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Lessons

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Flood Affected Areas of Pakistan

The grantee worked with existing government policies and structures to promote gender equity, which grounded its activities within local governance and service delivery systems. For example, its work to promote registrations for birth and the Computerized National Identity Card addressed the basic preconditions for civil and political rights - the ability to be recognized by the State as a citizen. The participants who subsequently registered then became eligible for public services as well as gained the right to vote.
Project Partner
Pattan Development Organization
Project Description
The objective of the project was to reduce gender disparity and gender-based violence in eight flood affected districts of Pakistan. Its intended outcomes were: increased awareness of gender issues; increased progress towards certain Millennium Development Goals (MDG 3: gender equality and empowerment of women; MDG 4: reduced child mortality; and, MDG 5: improved maternal health); and increased capacity of women to counter gender discrimination and to hold government accountable. The project objectives were directly relevant to the needs to strengthen gender rights and equity within Pakistan and especially within rural, marginalized flood prone areas The grantee took a rights based approach that integrated men as well as women into the project activities and structures. This increased project relevance for the communities and helped to ensure that the women were able to participate in these male dominated areas.
Evaluation Date
July 2014
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Flood Affected Areas of Pakistan

The project should have put in place stronger follow-up activities with the communities after the workshops as well as with the government officials, specifically on the findings of the Governance Performance Scorecards and mobile phone reporting. The Gender Reform Committee structures were underutilized as project implementation remained centralized and driven by the grantee.
Project Partner
Pattan Development Organization
Project Description
The objective of the project was to reduce gender disparity and gender-based violence in eight flood affected districts of Pakistan. Its intended outcomes were: increased awareness of gender issues; increased progress towards certain Millennium Development Goals (MDG 3: gender equality and empowerment of women; MDG 4: reduced child mortality; and, MDG 5: improved maternal health); and increased capacity of women to counter gender discrimination and to hold government accountable. The project objectives were directly relevant to the needs to strengthen gender rights and equity within Pakistan and especially within rural, marginalized flood prone areas The grantee took a rights based approach that integrated men as well as women into the project activities and structures. This increased project relevance for the communities and helped to ensure that the women were able to participate in these male dominated areas.
Evaluation Date
July 2014
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Flood Affected Areas of Pakistan

Participants felt that the project had an abrupt ending and some were waiting for it to continue. The mobile phones that were given to the participants as part of the project were also returned to the grantee at the end so that the beneficiaries were not automatically able to continue to use the tools they had learned.
Project Partner
Pattan Development Organization
Project Description
The objective of the project was to reduce gender disparity and gender-based violence in eight flood affected districts of Pakistan. Its intended outcomes were: increased awareness of gender issues; increased progress towards certain Millennium Development Goals (MDG 3: gender equality and empowerment of women; MDG 4: reduced child mortality; and, MDG 5: improved maternal health); and increased capacity of women to counter gender discrimination and to hold government accountable. The project objectives were directly relevant to the needs to strengthen gender rights and equity within Pakistan and especially within rural, marginalized flood prone areas The grantee took a rights based approach that integrated men as well as women into the project activities and structures. This increased project relevance for the communities and helped to ensure that the women were able to participate in these male dominated areas.
Evaluation Date
July 2014
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Flood Affected Areas of Pakistan

The project introduced Gender Reform Committees as representational grassroots structures. These started in the communities at the district level and then grew to the provincial and national levels. This extended the project's reach and built community ownership for gender rights activities.
Project Partner
Pattan Development Organization
Project Description
The objective of the project was to reduce gender disparity and gender-based violence in eight flood affected districts of Pakistan. Its intended outcomes were: increased awareness of gender issues; increased progress towards certain Millennium Development Goals (MDG 3: gender equality and empowerment of women; MDG 4: reduced child mortality; and, MDG 5: improved maternal health); and increased capacity of women to counter gender discrimination and to hold government accountable. The project objectives were directly relevant to the needs to strengthen gender rights and equity within Pakistan and especially within rural, marginalized flood prone areas The grantee took a rights based approach that integrated men as well as women into the project activities and structures. This increased project relevance for the communities and helped to ensure that the women were able to participate in these male dominated areas.
Evaluation Date
July 2014
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Flood Affected Areas of Pakistan

The monitoring and evaluation plan was admirably comprehensive as was the baseline survey. However, the impact survey only repeated a portion of the baseline questions which makes determination of impact difficult.
Project Partner
Pattan Development Organization
Project Description
The objective of the project was to reduce gender disparity and gender-based violence in eight flood affected districts of Pakistan. Its intended outcomes were: increased awareness of gender issues; increased progress towards certain Millennium Development Goals (MDG 3: gender equality and empowerment of women; MDG 4: reduced child mortality; and, MDG 5: improved maternal health); and increased capacity of women to counter gender discrimination and to hold government accountable. The project objectives were directly relevant to the needs to strengthen gender rights and equity within Pakistan and especially within rural, marginalized flood prone areas The grantee took a rights based approach that integrated men as well as women into the project activities and structures. This increased project relevance for the communities and helped to ensure that the women were able to participate in these male dominated areas.
Evaluation Date
July 2014
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Flood Affected Areas of Pakistan

One challenge for the project was that the grantee did not provide material incentives to participants which had become expected in the flood affected areas after years of relief efforts. They were able to mitigate this to a large extent through socializing efforts that introduced the project and its activities; first to the male decision makers and then to the rest of the community.
Project Partner
Pattan Development Organization
Project Description
The objective of the project was to reduce gender disparity and gender-based violence in eight flood affected districts of Pakistan. Its intended outcomes were: increased awareness of gender issues; increased progress towards certain Millennium Development Goals (MDG 3: gender equality and empowerment of women; MDG 4: reduced child mortality; and, MDG 5: improved maternal health); and increased capacity of women to counter gender discrimination and to hold government accountable. The project objectives were directly relevant to the needs to strengthen gender rights and equity within Pakistan and especially within rural, marginalized flood prone areas The grantee took a rights based approach that integrated men as well as women into the project activities and structures. This increased project relevance for the communities and helped to ensure that the women were able to participate in these male dominated areas.
Evaluation Date
July 2014
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Narrowing the Gender Gap in Flood Affected Areas of Pakistan

The project developed and used a Gender and Governance Performance Scorecard to monitor governance and service delivery. It also used mobile phones to communicate instances of corruption and violence against women. Community members marked the scorecards and sent text messages to the authorities drawing attention to corrupt practices as well as violence against women. The grantee aggregated the data and the findings were discussed with local officials in quarterly Gender Reform Committee district meetings. However, resolving these issues required more than sharing the information with officials, and without follow up most of the problems remained unresolved.
Project Partner
Pattan Development Organization
Project Description
The objective of the project was to reduce gender disparity and gender-based violence in eight flood affected districts of Pakistan. Its intended outcomes were: increased awareness of gender issues; increased progress towards certain Millennium Development Goals (MDG 3: gender equality and empowerment of women; MDG 4: reduced child mortality; and, MDG 5: improved maternal health); and increased capacity of women to counter gender discrimination and to hold government accountable. The project objectives were directly relevant to the needs to strengthen gender rights and equity within Pakistan and especially within rural, marginalized flood prone areas The grantee took a rights based approach that integrated men as well as women into the project activities and structures. This increased project relevance for the communities and helped to ensure that the women were able to participate in these male dominated areas.
Evaluation Date
July 2014
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Empowering Civil Society Groups to Promote Social Accountability

A number of government officials from Papua, Indonesia, indicated their desire to do more in utilizing the Citizen Reporting Cards beyond the project, but there has been no follow up. Similarly, none of the members of the CSO Forum have taken the initiative to meet, or to establish the organization on a more formal basis.
Project Partner
Centre for Strategic and International Studies
Project Description
The overall goal of the project was to improve governance in Papua, Indonesia. Specifically, it focused on developing and implementing a practical strategy to build a forum for civil society organizations where civil society could develop skills in social accountability and promote accountability and transparency of the provincial and city governments. Given the deep suspicion of civil society on the part of government in Papua, the intention of the project was to establish the CSO Forum as a legitimate body in the eyes of both decision-makers and the public. Training was provided to all stakeholders – including government officials and a series of dialogue sessions was also organized. However, gaps in the initial baseline analysis and stakeholder consultations, along with a decision to implement the project without a local partner, reduced the project’s relevance to the Papuan context and the needs of beneficiaries. Eight visits to Papua over a two-year period by members of the Jakarta-based project team limited opportunities for contact between the visiting team and beneficiaries, and a lack of continuity across activities restricted what the project was able to accomplish.
Evaluation Date
June 2014
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: JOINT Contribution to Strengthen and Expand Democracy in Mozambique

The main partner NGOs in Manica and the grantee designed the project collaboratively. The NGOs in Manica were concerned that their capacity would be stretched by the ambitious expected project outcomes. Their concerns were not reflected in the design, and the final proposal to UNDEF maintained the three-pronged approach of NGO capacity building, government dialogue and legal aid. The capacity building provided to NGOs was essentially on specific rights awareness and governance skills, but was not designed to address NGOs' structural/operational weaknesses.
Project Partner
JOINT, Mozambican NGOs league
Project Description
The project aimed to increase the knowledge and capacities of local organizations and marginalized groups; enhance dialogue among civil society and marginalized groups, private sectors and the government; and ensure participation of marginalized groups in the democratic processes and achievement of advocacy for civil rights protection and promotion. The project was implemented in seven districts of Manica province, in central Mozambique. While the project correctly identified issues of political participation and NGO capacity building that were of genuine concern in Manica province, there were weaknesses in project design - the project did not directly address the structural and operational weaknesses of NGOs. And while the project’s expected outcomes were weaker than planned, the fact that the activities that were planned in a remote province, in locations that were sometimes difficult to to access because of weather conditions and occasional political violence, was in itself a significant achievement
Evaluation Date
June 2014
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Civil Society Empowerment in Advocacy and Policy Development in Vietnam

None of the participants from the Training of Trainers felt fully equipped to train independently on advocacy and policy development, particularly since they themselves lacked hands-on experience of organizing and conducting initiatives in this sphere. All reported that there was a need for additional training and preparation.
Project Partner
Research Center for Management and Sustainable Development
Project Description
The project’s overall objective was to increase the participation of Vietnamese civil society organizations (CSOs) in democratic policy-making. The grantee sought to achieve this through: building the capacity of CSOs to advocate for democratic participation in the policy development process; enhancing networking, cooperation and communication among CSOs and related government bodies; implementation of existing legal frameworks and policies; and actual, successful participation of CSOs in the policy-making process. The objectives of the project were directly relevant to exploring new possibilities in civil society engagement with government agencies in Viet Nam on public policy, at both local and national levels. The project helped facilitate CSOs voice in discussions and problem-solving on issues of concern to particular disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.
Evaluation Date
June 2014
Country