In October 2021, CRS Asia launched Empowering Partners Working on Emergency Responses in Asia (EMPOWER Asia), a capacity strengthening initiative with CRS strategic national partners (NGO and government). EMPOWER Asia aims to improve the partner’s capacity to respond to disasters and play a leading role in the provision of humanitarian assistance.

From September to November 2023, EMPOWER Asia conducted a learning reflection aimed at understanding if strategies and approaches currently being implemented are enabling partners to achieve the desired institutional strengthening objectives. For this learning reflection, data was collected from 4 countries – India, Nepal, Myanmar, and Philippines as Vietnam and Indonesia had only started implementation in June 2023, so it was too early to obtain input or feedback on the activities and their benefits.

This document serves as a summary report of key findings and insights.