participation

Evaluation Date

December 2024

Theme

Country

Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

LESSON

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

Project Partner

South Asia Partnership Nepal

Project Description

Report

Evaluation Date

December 2024

Theme

Country

Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

LESSON

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

Project Partner

South Asia Partnership Nepal

Project Description

Report

Evaluation Date

December 2024

Theme

Country

Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

LESSON

Citizen led accountability (CLA) monitoring is a particularly useful initiative to promote gender responsive local governance. However, institutionalizing it requires extensive capacity building of local communities to enable them to continue it independently. In the present case, while the project piloted a Citizens Report Card successfully by acquiring a consultant, the knowledge and skills transfer to the community for developing it independently and regularly would have made it locally driven and owned, as well as sustainable.

Project Name

Project Partner

South Asia Partnership Nepal

Project Description

Report

Evaluation Date

December 2024

Theme

Country

Enhancing Women’s Political Participation in Eswatini

LESSON

Leveraging established partnerships and resources, particularly during disruptive situations such as the pandemic, enhances stakeholder endorsement and improves the potential for sustaining project activities. In this project, the existing relationships and trust between WLSA and the project communities facilitated ongoing engagement and awareness during the lockdown periods. This ensured the continuity and engagement of project stakeholders.

Project Name

Project Partner

Women and Law in Southern Africa - Eswatini

Project Description

The project seeks to enhance the gender responsiveness of policies and practices in the electoral process in Eswatini by assisting stakeholders to develop gender responsive guidelines and educating citizens on the importance of women’s political participation, while empowering the female electorate with leadership skills, campaign and mobilization strategies. The project seeks to impart a long-term effect by enabling community-based paralegals to conduct gender equality sensitization talks at community level. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.

Report

udf-18-793-swa_evaluation_report.pdf

Evaluation Date

August 2024

Theme

Electoral Processes

Raising the Social and Political Profile of Youth in Mozambique

Country

Swaziland

LESSON

The project experience revealed that regular follow-up with project partners to monitor key activities, such as beneficiary selection, ensures accountability and maintains alignment with project goals and objectives. In this case, the project focal points across the provinces undertook the task of beneficiary selection without the consistent guidance and follow-up from the grantee. This led to the adoption of diverse selection criteria, some of which inadvertently contributed to higher participant turnover rates.

UDF-18-794-MOZ

Project Name

Project Partner

Associação Gender Links Moçambique

Project Description

The project supports young people's participation in local and national issues by developing youth councils and youth councilor training workshops. Young people will have their voices heard on key social and political platforms, and will be better represented at the center of local and national policies and decision-making, within and outside selected councils. Project activities incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis as it impacts youth.

Report

UDF-18-794-MOZ_Evaluation-Report_Final.pdf

Evaluation Date

April 2024

Theme

Strengthening Democracy Through LGBT Political Participation in South Africa

Country

Mozambique

LESSON

Building cross-party networks of LGBTQI+ activists can ensure that key issues are retained on the agenda and more substantively engaged across the political spectrum.

Project Name

Project Partner

Triangle Project

Project Description

The project aims to strengthen South Africa's democracy through increasing equal participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people and promoting understanding among political parties and the Independent Electoral Commission around the importance of diverse representation. This will be achieved through the training of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex leaders in civic engagement strategy and working with parties and the Commission to adopt policies and procedures to improve their representation, participation, voter registration and turn out.

Report

udf-17-750-saf_evaluation_report_final.pdf

Evaluation Date

August 2023

Theme

Rule of law

Country

South Africa

LESSON

Supplementing training through follow-up coaching and mentoring and by creating platforms for ongoing dialogue and engagement can build and sustain networks that are driven by shared understandings on key human rights and LGBTQI+ issues across the political spectrum.

Project Name

Strengthening Democracy Through LGBT Political Participation in South Africa

Project Partner

Triangle Project

Project Description

Report

udf-17-750-saf_evaluation_report_final.pdf

Evaluation Date

August 2023

Theme

Rule of law

Country

South Africa

LESSON

Clarity around how, and who, to engage within political party structures is important for targeting interventions at those most likely to embed learning in the structure. But even when internal learning structures within political parties are engaged – like the ANCs OR Tambo School of Leadership, a lack of resources to cascade learning can limit the number of indirect beneficiaries.

Project Name

Strengthening Democracy Through LGBT Political Participation in South Africa

Project Partner

Triangle Project

Project Description

Report

udf-17-750-saf_evaluation_report_final.pdf

Evaluation Date

August 2023

Theme

Rule of law

Country

South Africa

LESSON

Empowering women when it comes to realizing their rights, not just learning about them, requires the support of men – both in their family and in the community at-large – and they should be brought on board to champion wider societal transformation around gender.

Project Name

Strengthening Grassroots Women’s Groups to Promote and Protect Civic Space in Uganda

Project Partner

All in One Womens Association

Project Description

The project goal is to empower 6,000 women by raising awareness of their gender specific rights, promoting women’s political participation, and addressing all forms of injustices that affect women’s wellbeing; strengthen the capacity of 100 unregistered women’s groups to become registered under the NGOs Act 2016; and support 100 registered women’s groups in advocating, promoting and protecting civic space in Uganda. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.

Report

Evaluation-Report-UDF-19-845-UGA_final.pdf

Evaluation Date

July 2023

Theme