Lessons

The project objective was to strengthen the citizenship and democratic skills of women. With virtually no access to civic information and limited opportunities for women to participate in political life including access to positions that involve decision-making, especially in rural areas, the grantee aimed to raise awareness among local authorities and strategic civil society organizations in Haiti, so they would become more engaged in promoting a culture that recognizes the role of women in society, fostering in women and men alike a new perspective on their political participation. The project was implemented in twenty rural communes, notably in very remote, virtually ignored sections of Haiti, which lacked basic, educational and health services. With regards to its objective, the project was fully aligned with current government priorities, and in the context of elections, it recognized the need for women to participate fully in the electoral process, as well as in political affairs and to become aware of their civil rights and rights as citizens.

The objective of the project was to strengthen national and regional platforms of civil society organizations and to increase their influence. The project was based on the strategy that civil society platforms should play an important role in national, regional, and international negotiations. The project aimed to democratize debates on globalization and to enhance the influence of national and regional platforms on public policy-making. The project goals were: to develop national and regional NGO platforms; to enhance CSO advocacy skills through six exercises in nongovernmental diplomacy; the launch of an International NGO Resource Center; and the institutionalization and consolidation of the International Forum of National NGO Platforms. The project worked with national NGO platforms in Brazil, Chile, Senegal and the USA as well as regional platforms based in West Africa, India and Central Africa.

The project objective was to strengthen the citizenship and democratic skills of women. With virtually no access to civic information and limited opportunities for women to participate in political life including access to positions that involve decision-making, especially in rural areas, the grantee aimed to raise awareness among local authorities and strategic civil society organizations in Haiti, so they would become more engaged in promoting a culture that recognizes the role of women in society, fostering in women and men alike a new perspective on their political participation. The project was implemented in twenty rural communes, notably in very remote, virtually ignored sections of Haiti, which lacked basic, educational and health services. With regards to its objective, the project was fully aligned with current government priorities, and in the context of elections, it recognized the need for women to participate fully in the electoral process, as well as in political affairs and to become aware of their civil rights and rights as citizens.

The project objective was to strengthen the citizenship and democratic skills of women. With virtually no access to civic information and limited opportunities for women to participate in political life including access to positions that involve decision-making, especially in rural areas, the grantee aimed to raise awareness among local authorities and strategic civil society organizations in Haiti, so they would become more engaged in promoting a culture that recognizes the role of women in society, fostering in women and men alike a new perspective on their political participation. The project was implemented in twenty rural communes, notably in very remote, virtually ignored sections of Haiti, which lacked basic, educational and health services. With regards to its objective, the project was fully aligned with current government priorities, and in the context of elections, it recognized the need for women to participate fully in the electoral process, as well as in political affairs and to become aware of their civil rights and rights as citizens.

The objective of the project was to strengthen national and regional platforms of civil society organizations and to increase their influence. The project was based on the strategy that civil society platforms should play an important role in national, regional, and international negotiations. The project aimed to democratize debates on globalization and to enhance the influence of national and regional platforms on public policy-making. The project goals were: to develop national and regional NGO platforms; to enhance CSO advocacy skills through six exercises in nongovernmental diplomacy; the launch of an International NGO Resource Center; and the institutionalization and consolidation of the International Forum of National NGO Platforms. The project worked with national NGO platforms in Brazil, Chile, Senegal and the USA as well as regional platforms based in West Africa, India and Central Africa.

The objective of the project was to strengthen national and regional platforms of civil society organizations and to increase their influence. The project was based on the strategy that civil society platforms should play an important role in national, regional, and international negotiations. The project aimed to democratize debates on globalization and to enhance the influence of national and regional platforms on public policy-making. The project goals were: to develop national and regional NGO platforms; to enhance CSO advocacy skills through six exercises in nongovernmental diplomacy; the launch of an International NGO Resource Center; and the institutionalization and consolidation of the International Forum of National NGO Platforms. The project worked with national NGO platforms in Brazil, Chile, Senegal and the USA as well as regional platforms based in West Africa, India and Central Africa.

The project objective was to strengthen the citizenship and democratic skills of women. With virtually no access to civic information and limited opportunities for women to participate in political life including access to positions that involve decision-making, especially in rural areas, the grantee aimed to raise awareness among local authorities and strategic civil society organizations in Haiti, so they would become more engaged in promoting a culture that recognizes the role of women in society, fostering in women and men alike a new perspective on their political participation. The project was implemented in twenty rural communes, notably in very remote, virtually ignored sections of Haiti, which lacked basic, educational and health services. With regards to its objective, the project was fully aligned with current government priorities, and in the context of elections, it recognized the need for women to participate fully in the electoral process, as well as in political affairs and to become aware of their civil rights and rights as citizens.

The project aimed to raise women’s awareness of their rights as citizens, while also increasing the participation and representation of women in political life. To this end, the project aimed to increase the capacity of selected women’s NGOs in all seven regions of the country. The grantee developed a training-of-trainers’ (ToT) manual and a training guide; organized and delivered a ToT course in 14 centres, two in each region of the country; and encouraged the 350 graduates of the ToT program to each deliver training courses themselves, utilizing the manual and training guide. Deep gender disparities continued to exist in Turkish social and economic life, and many women were quite unaware of their rights as citizens. The project was directly relevant to this problem, as it sought to enhance the capacity of women activists, who were engaged with improving the lives of other women, by enhancing their knowledge of the concepts of gender equality, of women’s rights as citizens, and of practical measures which might be taken to enable women to defend themselves against injustice.

This project aimed to improve the situation of Nepal's historically marginalized and indigenous Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi groups. The project was undertaken to correspond with the schedule of the country's Constituent Assembly (CA), which was entrusted with the development of a new constitution for Nepal. It developed coalitions among the country's marginalized groups, in order to increase receptiveness of political parties to Dalit and indigenous issues and to reflect them in the new constitution. The grantee made a deliberate effort to provide the marginalized group representatives and those involved in the drafting of the constitution high quality information about issues related to constitutional processes and examples of federalist practice in other countries. Although the Constituent Assembly dissolved without completing its mission, the extent to which the alternative constitution, the project's central output, has contributed to preliminary constitutional drafts of the Constituent Assembly‘s thematic committees demonstrate the project's impact.

The project sought to strengthen the collective voice and action of civil society in the Mexican states of Chiapas, Hidalgo and Guerrero. The focus was on increasing the ability of local CSOs and women, indigenous groups and youth to demand equitable and quality public education and healthcare services through strengthening the ability of CSOs to train, inform, and raise awareness of these rights, and giving opportunities for them to advocate for these services as a basic human right. The use of local level CSOs was an effective approach to implement community-based activities, but the lack of an integrated programme between the states and national level limited its usefulness and potential impact. The use of a diagnostic to develop training and an agenda for action was a good technique, but required more focus on issues of voice and civic participation which were the main objectives of the project. The project strengthened advocacy efforts for more equitable health and education services in its targeted areas in Chiapas, Hidalgo and Guerrero. In particular, it increased individual knowledge, capacity and leadership among participating CSOs and community members. However, the extent of results is unknown due to the lack of outcome data. Changes are likely to be sustainable at the level of personal empowerment and relationships built with some public officials and the agenda provides CSOs with some of the key health and education issues to raise with officials in the future.