Dear Colleagues,
Greetings from Cambodia! I have finally been able to travel back to see our USAID-funded One Window for Citizens (OW4C) activity in person. What a joy it has been to meet our incredible Cambodian team – including two dedicated local partners – in person. I am grateful to have a chance to learn more, consider the future of our work in Cambodia, and to thank the individuals who have been the drivers of this project’s success.
NGS has undergone substantial growth and maturity as an implementing partner in the past few years, and we are launching this quarterly newsletter to keep our supporters up to date on all the exciting things that are happening. In this newsletter, we will feature project highlights, NGS updates, and employment opportunities. Please feel free to share with others.
Select Project Highlights
USAID/Cambodia OW4C Project
In Cambodia, NGS is supporting civil society and public dialogue with local government officials to enhance accountability and improve government services. In early 2022, the NGS team in Cambodia hosted a series of One Window Service Office (OWSO) public forums to facilitate engagement between citizens and government officials at the district and provincial level. Citizens raised specific questions and suggestions on registering public transportation, registering a business, passport services, issuance of national ID cards, opening a new business, plate processing for motorcycles and cars, new house construction, registering land, and land title transfer, and other topics. District and OWSO officials, as well as the Ombudsperson, responded to questions publicly.
Photo: OWSO Public Forum in PoiPet Municipality in January 2022. This event attracted twice the anticipated number of participants, who had the opportunity to ask questions of government officials.
OW4C also regularly conducts door-to-door campaigns via Youth Ambassadors to inform citizens of the public services available to them and to demonstrate our Pidor, the Smart Villager civic tech tools, which provide citizens information on how to apply for those services (i.e., documents, associated fees, delivery standards) and the ability to anonymously provide feedback on the services received. I was able to observe our Youth Ambassadors in Battambang and in Banteay Meanchey. Engaging youth in civic dialogue – and particularly providing training they need to be effective communicators and advocates – is a strategy that NGS will continue to employ across our programming.
USAID/DRG – ASS
As a major subcontractor to WWC Global on the institutional support contract to USAID’s Democracy, Rights, and Governance (DRG) Center, NGS provides core staff as well as subject matter experts to support the DRG Center’s ongoing requirements. In the wake of the Summit for Democracy (S4D), NGS has been busy sourcing, hiring, and onboarding experts with specific technical expertise to help USAID deliver on the commitments made by the USG at the S4D. In the past few months, we have hired a Labor Expert, Technology and Democracy Expert, International Social Movements and Collective Action Expert, and a Partnerships for Democracy Strategy and Design Consultant. Currently, we are hiring a Summit for Democracy (S4D) Year of Action Coordinator and a Justice, Rights, and Security Consultant. Please share these openings with anyone you know who may be a good fit for one of these roles.
USAID/OTI
NGS is also proud to support USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) as a major subcontractor on the institutional support contract. We held our kickoff meeting in January and since then have been up to exciting work. We successfully onboarded five M&E Advisors very shortly after the kickoff meeting. They are doing great work with OTI and travel is beginning to ramp up for that team with TDYs in support of SWIFT programming. Additionally, we have hired and onboarded two Administrative and Operations Specialists, and we are recruiting for several more. It is an exciting time for NGS as we grow our number of employees!
USAID/Ethiopia CLA Co-Creation Workshop
NGS recently worked with USAID/Ethiopia to design and facilitate a co-creation workshop for the mission’s CLA Platform. Planning for this project commenced in February, and through the concerted efforts of the Learning Team at USAID/Ethiopia, in coordination with representatives of all offices across the Ethiopia Mission, USAID/Djibouti and USAID/Washington, the agenda and session plans were completed in mid-March. During the final week of March, NGS facilitated the workshop, which achieved the following objectives:
Submitters gained an understanding of USAID current thinking and the needs/gaps in CLA M&E space for both the Ethiopia and Djibouti Missions.
Submitters had an opportunity to exchange ideas and strategies, helping them to strengthen their proposals and, in some cases, their consortia.
USAID had an opportunity to hear creative ideas and innovative approaches from perspectives that would strengthen its approaches to CLA and M&E.
NGS Updates
NGS Celebrates Five Years
March 25th marked the five-year anniversary of NGS. It was nice to celebrate this accomplishment with colleagues, friends, and family who have been big supporters of NGS these last five years. I was able to reflect on how the company has grown since NGS was first “born,” and I’m incredibly proud of our achievements to date. We are doing great work around the world. We are becoming the reliable, credible implementing partner we envisioned. We are grateful for the support everyone has shown us, and we look forward to continuing to grow.Communications
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