Eleven partners participated in the assessment (8 CARE Turkey partners; 3 ECHO partners). The assessment considered capacity at both an organizational level (policies, processes, support structures) and staff level (knowledge, skills, norms).

The assessment found varying levels of capacity among partner organizations to mainstream gender and protection. Key factors enabling high capacity included leadership support, resources (higher budgets, more staff), dedicated GBV/protection programming, and full-time staff positions focused on gender and/or protection. Key challenges to effective mainstreaming included low leadership support, lack of dedicated gender and protection programing, expectations on some staff to support gender and protection mainstreaming in addition to their current workloads, a lack of understanding of the importance of gender and protection mainstreaming, and traditional beliefs and attitudes towards gender and protection.