Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
19 July 2023
Post No. 309
The Week’s Contents
• Happiness and Healthiness Projects for Children, Young People and Families in Summer 2023
• July 2023 All-in-one Impact Feedback and Assessment (Level 2): Impact Assessment of ‘Build Forward Together Cleaner, Greener and Safer’ Programme to Deal with the Damaging Effects of the Cost-of-living Crisis (Activity 2)
• Data Insight and Analytics for ‘Build Forward Together Cleaner, Greener and Safer’ Programme to Deal with the Damaging Effects of the Cost-of-living Crisis (Activity 2)
… And much more!
Key Messages
• Happiness and Healthiness Projects for Children, Young People and Families in Summer 2023
The lingering impacts of the coronavirus, extreme temperatures and the damaging effects of the fall in real household disposable incomes continue to pose an enormous challenge to the plan of many poor children, young people and families (CYPFs) to have a decent, affordable, happy and healthy Summer holiday. Despite this challenge, there are still openings and opportunities available within the community and voluntary sectors to work together with these poor CYPFs so that they can navigate their way to have a happy and healthy Summer break. These opportunities and possibilities include CENFACS’ Happiness and Healthiness Projects.
CENFACS’ Happiness and Healthiness Projects may not be the panacea for their problems; however they could be a step forward to pulling together with these CYPFs and support them to enjoy some forms of happiness and healthiness during this Summer season. The projects can make a difference by helping to alleviate poverty linked to the lack of happiness and healthiness. They can assist in reducing happiness and healthiness gaps within our community while building trust and positive social connections to sustain happiness and healthiness. But what is happiness; what is healthiness?
• • Understanding Happiness
There are many ways of explaining happiness. According to ‘sloww.co’ (1), happiness is about solving the following (in)equation:
Happiness ≥ Events – Expectations
From this (in)equation, this website explains that
“The way we link about the events of our life and compare them to realistic expectations is what makes us happy or unhappy”.
John F. Helliwell at al. (2) go further in their World Happiness Report 2023 by re-providing six factors of happiness which are income, healthy life expectancy, social support or having someone to count on in times of trouble, having a sense of freedom to make key life decisions, generosity, and the absence of corruption.
These factors are included in the design of CENFACS’ Happiness Projects 2023.
• • Explaining Healthiness
There are many ways of explaining and measuring healthiness. For example, ‘healthicine.org’ (3) speaks about individual measures of healthiness which include personal healthiness, nutritional healthiness, mental healthiness, etc. The same ‘healthicine.org’ tells us that each individual healthiness can be measured on a scale and shows it as deficient, normal, optimal or excessive. Deficient and excessive are both unhealthy.
One can use ‘calculatory’ system healthiness to find out if they are healthy or unhealthy. They can refer the body mass index (4) calculator to find out if their weight is healthy or not. They can as well refer to the metrics of calorie counting (5) to track what they eat and count calories.
These explanations and measures about healthiness have been included in the design of CENFACS’ Healthiness Projects 2023.
The Happiness and Healthiness Projects (or 6.3 Programme), which make the second part of our Summer Programme 2023, are made of six Summer initiatives to support 3 types of beneficiaries. These projects are the result of discussions with the members of the CENFACS Community; particularly poor children, young people and families making this community. They are designed for them as potential beneficiaries.
• • Features of Happiness and Healthiness Projects 2023
There are three features about this year’s Happiness and Healthiness Projects which are the link between CENFACS‘ services and life satisfaction of CENFACS‘ members, the distribution of life satisfaction amongst CENFACS‘ members, and social media and trackers in CENFACS‘ community happiness and healthiness. These features are highlighted in the Main Development section of this post. Under this Main Development section of this post you can also find the list of Happiness and Healthiness Projects making our Summer Programme or Programme 6.3. Their contents will be unveiled as we move on and implement them during this Summertime.
For those who would like to have detailed or further information about each of the projects or the full 2023 version of this second part of our Summer Programme (that is Happiness and Healthiness Projects), they can contact CENFACS.
• July 2023 All-in-one Impact Feedback and Assessment (Level 2): Impact Assessment of ‘Build Forward Together Cleaner, Greener and Safer’ Programme to Deal with the Damaging Effects of the Cost-of-living Crisis (Activity 2)
Our work on this year’s All-in-one Impact Feedback and Assessment has moved to level 2. The latter is about assessing the changes that may have occurred as result of the Programme of Building Forward Together Cleaner, Greener and Safer to Deal with the Damaging Effects of the Cost-of-living Crisis. The damaging effects of the cost-of-living crisis are simply the detrimental effects of the fall in real household disposable incomes. Before going any further, let us re-explain what this programme is about.
• • What is Build-Forward-Better Programme?
Build Forward Better Programme (BFBP) is a set of projects and activities designed with the aim to ensure that the recovery from the cost-of-living crisis sits on sound and sustainable foundations that help beneficiaries to move forward better cleaner, greener and safer.
To move forward, it would be good to refer to what the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (6) states about building forward better, which is
“Building forward means not only that no one is left behind but that people living in poverty are actively encouraged and supported to be in the front, engaging in informed and meaningful participation in decision-making processes that directly affect their lives”.
From this perspective, our Impact Assessment will consider four areas of assessment which include (a) reduction of endemic structural disadvantages and inequalities, (b) dismantling structures of discrimination disadvantaging the poor, (c) building on the moral and legal framework of human rights that places human dignity at the heart of policy and action, and (d) positively transforming our relationship with nature.
The assessment will be on the way our community members have rebuilt their lives in relation to these areas of the programme. For example, we could assess how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with the cost-of-living crisis or with their relationship with nature.
The programme has been scheduled for two years (2021 to 2023) depending on the duration of the cost-of-living crisis, with a possibility of roll out.
Through this programme, it was thought the following three ideas:
1) Beneficiaries would make steady progress in their journey to overcome the cost-of-living crisis
2) The work of reconstruction from the asymmetrical and distributional impacts of cost-of-living crisis would be undertaken as no one should be left behind
3) There would be preparation to stay resilient to future similar shocks and crises.
These three ideas are the ones we are assessing in terms of their impact.
The programme has two orientations, which are: Build Forward Better with the CENFACS Community (programme beneficiaries) in the UK and Build Forward Better with Africa-based Sister Organisations in Africa.
This is the programme we are trying to assess. To assess it, we are going to refer to what theories say about impact assessment, and to apply or experiment these theories in the context of this programme.
• • What Do Theories Say about Impact Assessment?
Intrac (7) summarises some of the positions around impact assessment by giving two definitions (from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and Roche) of impact within social development, which are as follows: an impact is
“The positive and negative, primary and secondary, long-term effects produced by a development intervention, directly or indirectly, intended or unintended” (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2010)
“Lasting or significant change – positive or negative, intended or not – in people’s lives brought about by an action or a series of actions” (Roche, 1999)
• • How We are Going to Apply these Definitions
We are going to use both definitions in these ways:
(a) Roche’s definition will help to capture short-term and meaningful changes in terms of life-changing benefits such as savings made on energy and food consumption to manage the cost-of-living crisis. We can as well include humanitarian appeals we made (e.g. The Polycrises-impacted Children of East Africa Need your Influence Right Now) to deal with events in Africa like environmental crisis (drought), war, famine, etc. that are affecting those in need in Africa.
(b) The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) definition will enable to include long-term changes in CENFACS’ capacity and system of poverty reduction (e.g. the hybrid advisory service that we set up as a result of cost-of-living crisis will continue in the future, particularly during this challenging and changing time of overlapping multiple crises).
To conclude, we are still carrying out impact assessment or assessing change on an on-going basis (or impact monitoring) while doing another impact assessment or assessing actual change for some of our 2022-2023 programmes and projects that have reached the end of their lives. This impact assessment will be carried out until the 31st of July 2023.
The results of these impact assessments will be published in our end-of-year 2022-2023 accounts and other impact reporting documents in due course.
• Data Insight and Analytics for ‘Build Forward Together Cleaner, Greener and Safer’ Programme to Deal with the Damaging Effects of the Cost-of-living Crisis (Activity 2)
From 17 to 31 July 2023, we will be looking at the patterns and other meaningful information gathered from the analysis of data from the programme of Building Forward Together Cleaner, Greener and Safer Programme; while we are conducting an impact assessment of the same programme. In other words, we are working to find out, interpret and communicate patterns in data in a meaningful way to the work of CENFACS relating to this programme. This exercise will help to know what data found will be telling us.
• • Engaging with the Analytics and Insight Activity
We are continuing to ask supporters and users as well as Africa-based Sister Organisations to engage with us in responding and reacting to our poverty relief work in their own words, voices, infographics and numbers. They can rate and or provide a statement about these programmes and projects. Where possible, they can provide information graphics (such as charts, graphs, images, etc.). The data collected via their response will be processed and analysed to see if there is a meaningful pattern in them.
If anyone has data or information regarding the advice service we provided via for example the advice sessions we ran or resource we produced to help the community to build forward together cleaner, greener and safer; this is the opportunity to share these data or information with us.
To share data with us and or engage with this analytics activity, please contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• Summer 2023 Festival of Thoughts and Actions with a Focus on Financial Inclusion to Improve the Quality of Poor People’s Lives
• Impact Monitoring and Evaluation of 2022-2023 Programmes, Projects and Activities: Only 12 Days to Go!
• CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum e-discusses Debt Crisis and Intergenerational Poverty: What Africa-based Sister Organisations (ASOs) Can Do to Help
• Summer 2023 Festival of Thoughts and Actions with a Focus on Financial Inclusion to Improve the Quality of Poor People’s Lives
The 15th Edition of our Summer Festival of Thoughts and Actions will start from Saturday the 22nd of July 2023 as scheduled.
Our thoughts and actions on Financial Inclusion will be about understanding poor people’s needs, particularly the need of financial inclusion, whether these needs are met or unmet; as well as to know the barriers they encounter to access and use their transaction account.
• • Who are these poor people?
They are
√ formerly financially excluded
√ financially underserved poor consumers of financial products and services
√ unbanked including poor women
√ those exclusively relying on cash transactions
√ financially digitally illiterate and innumerate
√ the older generations unable to handle digitally-enabled transactions
√ financially excluded by the adverse impacts of the overlapping multiple crises (the lingering effects of the coronavirus, the cost-of-living crisis, etc)
etc.
To help anyone who wants to participate to the Festival, we have put together supporting festival information under the following headings:
∝ Making any contributions in the form of thoughts and/or comments
∝ Event Guide and Programme
∝ Supporting the 7DDJ2023 (Seven Days of Development in July 2023) event
Let us explain what the above named headings contain.
• • Making any contributions in the form of thoughts and/or comments
For those who will be making any contributions in the form of thoughts and/or comments, it will be good to stick to the daily themes as planned. Likewise, it makes easy for the good running of the festival to be short and precise in making thoughts or comments.
This will allow capture the impact they are making. In this way, this will as well enable us to meet the Festival’s aim and get the difference that it will make to the lives of those who are financially excluded.
THINK • ACT • SHARE • ADD VALUE • SPREAD
• • Event Guide and Programme
The following is the make-up of Summer 2023 Festival.
• • • 7DDJ2023 Registration: FREE!
The entry to the 7DDJ2023 is FREE.
For those who are busy and who can remotely, directly respond to the daily themes from their technological devices (e.g. laptop, desktop PC, tablet, phone, etc.) without having to attend any online sessions, there is no need to register.
For those who will have the opportunity to join our online sessions (or video conference), they may be notified about the days and times these sessions may happen. They will need to sign into their Google accounts to join if everything remains the same.
• • • Daily Themes
Daily Themes (DTs) provide a daily opening thought or starting point of the broad topic/issue of Financial Inclusion. Each DT will last all day and the only day it is planned.
• • • Responses to 7DDJ2023 Contributors
Each respondent will receive a reply to their contribution in the form of either an acknowledgement of their participation or a reaction expressed as an argument to their responses or even both. Also, they will be entitled to receive the summary report on this summerly event.
• • • Lead Thoughts
Lead thoughts, which will be introduced on the day of festival, are a general idea on the thought of the day. There are designed to lead to or generate more thoughts, potential research paths or investigative grounds that can be further explored to shade some lights to our Summer Thoughts and Actions. They are not an end for themselves.
MAKE YOUR IDEAS AND COMMENTS COUNT!
• • • 7 Daily Themes
Day 1: Financial access and use of transaction account
Day 2: Digital financial inclusion of the older generation
Day 3: Improving poor people’s lives through financial inclusion
Day 4: Financial re-inclusion of the polycrises-impacted
Day 5: Closing gender gaps in financial inclusion
Day 6: Financial inclusion through climate finance
Day 7: Financial inclusion and the reduction of financial poverty
• • Supporting the 7DDJ2023 event
• • • 7 Ways of Supporting 7DDJ2023
You could…
√ Post your thoughts, comments and views on any themes and topics of the event directly to CENFACS
√ Pass the message onto interested persons
√ Feedback on previous 7DDJF events
√ Promote the event around you and/or by using other means available to you and at your convenience
√ Help us re-cover the expenses of the event specifically and/or the running cost of CENFACS’ work generally
√ Support CENFACS on a regular basis to enable us to continue our work
√ Support our new initiative about Financial Inclusion of Those in Need.
• • • 7 Ways of Proceeding with your Wish
Please choose below the kind of support you want to provide and let us know
√ Promote the event
√ Feedback CENFACS on previous events
√ Circulate the news about the event
√ Help in the recovery of 7DDJ 2023 expenses
√ Fund CENFACS for its deserving work and noble causes
√ Provide helpful and supportive comments or views
√ Support CENFACS in your own way.
Please mail your intent to support and or support to CENFACS
Closing date for reply: 07/08/2023
Please read the above event supporting information and mail us your comments and views (on the themes of your interest) to facs@cenfacs.org.uk
Thank you for your continued support.
With best wishes and full of inspiration and creativity throughout our dedicated days of Festival of Thoughts and Actions on: Financial Inclusion to Improve the Quality of Poor People’s Lives.
The 7DDJ2023 Events Team,
Thank you.
• Impact Monitoring and Evaluation of 2022-2023 Programmes, Projects and Activities: Only 12 Days to Go!
We have twelve days left for our Analytics and Insight Month 2023. We are again appealing to you to tell us (in your own words, numbers, voices and info-graphics) your perceptions, feelings and experiences about the programmes and projects we ran in the last 345 days preceding the beginning of July 2023.
Although we have selected 12 initiatives for Impact Feedback and Assessment One and 9 ones for Impact Feedback and Assessment Two for monitoring and evaluation purposes, we are not expecting people to provide feedback on all of them.
People can only feedback on the project(s) and programme(s) they benefited from, supported, recommended users to us or interacted within.
We again suggest picking up ONLY 1 or 2 initiatives for feedback.
Please feel free to say what you experienced.
Again, thank you for your experiential support!
• CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum e-discusses Debt Crisis and Intergenerational Poverty: What Africa-based Sister Organisations (ASOs) Can Do to Help
Debt service in Africa has now averaged a worrying level compared to Africa’s gross domestic product. Debt service is interest plus principal payments on public and publicly guaranteed debt. Economic theories tell us when debt service compared to the gross domestic product (GDP) crosses a certain level, this could send some worrying signs (like threats to poverty reduction, to building infrastructures for those in need, to socially investing, to meeting sustainable development goals, etc).
• • Africa’s debt service as a threat to poverty reduction
According to ‘data.one.org’ (8),
“Africa’s debt as a percentage of gross domestic product has been rising quickly since 2014, and is 24.0% of African countries gross domestic product (as of 2023 for countries with available data). Yet, many individual countries have rates far higher”.
Although Africa’s debt-to-GDP ratio has not yet reached is still below 60%, if this metric continues to grow its growth can have negative impact on resources needed to to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development in Africa.
It is not a surprise if the United Nations Global Crisis Group (9) states that
“Countries in Africa borrow on average at rates that are four times higher than those of the United States and even eight times than those of Germany. High borrowing costs make it difficult for developing countries to fund important investments, which in turn further undermine debt sustainability and progress towards sustainable development”.
Whatever the reasons which have led to this debt, high debt service is a serious threat to any efforts to reduce poverty, let alone to enhance sustainable development. This is because high debt service could indicate that attention is more put on servicing debts and bridging deficits than to other life-sustaining priorities (like reducing poverty). Yet, Africa is one of the regions of the world with high number of people living in poverty.
• • Africa as home to multidimensional poor
Using a multidimensional poverty index when arguing about where poor people live, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Institute and the United Nations Development Programme (10) estimate that
“Roughly 534 million (47.8% percent) out of 1.1 billion poor people – half of all poor people- live in Sub-Saharan Africa” (p. 6)
The two institutions also add that
“In Sub-Saharan Africa the intensity of poverty is particularly serious. The region is home not only to the highest number of poor people but also to the poorest of the poor” (p. 8)
When we speak about Africa’s debt, Africa is made with people (human beings) and mostly poor people. Servicing debt could mean not or less paying for other essential priorities like health and education. Yet, good health and good education can help to reduce debt in the future.
• • Debt service and intergenerational poverty
There is a danger in servicing too much debt. The danger is that debt could be transferred to future generations. Poverty could also be transferred to the generations to come via debt repayments mechanism. What is much at stake here is the transmission of poverty to other generations through debt service.
Given the abovementioned circumstances, what ASOs can do?
• • ASOs can help to deal with debt crisis and intergenerational poverty
What ASOs can do is what we are discussing at CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum. We are discussing what they can do to help highly indebted poor people and households to have debt sustainability. In specific terms, we are debating what they can do to help in debt relief, restructuring and distress for these poor people and households. We are as well talking about what these organisations do with their users to avoid that debt service payments to become a mechanism of transmitting poverty to their children.
The above are some the points for discussion within the forum for this week. CENFACS would like to know yours. You can tell CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum what you think.
Those who may be interested in this third discussion of July 2023 can join in and or contribute by contacting CENFACS’ be.Africa, which is a forum for discussion on matters of poverty reduction and sustainable development in Africa and which acts on behalf of its members in making proposals or ideas for actions for a better Africa.
To communicate with CENFACS regarding this discussion, please use our usual contact details on this website.
Message in French (Message en français)
• Suivi et évaluation de l’impact des programmes, projets et activités 2022-2023: seulement 12 jours qui restent pour donner votre avis!
Il nous reste douze jours pour notre Mois de l’analytique et de perspicacité. Nous vous demandons à nouveau de nous faire part (dans vos propres mots, chiffres, voix et infographies) de vos perceptions, sentiments et expériences concernant les programmes et projets que nous avons organisés au cours des 345 derniers jours précédant le début du mois de juillet 2023.
Bien que nous ayons sélectionné 12 initiatives pour la rétrospective et l’évaluation d’impact un et 9 initiatives pour la rétrospective d’impact et l’évaluation deux à des fins de suivi et d’évaluation, nous ne nous attendons pas à ce que les gens fournissent des commentaires sur chacune d’entre elles.
Les gens ne peuvent donner leur avis que sur le(s) projet(s) et le(s) programme(s) dont ils ont bénéficié, qu’ils nous ont soutenus, qu’ils nous ont recommandé des personnes ou auxquels ils ont interagi.
Nous suggérons encore une fois de choisir SEULEMENT 1 ou 2 initiatives pour faire vos commentaires.
N’hésitez pas à dire ce que vous avez vécu ou savez ou encore pensez.
Encore une fois, merci pour votre soutien expérientiel!
Main Development
• Happiness and Healthiness Projects for Children, Young People and Families in Summer 2023
To approach Happiness and Healthiness Projects, it is better to understand them, to know the different factors that determine happiness and healthiness, and to deliver them. Thus, the following headings will ease our approach:
∝ Understanding CENFACS’ Happiness and Healthiness Projects
∝ Determining Factors or Indicators of Happiness and Healthiness
∝ Features of Happiness and Healthiness Projects in 2023
∝ Delivering Healthiness and Healthiness with 6 Projects for 3 Beneficiaries.
Let us now look at what is inside these headings.
• • Understanding CENFACS’ Happiness and Healthiness Projects
As said in the first key message, the lingering impacts of the coronavirus, extreme temperatures and the damaging effects of the fall in real household disposable incomes continue to pose an enormous challenge to the plan of many poor children, young people and families (CYPFs) to have a decent, happy, affordable and healthy Summer holiday. In these conditions and circumstances, happiness and healthiness may not mean anything for them.
Despite that, it is possible to find health relief and happy fulfilment while still dealing with these impacts and effects, this Summer 2023. It is possible to make the conditions of being physically, mentally and socially sound better this Summer.
To make these conditions sound better, we have planned six happiness and healthiness enhancing initiatives. This Summer, we are going to focus on ways or activities of finding this health relief and happy fulfilment in the context of lingering effects of the coronavirus, rising costs of living and climate change. In other words, our centre of interest is on what will keep children, young people and families happy (or unhappy) and healthy (or unhealthy) over Summer under the debilitating conditions of the coronavirus, seismic rise in the cost of living and changing climate.
In order to keep them happy and healthy, there is a need to budget and deliver Happiness and Healthiness Projects.
• • • What are Happiness and Healthiness Projects?
CENFACS’ Happiness Projects are poverty-relieving responses to bring joy while reducing misery for poor children, young people and families over the summer period and beyond it.
CENFACS’ Healthiness Projects are poverty-relieving responses to bring freedoms from diseases (including epidemics, virus like COVID-19) while reducing misery for poor children, young people and families over the summer period and beyond it.
• • Determining Factors or Indicators of Happiness and Healthiness
The underlying principles or philosophy behind these life evaluation projects are in line with the main factors or indicators that define happiness as both a social and personal concept as explained in successive World Happiness Reports edited by Helliwell et al. (11).
• • • Happiness as both a social and personal concept
Helliwell et al. (op. cit.) distinguish the social foundations of happiness from personal happiness, although the two are complementary. They argue that the science of measuring and understanding subjective well-being and happiness indicates that to be happy, one needs to meet the following six key variables or predictors that explain happiness differences among countries, which include:
income (Gross Domestic Product per capita), healthy life expectancy at birth, social support (having someone to count on in times of trouble), generosity, freedom to make life choices and trust (perceptions of corruption).
For example, Helliwell et al. (12) argued in their 2020 World Happiness Report that
“Sub-Saharan Africa is not only the areas in the world with low happiness scores, but also a region in which happiness differences between the city and countryside are most pronounced in favour of city life” (p. 40)
The report went on in explaining that African countries with most pronounced urban-rural differences in life evaluation include: Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Benin, Central African Republic, South Africa, Gambia, Niger, Liberia and Egypt.
In their World Happiness Report 2021, Helliwell at al. (13) note that
“Life expectancy has much improved in Sub-Saharan Africa… Life expectancy has become much more equal, and has increased in Sub-Saharan Africa for seven years” (p. 194)
In this year’s World Happiness Report, Helliwell at al. (op. cit.) explain that
“Happiness gaps globally have been fairly stable overtime, although there are growing gaps in many African countries” (p. 3)
When talking about key determinants of happiness and misery, they again argue that happiness is caused by factors such as income, employment, health and family life.
• • • Happiness is about ending poverty and misery
CENFACS Happiness Projects address the issues encapsulated inside the above variables and factors while keeping in mind first the needs of the CENFACS Community. This is because we think the way to keep people happier is to reduce as much as possible poverty and misery among them. Happiness is about ending poverty and misery.
At this time of record-high costs of living, to be happy could mean having the means and resources to meet these high costs of food, energy, fuel, transport, accommodation, etc. Those who are unable to meet these high costs, prices and bills will obviously be unhappy.
As we have brought in the concept of changing climate into our happiness projects, happiness is finally about ending poverty and misery amongst children, young people and families in an era of changing climate. Soaring temperatures during this Summer can only mean more fresh water, foods with higher water content, Summer diet/food, air-conditioned environment and other resources to deal with the heat. They could also signify a possibility of high threats and damages to health.
Those who would not have the means to manage these temperatures would not be happy and/or healthy. To get happiness, they need to find ways of keeping themselves cool while carrying on their life as a normal in a heatwave.
• • • Healthiness is about ending poor health conditions
CENFACS Healthiness Projects address the issues enclosed in the above variables and factors, particularly healthy life expectancy in this Summer 2023. These projects will help to keep in mind the needs of the CENFACS Community in terms of healthiness; that is in terms of how their bodies, minds and spirits are healthy or unhealthy. If they are unhealthy, then work with them to become healthy.
Keeping people healthier is about reducing as much as possible health and climate poverty and misery among them. Healthiness is about ending health poverty and misery. Healthiness is finally about ending poor health and poor living environment amongst children, young people and families in an era of polycrises.
• • Features of Happiness and Healthiness Projects in 2023
There are three features linked this year’s Happiness and Healthiness Projects which are the link between CENFACS‘ services and life satisfaction of CENFACS‘ members, the distribution of life satisfaction amongst CENFACS‘ members, and social media and trackers in CENFACS‘ community happiness and healthiness.
• • • The link between CENFACS‘ services and life satisfaction of CENFACS‘ members
This year’s our Happiness Season is also about our service capacity (or ability to deliver service services to the community) and how this capacity could help to avoid poverty or worsening of poverty and to avoid misery within our community. This service capacity can correlate or be linked to the average life satisfaction of our community members.
• • • The distribution of life satisfaction amongst CENFACS‘ members
This year’s our Happiness Season is further about working with our community members to find out whether or not average life satisfaction is high or equally distributed amongst them.
• • • social media and trackers in CENFACS‘ community happiness and healthiness
This year’s our Happiness Season is as well about tracking changes in happiness (life evaluations) using social media trackers. It is about using social media data as way of measuring levels of happiness and/or misery among our community members.
The three characteristics have been considered in the design of this year’s Happiness and Healthiness Projects.
• • Delivering Happiness and Healthiness with 6 Projects for 3 Beneficiaries
6 Projects to bring Happiness and Healthiness to 3 beneficiaries: Poor Children, Young People and Families
After the last school term, Summer is a holiday season of the year during which most of the schools are closed and families with small children and young people in much needed help are forced to stay with them and or use this time of the year to take holiday. The usual routine of educational/academic establishments with their recreational activities is scaled down.
This Summer is even dearer as many CYPFs have to face up skyrocketing prices of food, energy, transport, accommodation, etc. The cost of running Summer will be excessively high for many CYPFs. This is let alone the fact that many of them who are poor may not afford to travel, even inside the country, and to go for holiday. Yet, these CYPFs are in need of seasonal and recreational activities and programmes for improving their well-being, healthiness and happiness.
There are ways of ensuring that summer stays an interesting and enjoyable period for Multi-dimensionally Poor Children, Young People and Families. There are things that can be done to make summertime a season of Happiness, Peace, Vulnerability-free, Healthiness, Protection and Sustainability.
There should be projects that can help them to adapt and mitigate the adverse effects of the lingering impacts of the coronavirus, extreme temperatures and the damaging effects of the fall in real household disposable incomes. There should be projects that can help them to adapt and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.
• • • Summer 2023 Happiness and Healthiness Projects
The following CENFACS suite of summer 2023 initiatives can help in achieving some joyful, healthful and helpful summer plans, goals and outcomes in the context of rising costs of living.
CENFACS Happiness and Healthiness Projects include:
1) ‘Holiday with Relief’ Resource (this year’s focus is on Finance for Holiday)
2) Narrowing Gaps in Happiness Inequalities
3) Summer Harmony with Nature
4) True Balance in Happiness and Healthiness
5) Networking for Protection and Safeguarding at the Time of Cost-of-living Crisis
6) Community Care and Health Responsibility Enhancing Activities.
There is a link between these six initiatives. For example, knowing the food and energy that one needs during the Summertime can help to narrow gap in inequalities relating to happiness and healthiness. Likewise, the way in which one consumes food and energy can help build harmonious relationships with the nature, network for protection and safeguarding, and act in a responsible way in the interest of their own happiness and public healthiness.
These projects are the combination of skills, knowledge, resources, tools, tactics, fixers, enhancements, boosters, tasters, trackers and trickers for the relief from poverty induced by the cost-of-living and poverty due to the lack of happiness.
In the preparation of our Summer 2023 programme for CYPFs, we have considered the continuing happiness and healthiness issues from the lingering impacts of the coronavirus, extreme temperatures and the damaging effects of the fall in real household disposable incomes.
All the six Happiness and Healthiness Projects will be COVID-19 Secure and Compliant; just as they take into account the happiness and healthiness effects in relation to changing climate and the cost-of-living crisis.
They will be delivered to help improve life evaluations while taking actions to enhance the same life in the context and under the constraint of the lingering impacts of the coronavirus, extreme temperatures and the damaging effects of the fall in real household disposable incomes.
In this way, Summer can be a season of Happiness and Healthiness NOT of Misery for un-served and under-served children, young people and families who are at the same time victims of the adverse and far-reaching lingering impacts of the coronavirus, extreme temperatures and the damaging effects of the fall in real household disposable incomes.
They are the victims of adverse and far-reaching lingering effects of coronavirus. Although the health impact of the coronavirus has gone down, its economic carry-over effects are still there in mild forms.
They are also trapped in the cost-of-living crisis. The latter has taken them economically and healthily in hostage by affecting the way they dress, eat, house, educate, eat, warm their home, entertain, enjoy, care for their health and body, look after their homes, and above all the way they pass their Summer holiday.
They are finally suffering from the consequences of changing climate, which is transforming the way they consume, produce and entertain themselves.
For details about CENFACS Happiness and Healthiness Projects 2023 and to access them, please contact CENFACS.
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• References
(1) https://www.sloww.co/mo-gawdat-happiness-equation/ (accessed in July 2023)
(2) Helliwell, J. F., Layard, R. , Sachs, J. D., De Neve, J.-E., Aknin, L. B., & Wang, S. (Eds.), (2023), World Happiness Report 2023, New York: Sustainable Development Solution Network (http://worldhappiness.report/)
(3) healthicine.org/wordpress/healthiness-unhealthiness-wellness-illness/ (accessed in July 2023)
(4) https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/bmi-calculator/ (accessed in July 2023)
(5) https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/lose-weight/calorie-counting/ (accessed in July 2023)
(6) https://www.un.org/en/desa-time-build-forward-together# (accessed in May 2023)
(7) https://www.intrac.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Impact-Assessment.pdf (accessed July 2023)
(8) https://data.one.org/topics/african-debt/ (accessed in July 2023)
(9) https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/osgmisc_2023d4_en.pdf (accessed in July 2023)
(10) UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) 2023, 2023 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Unstacking global poverty: Data for high impact action, New York
(11) Helliwell, J., Layard, R., Sachs, J. (2017, 2018 & 2019), World Happiness Reports (2017, 2018 & 2019), New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(12) Helliwell, J., Layard, R., Sachs, J. & De Neve J. E. (2020), World Happiness Report (2020), New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(13) Helliwell, J. F., Layard, R., Sachs, J. and De Neve, J.-E., eds. 2021, World Happiness Report 2021, New York, Sustainable Development Solutions Networkhttp://worldhappiness.report/ (accessed July 2023)
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• Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going this year
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could also consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Additionally, we would like to inform you that planned gifting is always an option for giving at CENFACS. Likewise, CENFACS accepts matching gifts from companies running a gift-matching programme.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ NOBLE CAUSES OF POVERTY REDUCTION.
JUST GO TO: Support Causes – (cenfacs.org.uk)
Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support throughout 2023 and beyond.
With many thanks.
