Coordinate

This project aims to strengthen advocacy efforts towards a gender-sensitive civil personal status law in Lebanon. It will build capacity in civil society; create a coalition of a range of actors; engage the media; educate and inform the public; and increase pressure on political parties to take action on the draft law currently being reviewed by a committee in parliament. It will build a strong foundation for a well-informed, consistent national campaign to change the current law, which threatens democracy and human rights, in particular the rights of women, children, and marginalized groups, as well as increasing political pressure on lawmakers. Project activities will also incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence.

In a context characterized by the recurrence of violations of human rights and freedoms, the project aims to respond to the major problem, identified by the Protection Cluster, which is "attacks on the right to life, dignity and freedom. "integrity of the person". This will be done through reactive, corrective and constructive actions, with technical support to the local Volunteer and Volunteer Community-CLOC Local Organizing Committees. This support includes: (1) Capacity building through training for members of these community structures and local authorities on the protection, promotion of human rights and community mediation, and on the reduction of human rights violations.(2) Technical and material support for advocacy, awareness-raising and mediation actions aimed at strengthening collaboration between the civilian population and local civil and military authorities and (3) easy access for victims to appropriate care services.

The project was implemented by Transparency International – Defense and Security (as Implementing Agency) and the Cercle de Réflexion et d’Information pour la Consolidation de la Démocratie au Mali (CRI-2002, as Implementing Partner), from April 2018 to December 2019. The project benefited from a UNDEF grant of USD 187,000 and sought to reduce the risk of corruption in the Malian defense and security sector. It included a mix of capacity-building, advocacy and research work in order to build civil society’s ability to advocate for accountability and transparency in the defense sector, and to open a space for them to do so. Strengthening links between civil society and defense institutions and the democratic bodies charged with oversight of defense was an integral part of the approach.

The project aims to foster civic participation of young people in Ukraine by training them to become responsible and pro-active citizens. The central activity of the project is a non-formal civic education training program in four stages that will train teenagers to become "Junior Agents of Change" in four pilot cities. Trained Junior Agents of Change will implement development projects aiming for the transformation of their social environment and the development of their communities.

The project works to improve access to education in Brazil, by tackling mismanagement in construction of schools; empowering civil society groups to pressure local and federal government official for more accountability; building a network of local monitoring organizations; gathering robust information on problems in several phases of construction and delivery, presented in semi-annual reports to Federal Government and media; holding a final conference on lessons learned and how to redesign policies for effective monitoring and control with the help of local civil society organizations.

The project sought to strengthen the capacities of civil society to play an active role in shaping public policy and drafting laws. Its intended outcome was for civil society to become an active, informed and key partner in public policy and law making, so as to be able to react instantly on key public policy areas. The grantee capitalized on the government’s willingness for a more engaged and constructive civil society in policy development as well as the need for civil society organizations to have more information.  There was a substantial level of interest and participation in the project from both sides. The project’s strategy was sound as it built on the work already done by both CSOs and government offices. The project increased both the demand for and supply of public consultations.