Vanguard Central: Recent Episodes
Vanguard Economics
This is a podcast where we aim to shed light on the stories shaping Africa, brought to you by Vanguard Economics: Vanguard economics is a research and advisory firm based here in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. On this podcast we will draw from our own work and from experts across the continent to delve into topics from economic development to social transformation. Some of our upcoming episodes will focus on projects we are running in agriculture, finance, trade and nutrition.
This episode will change the way you see qualitative research in Rwanda. It's a conversation between the host, Elise and Isabelle; they speak about their experiences as qualitative data experts - the joys, challenges and lessons learned.
In this episode 3 of Season 2, we are going to explore the journey of 2 Young Impact Associates from qualitative and quantitative research units at Vanguard economics. We will discuss their experiences prior to joining Vanguard Economics, their time as young impact associates, and touch upon the skills they are learning in terms of Monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) and Made in Africa evaluation (MAE).
In this 2nd episode of season 2 of our podcast we are going to talk about the journey of two incredible young people from Tanzania and UK, since the time they landed in Rwanda to their induction in Vanguard economics and their swift climbing up the ladder to become research analysts at Vanguard economics. We will explore their contribution to Business development and Advisory departments as well as their career growth.
A country wide quantitative data collection was done to understand the employment status of youth in Rwanda. In this episode, real lived insights from the field are shared by our Young Impact Associate, Nicole Kamikazi.
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What does qualitative data collection in the Rwandan community look like? Why is it important to study the local context? What effective techniques have been used before?
What are the ethics evolving around it?
These are the type questions we're going to answer in this episode. Stay Tuned!
Vanguard Central Episode 5 is about one of the most pressing concerns in the world, which I am positive you have heard about from the different forms of media and have experienced as a world citizen: climate change. We will be exploring the causes and impacts of climate-related events and climate resilience in the world and Rwanda as a country.
The Young Impact Assessors program at Vanguard Economics is underpinned by Vanguard’s 5 MEL critical meta skill sets( Data Collection &Coding, Data Analysis, Reporting, Framework Design and Facilitating Learning). These meta skill sets are critical to the success of Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) professionals. Under each of these meta skills sets are core skills that each learning module in the YIA program will unlock in the YIAs.
The Fortified Whole Grain (FWG ) was a pilot project supported by the Rockefeller Foundation between August 2020 and December 2021 in Rwanda to replace refined maize flour in school meals with FWG flour. The pilot, implemented by Vanguard Economics in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), developed an FWG maize flour for procurement by WFP’s school feeding program. The pilot presented the first step towards implementing a large-scale, budget-neutral shift in school feeding in Africa towards fortified whole grain foods
The main Challenge being addressed by FWG, is Food security and malnutrition.
What are the unique challenges and opportunities that women-owned SMEs face when it comes to financial inclusion and Access to Finance in Rwanda? Join us on this episode, as we have this incredibly eye-opening discussion with one of our Data Analysts, Laurene.
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The Afla-Kiosk lab was designed to bring aflatoxin awareness to producers and traders by testing and issuing a receipt indicating the quality of the maize they have. Furthermore, Afla-Kiosk will link suppliers to premium markets for good quality maize and redirect bad quality maize to drying and sorting services.