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Lessons

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

Connected support to enhance individual women’s capabilities and empowerment is important for women’s collective action. Support to build individual women’s leadership capacities is particularly important to build leadership skills and political capacities in order for them to work effectively with existing systems and political processes. In this case, while the Implementing Partner was successful in mobilizing and raising awareness for collective action among the Musahar women, focused support to build women’s capacities in communications and leadership would have further enhanced their ability to lead the women forums.

Project Partner
South Asia Partnership Nepal
Project Description

The project aims to empower Musahar women and strengthen their representation in local decision-making procedures for promoting gender-responsive local governance in two rural municipalities and two town municipalities. It will work through three main approaches:empowerment of Musahar women to claim their rights, accountability of local government authorities, and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for gender-responsive local governance.

Evaluation Date
December 2024
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

Strategic engagement with the media can yield good results in amplifying voices of the marginalized, providing them with a platform to address wider audience to promote gender responsive and inclusive local governance and development. In the present case, the project engaged the media successfully to widely disseminate the project initiatives as well as leverage it as an accountability mechanism for following up with government officials on their promised actions in promoting inclusive local governance.

Project Partner
South Asia Partnership Nepal
Project Description

The project aims to empower Musahar women and strengthen their representation in local decision-making procedures for promoting gender-responsive local governance in two rural municipalities and two town municipalities. It will work through three main approaches:empowerment of Musahar women to claim their rights, accountability of local government authorities, and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for gender-responsive local governance.

Evaluation Date
December 2024
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Strengthening Gender-Responsive Local Government in Nepal

Women’s participation in political change processes not only enhances gender equality, but it also makes a positive contribution to local development outcomes. The present project experience clearly demonstrates the transformative impact of women’s inclusion in local development in the shape of a number of local needs-based infrastructure schemes undertaken by the Women Musahar Empowerment Forums in their Municipalities.

Project Partner
South Asia Partnership Nepal
Project Description

The project aims to empower Musahar women and strengthen their representation in local decision-making procedures for promoting gender-responsive local governance in two rural municipalities and two town municipalities. It will work through three main approaches:empowerment of Musahar women to claim their rights, accountability of local government authorities, and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for gender-responsive local governance.

Evaluation Date
December 2024
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Women's Political Participation in Eswatini

Community sensitization via WhatsApp proved less effective than face-to-face meetings, as it excluded individuals without smartphones and those with lower levels of literacy. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the project adapted community sensitization meetings to a remote format. The grantee produced brief videos on gender equality and the importance of women’s participation in decision-making processes, disseminating these to project beneficiaries. While this method ensured the continuation of project activities during the lockdown, it is not recommended as a model for replication, except in similar situations where in-person engagement is unfeasible, as it failed to effectively reach all community members.

Project Partner
Women and Law in Southern Africa - Eswatini
Project Description

The project seeks to enhance the gender responsiveness of policies and practices in the electoral process in Eswatini by assisting stakeholders to develop gender responsive guidelines and educating citizens on the importance of women’s political participation, while empowering the female electorate with leadership skills, campaign and mobilization strategies. The project seeks to impart a long-term effect by enabling community-based paralegals to conduct gender equality sensitization talks at community level. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.

Evaluation Date
August 2024
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Women’s Political Participation in Eswatini

Transparent and proactive communication between the grant recipient and the funder is essential to foster effective collaboration and mitigate operational inefficiencies. In this case, WLSA faced a shortage of funds and human resources, which hindered their ability to fulfil all project team responsibilities. This led to delays and inconsistencies within the narrative reports, which were never clarified by WLSA.

Project Partner
Women and Law in Southern Africa - Eswatini
Project Description

The project seeks to enhance the gender responsiveness of policies and practices in the electoral process in Eswatini by assisting stakeholders to develop gender responsive guidelines and educating citizens on the importance of women’s political participation, while empowering the female electorate with leadership skills, campaign and mobilization strategies. The project seeks to impart a long-term effect by enabling community-based paralegals to conduct gender equality sensitization talks at community level. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.

Evaluation Date
August 2024
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Women's Political Participation in Eswatini

A multi-level approach that engages stakeholders from the grassroots level to the institutional level ensures consistency and has a higher chance of success in enhancing women’s political participation. In this case, the project engaged rural communities, traditional leaders, electoral management bodies, public institutions, and the government. This comprehensive engagement enabled a concerted effort to enhance women’s political participation in the subsequent elections.

Project Partner
Women and Law in Southern Africa - Eswatini
Project Description

The project seeks to enhance the gender responsiveness of policies and practices in the electoral process in Eswatini by assisting stakeholders to develop gender responsive guidelines and educating citizens on the importance of women’s political participation, while empowering the female electorate with leadership skills, campaign and mobilization strategies. The project seeks to impart a long-term effect by enabling community-based paralegals to conduct gender equality sensitization talks at community level. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.

Evaluation Date
August 2024
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Women’s Political Participation in Eswatini

To ensure project sustainability and stakeholder ownership, it is vital to foster a comprehensive understanding of project outcomes among all stakeholders and to align project strategies with their mandates and constraints. In this project, the lack of ownership by the Electoral Boundaries Commission resulted in the Gender Responsive Electoral Guidelines not being adopted.

Project Partner
Women and Law in Southern Africa - Eswatini
Project Description

The project seeks to enhance the gender responsiveness of policies and practices in the electoral process in Eswatini by assisting stakeholders to develop gender responsive guidelines and educating citizens on the importance of women’s political participation, while empowering the female electorate with leadership skills, campaign and mobilization strategies. The project seeks to impart a long-term effect by enabling community-based paralegals to conduct gender equality sensitization talks at community level. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.

Evaluation Date
August 2024
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Women's Political Participation in Eswatini

The project experience underscored the importance of establishing clear and consistent beneficiary selection criteria in project activities from the outset. In this case, project stakeholders were responsible for selecting beneficiaries at the community level without clear guidance on the selection criteria from the grantee. As a result, some beneficiaries were included without the necessary qualifications, leading to difficulties in actively participating in trainings and effectively fulfilling their roles in the project.


Project Partner
Women and Law in Southern Africa - Eswatini
Project Description

The project seeks to enhance the gender responsiveness of policies and practices in the electoral process in Eswatini by assisting stakeholders to develop gender responsive guidelines and educating citizens on the importance of women’s political participation, while empowering the female electorate with leadership skills, campaign and mobilization strategies. The project seeks to impart a long-term effect by enabling community-based paralegals to conduct gender equality sensitization talks at community level. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.

Evaluation Date
August 2024
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Women’s Political Participation in Eswatini

Leveraging established partnerships and resources, particularly during disruptive situations such as the pandemic, enhances stakeholder endorsement and improves the potential for sustaining project activities. In this project, the existing relationships and trust between WLSA and the project communities facilitated ongoing engagement and awareness during the lockdown periods. This ensured the continuity and engagement of project stakeholders.

Project Partner
Women and Law in Southern Africa - Eswatini
Project Description

The project seeks to enhance the gender responsiveness of policies and practices in the electoral process in Eswatini by assisting stakeholders to develop gender responsive guidelines and educating citizens on the importance of women’s political participation, while empowering the female electorate with leadership skills, campaign and mobilization strategies. The project seeks to impart a long-term effect by enabling community-based paralegals to conduct gender equality sensitization talks at community level. Project activities will incorporate actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as it impacts women, including gender-based violence as well as social and economic pressures.

Evaluation Date
August 2024
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: A New Constitution: Historical Opportunity to Advance Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in Chile

When significant events threaten to alter the course or delivery of a project, as well as having the flexibility to extend in time it may also be beneficial to review Results Frameworks and adjust objectives and target indicators. Risk management should not shy away from worst case scenarios (who would have thought that after so much effort in Chile to draft a new Constitution during 2021-2023, there would be so little to show for it?).

UDF-19-869-CHI
Project Partner
Centro Regional de Derechos Humanos y Justicia de Género
Project Description
The project objective is to promote women’s participation and gender content in Chile’s current constitutional process; advance women’s understanding of a new constitution’s importance to them and their rights; generate debates on key gender issues; advocate for the inclusion of gender aspects in the drafting process. The project is highly relevant in the Covid-19 world and its aftermath, where it will be essential to address the massive impact of the crisis on women, ensuring that responses uphold their rights and are inclusive of their needs.
Evaluation Date
May 2024
Country