Education in Emergencies, Lisa Woods (Communications Consultant/UNICEF ROSA)

As a UNICEF communications consultant for offices in Asia, Lisa Woods was called on to work on a Education in Emergencies toolkit to inform the emergency education response of UNICEF country offices in the region. For most of the eight UNICEF offices in South Asia, almost all all prone to natural disasters, some on an annual basis (floods and droughts) others subject to phenomena such as earthquakes. As such, there is a demonstrated need to strengthen the capacity of UNICEF country offices to plan and manage education in emergencies, in accordance with UNICEF’s Core Commitments for Children. Toward this end, UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, in coordination with East Asia Pacific Regional Office and HQ New York, sponsored a workshop from 20-23 September 2005, to share best practices in education in emergencies, particularly in light of recent tsunami experiences, and to make recommendations for the content and skills of a UNICEF training package: Education in Emergencies: A resource toolkit.


What I did
-Reviewed all existing resource and training material on education in emergences.
-Synthesized information into a comprehensive content and skills outline, collect and write case studies of emergency responses from tsunami experiences, as well as from responses to other natural disasters and complex conflicts.
-Interacted with a review team to produce a final product to be turned over to an instructional designer and trainer to produce the final training package.

Related projects
Behaviour Change Communications in Emergencies

Lisa Woods, UNICEF Communications Consultant (Lao PDR)

The purpose of the study was to provide a profile of the phenomena of violence and insights into the underlying factors and causes of violence. It will also document the experiences of child victims of violence. The study will specifically look into the full scale of violence against children occurring in schools and homes. It also look into all forms of violence is such situations, its causes and effects on children. The study will lead to the development of strategies aimed at effectively preventing and combating violence against children in schools and homes, It will also outline steps to be taken at national and local levels to provide effective prevention, protection and recovery of children victims of violence in schools and homes

What I did

-Devised an age-appropriate ethnographic research strategy to gather children's experiences and perspectives on physical, psychological, and sexual violence at home and school.

-Conducted field research using focus group discussions with children and teachers, and one-to-one interviews with officials from the ministries of education and health, doctors, school officials, police and other community leaders.

-Wrote results in a 20,000-word report purposed to raise awareness on violence against children (Lao PDR) in schools and homes.

Related projects

“Combating child domestic labour through education and training” in Towards equal opportunities for all: empowering girls through partnerships in education, East Asia and Pacific Regional UNGEI

http://www.unicef.org/eapro/activities_7017.html.

Lisa Wood, UNICEF Communications Consultant (Cambodia)

Lisa Woods, UNICEF Consultant, 2007: The Royal Government of Cambodia developed a draft national report to feed into the United Nations published a World Report on Violence Against Children (2006), in which it states that currently no official complaints or reporting procedures exist in the country to report violence against children in the home and family, in school, in institutions, the workplace, the street or community.

What I did
- Mapped and assessed existing governmental, NGO, community or local reporting mechanisms on violence against children.
- Determined by whom (teachers, social workers, doctors, police, etc) and how cases of violence against children are discovered, and if and how they are tracked and followed up.
- Drew out lessons learned, identify issues and potential, and provide recommendations on follow-up actions that can be taken by UNICEF, Government and other relevant stakeholders.




Related projects
Lisa Woods, UNICEF Consultant (2007) “Combating child domestic labour through education and training” in Towards equal opportunities for all: empowering girls through partnerships in education, East Asia and Pacific Regional UNGEI

Lisa Woods, UNICEF Communications Consultant, Indonesia (UNGEI)

Lisa Woods (UNICEF Consultant) 2006: The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) is an EFA Declaration Flagship. UNICEF, as global coordinator of the UNGEI flagship, is actively striving to build expanded partnerships for bold initiatives. The East Asia Regional UNGEI team was formed in 2002 and has identified the development of a Best Practices document as a key activity in the 2006 work plan. The Regional UNGEI Team prepared and nomination process for case studies and 8 have been selected. These projects are being supported in 6 countries by ILO, UNESCO, Plan, DFID, UNICEF, ministries and NGOs. This assignment entailed preparing a case study of the “ILO/IPEC Action Programme using education to combat child domestic labor” in Indonesia.

What I did
- Conducted semi-structured interviews with children, parents, teachers, politicians, police
officers, community workers and other UN partners working with ILO-IPEC in Indonesia to
prevent and eliminate exploitative child domestic work through education and training.
- Prepared a case study that documented the work of ILO-IPEC in Indonesia for inclusion in the
regional UNGEI Best Practices compilation document.

Link to case study
Lisa Woods, UNICEF Consultant, Combating child domestic labour through education and training

Related projects
Lisa Woods, PLAN Asia Consultant, Behind the screen, an inside look at gender inequality in Asia

Lisa Woods, UNICEF Consultant - Portraits, Series I

Lisa Woods: Portraits of a UNICEF Communications Consultant (and recent grad): Southeast Asia was Ms. Woods' stomping ground as she worked for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) as a communications consultant in many capacities. Ms. Woods has contracted with UNICEF Lao PDR, UNICEF Cambodia, UNICEF China, UNICEF EAPRO and UNICEF ROSA as a communications consultant for many projects. Ms. Woods has researched projects for UNICEF offices on topics ranging from emergency preparedness to general communications projects on child protection, education and basic health and nutrition.

Before working as UNICEF communications consultant, Ms. Woods, a United States national, worked for ADRA Asia as a consultant during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. While in Bangkok she began her first assignment as a communications consultant for UNICEF ROSA, at its regional office in Kathmandu. One assignment evolved into many, and the UNICEF consultant decided that she needed more education to develop her expertise in social science research. In 2008 Ms. Woods completed her last UNICEF consultancy and relocated to London to attend post-graduate school. She completed school in 2009 and although she is no longer a communications consultant for UNICEF, she hopes to find other research and communications consultant (and permanent) positions in the field.