DAI

DAI’s CEO James (Jim) Boomgard and President Tine Knott recently visited and engaged with #Nigeria corporate staff, major stakeholders, and project leadership in #Abuja and #Lagos. This meeting provided insights into the Nigerian team’s strategy for 2026, project updates, and next steps. For more on DAI in #Nigeria, visit https://buff.ly/3Tgr67s

Millions of children struggle to acquire minimum levels of proficiency in reading, writing, and numeracy, with more than 70 percent of Nigerian children below age 10 unable to read or understand a simple sentence. Research shows that children whose first language is not their language of instruction are more likely to drop out or fail in early grades. Working with state governments through FCDO-PLANE Nigeria, children are provided with resources that promote multilingual education. The introduction of Hausa as the primary teaching language in state-run primary schools in the three states led to a 15 percent increase in pupils able to read and perform foundational mathematics at the Grade 1 level. The PLANE project's partner states now teach all children basic #literacy and #numeracy skills in Hausa, providing 554,648 young learners in Kano, Kaduna, and Jigawa states with literacy and numeracy textbooks in their mother tongue. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office PLANE’s efforts to combine traditional #learning systems with the modern primary education curriculum, provide consistent professional development for teachers, and improve teaching and learning materials are enabling millions of children in Northern Nigeria to access higher-quality primary-level teaching and learning. Read more: https://buff.ly/3z74aRg Happy #LiteracyDay!

We hope you can join us at ISWA 2024 in Cape Town this week, where DAI's Joshua Palfreman will be presenting on two important solid waste management issues. #ISWA24 #SolidWaste #CircularEconomy Jette Findsen Kevin Carlucci Walter Weaver

We are very pleased to welcome Joe Phillips as the new Head of Trade & Investment to our U.K. Economic Growth unit. His extensive technical domain experience, plus his strengths in team leadership, business development, and implementation of international economic development strategies and programs, will be a great asset to the team. He is also taking on the role of Program Director for our Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office-funded Nepal in Business project. https://buff.ly/3XveFY2 https://buff.ly/3XeB6PO Nandi Hall Luqman Ahmad Nilu Basnyat

The USAID #Nigeria Youth-Powered Ecosystem to Advance Urban Adolescent Health (YPE4AH) project reached more than 300,000 adolescents through various interventions across the Youth Hubs, which served as safe spaces for adolescents. The project fostered a sense of ownership and agency through active involvement of the target demographic and in turn, empowered more than 67,000 adolescents with life skills. The efforts of the project prevented more than 7,000 unintended pregnancies and averted more than 2,900 unsafe abortions by providing informed family planning services to more than 90,000 adolescents through youth-friendly trained providers.

#Malawi’s Domestic Resource Mobilization Strategy (DRMS) aimed to boost tax compliance and raise the revenue-to-GDP ratio to fund national development. However, key challenges in tax administration—such as incomplete automation, an unreliable taxpayer database, and low compliance caused by lack of transparency—hindered progress. To tackle these, DAI, under the #EuropeanUnion funded Public Finance Management Reforms Programme (Chuma Cha Dziko), is supporting a cultural and behavioral transformation program at the Malawi Revenue Authority (#MRA). Launched in February 2022, the program focused on changing the behavior, attitudes, and mindsets of MRA staff to improve revenue collection, promote accountability, and enhance service delivery. The initiative targeted a change in behavior and culture and fostering a culture of transparency, performance and excellence. This strategic approach earned DAI and our experts a Change Management Award, recognizing its pivotal role in improving MRA’s capacity to mobilize domestic revenue and drive sustainable growth in Malawi. ✔ Read more about the change management approach in the paper 📑 "Landing Transformational Cultural Change in Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) in Africa", produced by project expert Professor Hazel Gachunga ➡ https://bit.ly/4egazIX #EU I Malawi Revenue Authority I #ChangeManagement #Leadership #TaxReform #PublicFinance I Professor Hazel Gachunga I Jaime Warne I Sofia Pla I Djordje Puaca

Join DAI's Alma Porciuncula, Chief of Party for the USAID Safe Water project on Tuesday 10 September at 10am BST (5am EST) at the Water Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) Conference for a virtual session on Water Security: Planning, Assessment and Monitoring. Alma will share insights from the project on integrating local water security planning through shared evidence and data in the Philippines. Registration is FREE (https://buff.ly/3yXmcpd) Jane Clifford Jette Findsen Jeanne Ellis Kate Wilson HARGREAVES

The Government of Uganda recently launched the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, making Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) grain standards mandatory for all public procurement. This is a culmination of a collaboration between Feed the Future USAID #Uganda Inclusive Agricultural Markets Activity, UNBS, and the Ministry of Education and Sports to promote food safety in schools and other public institutions, which are among the major consumers of grain products. Through the collaboration, FtF IAM has also supported grain processers in obtaining UNBS certification through technical assistance by Partners in Food Solutions and Food Safety Associates. More about FtF IAM: https://buff.ly/4cJhCZl

Nepal faces various environmental challenges, from illegal wildlife trade to climate-related hazards such as forest fires. The media is crucial in tackling these challenging issues by raising public awareness and driving behavior change. The USAID Biodiversity (Jal Jangal) project is helping to advance environmental advocacy in Nepal by increasing media engagement and building journalists' capacity to deliver better key environmental messages. The project recently trained 65 local journalists on evidence-based environmental reporting. This was followed by mentorship and fellowship programs for 18 journalists which led to the publication of 36 quality media articles on issues such as human-wildlife conflict, climate change, and illegal wildlife trafficking. The initiative encouraged diverse perspectives and strengthened journalists’ reporting skills. The journalists engaged with local communities and helped amplify the voices of marginalized groups and Community Forest User Groups to highlight their challenges with deforestation and climate change. The project also introduced ‘editorial takeover’ events where Media Fellows took on editorial roles at three media outlets, using the opportunity to emphasize biodiversity coverage. Photo: Jamuna Niure, a Media Fellow from Kailali district interviews a community member in Surkhet for a story on flood displaced populations. Photo credit: Srijana Budhathoki #USAIDBiodiversity #JalJangal #CommunityEmpowerment Irina Karki Tammie Harris Christel Bonaro Kimberly Keeton Kevin Carlucci Jette Findsen

DAI's Joshua Palfreman will present at #ISWA24 in Cape Town next week. Below he is getting the conversation started on plastics and organic valorisation. Jette Findsen Walter Weaver Kevin Carlucci