Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
21 July 2021
Post No. 205
The Week’s Contents
• Happiness and Healthiness Projects in a Changing Climate and Mutating/Enduring COVID-19
• July 2021 All-in-one Impact Feedback and Assessment (Level 2): Impact Assessment of Changes brought from Actions against COVID-19
• Summer 2021 Festival of Thoughts and Actions with a Focus on Coronavirus Debt and Deficit Management
… And much more!
Key Messages
• Happiness and Healthiness Projects in a Changing Climate and Mutating/Enduring COVID-19
Climate change and COVID-19 mutation continue to affect the state of our happiness and healthiness. The second part of our Summer Programme 2021, which is made of Happiness and Healthiness Projects, takes into account these two factors or realities. The first part of the same programme deals with Humanitarian Appeal.
We have put together Happiness and Healthiness as we thought that each of the six Summer projects making the second part of the Summer Programme 2021 will have a bit of happiness and healthiness contents in them. So, the 2021 version of the second part of our Summer Programme will be Happiness and Healthiness Projects.
For any further information on the 2021 version of the second part of our Summer Programme (that is Happiness and Healthiness Projects), please read under the Main Development section of this post.
• July 2021 All-in-one Impact Feedback and Assessment (Level 2): Impact Assessment of Changes brought from Actions against COVID-19
Our work on this year’s All-in-one Impact Feedback and Assessment has moved to level 2 which is about assessing the changes that may have occurred as result of a series of actions and intervention we put in place in order to counteract the life-threatening and –destroying effects of the coronavirus during the financial year 2020-2021.
To conduct this assessment, we are going to refer to what theories say about impact assessment, and to apply or experiment these theories in the context of CENFACS.
• • What do theories say about impact assessment?
Intrac (1) summarises some of the positions around impact assessment by giving two definitions (from the OECD 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” (OECD, 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) The Roche’s definition to capture short-term and meaningful changes in terms of life-changing benefits such as saved lives from the health and humanitarian appeals we made (e.g. The African Sahel 2020 Humanitarian Corridors Appeal).
(b) The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) definition to include long-term changes in CENFACS’ capacity and system of poverty reduction (e.g. the e-advice that we set up as a result of lockdown will continue in the future).
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 2020-2021 programmes and projects affected by COVID-19 that have reached the end of their lives.
The results of these impact assessments will be published in our end-of-year 2020-2021 accounts and other financial statements in due course.
• Happiness and Healthiness Budgets 2021 –
Budgeting and Delivering Happiness and Healthiness in a Summer of Mutating/Enduring Covid-19 and Changing Climate
In our project planning process of Summer of Happiness and Healthiness Projects, we started a few weeks ago by budgeting Summer Holidays with what we call Happiness Budget. In that process, we included the Covid-19 effects into a family budget. We publicised two examples of budget planning: a Covid-19 Family Protection Expenses Budget, and a Covid-19 Secure and Happiness Budget for an Ordinary Family.
This week, we are continuing the budgeting process with happiness impacts of COVID-19 while starting to deliver on other parts of the Happiness and Healthiness Projects as Summer Holiday is beginning this week end for most children, young people and families. In this continuing process, we are going to take into account other economic factors (like inflation, currency price, the effect of economic downturn, purchasing power parity, etc.) when constructing your Happiness and Healthiness budgets. By taking these other factors, this will enable to better measure the happiness and healthiness effects.
We understand that not everybody does understand financial numeracy, some of the complex jargons and the mechanics of household financial statements like balance sheet, profit and loss account, budgets, etc. Likewise, we appreciate that not everyone can grasp all the financial literacy and information on the other financial documents they receive (such as bills, receipts, bank statements, etc.). To the above, one should add the digital financial information for those handling their accounts online (e.g. online banking, financial payments and transfers).
This is why we are available to discuss people’s Happiness and/or Healthiness or Summer Holiday Budgets for those who want us to do so. For those who are struggling with their Happiness or Healthiness Budgets, especially the numerical and digital aspects of these budgets, CENFACS is prepared to look into their Summer Budgets.
We can handle all of the areas or items of their Happiness Budget. However, we will put a particular emphasis on the following six areas of Happiness Budget which are: income, health, lifeline support, giving or recycling, credit payments and refunds, and unrestricted (freedom) payments and receipts.
The above six accounts cover the six items of happiness and healthiness which make our Season of Happiness and Healthiness. Where possible, the effects of climate change will be included to reflect a budget of a changing climate as well. We shall also align both aspects of the summer budget to greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals and targets.
Those who would like to discuss with us their Happiness and/or Healthiness Budgets, please feel free to contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• Summer 2021 Festival, Seven Days of Development in July (7DDJ) with a Focus on Coronavirus Debt and Deficit Management
How to reduce and/or cancel debts and deficits for the poor to make ends meet
The 13th Edition of our Summer Festival of Thoughts and Actions will start from Thursday the 22nd of July 2021 as scheduled.
Although debt and deficit are someway linked to each other, we are going to dedicate the first three days of our Festival on debt and the following three days on deficit. In the last day of our festival, we shall bring together debt and deficit in order to explain ways of working with the poor so that they can meet ends.
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 coronavirus-indebted and income deficit families.
THINK • ACT • SHARE • ADD VALUE • SPREAD
• • Event Guide and Programme
The following is the make-up of Summer 2021 Festival.
• • • 7DDJ Registration: FREE!
The entry to the 7DDJ2021 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 Coronavirus Debt and Deficit Management. Each DT will last all day and the only day it is planned.
• • • Responses to 7DDJ 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 annual 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: Political economy of private debt re-negotiation
Day 2: Debt management plan
Day 3: Help and aid for poor people’s debts
Day 4: Managing COVID-19 induced income surplus decreases
Day 5: Dealing with the excess of poverty line over a family’s income
Day 6: Managing budget deficit to control income deficit
Day 7: Sustainable Solutions to Poor’s and Families’ Debts and Deficits
• • Supporting the 7DDJ2021 event
• • • 7 Ways of Supporting 7DDJ2021
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 Capacity-based Solutions to Debt and Deficit Servicing
• • • 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 2021 expenses
√ Fund CENFACS for its deserving work and causes
√ Provide helpful and supportive comments/views
√ Support CENFACS in your own way
Please mail your intent to support and or support to CENFACS
Closing date for reply: 05/08/2021
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: Coronavirus Debt and Deficit Management
The 7DDJ2021 Events Team,
Thank you.
• Impact Monitoring and Evaluation of 2020-2021 Programmes, Projects and Activities: Only 10 Days to Go!
We have ten days left for our Analytics month. We are again appealing to you to tell us (in your own words, numbers 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 2021.
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!
• Distress-free Life from Enduring Coronavirus for Children, Young People and Families in Africa
This Summer 2021 Humanitarian Appeal, which is one of the Summer Appeal projects making the first part of our Summer Programme, is still running.
The appeal is about supporting children, young people and families (CYPFs) in places in Africa where healthcare systems are extremely vulnerable and weak, and cannot cope with the mounting pressure and damaging effects of the Covid-19.
Supporting this appeal means helping CYPFs to minimise and mitigate the life-threatening and –destroying impacts of Covid-19 on these CYPFs. Your support will help to reduce the risks stemming from the economic and health threats that have been caused by Covid-19. One can think of a child or young person without any dreams and expectations. What will be his/her future?
We hope you are keeping in mind these CYPFs who desperately need help and support.
To support, just contact CENFACS on this website.
Main Development
• Happiness and Healthiness Projects in a Changing Climate and Mutating/Enduring COVID-19
• • Understanding CENFACS’ Happiness and Healthiness Projects
Covid-19 has challenged our perception of happiness and healthiness. It has shaken the fabric of our poverty-relieving systems. Happiness and healthiness can have different meanings for those in most in need and poverty in today’s prevailing conditions of Covid-19.
Despite that, it is possible to find health relief and happy fulfilment while still controlling the Covid-19 factor this Summer 2021. It is possible to make the conditions of being physically, mentally and socially sound better this Summer.
This Summer, we are going to focus on ways of finding this health relief and happy fulfilment in a Changing Climate and Mutating/Enduring COVID-19. 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 conditions of Covid-19 and climate change. 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 joyful lives 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 of 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. (2).
These editors 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. (3) 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. (4) 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)
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 Happines 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.
As we have brought in the concepts 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.
• • • Healthiness is about ending poor health and poor sanitation
CENFACS Healthiness Projects address the issues enclosed in the above variables and factors, particularly healthy life expectancy in this Summer 2021. The projects will help to keep in mind the needs of the CENFACS Community in terms of healthiness.
Keeping people healthier is to reduce as much as possible health and sanitation poverty and misery among them. Healthiness is about ending health poverty and misery. As we have brought in the exceptional sanitary circumstances the world is facing with Covid-19, Healthiness is finally about ending poor health and poor sanitation amongst children, young people and families in an era of the coronavirus pandemic.
• • Delivering Healthiness and Healthiness with 6 Projects for 3 Beneficiaries
6 Projects to bring Happiness and Healthiness to 3 beneficiaries: Poor Children, Young People and Families
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 restricted since many children, young people and families (CYPFs) may be forced to stay home if COVID-19 restrictions continue due to the threats of Covid-19 new variants. 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 coronavirus pandemic and the side effects of lockdowns. There should be projects that can help them to adapt and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.
• • • Summer 2021 Happiness and Healthiness Projects
The following CENFACS suite of summer 2021 initiatives can help in achieving some joyful, healthful and helpful summer plans, goals and outcomes in the new Age of Covid-19 and changing climate.
CENFACS Happiness and Healthiness Projects include:
1) Holiday with Relief a focus on ‘Restricted Holiday’
2) Build Forward Better Summer Break
3) Summer Harmony with Nature
4) Hot Barriers to Build Forward Better
5) Networking for Protection and Safeguarding in the Post-Covid-19 Era
6) Build Forward Community Care and Health Responsibility
There is a link between these six initiatives. For example, in order to build forward better Summer break that is within coronavirus restrictions one may need to keep COVID-19 barriers and be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, 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 and tasters for the relief from Covid-19-induced poverty and poverty due to the lack of happiness. In the preparation of our Summer 2021 programme for CYPFs, we have considered the continuing happiness and healthiness effects of Covid-19 and climate change.
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 of changing climate. This will be done to help improve life evaluation while taking actions to enhance the same life in the context and under the constraint of Covid-19 dominance and changing climate.
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 effects of Covid-19 and climate change.
They are the victims of adverse and far-reaching effects of Covid-19 because Covid-19 is an economic and health threat. It has taken them economically and healthily in hostage by affecting the way they dress, eat, house, educate, entertain, enjoy, care for their health and body, look after their homes, and above all the way they pass their Summer holiday. They are also 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 2021 and to access them, please contact CENFACS.
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References
(1) https://www.intrac.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Impact-Assessment.pdf (accessed July 2021)
(2) Helliwell, J., Layard, R., Sachs, J. (2017, 2018 & 2019), World Happiness Reports (2017, 2018 & 2019), New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(3) Helliwell, J., Layard, R., Sachs, J. & De Neve J. E. (2020), World Happiness Report (2020), New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(4) Helliwell, John F., Richard Layard, Jeffrey Sachs, and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, eds. 2021, World Happiness Report 2021, New York, Sustainable Development Solutions Network
http://worldhappiness.report/ (accessed July 2021)
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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 consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Donate to support CENFACS!
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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 2021 and beyond.
With many thanks.
