We’re referring to the groups already at work in the child’s country. We want to make sure children have the best, most effective programing possible – and that often comes from sharing knowledge and pooling resources. In addition to the communities we serve, we often partner with other humanitarian and faith-based organizations. And in many cases, it makes sense to partner with government ministries within children’s countries. It can be a powerful way to strengthen capacity in areas like health or agriculture.

A recent example? Our SATISFY project in West Africa. We worked to improve food security in countries where El Nino weather patterns have drastically increased the chance of drought. We joined with local Ministries of Agriculture and Health in four countries: Ghana, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

We also worked hard to ensure that local community leaders and traditional leaders were involved in the planning. And we worked with an equal representation of women and men.

Tirelessly. We’re never content with ‘good enough’ when it comes to helping children. We’re constantly learning from our results, developing our programs in response to new information or findings, and refining our work to do an even better job.

One of the tools we use to do this is LEAP – Learning, Evaluation, Accountability and Planning. This approach allows World Vision to design, monitor and evaluate our programs. We collect data on our programs, noting and recording statistics that reflect the impact of our programs on children’s lives.

Here are some examples of the things we track:

• children’s growth rates, in response to our nutrition programs
• children’s reading and writing abilities, in response to our education programs
• children’s decrease in waterborne illness, in response to our water programs

Once we gather information, it’s synthesized with findings from across the World Vision global partnership.  Experts in areas like nutrition and education carefully analyze the results. What worked and what didn’t? Why or why not? We then bring what we’ve learned back to communities.

You’ve read that our community development partnerships last from 10 to 15 years. And that our partnerships with local governments are important if our programs are to succeed. But in the world’s toughest places, more traditional community development work – like sponsorship – is often impossible. In parts of South Sudan, Somalia or Syria for instance, life is turbulent, unpredictable and often very dangerous.

Yet children in these places still badly need our help – perhaps even more than children in more stable regions.  Through initiatives like Raw Hope, we develop innovative, flexible, situation-specific programming to meet children where they are. We speak up for these children and their needs, through the media and with governments and world bodies. And we keep you apprised of their situations, offering ways to help.