At a time when disasters and disruptions are becoming more common and catastrophic, Global Communities, together with our local partners, equips communities with the training, tools and resources they need to recover from crises and build long-term resilience in the face of constant change.
From prevention and adaptation to positive transformation, we focus on solutions that center local voices and expand opportunities for growth, leadership and advancement.
Meeting Humanitarian Needs & Fostering Resilience in Conflict, Crisis & Disaster
Global Communities works in complex environments affected by natural disasters, conflict, or both, and prioritizes partnering with affected communities to identify and address urgent needs. We take a holistic and resilience-focused approach to humanitarian action and provide fit for purpose responses based on community needs, capabilities and the operating context.
Our assistance focuses on restarting livelihoods, increasing access to financial services, rebuilding homes and neighborhoods, and providing psychosocial support to help individuals, families and communities recover from the trauma of disaster and conflict.
Protection is at the heart of our humanitarian assistance programs, and through mainstreaming protection and direct service delivery, we ensure that lifesaving responses are grounded in the principle of Do No Harm.
Sustainable Development
Global Communities’ sustainable development work expands opportunity, enhances resilience and ensures well-being and social inclusion.
We work in partnership with communities, governments, local NGOs and the private sector to advance our shared vision of more equitable development and more inclusive growth. Our evidence-driven programs incorporate decades of lessons learned and best practices, drawing on our in-depth knowledge of humanitarian assistance and financial inclusion programming for holistic, flexible and adaptive solutions.
In climate-affected communities, we work side-by-side with local leaders to enhance food and water security by investing in approaches to sustainable agriculture and water management. We also work to enhance health and strengthen systems by combating disease, improving nutrition and ensuring healthy mothers, children and adolescents.
Financial Inclusion
The Vitas Group, created by Global Communities, drives financial inclusion by linking innovators and entrepreneurs with access to the capital they need to build sustainable livelihoods, create jobs and spur economic growth.
Small and medium-sized enterprises are engines of economic growth, but many lack access to traditional loans. Global Communities works with commercial banks and U.S. government partners to connect businesses with the credit they need to thrive.
By partnering with communities, entrepreneurs and financial institutions, Global Communities works to expand opportunity at every level of the economy, creating jobs, strengthening livelihoods and raising living standards.
Building a Path Forward
In today’s complex world, fragile and stable contexts are not always clearly defined, and communities move back and forth from crisis to resilience. That is why Global Communities designs flexible programs based on decades of experience across humanitarian assistance, sustainable development and financial inclusion to meet real-world needs where and when they arise.
The triple nexus speaks to this urgent moment and the need to increase linkages between the humanitarian, development and peace sectors to better support families and communities and mitigate vulnerabilities by recovering from shocks and stresses with long-term resilience in mind.
Sustainable solutions are generated and implemented from within the communities they serve. New models are taking root to shift post-colonial power dynamics and center decision-making at the local level. From supporting independent organizations and partners to for-profit subsidiaries and capacity strengthening programs, Global Communities is a leader in localization.
None of these changes are possible without harnessing the power of innovation and cutting-edge technology to solve intractable problems. We are taking women-led savings groups digital, using mobile apps to help pastoralists regenerate grasslands for carbon capture and looking ahead to a future of increased equity, prosperity and well-being for the planet and its people.
Triple Nexus
Strengthening Linkages Across the Triple Nexus
Today’s reality is that communities do not move neatly on a continuum from crisis to resilience. Shifts back and forth caused by political instability, climate disasters and conflicts can take a stable environment like Ukraine into crisis overnight.
Global Communities believes meaningful solutions lie at the intersections that link humanitarian, development and peace-building programs – also known as the triple nexus. Our unique expertise allows us to leverage learnings for integrated programs and respond to rapidly changing circumstances.
In Ethiopia, we are partnering with pastoralists to build resilience and regenerate grasslands to improve food and water security, pivoting along the way to overcome obstacles both environmental and political. A thriving, resilient future is possible only when we connect ideas and insights that have too long been divided.
Localization
Advancing Locally-Led Solutions
The complex challenges facing communities around the world require customized, locally owned solutions. Global Communities does not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach and is committed to advancing the localization of our work through a wide range of models.
We helped launch local NGOs in Zambia and India, work with a network of partners and independently run subsidiaries across the Middle East and lead capacity-strengthening programs in Brazil and Argentina. We invest in new ideas and organizations, work with private-sector partners and innovative funding models and take bold steps to approach our work with a forward-leaning vision for change.
As our sector transforms, Global Communities will lead the way, always centering local voices and prioritizing support and technical assistance for sustainable, community-driven solutions.
Technology & Innovation
Cultivating Innovative Ideas for a Changing World
Ideas and approaches from the past are no longer enough to keep pace with the world’s challenges. Global Communities embeds innovation at every level of our programming, creating space for digital solutions and agile approaches that can blaze a trail to new thinking and a more just and equitable world.
From partnering with the private sector to upend the home sanitation market in Ghana and expanding access to credit for women business owners in the Middle East to putting mobile technology in the hands of East African pastoralists, we are working to expand opportunity, prosperity and social inclusion. We are exploring new solutions for safe commodities storage, taking community savings groups online, and connecting people and ideas across languages and borders to build a better future for all.
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