Projects

The project aimed to provide socially and economically impoverished women in India with the ability to participate in the democratic process and to strengthen their capacity to make decisions at individual, family and community levels.

The project’s overall objective was to establish a robust civil society, to hold government to account and to effectively involve citizens in decision-making. The project design was built, around the central role of a group of 18 facilitators, drawn from nine member organizations of the grantee’s own Iraq Civic Action Network, each of them based in one of the target provinces in Iraq. Each of these organizations was also the implementing organization at the project level.

The project sought to enhance government transparency at provincial level in Iraq by training civil society organizations in monitoring and accountability. This approach was particularly relevant in the Iraqi political context, where provincial legislatures’ (Governorates Councils) capacities are weak. Although impact was difficult to measure for the evaluation team, and much work remains to be done in order to meet overall objectives, the short-term achievements of the project were considerable.

The project focused on the role of the media as a source of information for women at grassroots level, and as an influencing agent on government and institutional processes, promoting women’s voices and issues in the media. Additionally, the project aimed to build the capacity of advocacy groups to work with the media on behalf of women and other marginalized groups. The project succeeded in bringing women’s issues into the national debate ahead of the political reform process in Kenya.

The project had two primary audiences: Roma women’s NGOs and young Roma women activists. There were three additional audiences: local government officials; young people, Roma and non-Roma; and, officials of Roma political parties. This focus sought to address in a practical way the weakness of Roma civil society organizations, and particularly those led by, and working for, Roma women, in undertaking advocacy on behalf of their own people. The grantee accomplished a great deal with the small amount of funds provided.

The project sought to increase public demand for law reform based on the principles of justice and equality. It did this by raising awareness among women on their rights within Islam and women’s access to justice. Its intended outcomes were: increased awareness of rights among women at the grassroots level; increased public discussions on religion; and increased engagement and dialogue among women’s groups and government stakeholders by 2015. The project attempted to effect change from the bottom up, but more activities would have been needed at the grassroots level for the desired outcomes.

The project sought to strengthen the collective voice and action of civil society in the Mexican states of Chiapas, Hidalgo and Guerrero.

The aim of the project was to empower CSOs to promote democracy in Mexico through real and effective civic engagement, the exercise of human rights, and support for political dialogue. The project also sought to encourage the active participation of youth and women in local democracy- and citizenship-building activities to improve their ability to influence policy and impact local governance.

The project sought to empower indigenous people from the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. Through jurisdictional resolutions or agreements, the project worked to reduce the number of conflicts between the indigenous legal system, on the one hand, and the state legal system, on the other, seeking to establish precedents for harmonizing the two systems. The project’s intervention was very timely and highly relevant, given the recent changes in the legal framework, especially the passage of subsidiary legislation and a new energy policy.