FY16 Q4 and Year-End Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal
May 2015
FY16 Q4 and Year-End Progress on
Highlights from FY16 Q4
The Gender Internal Change Goal Key Themes of the GICG
Theme 1 Appropriate planning and MEL to facilitate learning and strategic decision making including increased rigor in research
Theme 2
Higher bar for partners on women’s leadership including strengthened capacity that ultimately protect women’s rights
Theme 3
Investment in staff capacity for gender analysis and gender integration
“Integrating and highlighting gender in all our work” is the clearly stated commitment in the OASP to advance the gender justice agenda. This update provides key organizational, programmatic, and policy and campaigning highlights on quarterly progress against the OA Gender Internal Change Goal (GICG). The previous update of FY16 Q3 can be found here. countries. This research looks at where Oxfam offered the impact of macroeconomic suggestions on what the private Appropriate policy development and how sector (especially banks) could planning and MEL to farmers can benefit from do to contribute to greater country and regional growth. gender equality. Oxfam also had facilitate learning a speaking engagement at and strategic In the Behind the Brands and Confluence Philanthropy, an decision making Cocoa work, a report was industry organization of released on women's rights in philanthropies, impact investing including increased the cocoa sector and examples funds, and financial advisory rigor in research of emerging good practice with entities, on the importance of a foreword by Winnie. The putting women at the center of report was distributed at the impact investing approaches. In Q4, internal and external annual Women's Empowerment efforts were put around research Principles event in NY where it and learning to increase our was also handed in person to the impact around the gender President of Costa Rica. agenda. Mondelez has pushed out the report through media, blogs, and In Ghana’s EI work, all In EARO’s Access to Innovation cocoa email listserv. Cargill and interventions during the quarter and Markets (AIM) work, Barry Callebaut have also upheld crucial gender indicators research with the Rapid Asia requested advice and guidance including prioritizing the active Research Institute is being from Oxfam on our gender and participation of women in carried out on how cocoa expertise to help shape project engagements. A review macroeconomic growth has their policy. was carried out on the extent of significant implication to implementation of Ghana’s smallholder farmers, specifically PSD presented at small Gender Action Learning with women and landless producers roundtable event with US Gender at Work. Additionally, in in the Lower Mekong Basin women's financial inclusion,
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FY16 Q4 and Year-End Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal Mali, Burkina, Senegal, a gender assessment of our interventions is being conducted with the aim of using the findings to improve gender mainstreaming in programs and projects.
Oxfam published an article in Green Money Journal profiling WISE, “Not Everyone Is Asked What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up”. WISE’s cohorts 1 & 2 of women-run businesses demonstrated improved performance after the 2015 annual monitoring: the number of women who are paying themselves a salary has almost doubled; 56% have growth in income; 154% have profit; and 24% have full time employees. Cohort 2 women had collectively doubled their number of sales locations and increased their number of client contracts by 50%. The Core-WISE Cohort 2 baseline empowerment survey also showed clear changes in the empowerment indicators. The majority of women surveyed (81%) reported feeling more confident as a result of their participation in WISE. In the Humanitarian Advocacy Team’s work, Oxfam authored a policy briefing on women and the Yemen peace process. Anecdotally, this paper garnered interested from several US policy makers. Peace talks were suspended in January shortly after Oxfam’s publication release because there were not enough women; we don’t have data to say our report was causal in this development, but we believe it
heightened attention to the problem at a critical time. In the R4 Initiative in Ethiopia and Senegal, recent evaluations and Annual Impact Reflections (AIRs) have produced key findings on how women are benefitting from the initiative. Top lines have been: 1) R4 participants in Senegal surpass non-participants in rice production, an activity typically practiced by women 2) There is a need for further work in enhancing women’s role in leadership 3) women have benefitted the most from the R4 revolving credit in both Ethiopia and Senegal. As expressed by a member, “Women now lead organizations where there are even men. They are consulted for decision-making within the community and households. They pay their children’s school fees. They emphasize the education of girls.” In Ethiopia, the application of WEAI (Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index) has taken off well in the R4 MEL process. The index measures empowerment, agency, and inclusion of women in the agriculture sector. The WEAI indicators were integrated in the midterm evaluation of R4 in Ethiopia, laying a foundation / baseline for future rounds of evaluation. This will help us understand better the current situation of women in terms of their level of empowerment and how to increase their autonomy and decision-making.
May 2015
In February, the EI gender focal point developed two gender and extractives sessions within this year's Alternative Mining Indaba Conference in Cape Town and helped to steer the Gender and EI thematic track for the event overall. In addition to producing a new Gender and EI research backgrounder for launch next quarter, the EI team was represented by our EI Gender Advisor at the UN's Annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60) in New York. The Oxfam team at CSW60 fought to bring land rights central to both the agriculture and extractives teams to the forefront and honor the legacy of Berta Caceres. The Fueling Investment team plans to further a partnership with Babson College’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership for corporate gender work, begin work with research partners in Guatemala, and finalize the methodology for this work. We are also working to finish a report on gender and low wage work in September. In CAMEXCA’s Program to Prevent Gender-Based Violence in Guatemala, alliances between indigenous and local Ahuachapán authorities came together for learning about the different approaches of violence, community tourism, and transference of knowledge of innovative projects within the framework of the prevention of violence. Review and validation of the last three years of the Gender
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FY16 Q4 and Year-End Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal Justice Program in CAMEXCA occurred. In early 2016, evaluators conducted several interviews with key civil society organizations and state institutions in Guatemala in which we work.
Higher bar for partners on women’s leadership including strengthened Capacity that ultimately protect women’s rights With International Women’s Day (IWD), impactful events were held building upon our long-term programming and in support of our policy and campaigning.
On International Women’s Day, three of Oxfam’s partner organizations in the Artibonite Valley in Haiti held marches, meetings, and celebrations. These events were organized in each of three municipalities by local grassroots organizations: a women’s group, a women farmers’ cooperative, and a mixed community-based development organization which is increasingly concerned with women’s rights. The marches featured music, dancing, and messages such as “Strong
Women”, “Women are not brooms to be put in a corner,” as well as specific messages on laws and protections for women who are victims of gender-based violence. In Ethiopia’s Water Program, 160 landless women were identified and organized into three backyard women friendly irrigation development self-help groups. 120 women backyard owners were trained on sustainable vegetable agronomy, composting, and integrated pest management. 150 women were trained on market information and technology for multipurpose water use and environmental management. Over 200 people participated in a community discussion which has been aimed to improve women’s access to irrigable land. A women’s technology group in the water saving technology has also been organized. In Ethiopia’s Agriculture Extension program, a total of 30 women and youth groups have been organized to work on IGAs, trained on business skills, and provided with seed money to start their own business. Currently, all of the groups have already started their businesses. Training was delivered to 272 women group members on natural resource management and income generating scheme development and management. Previous participation was maledominated in the Kebele Farmers Training Centers (FTCs) agricultural trainings, but this has now changed to involve women participants in groups
May 2015
whom attend and disseminate sessions at their village. Videos on dairy management and backyard vegetable farming by model women farmers have contributed to inspire women farmers.
Ray Offenheiser, Genevieve Gorder, Joy Bryant, and Dorothy McAuliffe with Oxfam Right The Wrong Awardees Fartuun Abdisalaan Adan (Somalia), Majd Izzat al-Chourbaji (Syria), and Ilwad Elman (Somalia).
O&A organized an International Women’s Day Conference and Advocacy Day in Washington, DC on March 7-8th. There were 68 participants, including 16 speakers and international guests. Participants included 45 Sisters on the Planet (SOP) ambassadors, including celebrity ambassadors Joy Bryant (actress and designer) and Genevieve Gorder (HGTV television host). The policy focus of the event was the Oxfam-drafted STRIDE for Self-Reliance Act which, if it passes in Congress, will empower local actors in disasterprone countries to prepare for and manage their own humanitarian response in small to mid-scale emergencies. Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire was also a keynote speaker at the event. The final day (lobby day) was very successful with almost 100 meetings held on Capitol Hill.
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FY16 Q4 and Year-End Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal Saving for Change in Cambodia has been active in Q4 with leadership and reproductive health. A total of 17 partner staff members (10 female) were trained on Women in Leadership and Reproductive Health in January 2016. SfC group networks for women’s voices were also formed and amplified by Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA) through promoting women in political leadership actions. 50 existing SfC groups with 1,123 members (89% women) facilitated 10 SfC group networks in Preah Vihear, northern bordering province of Cambodia. 19 women from the networks were well represented at SubNational Women Farmer Forum, while 4 of them were selected for National Conference. Finally, 2 women were chosen as the champions at the national level as a result of the process.
Oxfam worked in alliance with UN Women and the Justice Project of USAID in Guatemala to formulate the first approved Judiciary Institutional Policy on “Gender Equality and Promotion of Human Rights of Women." This encourages change of social imaginary, to eliminate gender stereotypes of the administration of justice, promote free spaces of all forms of discrimination and violence, and to respond to the demands
of women to have a gender justice perspective according to the specificity of their needs and human rights.
May 2015
event deemed “Women, Waffles, and Wisdom,” and having students sign the STRIDE ACT.
Drummer Kiran Gandhi, a figurehead for the free bleeding movement (she was made famous for running the 2015 London Marathon while menstruating to raise awareness for women who don’t have access to feminine care products) performed for an Oxfam Jams event in March. Share-graphic from DePauw University from an entire week of women and gender awareness as a part of our Community Engagement work.
CHANGE and university club student leaders hosted a variety of events around International Women’s Day (IWD). Activities included hosting a Women’s Appreciation Day around success in the workplace at Stony Brook University, collecting petitions in Kentucky for OUS’s Poultry and Inequality campaigns, holding Hunger Banquets in Bloomington, Indiana, having over 400 students participating in IWD events at Depauw University, interviewing and profiling women leaders in Los Angeles for Women’s Day Magazine, sending out Oxfam’s IWD e-cards, lobbying at the capital with the Reproductive and Gender Equity group, and holding female faculty panels
Oxfam’s Action Corps has been active in Q4 with IWD events nationwide. This included speaker panels and lectures at the University of New Mexico, tables at South By Southwest, Oxfam Jams in collaboration with Calling All Crows in Boston, discussions around inequality in Chicago and Seattle, a trivia night in Madison, Wisconsin, movie screenings in Philadelphia, and a benefit concert in New York with Kiran Gandhi, the feminist who ran the 2015 London Marathon while menstruating to raise awareness for women who don’t have access to feminine care products.
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FY16 Q4 and Year-End Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal
Seattle Action Corps held a panel discussion at the University of Washington to better understand inequality and how structural inequality disproportionately affects women.
For the AE Team, March was one of most successful IWD’s Oxfam has had by outreach and level of engagement from US government with over 100 congressional visits, 13 of which were member level. The Stride Act legislation, put together by the AE, GA, and HAT teams, was built around gender recognizing from Oxfam research and experience that women and girls are differentially impacted by disasters and also that they are sometimes excluded from decision-making around disaster preparedness and response. Language was thus added to the very beginning of drafting the act ensuring that the activities under the act did not exacerbate inequalities between genders, required a gender assessment, and ensured that women were deliberately included in decision making. In HARO’s Female Food Hero (FFH) work, winners from the past three years came to Addis Ababa to establish a national network. On March 10, the winners met and established the National Platform which will serve as a space of regular communication and follow up of their policy asks and changes they aspire. Documentaries on
the FFH winners have been broadcasted all through January. According to the producers, because of popular demands, they are running the documentaries as a repeat on week days. Additionally, the Ethiopian Media and Communication Officer won the 2016 WEE Leadership Award for Int’l Women’s Day.
Oxfam partner Julie Kuklinski, director of Moore Community House’s Women in Construction (WinC) program, was featured in Glamour Magazine for the organization’s work in training lowincome women for construction careers.
In support of USRO’s work, Sisters on the Planet Ambassador Ellen Gustafson on International Women’s Day, food, and poultry. Glamour Magazine’s “Hometown Heroes” included an article about Oxfam partner Julie Kuklinski, director of Moore Community House’s Women in Construction (WinC) program, which trains low-income women for careers in construction that will allow them economic security and self-sufficiency. Since 2008, WinC’s eight-week program has graduated 300
May 2015
women and placed 70 percent of them in jobs. A majority are women of color, many are single parents, and many are escaping abusive relationships. EFI is collaborating with Oxfam and PNASH to develop a training video on sexual harassment that can be integrated into training modules. A trailer for the videos has been released. In our GROW work, a tour with Guatemalan smallholder farmer and women’s leader Olga Tumax was organized in Iowa and Minnesota. An event was co-hosted with the World Food Prize Foundation and the Foods Resource Bank at the Hall of Laureates in Des Moines entitled, “Women and Agriculture: The Road to Global Security.” Senator Joni Ernst and Olga Tumax keynoted the event that had 231 seats and over 20 people standing. Ms. Tumax used our talking points for her keynote address at the World Food Prize event specifically:
“If women had the same access to land, credit, and resources as men over 150 million people could out of poverty and be fed.” A US tour was also organized with Nigerian FFH Monica Magari showcasing the Female Food Hero project to a US audience. The tour resulted in a fantastic story on NPR’s international developmentfocused blog called Goats & Soda and our program officer at the
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FY16 Q4 and Year-End Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal Gates Foundation emailing us to say that it “was good to have the reminder of how cool FFH is!” An agreement was reached in the Ministry of Agriculture in Ethiopia to institutionalize gender budgeting as well as incorporate a gender strategy. The political will and formal commitment to apply gender budgeting in the Ministry of Agriculture was achieved through the influence of the Female Food Heroes Award initiative; evidence-based advocacy strategy i.e. the gender budget study, and Oxfam’s crucial role in popularizing gender budgeting in agriculture. In the Program to Prevent Gender-Based Violence in CAMEXCA, Q4 saw creation of the House of Culture for children and adolescents of the Kingdom Tzutujil with funds from the Ali family. Vinyl and giant murals on walls of the house are installed with messages about gender violence prevention, human rights of women, and sexual and reproductive rights. Over 400 women took part in a forum on the human rights of women, put together by the women's network of Santiago Atitlan and the Municipal Office for Women. Nine women leaders conducted workshops in their communities with the participation of 40 to 60 women per community.
Investment in staff capacity for gender analysis and gender integration The year kicked off with an engaging workshop around the confederation’s commitment to women’s leadership.
In January 2016, a Transformative Leadership for Women’s Rights (TLWR) training workshop in El Salvador was held. The workshop participants included representation from finance, administration associates, programs, Humanitarian, WISE, Saving for Change from both Guatemala and El Salvador, and program officers of other affiliates in El Salvador. Highlights from the rest of FY15 Oxfam America and Gender at Work partned up for the Gender Action Learning Initiative to help teams improve their personal, organizational, and programmatic performance and skills in ensuring their actions contribute to gender justice. Reports can be found here. The OA GROW team provided policy and digital support to the launch of the Women.Food.Climate panAfrica campaign to increase
May 2015
governmental investment in women farmers ahead of the Paris climate negotiations. Community Finance’s R4 Rural Resilience Initiative was featured in a recent publication of ‘Gender in Climate-Smart Agriculture’ by the World Bank Group, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The publication highlights impacts of the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative on women’s food and income security in Ethiopia and Senegal. The Private Sector Department (PSD) successfully completed the WISE Fund final close, raising $900k, which will be used to incentivize changed banking practices in Guatemala while improving financial inclusion for women-run micro- and smallenterprises. Aid Effectiveness (AE) celebrated a milestone achievement in gender by completing a Team Gender Audit and Team Gender Analysis. The team focused on both the internal processes of the AE team as well as policy and advocacy work, communications, and external messaging. The team held a Gender Workshop to review the findings of the gender audit and gender analysis which included recommendations. AE has already taken several steps towards implementation of the audit recommendations and have better integrated gender in a thoughtful and meaningful way into their FY17AOP!
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FY16 Q4 and Year-End Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal advocates and community members. The discussion will be distilled into policy recommendations that will be introduced by women legislators in the upcoming legislative session.
This summer the Aid Effectiveness Team celebrated a milestone achievement in Gender by completing a Team Gender Audit and Team Gender Analysis.
An external evaluation conducted in 2015 found that Haiti’s programs in the Artibonite Valley significantly strengthened women’s leadership and socio-economic roles. Various trainings, on topics including SRI, credit management, and gender improved women’s skills and confidence. At the organizational and community levels, women are speaking up and are more involved in decision-making. The Aid Effectiveness, Government Affairs, and Humanitarian Advocacy teams drafted the STRIDE Act this fall and the current bill text includes provisions related to gender. OA’s Bank De-risking report had a substantial discussion of gendered impacts, and HAT developed a link to the OI violence against women/gender based violence knowledge hub. In our USRO work, Oxfam cosponsored the Mississippi Women’s Economic Security Statewide Policy Summit in Jackson, MS, attended by 500 state female elected officials,
The GROW team participated in a multi-stakeholder workshop, September 10-11 in Accra, Ghana, on emerging good practices in the cocoa supply chain. We had over 50 participants including the Big Three (Mars, Mondelez, and Nestle), traders, certifiers, farmers organizations, and national and international NGOs.
May 2015
Conclusion Great progress has been made in FY16 against the Gender Internal Change Goal, but of course, OUS will strive to be better and stronger in integrating gender justice in everything that we do. As the organization moves to be relevant and stronger in the realm of 2020, we will collectively aim to mainstream gender strategically as well as invest in gender standalone initiatives. Onward!
The L&OD Shared Service team began collaborating with the Women’s Right Capacity Development (WRCD) group on developing a core curriculum that will connect our foundational program leadership and skills courses and support services (e.g. coaching, mentoring, job aids etc.) across the confederation. This initiative will ensure gender is mainstreamed in all our foundational course offerings.
Have you taken Oxfam’s original e-learning course “Gender Justice at Oxfam: An Introduction”?
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