Project: Empowerment of Women Citizens in Turkey
Evaluation Date: February 2012
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Serious challenges were encountered in providing training to working class women – the ultimate beneficiaries – whose circumstances were very different from those of the middle-class, educated trainees. The Training of Trainers course did not endow its graduates with the skills necessary to deal with a wide range of subjects, with beneficiaries requiring practical information regarding their rights and on how to act to address problems of day-to-day injustice – in inheritance, property ownership and divorce-related disputes.

Theme: Women's empowerment
Project: Empowerment of Women Citizens in Turkey
Evaluation Date: February 2012
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

Most of those who were interviewed, both trainers and trainees, recognized the limitations of the trainer designation, and many indicated to the trainers that, while inspired by the course, they lacked both the confidence and the opportunity to deliver major training exercises, based on the manual, to groups of women.

Theme: Women's empowerment
Project: Empowerment of Women Citizens in Turkey
Evaluation Date: February 2012
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The work to prepare the 350 women trainees to be trainers themselves was less successful. This is, in part, the result of a design flaw in the project, whereby the Training of Trainers course was expected to both build awareness and train trainers. More fundamental was the limitation of what can be accomplished in an intensive five -day course, no matter how well taught and facilitated.

Theme: Women's empowerment
Project: Empowerment of Women Citizens in Turkey
Evaluation Date: February 2012
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The project was extremely effective in building and enhancing the awareness and understanding of the concepts of gender equality and women’s rights in the case of the 350 women activists who completed the Training of Trainers course. In this respect, it built a strong sense of collective and individual empowerment which, in turn, strengthened both their resolve and their capacity to support the empowerment of other women.

Theme: Women's empowerment
Project: Monitoring and Influencing the Central Budget by Civic Empowerment
Evaluation Date: February 2012
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The involvement of the grantee and its partners in initiatives with specific local government units in Turkey stimulated interest on the part of mayors and senior local officials in the ideas promoted by the project, as well as with the leadership of the Urban Councils and Women’s Assemblies. This increased interest contributed to the project’s effectiveness through strengthening links between the municipal executive and the Urban Councils, and, in some cases, closer consultation on budgetary matters.

Theme: Interaction with government
Project: Monitoring and Influencing the Central Budget by Civic Empowerment
Evaluation Date: February 2012
Report: [report link]
Lesson Learned:

The decision to add a gender equality component to the project by providing special training to Women’s Assemblies reflected the recognition of a significant capacity gap in local civil society in Turkey. Working through the Urban Councils and Women’s Assemblies, the project lobbied municipal authorities to establish municipal Equality Commissions as sub-committees of elected municipal councils.. All five pilot municipalities have now either set up, or are planning to set up, Equality Commissions.

Theme: Interaction with government