FY15 Q3 Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal
February 2015
FY15 Progress on
Highlights from FY15 Q3
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 FY15 Q2 can be found here.
Appropriate planning and MEL to facilitate learning and strategic decision making including increased rigor in research
Targeted investments into genderfocused reports and analysis were made in Q3. Multiple internal and external initiatives built on data took place from our from our humanitarian work to GROW. As part of our Humanitarian Advocacy and Campaigning work, the Oxfam report “Behind Closed Doors” focused on women’s rights in Afghanistan and pressed the international community and the Afghan government to do more to empower women in Afghanistan. OA garnered coverage for this
report in the New York Times, CSM, and other outlets. In WARO, the Humanitarian Program completed a Gender Analysis in Senegal and a report was submitted. Needs are to be further analysed and key findings prepared for adoption / operationalized in programming (ESFVL + WASH). Regional office staff undertook the 2014 Staff Gender Capacity Assessment to assess OA’s level of gender competency and any changes in the capacity since the last assessment in 2012. The analysis is being conducted by our partner organization, the Center for Gender in Organizations, under the supervision of the RPD Boston.
The Humanitarian Program in CAMEXCA finished a study about the impact of disasters in children and women and released it at a national level. In the Water program in HARO, a quick assessment on the newly enacted IWUS law was conducted and gaps and limitations in ensuring women access and benefit from water project was identified and shared. In our GROW work, Oxfam published an independent assessment of the BtB chocolate companies in October 2014. This included looking at their impact assessments and gender action plans to improve gender inequality in their cocoa supply chains. The publishing of this assessment was important for Oxfam, as it created mutual accountability and ensured greater transparency for how the F&B industry fulfils their BtB sustainability promises. In CAMEXCA, WISE completed the first baseline process revealing crucial learning for developing
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FY15 Q3 Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal policy advocacy work around gender justice and women’s economic leadership in Guatemala. With the Technology Innovations Fund grant, systems are being set up to implement the MEL plan that will gather learning around the impact of investing in women and provide input into policy/advocacy messaging on gender based inequality both in Guatemala as well as on a global level.
Higher bar for partners on women’s leadership including strengthened capacity that ultimately protect women’s rights
Q3 saw numerous global initiatives aiming to strengthen partner capacity to protect and promote women’s rights and leadership. The Global Gender Action Learning Initiative took off in Senegal, Vietnam, and Cambodia. In WARO, GAL held a Peer Learning Workshop for Humanitarian and R4 Program staff and partners for gender learning and transformational leadership. In the EI PEM Program in EARO, three partners – HA, PanNature and SCW, were engaged in diagnostic site visits. The GAL initiative aims at supporting the partners to address gender injustice through specific actions within 18 months timeframe. In our USRO work with the Decent Work Program, EFI staff diversity has improved in Q3 (33% women staff—two out of six currently, plus business manager in Q4 will make 43%). Staff will work with EFI to bolster their enforcement of sexual
harassment standards for women food workers and address the issue through the emerging poultry campaign. The SFC program in CAMEXCA saw excellent progress with the Graduation of Training Course on the Rights of Indigenous woman given by the Defence of Indigenous Women DEMI. A total of 24 promoters and field team from SFC, have started facilitating 19 workshops with 630 members of savings groups they serve. As HARO’s Water Program, contribution was made to organize an event on women hero irrigators at national level through facilitating participation of partners to send profile of the potential competent women irrigators. The program team also has participated in gender mainstreaming learning events organized by Oxfam affiliates.
February 2015
Through the Gender Program in CAMEXCA, we continue to work with the Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Children and Adolescents (ISNA), which has finished designing the Model of Integral Protection of Human Rights of Children and Adolescents. We are currently working on the design of the prevention of violence. HARO’s GROW Campaign saw significant wins: The Female Food Hero (FFH) 2014 award ceremony was held in December on a live televised ceremony (national TV, EBC) and the stories of the finalists reached 30 million people in Ethiopia. More than 100 participants gathered to honor achievement of smallholder women food producers. The heroes were visited by different government officials submitted their policy asks to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
The Haiti Livelihoods Program had a training on gender led by SOFA for the implementing partners and a gender video related to SRI was also created. In WISE, the first 19 women entrepreneurs were trained and loan-ready. Due to WISE’s leadership, Guatemala’s second largest financial institution was evaluated by banking experts about their outreach to women-owned micro-small-medium sized enterprise clients and will shortly be presented with concrete changes to enhance the bank’s outreach and service to women. In the Gulf Coast Program in USRO, Oxfam granted $20,000 to the Urban League of Greater New Orleans to implement training for the Houma project including a goal of 60% women.
The second Female Food Hero award ceremony where nine Female Food Heroes from eight regions were recognized for their relentless effort towards food security
In SAM’s Humanitarian Program, in coordination with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Vulnerable Populations, as well as feminist NGO Flora Tristan, Oxfam produced a leaflet highlighting linkages between Gender, DRR and Climate Change. The leaflet was disseminated among institutions participating in COP20 as well as the public campaign of water footprint. In Humanitarian Advocacy and Campaigning, OA supported Syrian women civil society leaders’
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FY15 Q3 Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal working on political solutions hosting Rim Turkmani, an expert on local ceasefires, to meet with the US Special Envoy, NSC staff, and Nancy Lindborg, all of whom expressed interest in the analysis and recommendations.
In the EI Program in SAM, Bolivian partner, CEDLA, published the study Fiscal Policy and Gender Inequality calling governments for more political will on implementation of redistribution with gender approach.
As a GROW win, $250,000 was secured in Gates funding over 3 years for O&A work related to agriculture. This money will help us to support Female Food Hero (FFH) and Sisters on the Planet (SOP) work and enable us to do more FFH tours in the USA, raising the awareness with American audiences and policy-makers about the important role women farmers play in agriculture and feeding the world.
Investment in staff
In Organizing and Alliances, 5 new Sisters on the Planet (SOP) Ambassadors were recruited including Former US Rep from New Hampshire Carol Shea-Porter. Twelve SOP Ambassadors won in the November 2014 election. SOP Kathy Davis spoke at the Indiana World Affairs Council dinner, which featured Oxfam guest Dalitso Kubalasa from the Malawi Economic Justice Network. In the new program, Amazonia, Natural Resources (Peru-Bolivia) in SAM, the presentation of a women’s agenda during COP20 by a delegation of Latin American women leaders supported by GROW-LAC as well as their participation in the peoples’ summit on climate change. In EARO’s FLAIR program, gender has been strongly discussed in business performance, client satisfaction, and the marketing survey for Niek Srer. All new grants in Vietnam have a stronger focus on gender and women’s empowerment with the inclusion of the initiatives and indicators that benefit woman farmers.
capacity for gender analysis and gender integration
In Q3, practical steps were taken in order to effectively build staff capacity on gender issues including the launch of our first online course on gender justice.
The Global Gender Retreat/GMLAI IV Conference was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with 36 Oxfam staff members representing 11 countries, 13 cities, 6 affiliates, and the Secretariat. At the retreat, participants drafted the GICG FY16 AOP, responded to the ELT with a memo and internal culture and looked at how to implement Oxfam's Beyond Gender Mainstreaming Roadmap. ISD in collaboration with RPD Boston developed the Gender Criteria for the Assessment of Concepts and Proposals, which will be used to reinforce gender integration in concept notes and proposals prior to submission. The Aid Effectiveness Team began working with a gender consultant
February 2015
and completed a gender training on both the internal and external implications of gender and the team’s work as well as an introduction to the Gender @ Work Framework. 80% of the extended AET has received gender training and 100% of the team has received introductory training on how to use the Gender @ Work Framework for strategic planning. In October, Comms and RPD Boston met to discuss the gender change goal to C&E managers. Topics covered were tracking time spent on gender, setting objectives, the and how we might integrate and mainstream this for our work in the US and our work as Oxfam US. In Extractive Industries (EI), a successful, team gender analysis training was held with RPD Boston. EI is to be featured in the IWD activities. Comms and ISD developed Gender Fundraising Talking Points for donors together with a Question and Answer section added to the document where we are working on including questions that donors could potentially ask regarding our gender work. For the first time in Oxfam history, an interactive and accessible One Oxfam Gender Justice Online Learning course became available for all staff around world led by OUS HR, L&OD, and RPD Boston staff. This 1-hour online learning course is intended for all Oxfam staff and provides participants with an understanding of the terms and ideas related to gender justice at Oxfam.
GJ at Oxfam: An Introduction
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