universities

The project will advocate for licensing community radio institutions in Zimbabwe. This will be achieved by means of: (a) coordinated civil society stakeholders and citizens advocacy and petitioning the Government and its related institutions through a united and strong effort; (b) policy and regulatory review and reform of community broadcasting and the process required for licensing; and (c) developing the capacity of 10 target community radio institutions (CRIs) for licensing.

The project’s objective was to strengthen the political leadership capacity of 1,500 young women from 10 public and private universities based in five districts of Uganda. The grantee aimed to increase awareness among the project’s target group and to provide them with access to information about women’s political life, as well as civic, voting, electoral and democratic processes. This was expected to enhance the leadership capacities of the young women to participate in the March 2016 general elections. Following these elections, an additional component was included in order to create a platform for leadership development of young women in Uganda. Although women’s political advancement at the time of project implementation was a national priority, the actual implementation of related international, regional and national legal and policy commitments remained an important challenge. This was due to persisting socio-cultural factors, such as the high illiteracy rate among youth and girls, lack of access to appropriate information related to political, human and civic rights, early marriage and sexual and gender based violence. While highly relevant in this respect, the project did not address the significant risk of SGBV that young women are exposed to because of their interest in political participation.

The project’s general objective was to increase access to justice for marginalized groups among the rural population of the southern district of Kamonyi, including people living with HIV/AIDS and the Twa ethnic minority. The project document highlighted that access to justice in Rwanda was a privilege reserved for the elite: an urban prerogative that discriminates against uneducated, low-income populations living largely in rural areas. The project was built around three main areas of activity: providing direct access to free legal assistance, through the opening and daily operation of a Legal Aid Clinic in the rural district of Kamonyi; setting up a citizens’ system and strengthening local capacity to address judicial issues through the education and training of paralegals; and creating a responsible and solidarity-based dynamic where law students provided direct legal as part of their school curriculum. The project was highly relevant, as it was tailored to local legal mechanisms put in place by the national framework to reform and decentralize the justice system. Overall the project improved legal structures and services in the Kamnoyi district and contributed to greater justice at the local level.