FY16 Q1 Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal
August 2015
FY16 Q1 Progress on
Highlights from FY16 Q1
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 Q4 can be found here.
Appropriate planning and MEL to facilitate learning and strategic decision making including increased rigor in research In Q1, the Gender Action Learning Global Initiative continued to garner commitments to gender mainstreaming while PHP activities increased their focus on women and children. USRO had a successful trip to Arkansas and North Carolina to complete interviews with over two dozen current and former poultry workers and advocates (including 12 women) to gain material for an online multimedia platform. Gender specific questions were asked about how working conditions differed for women and men, and if workers had been harassed or discriminated against.
WARO conducted a rigorous review of gender and MEL integration in program/project design which began being required as GAPs are reviewed. Investment in recommendations from the Gender Action Learning action plan has been requested to be reallocated for Gender Transformation Leadership work.
learning processes for partners and staff in East Asia (EI-PEM), Senegal (Humanitarian/Resilience), and Ghana (EI).
Higher bar for partners on women’s leadership including strengthened capacity that ultimately protect
WARO also reports that within PHP activities with toilet tests in households, 60% of the households selected are led by women and the other 40% are led by men. This will help give consideration to women’s perception for future acceptation, usage and maintenance of these toilets. The Gender Action Learning Global Initiative has released a global report examining key findings and overall trends in the respective
women’s rights In Q1, increased collaboration with USAID, partner organizations and even the private sector, played a role in robust efforts around women’s empowerment. The P&C Team announced that as part of the Gender in Development Working Group, Oxfam was asked to attend a meeting with USAID's Office of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. Along
1
FY16 Q1 Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal with other members of the working group (CARE, Women Thrive, World Vision, FHI360, and more). USAID asked the working group's opinions on how USAID can better communicate with NGOs regarding their programs, spending, and activities in/on gender.
In HARO, the 2015 FFH Award has officially launched. The launching ceremony received a significant amount of media attention from national TV and radio as well as local newspapers. The ceremony was attended by key government officials including the president of the Ethiopian Women’s Federation, President of the Network of Ethiopian Women Associations, and Gender Director at the Ministry of Agriculture. UN Women and several members of NGOs and INGOs attended the ceremony.
On June 26, 2015, Oxfam in Ethiopia launched the 3rd annual Female Food Heroes Award initiative. The OA GROW team provided policy and digital support to the launch of the Women.Food.Climate pan-Africa campaign to increase governmental investment in women farmers ahead of the Paris climate negotiations. Additionally, Mars released its latest Women's Empowerment Plan on June 1, and the level of ambition within it did not require pushback from
OA for more specificity. Prior to the release of the plan, OA was invited to speak with the consultant hired to develop the plan, the International Center for Research on Women, as well as the Mars community engagement/gender lead in Cote d'Ivoire. This was a stark shift in their engagement with us from our previous engagement around their research plans. HARO’s water program made strides in the inclusion of women’s access to innovative technologies (women friendly, labor and time saving), as well as productive resources and services for multiple use of water. This was done through creating linkages with government, private and research centers . EARO’s proposal for SFC leveraging project through Community-based Enterprise Development (C-BED), submitted by ILO to the EDGE, was approved for one year of activities in Cambodia with a budget of approx. $150,000 USD. One of the overall project objectives is “empowering 1,500 young women and improving their self-confidence to access secure finance, mutual aid, and rights protection.” LAC reports that in Guatemala, capacity building for 40 government staff members for inclusion of gender in operating plans is taking place. Capacity building of 30 local government staff in Solola, on human rights of indigenous peoples from a gender perspective, is also in motion. P&C experienced several policy wins. On April 23, Barry Parking (Chief Sustainability Officer, Mars) and Afzaal Malik (VP Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Mars) met with Ray in the Boston office to discuss more broadly the issues of sustainability and opportunities. This was a significant meeting
August 2015
because Mars organized this between their C-suite and ours, likely in an attempt to fend off the possibility of another 'poke' on Mars for not meeting its gender commitments (OA had been engaging Afzaal on a possible 'poke'). On June 30 at the World Cocoa Foundation's Partnership meeting in DC, OA presented on a gender panel alongside Mondelez, Hersheys, and Barry Callebaut. This panel was well received and top cocoa stakeholders/players were among the audience members. It was a great opportunity to make the business case for gender equality in cocoa supply chains. In May 2015, Mondelez released their 2014 wellbeing report, which included a quote from an OA blog commenting on their overall progress to date. WARO’s Savings for Change Grant was approved to support livelihoods related activities through business and agriculture components. There is great interest and appropriation of these additional capacities by women with good progress and achievements. Highlights included: Out of more than 500,000 rural women already reached with SfC nearly 25,000 are now trained in Business in 155 villages in Mali and Senegal. 432 groups are piloting the Agricultural component with great interest and appropriation by members . Replication in their own garden. 76 business initiatives with high potential have been identified and will benefit from close support for their development. Negotiation of land for women in new villages . WARO saw great results with SfC and Citizenship implementation.
2
FY16 Q1 Progress on the Gender Internal Change Goal About 25,000 individuals are already trained in Citizenship in 155 villages. Additionally, 101 potential women leaders have been identified who are capable of carrying out advocacy and active citizenship.
Three Active Citizenship days were organized in 3 zones by SfC women during which they questioned local authorities on their strategy and plan to get women involved in decision-making sphere and protect their rights. SfC Groups creation training and SfC plus Business is given to support R4 implementation and expansion to new zones.
Workshop for FY16Q2. This workshop will be the final stage of our work with external gender consultant, Alex Pittman. The workshop will focus on the results of our team gender audit, recommendations from the consultant, and creating a framework for an FY16-17 AET Gender Action Plan. C&C’s CHANGE team has recruited and selected a diverse group of 2015 CHANGE Leaders for our upcoming training in Boston this summer. CHANGE Leaders will continue to work and engage with us on GROW, Fueling, and Poultry in the coming year.
Investment in staff capacity for gender analysis and gender integration Continuing education took centre stage this quarter as collaboration with the Women’s Right Capacity Development (WRCD) group leads to new developments in staff training. The Campaigns Gender workshop occurred in early June in DC where plans were built for each of our campaigns. The P&C Team continues to engage in internal discussions and learnings in the field of gender and aid effectiveness. The team will launch its gender Action Plan, which will now be developed in FY16 Q2. AET is also in the final planning stages of organizing a team Gender
August 2015
The course is being translated into additional languages. The Human Resources (HR) Department in the Boston Office has many projects in motion. The conversion of the “Introduction to Gender Justice at Oxfam” online course to Spanish, French and Arabic is moving forward. These products should be completed between mid-August and late September! The Introduction to Gender Justice at Oxfam online course is also being upgraded so that it is ready for distribution on the public learning management site DisasterReady.org. HR hopes to have the English version on Disaster Ready by September. This is exciting news!
2015 CHANGE Leaders will be in Boston this summer for trainings. Their photos and profiles were displayed in the Boston office café. The L&OD Shared Service team is 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.
3