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From the Community Power Studio: Knowledge Products in Practice
January 12, 2026 / Program UpdatesIn June 2025, a team from Root Change, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, convened the Community Power Studio in Accra, Ghana. Over the course of a week, community leaders from across the United States, Africa, and Latin America gathered to reimagine who produces knowledge, how it is created, and why it matters.
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Introducing the Youth Equity Index: Measuring What Really Matters in Youth Engagement
August 12, 2025 / White PaperToo often, youth are invited to the table only to be handed a script someone else wrote. At Root Change, we believe it’s time to flip that script and the Youth Equity Index (YEI) is our latest step in doing just that. Developed under the USAID-funded Youth Excel program (2020-2025),
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22 African Youth Are Now Certified Research-to-Change (R2C) Mentors!
November 9, 2023 / AnnouncementsThe Research-to-Change Mentorship Academy (R2CMA), led by Root Change and IREX as part of the 5-year USAID-funded Youth Excel program, was a 10-week, hands-on, virtual course for young researchers, evaluators, or practitioners passionate about using data to make informed decisions within a local organization. Youth under the age of 35 applied to be part of
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Research-to-Change Mentorship Academy (R2CMA): Youth-inclusive Implementation Research
June 5, 2023 / Program UpdatesAre you a young researcher, evaluator, or practitioner passionate about using data to make informed decisions within a local organization? If so, we invite you to apply for the Research-to-Change Mentorship Academy (R2CMA), led by Root Change and IREX as part of the Youth Excel program. What is Research-to-Change? Research-to-Change (R2C) is an approach that
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We Welcome The 2022 Inaugural #ShiftThePower Fellows
June 28, 2022 / AnnouncementsThe Global Fund for Community Foundations and Root Change are delighted to welcome the inaugural cohort of the 2022 #ShiftThePower Fellows. Twelve Fellows from ten different countries, representing the diversity of civil society and ready to promote change and shift power from the ground up, were selected from over 140 applicants. The Fellows from Brazil,
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Kisumu’s Issue-Based Collaborative Network Creates Collective Knowledge and Collective Impact
June 12, 2022 / SnapshotYouth Excel’s Issue-Based Collaborative Network (ICON) activity is engaging 11 youth organizations in Kisumu, Kenya. Through the ICON, organizations have been practicing Implementation Research, in which they develop learning goals for improving their program implementation. Root Change has been supporting the ICONs by helping to build a collective mindset, tasking
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Youth Excel: Using Feedback to Foster Equity and Collaboration
May 10, 2021 / Program UpdatesThe USAID-funded Youth Excel program officially launched last week! Youth Excel will support young leaders and youth-led and youth-serving organizations to conduct implementation research to improve youth programming, build youth networking skills, and generate dialogue between young people and adult decision-makers to shape better policies, programs, and development agendas. To do this well, Youth Excel
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Ushirika Hub: What We Learned from a Social Systems Network Analysis of the Cooperative Ecosystem in Kenya
November 13, 2020 / ReportThis blog is a follow-on to our post Ushirika Hub: How Three Organizations Came Together to Conduct Participatory SSNA of the Cooperative Ecosystem in 6 Counties in Kenya. It was written by Tindi Sitati, Collaboration Learning and Adaptation (CLA) Officer for Global Communities, with contributions from: Rachel Dickinson (Root Change), Pamela Kaburu (Global Communities), Lydia
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Social System Network Analysis (SSNA) Baseline
November 13, 2020 / ReportRoot Change partnered with the CDP Partners to conduct a Social System Network Analysis (SSNA) baseline of the cooperative ecosystem in six counties in Kenya from September 2019 to February 2020. This final report is the culmination of the analysis, findings, and recommendations.
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Ushirika Hub: How Three Organizations Came Together to Conduct Participatory SSNA of the Cooperative Ecosystem in 6 Counties in Kenya
September 21, 2020 / Program UpdatesContributions from: Tindi Sitati and Pamela Kaburu (Global Communities), Lydia Omamo and Virginia Brown(NCBA CLUSA), Fridah Kanana(WOCCU) Starting in 2019, three implementing partners of the USAID Cooperative Development Program (CDP), Global Communities, NCBA CLUSA, and WOCCU, joined forces to conduct a Social Systems Network Analysis (SSNA) in Kenya with support from Root Change. The CDP
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Disasters and Emergency Preparedness Programme (DEPP) Evaluation Summative Phase
May 19, 2018 / ReportThe Disasters and Emergency Preparedness Programme (DEPP) was launched in 2014 by DFID to strengthen skills and capacity of response organizations, and improve the quality and speed of humanitarian response in countries that are at risk of natural disasters or emergencies. From 2015 to 2018, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiave (HHI), with support from Root Change,
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Enhancing Educational Outcomes in Kwale County: Insights from the SESEA Program
February 16, 2017 / SnapshotSince June 2016, Root Change has collaborated with the Aga Khan Foundation’s SESEA program in Kwale County, Kenya, to explore how interactions between school actors and external support agencies influence student and school achievement. This initiative aims to uncover the role of social capital in educational success and inform future
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