Women's empowerment

Most project components were short of funds. All delivered the planned outputs, so commitments were lived up to. Yet all components of the project ended abruptly when they could have benefited from further work or follow-up. A more results-focused approach to budgeting might have brought about a change in the pattern of allocation of funds and the dropping of some components in favor of optimizing impact.

The project was closely linked to the 2010 electoral challenges in Burundi to encourage women to vote and to stand for election. The election process, with a mandatory quota of 30% female representatives within institutions, was an important lever to generate collective awareness among all these leaders and shapers of opinion. This project also went beyond the elections by suggesting the creation of a National Forum for dialogue, allowing women leaders to overcome political differences and to exchange ideas on priorities to be implemented in order to improve the living conditions of Burundian women.

Although all planned activities were carried out, three unplanned activities were undertaken and the project was able to reach a large number of women, none of the expected goals were achieved. The grantee opted for an all-encompassing approach, rather than a more rigorous approach which would have contributed to the final objective. Beneficiaries were identified via a system of suggestions coming from the three regions without there being any kind of control mechanism in place and women leaders could not be efficiently identified. There is no indication of women leaders having been identified in all 17 provinces and thereby covering the whole country

The training curricula and methodologies for delivering the training were very effective in the case of both the youth empowerment initiative and the preparation of young women activists to undertake field research on the situation of Roma women in local communities. The grantee may have discovered a niche for itself in training young people as a means to supporting their engagement with the public realm.

Despite earlier expressions of interest, at a time leading up to national elections, and despite persistent efforts by grantee, the political parties proved to be unwilling to share their programmes, or to meet with the expert retained by grantee to discuss the issue of gender equality. The grantee prepared a short, informative handbook, "Because It Matters: Empowerment of Women in Political Parties". A public meeting was held to launch the publication, and, among others, representatives of three of the six official Roma parties attended. Copies were distributed to all the Roma parties, as well as to NGOs and women activists. While this alternative was very much a “second best” option, it did represent a thoughtful way to rescue the situation and keep the issue alive.

In two of its components, the project was fighting an uphill battle to get the attention of potential partners. The first component concerned Roma political parties, and, the second, municipal government and cooperation with the Equality Commissions (committees) of the municipal councils. The lack of interest by these partners highlights the absence of effective political representation of Roma and their interests in a “patron-client” political system, where parties do a poor job of representing the priorities of their constituencies, or of responding to their concerns. The parties saw no benefits in opening themselves to cooperation with an NGO which they did not trust. There seems to be little interest on the part of local government units in committing resources to Roma issues, and Roma tend to be invisible in local decision-making. The work supported by the project in two of the three municipalities was useful, but had no impact in changing the disposition of local government towards Roma and Roma women’s organizations.

The grantee was unaware of the impact the political parties have on the alleged independence of candidates, representatives and leaders in the administration. The evaluation revealed that the true impact of women leaders within the political parties relied mainly on co-operation and loyalty to leading figures.

The theoretical content of the training sessions, which were carried out almost exclusively in French even though women in rural zones rarely speak anything other than Kirundi, meant that the needs of the beneficiaries could not be efficiently met.

The sustainability of the project has perhaps been compromised by the fact that elections in Pakistan were delayed. Given the prevailing lack of confidence in democratic processes, the failure to be able to exercise the right to vote, which the project participants had been educated about, could eventually compromise the results of the project.

In Kenya, community dialogues over the radio proved effective in raising rural women’s awareness about their rights. For example, many married women in conservative communities gave little thought to the fact that their husbands possessed their identity papers. Through radio shows highlighting women’s issues, women became aware of the fact that this practice deprived them of the possibility to vote. The project could have allocated more funds to radio journalism. In the evaluation report many interviewees stressed the importance of radio in rural areas in Kenya, as it reaches beneficiaries with low literacy rates in vernacular languages, without the need of internet access.