Project

Civic education and empowerment for more women in leadership, from villages to parliament in Fiji

Grantee: National Council of Women Fiji

The project aimed to increase women’s representation in public office as part of wider support for women’s representation in political processes and civic leadership in Fiji. The project strategy was structured around three expected outcomes: increased awareness and knowledge of civic education principles among potential women leaders in Fiji; increased capacity of potential women leaders for active participation in civil leadership within both parliament and administrative boards and councils in Fiji and increased awareness within the broader community of the importance of the involvement of women in political processes and civic leadership in Fiji. The project had some success, in particular in training marginal women who are usually excluded from mainstream education and in working with church groups and political parties from across the political spectrum. Implementation, however, was marred by a number of administrative and management shortcomings including a lack of SMART indicators and irregular communication. In addition, the project encountered a number of external challenges including political tensions that generated delays in implementation and the tropical cyclone in February 2016 that left homeless ten thousands of people.

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Lessons from Project

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The project could have done more to ensure involvement of all the main political parties. While invitations were sent to the eight official parties, only two of them showed interest in participating in the trainings. More follow-up after the invitations would have been required to ensure involvement.

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The project design and logical framework were weak and too ambitious. Lack of baseline studies and mapping of women participation in politics was another handicap, as well as the inappropriate indicators for selecting the trainers.

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The project was managed on a somewhat ad-hoc basis. The grantee was working with reduced human resources and there were weaknesses in the management capacity of the team. Lack of SMART key-indicators and, of a formal monitoring system was another problem. The grantee board members and project manager also had scarce and irregular contacts with the implementing organizations, a situation that jeopardizes achievement of expected outcomes and sustainability of the grantee’s goal of building a network.

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As part of the capacity building process, at the end of the training session, each facilitator had to submit to the class a project proposal, including a selection of the topics more relevant for her own communities, including an action plan and a budget. This was a very practical approach that worked. The action plan was also a condition for the release of funds to start implementing workshops at the local level.

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One of the main project impacts was to get a significant number of women and the vulnerable population to go to vote. Rural women gained a better understanding of the importance of participating in the elections and young sex workers and street women who had never been involved in electoral events, got registered and went to vote.

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A large number of the vulnerable population benefited from the capacity building activities: one of the main strengths of the project was to make training facilities accessible by people who were usually excluded such as persons with disabilities, people living in remote areas and marginalized women including sex -workers. The training sessions involving the sex workers were particularly effective at providing learning that connected to the beneficiaries’ lives and motivated them to participate for the first time in the electoral process.

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