FY15 Q2 Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal
November 2015
FY15 Progress on
Highlights from FY15 Q2
the Gender Internal Change Goal Key Themes of the GICG
Theme 1
Theme 2
Appropriate planning and MEL to facilitate learning and strategic decision making including increased rigor in research
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 page provides key organizational, programmatic, and policy and campaigning highlights on quarterly progress against the OA Gender Internal Change Goal (GICG). The previous update of FY15 Q1 can be found here.
Appropriate planning and MEL to facilitate learning and strategic decision making including increased rigor in research
Across the globe, Q2 saw active investments into gender-focused reports and analysis with our partners. This work was demonstrated across multiple programs from our EI to humanitarian work. In USRO, a planning committee of 8 sexual harassment allies and USRO met on August 19th in Pittsburg to discuss strategies and to prepare next steps for a fall convening on sexual harassment of farmworker women. A draft of the in-depth literature review of sexual violence/harassment of
women farmworkers and preliminary finding of 14 focus groups held with farmworker women across the US were presented to the planning committee meeting to help guide its strategy development. CAMEXCA’s EI program published a report on the Systematization of the Participation of Women in the Defense of Territory ‘The Puya and Santa Rosa’. In coordination with partner MadreSelva, the Campaigns team in Guatemala and the OGB’s Gender Program in Guatemala, a national exchange is planned for women defending human rights in the face of extractive industries. In WARO’s Humanitarian Program, a Gender Analysis, which is a follow up to all the efforts made this year, was completed in Senegal with a report to soon be shared by the consultant. SAMRO’s EI program prepared a report on the Espinar case involving a gender focus of citizen oversight of public investment derived from mining revenue. This
was done in collaboration with Oxfam Quebec. In the Water program in Ethiopia, a quick assessment is in progress on existing WUAs' bylaws and establishing guidelines to identify gender related gaps in ensuring women access and benefit from water projects.
Higher bar for partners on women’s leadership including strengthened capacity that ultimately protect women’s rights
Various grassroots and global initiatives in Q2 aimed to strengthen partner capacity and women’s rights and leadership. Oxfam America and Gender@Work finalized a global ToR to partner up for Gender
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FY15 Q2 Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal Action Learning, a 1.5 year capacity building, learning, and accompanying process. Staff and partners from Ghana EI, Cambodia/Vietnam EI, and Senegal R4/Humanitarian programs will participate. AET drafted Ray Offenheiser's speaking points on gender for the Leaving no one behind: Inclusion of Marginalized Populations Focus Session at USAID's 2014 Frontiers in Development conference. WISE raised resources ($600k) for first 5 years of operating costs and capacity building and completed its first pre-investment training round for a small pilot of 20 women entrepreneurs. At this stage, coaches are working with the women entrepreneurs to refine their individual business plans as they prepare to apply for the WISEguarantee backed loans.
WISE’s first cohort of women entrepreneurs showcased their products and services after organizing a celebratory graduation upon completion of the training program.
In the Haiti’s Livelihoods program, training and technical support on gender coaching has been provided with SOFA (a national feminist organization) to both MAFLPV and AILA to better integrate gender approaches in their work. Moreover, 16 young students (among them 5 women) have graduated in agricultural mechanics from APPEL. These students are ready to start their business or to offer their services to local private or public institutions.
As a part of CAMEXCA’s GROW Campaign, the Law for Sovereignty Food is being formulated with the participation of the Alliance of Rural Women. Oxfam was able to reopen the dialogue after an initial negative vote. The content of the Law has principles and actions specific for women: more access to land and other resources for production and the participation in the policies of food security and nutrition. The EI Center for Strategic Support’s capacity-building work in new countries features a gender component. Gender analysis is also to be included in agenda for the OI EI Africa strategy meeting in February. The draft Oxfam Africa EI Strategy features gender justice as a key component. In GROW, the Gender Equity certification scheme is to be modeled after the BtB scorecard. Oxfam spoke with the gender lead at the IFC for Eastern Europe and Central Asia about a major Turkish retailer (i.e. Walmart) who approached them about highlighting their good gender work among their suppliers with the aim to inspire other suppliers and retailers to join their efforts. The gender lead at IFC felt strongly that the BtB scorecard was the perfect model to learn from. Sisters On the Planet (SOP) sent a sign-on letter to President Obama about the situation in Syria with 70 women whom signed the letter. 10 SOPs from 10 states participated in the August Recess action which focused on asking their representatives to support povertyfocused foreign aid and sign on as a co-sponsor for Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act and well as the Food for Peace Reform Act. Eight actions were in-
November 2015
district meetings and two were phone calls. In EARO’s EI program, a project idea to build a partnership with Laos Women Union was developed. The project idea centers around developing institutional capacity of LWU to integrate genderenvironment and mining concerns into sectoral plans and policies. In the SfC program in EARO, the team is on the process of engaging partners to provide service on SfC women’s leadership. The final report of the study on “women’s empowerment and leadership in SfC groups” became available in August 2014. HARO’s Female Food Heroes (FFH) program collected nomination forms in all 9 regional states. Somali national Regional State announced the female Food Heroes winner for st this year on August 21 and the event has got high regional media coverage. Asha Gahayr won and will represent her region in the coming national Female Food Heroes award in November. Her story was posted in social media and received well.
Female Food Hero Winner Asha Gahayr Wa’ays
Birtukan Dagnachew’s Oxfam 2013 FFH winner will be traveling to the USA to attend the World Food Prize event and she will also be a keynote speaker. Newspapers, radio and television programs published her story and her contribution to become a voice for smallholder farmers like herself.
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FY15 Q2 Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal The DRR program in Haiti, with the expertise of OGB, has provided training and tools on Protection and Gender to HAS and ELRUDA and humanitarian partners. Two new partners from the World Bank Project will undergo a diagnostic on their gender and protection capacity and experience in order to develop their capacity building plan over the 2 next quarters of this fiscal year and beyond.
Investment in staff
CAMEXCA’s Humanitarian program is including gender approaches in workshops on DRR in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
The Oxfam-wide Gender Justice Learning Series, an e-learning training course available globally, went through finalization steps of the first module Gender Justice at Oxfam: An Introduction. It is a tool now ready for all staff to access and utilize in order to build Oxfam staff capacity on gender.
The Gulf Coast Program in USRO is developing a new grant with Urban League that has specific numerical goals for recruitment/training of women. Moreover, ULGNO conducted an intermediary workshop for to 2 employees at the Plaquemines Career Solutions Center in Bell Chasse. Staff immediately referred a client, who then enrolled in ULGNO's CREW (Coastal Restoration Employment and Economic Development for Women) Program. Additionally, 108 female entrepreneurs received more than 172 hours of personalized business counselling/coaching from ULGNO. Humanitarian Advocacy & Campaigning saw excellent progress on Somalia work, especially on remittances, which specifically looks at resources in the hands of women.
capacity for gender analysis and gender integration
Internal steps were taken in Q2 in order to more effectively build staff capacity on gender issues.
November 2015
the EFI on-farm training materials such as around sexual harassment.
Conclusion FY15 Q2 saw strong gender efforts being made from investment into research to strengthening women’s leadership and rights. With the launch of the Oxfam-wide elearning module of Gender Justice at Oxfam: An Introduction and the Q3 Global Gender Retreat/GMLAI IV Conference in Addis Ababa, the momentum around gender is only getting stronger and fueling!
The Gender Justice Learning Series is now ready to take in OA Talent Management!
AET conducted an internal survey to identify top priorities/questions the team needs to pursue in its gender work. This includes: 1) What aid effectiveness gender policies are we ignoring and how can we more intelligently work on issues missing from our plate? 2) How can we think of partnerships and alliances differently? 3) How do we begin to apply a gender lens as we create strategies for our advocacy work? USRO’s Decent Work Program improved the gender balance of EFI staff with the two most recent hires. The next challenge is to integrate more gender-specific content into
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