Brooke USA recognizes the need to use research to ask questions, understand issues and secure greater funding for working horses, donkeys, and mules and those they serve. We know that working equines contribute to building community resilience by securing access to food and water, creating income-generating options for humans in vulnerable communities, and ensuring educational opportunities for children who otherwise would not be able to attend school. At Brooke USA, through data management we are now beginning to measure the success of our programmatic funding to Brooke: Action for Working Horses & Donkeys and other organizations. At present, we are focused on the long-term assessment of our 360-funding of new community initiatives among brick kilns in India, and the value of our funding as it relates to farriery training among Native American Reservations. We need to know whether animal welfare and health are improved and whether the quality of life of people have been significantly enriched.
Our goal over the coming year is to build dashboards that will convert qualitative information into quantitative statistics, and this will position us to show and share the significance of our work. Over the next few years, we will be able to effectively plan and deliver quality information to prove our impact where the need is greatest. Our aim is to deliver evidence that our work:
Transforms animal welfare in communities by helping them thrive and become more resilient.
Increases the visibility and inclusion of working equines within communities and at the legislative level.
Develop sustainable systems that meet the future needs of working equines and those they serve.
To produce the best results possible, we are committed to monitoring and evaluating the key programs we fund. This constitutes an opportunity to also influence policymakers, funders, and decision makers. Our strategy is about “using data for greater impact”. It will be about how our data contributes to the desired change in human behavior and thus, toward improvements in animal welfare. We will include our findings, methodology, lessons learned and impact to generate detailed evaluations for our donors. We will be able to pivot, if need be, or stay steadfast on our programmatic journey.
In the long run, our results will help us understand problems, new areas of work and of course, our successes.