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LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

Women’s participation in political change processes not only enhances gender equality, but it also makes a positive contribution to local development outcomes. The present project experience clearly demonstrates the transformative impact of women’s inclusion in local development in the shape of a number of local needs-based infrastructure schemes undertaken by the Women Musahar Empowerment Forums in their Municipalities.

Project Name
Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal
Project Partner
South Asia Partnership Nepal
Project Description

The project aims to empower Musahar women and strengthen their representation in local decision-making procedures for promoting gender-responsive local governance in two rural municipalities and two town municipalities. It will work through three main approaches:empowerment of Musahar women to claim their rights, accountability of local government authorities, and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for gender-responsive local governance.

Report
evaluation_udf-19-859-nep_final.pdf
Evaluation Date
December 2024
Theme
Women's empowerment
Country
Nepal
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

An effective way to address the structural barriers that marginalized women may face in accessing formal political space, is to start with building localized platforms and relevant capacities and gradually scaling up the effort to connect to formal institutional structures. In the present project, this was demonstrated successfully by the creation of the local Women Musahar Empowerment Forums which were eventually scaled up to district-level platforms as well as connected to the National Musahar Association.

Project Name
Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal
Project Partner
South Asia Partnership Nepal
Project Description

The project aims to empower Musahar women and strengthen their representation in local decision-making procedures for promoting gender-responsive local governance in two rural municipalities and two town municipalities. It will work through three main approaches:empowerment of Musahar women to claim their rights, accountability of local government authorities, and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for gender-responsive local governance.

Report
evaluation_udf-19-859-nep_final.pdf
Evaluation Date
December 2024
Theme
Women's empowerment
Country
Nepal
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

Livelihood support interventions can prove to be effective entry points in political empowerment initiatives, especially in the case of extremely marginalized and impoverished communities and should be considered as a strategic approach in project design. The present project experience clearly builds the case for linking economic and livelihood interventions to political empowerment evidenced through the successful establishment and continuation of the Musahar women led Cooperatives.

Project Name
Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal
Project Partner
South Asia Partnership Nepal
Project Description

The project aims to empower Musahar women and strengthen their representation in local decision-making procedures for promoting gender-responsive local governance in two rural municipalities and two town municipalities. It will work through three main approaches:empowerment of Musahar women to claim their rights, accountability of local government authorities, and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for gender-responsive local governance.

Report
evaluation_udf-19-859-nep_final.pdf
Evaluation Date
December 2024
Theme
Women's empowerment
Country
Nepal
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Safeguarding the Rights of Transgender & Intersex Communities in Pakistan

The project experience clearly indicates that project interventions when anchored in or leveraging existing government initiatives have greater stakeholder endorsement and higher chance to sustain. In this case, the grantee successfully tapped in and leveraged existing government initiatives that support, for example, the issuance of identity documentation as well as literacy and nonformal education.

Project Name
Safeguarding the Rights of Transgender & Intersex Communities in Pakistan
Project Partner
Formation Awareness & Community Empowerment Society
Project Description
The project objective is to work for the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms of LGBTI persons, particularly transgender and intersex, in Lahore and Faisalabad districts. Expected outcomes include support for 5000 LGTQI/transgender persons; enhanced capacity of 50 civil society and human rights organizations; increased public awareness of LGBTI rights; registration of transgender and intersex persons for computerized national identity cards; improved policy framework and legal provision on the rights of transgender and intersex person.
Report
UDF-19-860_PAK_final.pdf
Evaluation Date
March 2024
Theme
Rule of law
Country
Pakistan
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Citizens: empowering local communities, improving local governance

The case of the grantee Zimam demonstrated that even though the organisation did not have a significant track record, the quality of the project proposal submitted by the grantee’s finance team could demonstrate their capability to manage funds. Indeed, UNDEF showed audacity and open-mindedness in agreeing to fund this young organisation.
Project Name
Citizens: empowering local communities, improving local governance
Project Partner
Zimam for Creativity and Development
Project Description
Zimam’s Leadership Incubator wants to inspire young leaders and give them the confidence and training to inspire their communities. The program offers policy and problem-solving workshops, engagement and meetings with business, political, and social leaders, and opportunities for youth to implement their own initiatives aimed at social transformation. In doing so, we can empower young people to realize their potential as confident and capable change-makers who can lead their communities. Project activities also incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis as it impacts youth.
Report
palestine_udf-18-807-pal.pdf
Evaluation Date
March 2023
Theme
Youth engagement
Interaction with government
Country
Palestine
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Creating an Inclusive Policy and Legal System, Protecting Elderly People’s Fundamental Rights in Indonesia

The grantee organization LBH Apik and its local chapters are well-established grassroots organizations with internal systems and procedures in place. Building good rapport with local stakeholders was one of the key strengths of LBH Apik and a good strategy to secure commitment and can be continued in future programmes.

Project Name
Creating an Inclusive Policy and Legal System, Protecting Elderly People’s Fundamental Rights in Indonesia
Project Partner
Indonesian Legal Aid Association for Women
Project Description
The aim of this project is to improve protection mechanisms and policies regarding basic rights and public services to the elderly. Three local partners, each located in one of the three targeted provinces will help complete the project. The project will collect data to close the evidence gap, raise public awareness, and enhance capacity building of the elderly and paralegals as they advocate to improve elderly programs and legal and public services at village and community levels. The project will include a strong gender focus by prioritizing women as paralegals and recipients of legal services.
Report
UDF17_766_Final-Eval-Report.pdf
Evaluation Date
January 2023
Theme
Rule of law
Electoral Processes
Country
Indonesia
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Media to Promote Inclusive Democracy in Mali

Sensitivity to local languages should be an essential part of project design and delivery in countries where such diversity exists (as was the case with this project in the use of Bambara for local radio broadcasting to maximise impact for non-French speaking listeners), though this may bring additional challenges in terms of measuring and evaluating the success of an intervention.
Project Name
Strengthening Media to Promote Inclusive Democracy in Mali
Project Partner
Journalists for Human Rights
Project Description
This two-year project aims at strengthening media to play a role in fostering an effective, inclusive and transparent democracy in Mali. Based on field assessments of media outlets and CSOs, the project will build the capacity of media to report on good governance and human rights issues, break the financial dependency on political sponsorship through training on business skills and greater sector accountability, and help journalists and civil society actors to work together on data projects.
Report
mali_-_udf-17-747-mli_-_final.pdf
Evaluation Date
January 2023
Theme
Media
Country
Mali
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Youth Partnership for Improved Budgetary Governance in Lebanese Municipalities: Musharaka

While many of the young participants have gone on to create their own organizations to implement local initiatives, this may not be sustainable. Given the challenges for grassroots organizations to survive and the lack of local backing, it may be more effective to channel the energy and investment of youth into collective alternatives working with existing structures that are more likely to survive and have a longer lasting impact.
Project Name
Youth Partnership for Improved Budgetary Governance in Lebanese Municipalities: Musharaka
Project Partner
Lebanese Transparency Association
Project Description
The project was a follow-up to an earlier initiative that targeted 15 municipalities in the six Lebanese governorates. Under the UNDEF grant, the project was an extension of the initial programme, more focused on the areas of Western and Northern Bekaa to ensure a greater impact at the country level. The aim of the project was to empower youth, and tje wider community through them, to render municipal councils of Western and Northern Bekaa more transparent and accountable. The project was divided into two phases: in the first phase, five democratically elected Youth Shadow Councils (YSCs) received thematic and technical training on good governance, advocacy strategies, conducting needs assessments, access to public services, and budget analysis. In the second phase, the elected council was responsible for training another group of participants in order to disseminate the principles of transparency and accountability and motivate citizens to advocate for reforms and get involved in their community’s development process. The project mobilized and trained 200 young women and men aged 17-29 in the municipalities of Der El Ahmar, Baalbeck, Taalbaya, Saadnayel, and Sawireh. It had a relevant and well-defined strategy with concrete indicators that facilitated the monitoring of achievement levels.
Report
UDF-LEB-10-374-ER-1.pdf
Evaluation Date
October 2014
Theme
Youth engagement
Country
Lebanon
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Flood Affected Areas of Pakistan

The project introduced Gender Reform Committees as representational grassroots structures. These started in the communities at the district level and then grew to the provincial and national levels. This extended the project's reach and built community ownership for gender rights activities.
Project Name
Narrowing the Gender Gap in Flood Affected Areas of Pakistan
Project Partner
Pattan Development Organization
Project Description
The objective of the project was to reduce gender disparity and gender-based violence in eight flood affected districts of Pakistan. Its intended outcomes were: increased awareness of gender issues; increased progress towards certain Millennium Development Goals (MDG 3: gender equality and empowerment of women; MDG 4: reduced child mortality; and, MDG 5: improved maternal health); and increased capacity of women to counter gender discrimination and to hold government accountable. The project objectives were directly relevant to the needs to strengthen gender rights and equity within Pakistan and especially within rural, marginalized flood prone areas The grantee took a rights based approach that integrated men as well as women into the project activities and structures. This increased project relevance for the communities and helped to ensure that the women were able to participate in these male dominated areas.
Report
UDF-PAK-10-389_ER_Evaluation_Pakistan.pdf
UDF-PAK-10-389_ER_Evaluation_Pakistan-1.pdf
Evaluation Date
July 2014
Theme
Women's empowerment
Country
Pakistan
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Promoting Freedom of Information Activism at the Local Level in Brazil

The beneficiary groups had the motivation and expectations, but the institutional capacity of both the network and grassroots organizations would need to be strengthened in order to provide the solvency and independence required for continuity in their activities. The project network did not have a plan of action nor the financial resources for future interventions which undermines the sustainability of the processes begun by the project.
Project Name
Promoting Freedom of Information Activism at the Local Level in Brazil
Project Partner
ARTICLE 19: Global Campaign for Free Expression
Project Description
The aim of the project was to promote the development of a more inclusive and equal society through promoting the free flow of information to the general public so that individuals, civil servants and civil society groups acting at the local level can hold their government to account, advocate for their rights and entitlements more effectively and influence policy-making processes. Specifically the project set out to foster local activism on freedom of information and to use access to information and transparency tools to strengthen participation within municipal governments across Brazil. The project strategy was built around four specific components: a strengthened and effective network of local activists working on access to information; increased public understanding of the importance of freedom of information and how to use the concept to encourage transparency and accountability; increased public demand for governments’ responsiveness to information requests at the local level; legislative and policy reform initiatives to promote transparency at the local level. The project was highly relevant since the Access to Public Information Act had recently come into effect. This Act required each municipality to draft regulations ensuring its proper enforcement. Yet surveys had indicated a lack of interest and knowledge in many municipalities about enforcing this law.
Report
UDF-BRA-09-340-ER-1.pdf
Evaluation Date
April 2014
Theme
Community activism
Country
Brazil