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Women's empowerment

LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Political Participation of Marginalised Women in Nepal

Radio programmes were considered the best media for enabling women to make their voices heard. Participants remarked on the quality of the broadcasts and the effectiveness of media outputs. Local journalists said that these programs had helped individual women realize that they were not alone in enduring discrimination, and that sharing experiences about discrimination is no longer taboo.
Project Partner
Association of District Development Committees of Nepal
Project Description
The project organized women into informal Women's Democracy Forums to build a culture of collaboration between marginalized women from different social backgrounds in five Nepalese districts. It intended to give women a voice at the district and village level by providing information, education, and communication materials and offering training courses on women's rights. Project activities combined traditional and alternative means of communication, such as street theater. This oral mode of education was adapted to the needs of remote communities. The project's visibility was also enhanced by the production of weekly radio programs; 72 episodes on the political empowerment of women and democratic processes were produced and broadcast over a six–month period. Local authorities and grassroots resource persons increased their commitment to the political inclusion of women. All of these activities were innovative in these Nepalese districts and were skillfully carried out by the implementing team. All activities were successfully concluded and delivered results over and above expectations.
Evaluation Date
September 2010
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Political Participation of Marginalised Women in Nepal

Since top-down government approaches have failed to address social exclusion and effective participation of marginalized women, the project combined a top-down strategy within a bottom-up approach. Planned activities were supported by strong top-down mechanisms and implementing partners were firmly rooted in a bottom-up approach, with the direct participation of the target audience. The adoption of the community organization pyramid, which involved monitoring of all activities by resource persons appointed by beneficiaries, consolidated the networks step by step. Stakeholders were able to collaborate at the local level while remaining connected to Kathmandu.
Project Partner
Association of District Development Committees of Nepal
Project Description
The project organized women into informal Women's Democracy Forums to build a culture of collaboration between marginalized women from different social backgrounds in five Nepalese districts. It intended to give women a voice at the district and village level by providing information, education, and communication materials and offering training courses on women's rights. Project activities combined traditional and alternative means of communication, such as street theater. This oral mode of education was adapted to the needs of remote communities. The project's visibility was also enhanced by the production of weekly radio programs; 72 episodes on the political empowerment of women and democratic processes were produced and broadcast over a six–month period. Local authorities and grassroots resource persons increased their commitment to the political inclusion of women. All of these activities were innovative in these Nepalese districts and were skillfully carried out by the implementing team. All activities were successfully concluded and delivered results over and above expectations.
Evaluation Date
September 2010
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Political Participation of Marginalised Women in Nepal

Women are commonly separated from one another in Nepal by caste identity. One of the major achievements of the project was getting the highest and lowest castes to cooperate with each other, which is normally a social taboo. Under this project, Brahmins worked with Dalits and Janajatis. It is noteworthy that Brahmins were involved, as they represent one of the highest castes in Nepal. It confirmed how innovative this project was in stimulating cooperation between different castes.
Project Partner
Association of District Development Committees of Nepal
Project Description
The project organized women into informal Women's Democracy Forums to build a culture of collaboration between marginalized women from different social backgrounds in five Nepalese districts. It intended to give women a voice at the district and village level by providing information, education, and communication materials and offering training courses on women's rights. Project activities combined traditional and alternative means of communication, such as street theater. This oral mode of education was adapted to the needs of remote communities. The project's visibility was also enhanced by the production of weekly radio programs; 72 episodes on the political empowerment of women and democratic processes were produced and broadcast over a six–month period. Local authorities and grassroots resource persons increased their commitment to the political inclusion of women. All of these activities were innovative in these Nepalese districts and were skillfully carried out by the implementing team. All activities were successfully concluded and delivered results over and above expectations.
Evaluation Date
September 2010
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Political Participation of Marginalised Women in Nepal

The male participants in the project were officials, trainers, and project managers, but not community members from the target groups. Although some women said they passed their newly acquired knowledge to men in their family, the project could have made sure that information reached male community members to avoid any exclusion or loss of impact.
Project Partner
Association of District Development Committees of Nepal
Project Description
The project organized women into informal Women's Democracy Forums to build a culture of collaboration between marginalized women from different social backgrounds in five Nepalese districts. It intended to give women a voice at the district and village level by providing information, education, and communication materials and offering training courses on women's rights. Project activities combined traditional and alternative means of communication, such as street theater. This oral mode of education was adapted to the needs of remote communities. The project's visibility was also enhanced by the production of weekly radio programs; 72 episodes on the political empowerment of women and democratic processes were produced and broadcast over a six–month period. Local authorities and grassroots resource persons increased their commitment to the political inclusion of women. All of these activities were innovative in these Nepalese districts and were skillfully carried out by the implementing team. All activities were successfully concluded and delivered results over and above expectations.
Evaluation Date
September 2010
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Enhancing Political Participation of Marginalised Women in Nepal

Dissemination methods, including traditional and alternative means, were used so as to address the lack of literacy among participants. Representatives of marginalized women’s communities, as well as other stakeholders, identified street theater and radio programs as the most relevant media. Five street plays were originally planned, but 16 were produced and seen by some 2,000 people.
Project Partner
Association of District Development Committees of Nepal
Project Description
The project organized women into informal Women's Democracy Forums to build a culture of collaboration between marginalized women from different social backgrounds in five Nepalese districts. It intended to give women a voice at the district and village level by providing information, education, and communication materials and offering training courses on women's rights. Project activities combined traditional and alternative means of communication, such as street theater. This oral mode of education was adapted to the needs of remote communities. The project's visibility was also enhanced by the production of weekly radio programs; 72 episodes on the political empowerment of women and democratic processes were produced and broadcast over a six–month period. Local authorities and grassroots resource persons increased their commitment to the political inclusion of women. All of these activities were innovative in these Nepalese districts and were skillfully carried out by the implementing team. All activities were successfully concluded and delivered results over and above expectations.
Evaluation Date
September 2010
Country
LESSON

Lesson Learned: Increasing Women’s Participation in Politics and Decision Making in Angola

The project had difficulty executing other activities (baseline, monitoring, and impact assessment). An adequate strategy for outcome and impact monitoring was not designed. The grantee had many training initiatives but their focus seemed to be the execution of activities, with not enough attention paid to achieving strategically planned behavioral changes.
Project Partner
Rede Mulher Angola
Project Description
Increasing Women’s Participation in Politics and Decision Making in Angola targeted the women’s organizations of Angola’s political parties and other platforms that work to promote the political empowerment of women. Participants found the issues addressed by the project interesting and appreciated the participatory methodology, which encouraged interaction among people who in many cases were from different political parties, enabling them to get to know one another. However, the decline of the grantee’s institutional capacity substantially lessened the project’s potential impact.
Country