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gender

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Promoting Gender-Sensitive Personal Status Laws in Lebanon

External coherence and synergy between the organisation’s different projects/interventions require a minimum of formal and systematic coordination such as the collaboration that took place with a feminist platform in the case of this project.
Project Partner
KAFA (Enough) Violence and Exploitation
Project Description
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.
Evaluation Date
September 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Advancing Gender Justice with Community Broadcasters in Kyrgyzstan

Foreign funding is a matter of controversy and concern in Kyrgyzstan, especially as it relates to media engagement. UNDEF’s support proved valuable as a neutral, credible, and legitimate source of funding. It allowed for activists and journalists from very different regions, political views, social backgrounds to meet and work together, without prejudice, and achieve results from productive and meaningful collaborations.
Project Partner
Community Mass Media Association
Project Description
This project aims to strengthen the transformative role of community media (community radio and community multimedia centers) in Kyrgyzstan to reduce gender-based violence (GBV) and to promote positive role models for women in their respective communities. The project will cover all regions in Kyrgyzstan and work with key stakeholders, including journalists, women activists, rural women as well local government officials through three integrated outcomes focused on stakeholder capacity building, public awareness raising, and support for dialogues.
Evaluation Date
April 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Advancing Gender Justice with Community Broadcasters in Kyrgyzstan

Challenges on gender in Kyrgyzstan still consist of polarized public opinion, declining women's participation in the political system, radicalization and religious extremism, media messaging on negative stereotypes. There is demand for high-quality media programming that promotes more positive role models for women in Kyrgyz society.
Project Partner
Community Mass Media Association
Project Description
This project aims to strengthen the transformative role of community media (community radio and community multimedia centers) in Kyrgyzstan to reduce gender-based violence (GBV) and to promote positive role models for women in their respective communities. The project will cover all regions in Kyrgyzstan and work with key stakeholders, including journalists, women activists, rural women as well local government officials through three integrated outcomes focused on stakeholder capacity building, public awareness raising, and support for dialogues.
Evaluation Date
April 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Advancing Gender Justice with Community Broadcasters in Kyrgyzstan

Community media is key in Kyrgyzstan, given the geographic challenges of rural communities in remote and mountainous locations, where regional news do not reach the country as a whole, and vice versa. Alternative channels of access to information complement national and regional information. It is thus key in advancing gender justice through gender-sensitive information and conscious opposition to gender stereotypes.
Project Partner
Community Mass Media Association
Project Description
This project aims to strengthen the transformative role of community media (community radio and community multimedia centers) in Kyrgyzstan to reduce gender-based violence (GBV) and to promote positive role models for women in their respective communities. The project will cover all regions in Kyrgyzstan and work with key stakeholders, including journalists, women activists, rural women as well local government officials through three integrated outcomes focused on stakeholder capacity building, public awareness raising, and support for dialogues.
Evaluation Date
April 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Improving Maya Women's Access to Justice in Rural Guatemala

Community leaders can be important gate keepers for justice services. Community leaders often decide whether a case of VAWG should be reported to authorities outside the community, can be perpetrators of VAWG themselves, and yield high levels of influence in community perceptions of violence tolerance. These leaders need to be engaged meaningfully and strategically so that they, at a minimum, do not block justice processes.
Project Partner
Women's Justice Initiative
Project Description
This project seeks to improve access to justice for some 2,900 indigenous women living in rural areas of Tecpan, Guatemala through free legal support, accompaniment of survivors, and strengthening local governance and municipal response to violence against women and girls. In addition, the project aims to increase the capacities of 175 key public actors including community leaders, service providers, and police at the local, municipal, and departmental level to provide quality services to indigenous survivors and promote human rights.
Evaluation Date
March 2022
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Developing alternative models of natural resource governance based on indigenous community participation in Aceh

There had been extensive mapping of Mukims in Indonesia previously, but the project did not take advantage of this to further develop the mapping to include gender needs, household spending, natural resource zoning, nor to define the extent to which alternative models could promote Mukim communities’ economic and social cohesion. As a consequence, none of the existing mappings were associated with the project’s financial, implementation or monitoring strategies and women and vulnerable groups stayed outside of the development of the natural resource governance process.
Project Partner
Perkumpulan Prodeelat
Project Description
The project’s objective was to strengthen the capacities of selected local Mukim communities in the Aceh province of Indonesia. A Mukim is a subdivision of a subdistrict and comprise of a number of villages. The aim of the project was to develop, advocate for and implement an alternative model of natural resource governance that promotes the participation and protects the rights of local communities, fosters environmental sustainability, and advances the interests of vulnerable and marginalized populations. The grantee’s approach was inspired by alternative governance models previously implemented by other local Mukim communities. At the time of project implementation, the legal framework which recognizes the Mukims’s authority and asserts its rights to manage its natural resources under Aceh's Special Autonomy status was not yet enforced. As Mukims represent indigenous communities in Aceh, the intended strategy was suited to the need of enhancing the credibility of Mukims. The existing Mukim associations had not previouslyt been in district policy making since they lacked visions, skills, orientations and strategies to build equal relations with public and governmental authorities.
Evaluation Date
July 2016
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Promotion of Women’s Empowerment and Rights in Somalia

The engagement of “community catalysts/mobilizers” included men in leadership positions within the communities. These men were recruited to spread the messages of women’s empowerment in conjunction with the grassroots campaigns. One community catalyst interviewed was a teacher and religious leader who was also consulted on the nature of the messages and said he considered them “excellent”. Another religious leader said his job was to “undo communities’ negative views on women’s rights and empowerment” and to help change people’s perceptions, including those of parents so that they allowed their daughters to explore their potential “even by seeking leadership positions”. The community catalysts also helped smooth the way for CSOs to gain access to regional administrations. Several of those interviewed expressed their satisfaction at having been consulted and then brought into the project.
Project Partner
Centre for Education and Development
Project Description
To increase representation and participation of women in social, economic and political activities in Somalia, the project focused on training and providing support to 20 CSO partners, through mentoring, exchanges, and networking. Grassroots awareness was raised through the CSOs and via the media, as well as through a series of school debates. Advocacy targeting regional and national officials was carried out through meetings and the development of regional and national strategies on women’s empowerment. A final component of the project tested the new capacity of these CSOs, by awarding 10 USD2,000 grants to CSOs which submitted the most innovative projects on women’s empowerment. The project was well designed, with a number of components that helped it both to empower women in the 20 participating CSOs and beyond. It was also timely, given discussions on a new Constitution and elections announced for 2016. The actions planned were carried out and met their targets. There were no superfluous components in the project; each was designed to add value to other parts of the project.
Evaluation Date
June 2016
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Promoting Women's Participation in Local Budgetary Processes

The project in Niger has changed the perception of women among men in the municipal administration. The project succeeded in informing and motivating municipal officials for improving local governance through a more realistic programming and implementation of the municipal budget.
Project Partner
Alternative Espaces Citoyens
Project Description
Working with women’s community-based organizations and municipal authorities the project aimed to enhance the social and economic rights of women in Niger by supporting Gender Responsive Budgeting. Integrating a gender perspective into all steps of the municipal budget process, the project focused on improving the capacity of women to advocate municipalities to shape local budgetary policies which consider their health, education and water sanitation concerns. The project’s strategy of working directly with women community based organization members and municipal officials brought activities closer to beneficiaries in the five targeted municipalities of Niger. This approach was highly relevant to women as a beneficiary group, which for most part, rarely has a voice in public affairs and limited access to political decision-making processes.
Evaluation Date
March 2016
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Together against violence and discrimination of women

Project materials contained messages that were in some cases discriminatory and not compatible with international norms. There was concern that the training materials misrepresented the concept of gender and that there was a generally poor understanding of the issue.
Project Partner
Association des Femmes de Tadjourah
Project Description
The objective of the project was to contribute to the elimination of violence and discrimination against women in 20 communes of Djibouti’s Tadjourah region. This was to be achieved through awareness raising and mobilisation of the local population; and by building the personal capacities of local actors and structures, followed by the creation of 20 local vigilance groups in the targeted communes. There was, however, a fundamental flaw in the design of the project that reflected a mismatch between the problem identified and the responses chosen. The grantee’s research identified the principal cause of violence against women as patriarchal attitudes and behaviours that relegate women to an inferior status in the couple, the community and the nation. A weak legal framework to support action to end violence, and weak implementation of existing clauses in the Constitution that promise gender equality were also found. The project did not address these causes but focused on raising the awareness of women, potentially putting them at risk of reprisals.
Evaluation Date
March 2016
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Promoting Women's Participation in Local Budgetary Processes

The fact that the grantee organised meetings with all parties was an important first step in building mutual trust and facilitating a common understanding of gender issues through municipal budget in Niger. Most women and municipal officials who participated said it was the first time they had the opportunity to work jointly on Gender Responsive Budgeting issues.
Project Partner
Alternative Espaces Citoyens
Project Description
Working with women’s community-based organizations and municipal authorities the project aimed to enhance the social and economic rights of women in Niger by supporting Gender Responsive Budgeting. Integrating a gender perspective into all steps of the municipal budget process, the project focused on improving the capacity of women to advocate municipalities to shape local budgetary policies which consider their health, education and water sanitation concerns. The project’s strategy of working directly with women community based organization members and municipal officials brought activities closer to beneficiaries in the five targeted municipalities of Niger. This approach was highly relevant to women as a beneficiary group, which for most part, rarely has a voice in public affairs and limited access to political decision-making processes.
Evaluation Date
March 2016
Country