responsable du genre dans le
développement de NOVIB.
How Can NGOs Improve Their Work in Gender and
Development?
Novib recently completed an evaluation of its Gender
Route Project. This project worked with several of NOVIB's NGO partners to help
them improve their work in promoting gender equality.
Can you give me an overview of the project?
Twenty-five of our partner organizations participated in the
project. All went through the same process. First, they completed a gender
self-diagnosis using various gender analysis tools we provided them. That would
then give them an idea of where their strong and weak points lie in regards to
gender equality. This would be the departure point for the whole project. After
that, they would write up a work plan detailing where they wanted to start and
where they wanted to end. Some started with their weak points while others
started with their strong points. Initially most of the work was concentrated
at the organizational level. However, others then moved on to improve their
work at the target group or beneficiary level. They all received funding from
NOVIB to allow them to implement the plan over 3 to 5 years. Each year there
would be workshops where they could exchange experiences, learn and receive
more training.
Why did NOVIB begin this project?
NOVIB is a donor. We fund at least 1 000 partners worldwide
and we pay a lot of attention to gender issues. We have 7 criteria that all
partners are evaluated against. These criteria involve gender equality, of
course. So, an important goal was to support partners in developing good gender
policies. Before the Gender Route project, we would provide training sessions
and consultancy assistance to partners as well as other interventions. But we
didn't do it very systematically so the learning was quite limited. The
partners asked for more systematic support over a longer period of time. That's
when we decided to initiate this project which would involve more partners from
all over the world going through the same process. At the end, we would be able
to analyze the results and see what types of gender interventions work in
particular circumstances. Along the road, partners could learn from each other
and exchange experiences.
What types of interventions took place at the
beneficiary level?
Most of the work was at the organizational level. So, a lot
of the activities involved analyzing their decision-making procedures and their
organizational cultures, for example, to make them more gender friendly. At the
same time, they would try to improve their services to beneficiaries. For
example, some of them would do a gender analysis before beginning projects or
have more women participate in planning and monitoring. Others would look more
critically at how men and women are involved in their programs. So, they might
look at countering gender stereotypes in their activities or involving women in
leadership roles.
What were some of the successes?
It's quite difficult to summarize them. There were lots of
achievements. At the organizational level, some of them completely restructured
their structures to make them more women -friendly . So, they might have looked
at the organization's infrastructure and facilities or policies around child
care and maternity benefits. Others might have changed their sexual harassment
policies to make the organization safer for women. These changes would make it
easier for women to keep on working with the organization and also increase
their involvement in decision-making. All organizations did different things,
but I can say that all organizations became more gender sensitive. In all of
them women became more visible and in some of them we saw that more women staff
were hired. We also saw more women in leadership positions. A lot also happened
around organizational culture wher e men were trained to be more gender
sensitive.
At the program level, in all organizations we saw more women
participating in programs. Also, they would have greater decision-making roles.
There would be more gender sensitivity in the programs as well as awareness
raising and training activities.
What were some lessons learned?
It was meant to be a linking and learning project through
which we tried to take lessons from experiences from all over the world. It was
done in all the regions where NOVIB works. It worked better in some regions
than others. In some places, there were workshops every year where the partners
would share their experiences and give feedback to each other. This happened in
South Asia, for example.
Another strong point is that it was over a period of 5 years.
So, partners could grow as they tried new things. It would be very difficult to
measure results over a short period of time. Even now, partners are asking for
more time to do more work.
So for now we can say that the project has been positive in
terms of allowing organizations to share information and develop over time. And
the organizations really have changed. In all the organizations gender has
become much more visible. In some cases, we can say that at least gender hasn't
fallen off the agenda while in others there really has been radical change. In
the workshops we didn't just involve the gender coordinators but also the
directors of the organizations. So, the leadership would become much more aware
of the project and the issues. If you only involve the gender coordinators, it
can be very lonely for them when they come back from a workshop. So, one thing
we've found is that management has to be behind it for it to work.
Were you able to see impacts at the beneficiary
level?
It's difficult to say. The major focus was at the
organizational level under the assumption that changes there would eventually
work down to the beneficiary level. Most partners now say they would like to
continue at the target group level. A lot of activities took place at that
level but if you talk about what the actual impact was on their daily lives, I
think it's too early to say. In fact, we've recently discussed follow-up for
the project and we've decided that we would like to continue it at the
beneficiary level.
Beyond continuing the work at the beneficiary level,
what are the next steps?
For the partners that were involved, many want to disseminate
the lessons learned to others. For example, in South East Asia there is going
to be a new Oxfam International project on gender mainstreaming whereby all the
lessons from the Gender Route will be shared with a much bigger group of NGOs.
Some other groups are going to write a book about their own cases. At the NOVIB
level, we are going to start a Gender Tools project documenting cases and
instruments we have used over the years. This will involve our own people in
NOVIB as well as other donors.
How has thinking about gender and development changed
since you began the project?
A lot of things have changed since we began the project. Our
thinking has changed. We're now just talking about a rights-based approach to
gender and development and we're talking a lot more about gender and diversity.
The Gender Route has been part of this change. During the Gender Route, as
discussions took place on gender issues, we saw for example that talk of
violence against women kept coming up. So, we've now started a violence against
women project. The issue of gender and ethnicity kept arising so that has
helped us formulate our gender and diversity policies.
What is the idea of a rights-based approach?
NOVIB and all the other Oxfams have decided that we will now
work under a rights-based approach which means that all people we work with
should have access to 5 basic rights. These include the right to a sustainable
livelihood, the right to safety and the right to basic social services among
others. Through this rights-based perspective, we talk about how people can
work towards obtaining these rights. Before, we talked about sustainable
development which was quite vague. So, now we look at the law to see which
rights people should have access to and how we might help them achieve them.
In terms of gender, how does that change what you would
do?
We take the international and national rights framework as a
starting point. For example, we recently
participated in a justice and
accountability conference to follow up on the Tokyo Tribunal judgement.
This judgement dealt with rights for women abused in war
situations. In this case, we would analyze what kinds of legal mechanisms are
there and what needs to be changed to make them work for women. So, it's much
more concrete. Before, we would talk about supporting victims by intervening in
the home but now we've expanded that work by focusing on their rights in the
national and international contexts. We want to work at all levels including
the home and the community as well as the national and international
frameworks.
Information on the Gender Route Project can be found at
www.novib.org.
From: Resource Net /Friday File / Issue 62
Posted Saturday February 02, @08:38AM
http://www.awid.org/article.pl?sid=02/02/02/1947256&mode=nocomment
