Policy And Advocacy
Strengthening the Economic Leadership of Rural Indigenous Women in Guatemala (Phase II)
One of CARE Guatemala's main objectives is to achieve women’s personal and economic empowerment, promoting gender equality and strengthening their access to new equitable opportunities for personal and comprehensive development through sustainable production systems, markets and inclusive and equitable public policies, which allow their participation and development as well as their families’.
Within the framework of its Food and Economic Justice for Women and Youth Program, CARE Guatemala implemented the "Strengthening the Economic Leadership of Rural Indigenous Women -Phase II" project, with funds from the Peierls Foundation, executing actions in eleven communities from the municipalities of San Lucas Tolimán and San Andrés Semetabaj, department of Sololá.
CARE Guatemala presents results from the January 1 - December 31 2023 period, in which the scope of this intervention is reported, including comprehensive actions promoting access to differentiated conditions in favor of women victims and survivors of gender-based violence and indigenous women with limited economic resources, considering that out of 161 participants, 83% are women who became aware of gender limitation conditions in their environment and later, based on their new conditions, promoted decision-making in the family and community sphere.
The project was executed combining different approaches allowing to improve living conditions of participants and their families, mainly incorporating training topics and work sessions related to i. Personal empowerment (self-esteem, leadership, autonomous decision-making); ii. Economic empowerment (economic initiatives and income generation); iii. Effective influence to comply with policies and programs in favor of women's rights, all of which contributed to improving the participants’ standard of living. The economic empowerment of women has been the main contributing factor for promoting gender equity and equality, allowing access to opportunities for comprehensive development, sustainable production systems, markets, and inclusive public policies which have promoted their participation and obtaining benefits for their economic development.
To contribute to income generation and for women’s economic autonomy, actions were carried out to establish productive units and/or value chains, which strengthened their operations, working logistics, learning digital marketing, the services they promote as a business and strengthening their organizational capabilities for economic activities. Actions implemented promoted through the example of participants, led other participating women from the communities to empower themselves personally, demanding the fulfillment of their rights and opportunities, preventing in this manner, gender-based violence in all its aspects. At the same time, the project worked with the Advocacy School application, which strengthened women's voice and leadership, based on virtual mechanisms adapted to the participants' free time. Read More...
Within the framework of its Food and Economic Justice for Women and Youth Program, CARE Guatemala implemented the "Strengthening the Economic Leadership of Rural Indigenous Women -Phase II" project, with funds from the Peierls Foundation, executing actions in eleven communities from the municipalities of San Lucas Tolimán and San Andrés Semetabaj, department of Sololá.
CARE Guatemala presents results from the January 1 - December 31 2023 period, in which the scope of this intervention is reported, including comprehensive actions promoting access to differentiated conditions in favor of women victims and survivors of gender-based violence and indigenous women with limited economic resources, considering that out of 161 participants, 83% are women who became aware of gender limitation conditions in their environment and later, based on their new conditions, promoted decision-making in the family and community sphere.
The project was executed combining different approaches allowing to improve living conditions of participants and their families, mainly incorporating training topics and work sessions related to i. Personal empowerment (self-esteem, leadership, autonomous decision-making); ii. Economic empowerment (economic initiatives and income generation); iii. Effective influence to comply with policies and programs in favor of women's rights, all of which contributed to improving the participants’ standard of living. The economic empowerment of women has been the main contributing factor for promoting gender equity and equality, allowing access to opportunities for comprehensive development, sustainable production systems, markets, and inclusive public policies which have promoted their participation and obtaining benefits for their economic development.
To contribute to income generation and for women’s economic autonomy, actions were carried out to establish productive units and/or value chains, which strengthened their operations, working logistics, learning digital marketing, the services they promote as a business and strengthening their organizational capabilities for economic activities. Actions implemented promoted through the example of participants, led other participating women from the communities to empower themselves personally, demanding the fulfillment of their rights and opportunities, preventing in this manner, gender-based violence in all its aspects. At the same time, the project worked with the Advocacy School application, which strengthened women's voice and leadership, based on virtual mechanisms adapted to the participants' free time. Read More...
Rwanda Influencing local government planning process to address GBV
strengthening demand- and supply side local governance processes to ensure that local decision-makers incorporate and implement measures for GBV prevention and response into the district level development planning process, which is known as imihigo in Rwanda. This programming experience has highlighted the importance of strengthening women’s and marginalized groups’ participation in the imihigo process and ensuring that district level performance contracts include budgetary allocations for GBV prevention and response activities.
Influencing the imihigo process must however be understood as a long-term advocacy objective. To date, CARE Rwanda’s programming interventions have contributed to changes in the attitudes of local leaders in terms of their understanding of GBV as a development issue and their responsibility for ensuring downwards accountability to their constituents.
The starting point for this influencing process was the implementation from 2010 to 2013 of the Great Lakes Advocacy Initiative across six districts in southern Rwanda. This project aimed to increase national and local leaders’ accountability for the implementation of national GBV policy, as well as building the capacity of women and men activists to receive cases of GBV and to provide referrals to appropriate services and to advocate for quality, affordable and available services in the community. GLAI and subsequent women’s empowerment programming interventions by CARE Rwanda (GEWEP and Umugore Arumvwa – ‘A Woman is Listened To’) which also focussed on GBV prevention and response, provided the foundation for CARE Rwanda to build an understanding of the socio-political context shaping the implementation of GBV legislation at the national and local level and to develop effective working relationships with key ministries such as MIGEPROF.
Implementation of GLAI also involved Read More...
Influencing the imihigo process must however be understood as a long-term advocacy objective. To date, CARE Rwanda’s programming interventions have contributed to changes in the attitudes of local leaders in terms of their understanding of GBV as a development issue and their responsibility for ensuring downwards accountability to their constituents.
The starting point for this influencing process was the implementation from 2010 to 2013 of the Great Lakes Advocacy Initiative across six districts in southern Rwanda. This project aimed to increase national and local leaders’ accountability for the implementation of national GBV policy, as well as building the capacity of women and men activists to receive cases of GBV and to provide referrals to appropriate services and to advocate for quality, affordable and available services in the community. GLAI and subsequent women’s empowerment programming interventions by CARE Rwanda (GEWEP and Umugore Arumvwa – ‘A Woman is Listened To’) which also focussed on GBV prevention and response, provided the foundation for CARE Rwanda to build an understanding of the socio-political context shaping the implementation of GBV legislation at the national and local level and to develop effective working relationships with key ministries such as MIGEPROF.
Implementation of GLAI also involved Read More...
Making Advocacy Count: GBV Advocacy in Rwanda
Over the past 9 years CARE Rwanda has implemented a series of programming interventions designed to promote women’s empowerment and to address Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Rwanda. Learning from these programmes informed the development of a holistic approach for community based GBV prevention, which is now being scaled up by the Government of Rwanda’s Ministry for Gender Equality and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) with the intention of reaching national coverage within the next 3-4 years. Read More...
Ardhi yetu program (our land rights) midterm review
The Mid-term Review to assess progress, review appropriateness and recommend ways of strengthening p... Read More...
Global water initiative (GWI) east africa final evaluation
This 22 page report highlights the sucesses and lessons learned from the Global Water Initiative in ... Read More...