Strengthening Resilience Capacities: Learning Journey Insights from Somalia, Niger, and Burkina Faso
Explore how USAID and Center for Resilience-funded activities are putting resilience learning into action.
To help communities worldwide respond to shocks and stressors, USAID and the Center for Resilience fund activities that research and support coping mechanisms to strengthen resilience capacities. This month, explore lessons learned from the Somalia RPM Activity and SCC Activity as they put resilience learning into action.
Meet the Hosts
Wendi Bevins is a Senior Resilience Knowledge Management and Learning Advisor at Mercy Corps, where she provides technical support to resilience-focused program teams. She also supports resilience learning and utilization under the REAL Award. She has roughly a decade of experience in think tanks and INGOs focused on climate resilience, after finding a passion for climate justice as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Albania (2008-2010). She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, five-year-old son, and Daisy the dog.
Jill Scantlan is Mercy Corps’ Senior Resilience Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Advisor based out of Portland, Oregon USA. Jill has 13 years of experience in monitoring, evaluation and research and has authored several publications on resilience measurement, including guidance on recurrent monitoring surveys and what facilitates integration in resilience programs. Jill previously worked as a public health researcher at the Center for Evidence-based Policy at the Oregon Health and Sciences University where she conducted evidence reviews for public health and medical interventions. Jill received her Master’s in Social Epidemiology at the University College London where she focused on social determinants of health.
Meet the Speakers
Jaafarsadiq Hassan is the Chief of Party of Resilience Population-level Measurement Program at Mercy corps based in Mogadishu Somalia. Jaafarsadiq has over 10 years’ experience in resilience programming with diverse programs and models in the Horn Africa Region. As Chief of Party for the Resilience Population-level Measurement Program, he leads the development of a user-centered resilience measurement system in USAID's focal zone. His strategic oversight and implementation leverage on participatory methods to align stakeholder interventions, amplify collective. In previous capacities, he worked with Resilience Learning Activity (RLA) Team Lead where he facilitated and guided partnerships among key stakeholders, towards common objectives and approaches for building resilience in a complex crisis. Likewise, he worked with key resilience consortiums in Somalia where he extensively contributed to the resilience approaches and practices in Somalia.
Rabia Moussa has worked for many years as an expert in digital strategy and development for several United Nations agencies and as a consultant in citizen engagement, gender and digital for the World Bank's Community Action for Climate Resilience Project (PACRC). She also has a background in software engineering and a certificate in business and entrepreneurship from the prestigious Ivy League Dartmouth College. Currently, in addition to being co-founder of the association Developpe-Les (Empower them), she is a Research and Learning Manager with the USAID Sahel Collaboration and Communication (SCC) project. A 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow, 2019 Global Pathfinder Fellow, and 2019 Blog4Dev Niger winner, Rabia is deeply involved in the digital, entrepreneurial, and humanitarian ecosystems. Rabia is also a co-lead of the Google Developer Group Niamey and a Francophone West Africa regional mentor for Google Women TechMakers.
Gildas Rouamba is a Capacity-Building and Development Cooperation Specialist. He possesses a Master's degree in Economic Intelligence and International Development, a Certificate in Technical and Professional Skills Development, a Diploma in Regional/Rural Development Management and an MBA in International Affairs. Mr. Rouamba is a Master Facilitator and Fellowship Manager with the USAID-funded, Mercy Corps implemented “Sahel Collaboration and Communication” (SCC) project. He holds 15 years of national and international experience (Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea Conakry), in implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of local development and facilitation of change/learning processes.