capacity building for them to provide technical support to the schools. The direct benefits of this project have been selected based on the findings arising from the Health Situation Analysis carried out by Health Sanitation Sierra Leone. Through the CPDP, the target group was involved in issue identification, which formed the basis for the design of this project.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Among the many challenges of the CSLFS Inc. mission, the vision statement for the sustainable development goal stands out as the one most deeply rooted in anthropogenic challenges that endanger young women's and girl's well-being. The complexity of assessing, dealing with, and containing young women and girls' risks has been investigated in the literature (local communities in Sierra Leone West Africa change is that impacts can only occur through a gradual increase in the interaction of multiple community participation. The government leader's connection to families plays a key role in abusing young women because of power, poverty range is another factor in young women of early marriage, lack of quality education and lack of after-school programs is another factor of sexual penetration and the contribution of parental care and young girls are the breadwinner of the families. Sierra Leonean young women and girls are at risk for sexual and gender-based violence in the form of domestic violence, sexual assault of adults and minors, marital rape, school-related sexual abuse, and harmful traditional practices like female genital mutilation. USAID is engaging a broad range of stakeholders to identify the various drivers of sexual and gender-based violence across different segments of the population around the country and will support local organizations in developing and piloting interventions designed to reduce its prevalence while maintaining cultural and social integrity.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Enable young people’s meaningful participation in SRHR cross-sector collaboration, including but not limited to fields such as legal, policy and advocacy.In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Winnipeg, MB, CanadaWhat is your solution’s stage of development?
Concept: An idea for building a product, service, or business model that is being explored for implementation; please note that Concept-stage solutions will not be reviewed or selected as Solver teams
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Zainab Mansaray: CEO/Founder
What makes your solution innovative?
What makes CSLFS Inc. CPDP solution innovative approaches, is that the organization is a forum for cultural exchange through the promotion of cultural values in housing, health care, educational skills, agriculture for food security, farming/mining, and fighting for climate change and adaptation values. In addition, it provides community-based job training skills, education, and social and economic activities to improve individual members’ equality of life, hence hereby resolving the forming of healthy sexual reproductive norms to alleviate poverty to develop the communities and manage conflict.
The CSLFS Inc. of Conduct is a set of commitments that sets out that Organization for Change is expected to treat one another and can expect to be treated. CSLFS Inc. is committed to cultivating a generation of young place young women at the center of decision-making. The organization making rightful innovative solutions by empowering women and gender-diverse youth to increasingly take their rightful seat at decision-making tables in communities around Canada and in Sierra Leone. There may be instances of belittling microaggressions, and/or outright isolation. When confronted with such instances, all CSLFS Inc. stakeholders and board members will take immediate action and beneficiaries are invited to seek the support of the organization and international network. Additionally, all CSLFS Inc. stakeholders can expect their personal and sensitive data to be handled confidentially and stored safely. CLSFS Inc. CPDP is centered around young women to enhance young people's access to SRHR information, commodities, and services. Strengthen the capacity and engagement of young innovators in the development, implementation, and growth of solutions addressing their SRHR needs related to "Good sexual and reproductive health" discussions.
CSLFS Inc. participants are provided extraordinary cherished opportunities. All participants are expected to take full advantage of the project implementation by:
- Serving as an ambassador for CSLFS Inc. in all decision-making spaces;
- Communities participating beneficiaries meaningfully in discussions, asking thoughtful questions, committed to listening and learning;
- Pushing yourself beyond your old comfort zone;
- Arriving at events and project participation on time and being respectful of other’s time;
- Taking advantage of project opportunities;
- Fully participating in the community pre-event coursework and assignments;
- Acting and dressing in a way that befits children, women, young and senior leaders;
- Taking responsibility for meeting all deadlines;
Together Ensemble is dedicated to providing a harassment-free environment for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, parties, and social media. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference at the discretion of the conference organizers. Harassment includes offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion, technology choices, sexual images, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, and unwelcome sexual attention.
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?
- Sustainability mechanisms: We want to explore alliances that allow us to know, learn, and evaluate sustainability mechanisms of the strategy from the point of view of social innovation in health.
- Monitoring, follow-up, and impact measurement systems: we have little development in advanced data monitoring and follow-up systems of as much scope as the ones we are now managing, for which we consider that there is a learning opportunity or we can become an attractive project in this area for expert academic groups in these areas.
- Technological developments: Our entire organization project business model now depends on an in-house product that is a technological platform for digital inter-consultation between the CPDP and the sponsored hospitals. In addition, much of the communication with hospitals is done through WhatsApp because it is widely accepted among Colombians. However, we believe we can learn about new business models, especially now with the development of artificial intelligence.
- International workshops educational model: For now, the entire educational process we are carrying out and the scholarly communication with the hospitals is through WhatsApp. We must build a virtual education platform that hospital staff can access and support similar projects in Canada or any international health facility.
- Visibility of the strategy: We believe it will allow us to make ourselves known in academic and world scenarios where we are just learning to make our work visible. Our Global Health Equity unit's basic principles are global health and social innovation in health. It is very young (less than six months old), and we need to learn and know strategies to make ourselves visible and generate alliances with similar programs worldwide.
- Financial funds: As a strategy that has been 70% self-financed by the CEO/Founder, we depend on alliances with donors, MIT SOLVE Solution “Good sexual and reproductive health from different areas that support our work to grow and increase our coverage.
Describe in simple terms how and why you expect your solution to have an impact on the problem.
CSLFS Inc. CPDP on "Good sexual and reproductive health is that solution powers systemic perspectives in an economy, which in our case means seeing economic exchange not in isolation between only two parties (like from one seller to one buyer), but as larger network structures that include the sequences of exchanges that brought economic value into the seller, as well as the sequences of exchanges that will move economic value further on from the buyer. This evolves economic exchanges to be more inclusive of those indirectly affected or vested.
The primary barrier we face, by far, is cultural, due to the paradigm shift from seeing the economy as a collection of separate events between only two parties (eg. a seller and a buyer) to seeing it as a networked system where a single economic event is a network pattern that includes many stakeholders. Audiences who have a background or exposure to systems thinking and tackling big and complex problems have an easier time with this shift. MIT Solve can expose us to preeminent such audiences, allow us to communicate the solution fluently, and most importantly - distill and amplify our message so it can be received by a far greater audience.
We can certainly benefit tremendously from any partner connections made through Solve, even just from simple feedback, especially in helping us identify more blind spots, especially with legal topics. We are not aware of any legal barriers, especially because our system does not collect deposits, does not hold other people's money, has nothing to do with crypto, and our supporters are technically "resellers" so they do not fall under regulations for investors. But there might be issues with interpretation, or updated laws coming into place as we progress.
- Financial (e.g. accounting practices, pitching to investors)
- Monitoring & Evaluation (e.g. collecting/using data, measuring impact)
- Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)
- Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design
If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:
https://cslfs.org/gallery/sierra-leone
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
What is your business model?
The CSLFS Inc. nonprofit business model is the financial structure of nonprofits, broken down into four core components. The CSLFS Inc. CPDEP is a revenue mix, education and expenses, program cost, and capital structure that defines our organization's business model value for the community we save and sustains the business entity.The CSLFS Inc. is a forum for cultural exchange through the promotion of cultural values in housing, advocating for children, young women, and girls marginalization, social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system, health care, educational skills, agriculture for food security, health care, farming/mining, and fighting for climate change and adaptation values. In addition, it provides community-based job training skills, education, and social and economic activities to improve individual members’ equality of life, hence hereby resolving the forming of non-profit different projects to alleviate poverty in order to develop the communities and manage conflict. Together Ensemble is dedicated to providing a harassment-free environment for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, parties, and social media. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference at the discretion of the conference organizers.
Harassment includes offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion, technology choices, sexual images, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, and unwelcome sexual attention.
Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference.
We expect participants to follow these rules within the conference and conference-related discussion elsewhere online.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable?
CSLFS Inc. is a non-profit organization with social enterprise business models that apply and generate business solutions to social problems in sustainability participatory work with voluntary people in Sierra Leone West Africa. This organization project's ultimate goal is to achieve sustainability by enabling the CSLFS Inc. non-profits to support themselves financially in innovative ways instead of relying solely on grants and donations. Since there are no shareholders in a non-profit organization, the profits from the related social enterprise are completely re-invested in the work of the organization's projects. The emergence of revenue-generating activities for no profits has and will create a new operating model where business principles, market characteristics, and values of competition diversification, entrepreneurship, innovation, and a focus on the bottom line co-exist and work with cultural traditional public segment values like responsiveness to communities and serving the public interest. CSLFS Inc. is essential to the success as a social enterprise that will be effective in the business model by:
- Strengthening supportive networks nationally and globally, that is in Canada and in Sierra Leone;
- Posting active activities, supportive and encouraging messages;
- Seeking support, advice, or commiseration for tough situations;
- Sharing news and updates.
CSLFS Inc. does not tolerate bullying, intimidation, or harassment of any kind on the organization’s project activities, or social media platforms of community groups. Any posts deemed without beneficiaries' consent will be removed and investigated in Canada and Sierra Leone.
CSLFS Inc. participants are provided extraordinary cherished opportunities. All participants are expected to take full advantage of the project implementation by:
- Serving as an ambassador for CSLFS Inc. in all decision-making spaces;
- Communities participating beneficiaries meaningfully in discussions, asking thoughtful questions, committed to listening and learning;
- Pushing yourself beyond your old comfort zone;
- Arriving at events and project participation on time and being respectful of other’s time;
- Taking advantage of project opportunities;
- Fully participating in the community pre-event coursework and assignments;
- Acting and dressing in a way that befits children, women, and young and senior leaders;
- Taking responsibility for meeting all deadlines;
- If you are on legal drinking age in the local community/country and choose to consume alcohol, ensure it does not limit your ability to fully participate in events on the day programming or the following day.
Solution Team
-
Ms. Zainab Mansaray Ms. CEO/Founder, Canada Sierra Leone Friendship Society Inc (CSLFS Inc) affiliated with Canada-Africa Relation Enterprises Inc. (CARE) INC.
to Top
What is the name of your solution?
Community Participatory Development Project (CPDP)