Women’s Voice and Leadership Pakistan – Final Report

WOMEN’S VOICE AND LEADERSHIP

Women’s Voice and Leadership Pakistan Project (WVL-P) – Final Report, Endline Evaluation

May 2024

For more information, questions, and concerns about this study please contact:

Oxfam in Pakistan

Erum Sharif, MEAL Coordinator ESharif@oxfam.org.uk

Disclaimer

Oxfam Canada

Roxanne Murrell, Program Officer roxanne.murrell@oxfam.org

This report was commissioned by Oxfam for the project, “Women’s Voice and Leadership - Pakistan,” with financial support from Global Affairs Canada. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the opinions held by Oxfam or Global Affairs Canada. It should also be noted that the statistics in this report are not comparable to national-level statistics. The study was conducted with sample groups from specific project areas; thus, the statistics are not coherent with national standardized data. While every attempt has been made to ensure data quality, we recognize that there may be certain limitations in this sense. Neither Oxfam nor Global Affairs Canada can guarantee the precision of the data included in this report. Additionally, the borders, colours, denominations, or other information shown on any map in this report do not reflect any judgment by Oxfam or Global Affairs Canada with regard to the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of any such boundaries.

Oxfam Canada

Women’s Voice and Leadership - Pakistan is funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada

39 McArthur Avenue, Ottawa, ON K1L 8L7

1-800-466-9326

www.oxfam.ca

oxfamcanada

On the cover: 1st cluster workshop for end line evaluation; Islamabad; December, 2023. Credit: Sarah Zafar

Acknowledgements

This report has been produced by GLOW Consultants as the End-Line Evaluation Report for the Women’s Voice and Leadership Pakistan (WVL-P) Project. This report has been prepared based on the research questions for the evaluation as discussed with Oxfam and reflects the data collection exercise completed by the evaluation team. We would like to thank the team at Oxfam in Pakistan (OiP), Oxfam Canada (OCA), short grantees, core women’s rights organisations (WROs), and all alliance members for their contribution to this evaluation exercise and for sharing their valuable input and time with us. We would also like to thank Ms. Sarah Zafar of OiP for capturing images of both cluster workshops and sharing these with us to include them within this report.

Core End line Study Team:

Armeen Dastgir Ahmad (Team Lead)

Saeed Ullah Khan (Co-Evaluator)

Zainab Jamil (Co-Evaluator)

Tehreem Tassaduq (Co-Evaluator)

Dr. Rahat Iqbal (Co-Evaluator)

Naima Zia (Co-Evaluator)

Shahneela Ghulam (Co-Evaluator)

Salma Aziz (Cellphilming and Dramatization Expert)

Pillar 2: Capacity and resources for programming and outreach

37 A WRO ED sharing her experience on the project

Change Story Best Practices

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ARTS Advocacy Research Training Foundation and Services Foundation

ABPAW Association of Business, Professional and Agricultural Women

AAN Awaz-e-Niswan

BBW Breaking Barriers Women

BOD Board of Directors

CAT4GJO Capacity Assessment Tool for GenderJust Organisational Strengthening

DEWA Development Empowerment Women Association

EAD Economic Affairs Division

ED Executive Director

FMEAL Feminist Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning

FMEAL Feminist Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

FGD Focus Group Discussion

GAC Global Affairs Canada

GI Group Interviews

GLP Gender Leadership Program

HRDN Human Resource Development Network

KII Key Informant Interviews

KPK Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

MEAL Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning

MTR Mid-term Review

NOC No Objection Certificate

NOWC National Organisation for Working Communities

OCA Oxfam Canada

OiP Oxfam in Pakistan

PCW Provincial Consultative Workshops

PM Project Manager

PMF Performance Measurement Framework

PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal

PRWSWO Pakistan Rural Workers Social Welfare Organisation

RWO Roshni Welfare Organisation

SDO Saiban Development Organisation

SHADE Society for Human Advancement and Disadvantaged Empowerment

SOPs Standard Operating Procedures

USO Ujala Seher Organisation

VAWG Violence Against Women and Girls

WEE Women’s Economic Empowerment

WISE Women in Struggle for Empowerment

WoW Ways of Working

WRO Women’s Rights Organisation

WVL Women’s Voice and Leadership

WVL- Women’s Voice and LeadershipPakistan Pakistan

DEFINITIONS

Capacity Assessment Tool for Gender-Just Organisational Strengthening (CAT4GJO)

The CAT4GJO is a guided, participatory self-assessment tool to structure a dialogue on existing organisational capacity strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. It is designed to support an organisational conversation for celebration, critical self-reflection, analysis, learning, and actionplanning. The CAT4GJO examines and addresses six key dimensions of organisational health: women’s transformative leadership, gender-just structures and processes, organisational resilience and sustainability, strategic relationships and linkages, transformative programming and advocacy, and safeguarding.

Feminist Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (FMEAL)

Feminist MEAL is based on the understanding that transformative change in unequal gender and power relations is complex and nonlinear. It challenges us to think differently about what is considered to record process and evidence, pushes the boundaries of how evidence is captured, questions who gives knowledge meaning and power, and promotes social transformation. Oxfam recognizes the autonomy and independence of its partners in the work they and Oxfam do together, and Oxfam is committed to a relationship of mutual accountability and shared decision-making. Oxfam believes that MEAL should support sharing and learning generation that is meaningful, accessible, and relevant to those who rightly own it - the people with whom they work.

Gender-transformative

A gender-transformative approach means transforming the systemic power relations, discrimination, and gender norms and practices that perpetuate inequalities among women, men, and all genders, especially patriarchy.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality recognizes the multiple aspects of identity that play out in people’s lives and experiences, including – but not limited to – gender, class, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and race. These elements can compound and exacerbate oppression and marginalization. All project management processes are implemented through an intersectional lens, recognizing the heterogeneity of partners, communities, and groups.

Reflexive approach

A reflexive approach moves beyond understanding women, men, or all genders as passive participants or beneficiaries. It requires all actors to acknowledge their own positional power and how this power could potentially impact project design and implementation. Reflexivity encourages balancing unequal power dynamics. It recognizes that people in all their diversity are experts in their own lived experiences and hold critical knowledge about themselves, their households, their communities, and their broader societies. Reflexive practice also requires Oxfam to acknowledge its own positioning as an international development organisation, the power that this holds, and requires Oxfam to think differently about how it can effectively share power in all that it does.

Women’s rights organisation (WRO)

WROs are typically led by women (for example, senior leadership/management have women representation and the board must also have significant female representation) and will have a vision, mission, and objectives that clearly articulate an agenda to advance women’s rights and gender equality. This could include specific sectors and/or themes such as violence against women and girls (VAWG), sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), women’s economic empowerment (WEE), and women’s political participation and education, among others.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The End Line Evaluation for the Women’s Voice and Leadership Pakistan (WVL-P) project was conducted between November 2023 and January 2024. This report corresponds to the findings from WVL-P’s End Line Evaluation, incorporating GAC’s feminist principles of empowerment, inclusion, and participation, Oxfam’s Feminist Principles and Feminist Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (F-MEAL) methodology reflecting the voices of the partners under the project, including the core WROs, alliances, grantees, Oxfam in Pakistan (OiP), and Oxfam in Canada (OCA). Accountability has been an inbuilt feature among all feminist principles. During WVL-P it has been used as shared responsibility for having ultimate accountability with all the partners of WVL-P. As in FMEAL, accountability is considered integral to the approach.

WVL-P is a five-year project implemented by Oxfam between 2019 and 2024, funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) as part of the larger WVL program funded by GAC in 28 countries across the world. The aim of the project is to apply a feminist approach through the values of participation, inclusion, and empowerment to support the capacity and activities of local women’s rights organisations (WROs) and groups seeking to empower women and girls, advance the protection of women and girls’ rights, and achieve gender equality. In the specific context of Pakistan, WVL-P is a unique project that prioritises a feminist perspective by integrating the 10 principles outlined in the project’s Theory of Change and has taken its partners, i.e. the WROs and alliances, as co-creators, co-implementers, and co-owners. The project has an ultimate outcome to increase enjoyment of human rights by women and girls and the advancement of gender equality in Pakistan, alongside three corresponding intermediate outcomes or Pillars.

Figure 1: WVL-P project core partners

The project was designed and implemented under a shrinking space for civil society and rights-based work within Pakistan, with groups and organisations working towards women’s rights facing restrictive regulatory frameworks, limited space for organizing, and limited access to funding for gender transformative changes and programming. At the baseline, WROs also highlighted limited platforms for network and alliance building. The project aimed to strengthen WROs within this context, equipping WROs with improved ability to mobilise funds and conduct gender-just programming in the existing space available. The 12 core WROs and the five alliances under the project were included from all four provinces and the federal area as reflected in Figure 1. In addition, 22 issue-based grants and 18 research grants were also provided under the project.

“I can safely say that all the positive changes in the way we work towards women’s rights can be attributed solely to WVL-P and Oxfam. Our policies, proposal writing abilities, and the very infrastructure of our office which allows us to function as an organisation have been provided by the project.”

— WRO ED

Figure 2: Picture from a WRO visit during the Endline Evaluation

Figure 3: Participants reflecting on their peers’ stories of change during the WVL-P project during the cluster workshops

Findings

In terms of the relevance of the project, the WROs, alliances, and grantees all reflected that the design and activities of the project were relevant to their needs. Discussions with WRO EDs regarding the civic space within the country both at the baseline and at the End Line stages reflected that there is a shrinking space for advancing women and girls’ rights and for rights-based organisations within the country. This has made it difficult for WROs to operate, seek funding, and engage in gender transformative programs until support from WVL-P was received. Additionally, WVL-P had a unique design which

prioritised the application of feminist approaches of inclusion, participation, and empowerment in order to strengthen organisations, which proved very relevant to WROs to improve their overall management, programming, and sustainability as a gender-just organisation. All WROs’ management reflected in their key informant interviews (KIIs) that their ability to lead their organisations had improved as a result of the project, with 76% of women now in leadership positions compared to 61% before the project’s commencement

Figure 4: Highlights Under WVL-P

The Capacity Assessment Tool for Gender-Just Organisational Strengthening (CAT4GJO) tool was similarly found relevant by WROs to comment on the deep structures, strategies, policies, and practices within their organisations. Each WRO decided its own capacity strengthening areas and way forward, with the project giving the WROs the power to decide what is important for them. One Program Manager from Sindh shared the following, “throughout the project it was the process of learning new ways and unlearning old ways of capacity assessment – that is what was so interesting and helpful about the CAT4GJO.” Between the baseline CAT4GJO scores and End Line scores, there has been a marked increase across all six domains, with the highest increase in the WROs’ ‘Transformative Gender Justice Programming and Advocacy” domain, with an increase of 39.8% or 1.6 points increase on a 4-point scale.

The issue-based grantees similarly shared that the support they had received was relevant to meet their needs by providing flexible funding and opportunities for designing and implementing innovative projects. The project’s Theory of Change allowed for flexible programming, where funds could be allocated to address the evolving needs of women and girls in the communities of the WROs, such as during Covid-19 and floods when WROs were supported to distribute hygiene kits under WVL-P. In the focus group discussions (FGDs) with community members, they shared that the thematic areas where their WROs worked under WVL-P addressed some of their most pressing needs. Some examples shared of most pressing needs regarding women and girls’ rights include early marriages in Bahawalpur, Jaffarabad, Multan, Lahore, and adjacent areas; primary and secondary education in Peshawar, Multan, and adjacent areas;

Figure 5: 12 WROs leadership community groups at the local level

GBV in Quetta, Lahore, Mardan, Lower Dir, Jaffarabad, Bahawalpur, and adjacent areas; and child protection in Bahawalpur, entrepreneurship in the community support in Dir, labour and health workers rights in Karachi, political participation, and voting rights in Karachi, Lower Dir – in addition, to strengthening leadership at the local community levels in all areas where WROs are working to promote social actions based on gender issues.

Among the 17 core partners, five alliance partners played a role for networking with WROs, focused on amplifying and advocating for WROs’ work at the local level. Alliances advocated and raised those issues at the policy level. All five alliances attested to the relevance of the project in light of a shrinking funding landscape for women’s rights advocacy and in linking WROs to alliances in their respective provinces and at an inter-provincial level for collective action and information sharing.

“Networking with the WROs was very useful for us, and we gained many insights. We got to know about the ground reality of various districts within our mandate and learned from the WROs’ experiences. We wanted to do advocacy to include more women in one of the DRCs [Dispute Resolution Committees] but did not have enough information about the current status, such as how many women were currently in the DRC and so on. We got this information from one of the WROs and could then act in an informed way in our work.”

— Alliance Member

The coherence of the WVL-P project is evident through some key aspects such as the complementarity between Pillars 1, 2, and 3; the alignment of the project with feminist approaches and principles; and the role of alliances in the project. The project design of key complementary work on strengthening the organisational capacity of WROs, transforming women’s leadership, strengthening capacity and resources for community programming and outreach, and increasing the effectiveness of national and sub-national women’s rights platforms for networking was coherent in order to work towards the ultimate outcome. One executive director (ED) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) reflected the following, “the step-by-step approach of the project was useful for us to internalize the feminist approaches of the project, supported by the interventions such as GLP,1 MEAL working group, PRA2 and gradually becoming more focused on how to improve ourselves, our programming, and our networks.” WVL-P’s activities and design are coherent with the feminist program approaches of inclusivity, participation, and empowerment, which have been embedded within the project from the initial cocreation workshop3 (at the time of baseline) where all participants gave their input regarding the indicators and project design. Similarly, the perspectives and needs of diverse groups of women at the grassroots level have been included in the project by working with WROs from across all provinces of the country and in both rural and urban areas.

The project has actively worked towards inclusiveness by engaging WROs representing diverse communities, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. WROs community areas included women of different age groups, ethnicities, languages, religions, professions, and literacy levels. One community member from Punjab reflected the following, “before WVL-P, our Aurat Akath group predominantly comprised of elderly women, but now we are proud to have women of all ages actively participating in our group. This diverse representation enhances the richness of our community.” The feminist approaches trickled down to the work the WROs were

1 GLP: Gender Leadership Program. The GLP is an initiative to strengthen the capacity of all women from core partner organisations to empower them at personal and professional levels.

2 PRA – Participatory Rural Appraisal. The PRA is an assessment approach that emphasizes empowering local people to analyze their own living conditions, and problems, to seek meaningful social change.

3 Co-Creation Workshop. A 05 days’ workshop in Islamabad conducted in March 2020 at the baseline level. This Workshop provided the first opportunity for Oxfam Canada, Oxfam in Pakistan, and the 12 core WROs to gather for the co-creation of the project’s FMEAL system. ( WVL-P Baseline report)

conducting in their communities. One example is of a WRO ensuring that the voices of younger women are heard and given due credit by linking them with elderly women in the community to present a united front for their cause. The use of FMEAL tools to implement feminist approaches was coherent and reflected as a successful model by the WROs’ staff during the MEAL Working Group (MWG) FGDs and organisational visits. During the project implementation, the MEAL persons across WROs realized that the FMEAL approach cannot be applied exactly into the local areas after facing some challenges at the community level. A learning highlight among the MWG members was adapting the FMEAL approach along with a traditional MEAL approach to effectively engage community.

While initially the knowledge management aspect of the project was designed to have only national or provinciallevel alliances, it was modified to include both. This was done with consultation with the core WROs and was considered necessary for the coherence of the project. The project team then decided on four alliances at the provincial level and one designated alliance for the knowledge management and dissemination role. This ensured that meaningful collaboration could occur at the provincial level between WROs and alliances. The target areas and relevant laws and policies concerning the WROs and alliances overlapped, as the provincial alliances and the relevant WROs were working on gender issues in the similar areas. For example, in Balochistan the alliance and WROs came together to work to end genderbased violence and honour killing. Similarly, assigning responsibility to one alliance to manage the knowledge and dissemination through a WVL-P website4 allowed for the creation of sustainable and accessible online learning resources that allowed for visibility to the wider public of the knowledge products and campaigns such as ‘16 days of activism’ under the project.

Overall, the project was effective in strengthening the capacity of WROs representing vulnerable and marginalized women and girls. All 12 WROs reported an increased ability to lead their organisations and

adopted new and improved governance and management practices. Examples of adopted practices included FMEAL tools such as photovoice, theatre/ dramatization, and Cellphilming; safeguarding policies such as child protection; employee code of conduct and confidentiality; QuickBooks usage; procurement preference for women vendors and supporting them to open bank accounts, filing taxes, and capacity building; gender-inclusive HR policies such as on harassment; and intentional inclusion of more women and young persons in leadership roles. The CAT4GJO results reflected that WROs had improved their capacity area regarding gender-just HR policies and practices by 39.5% (1.6-point increase on a scale of 4) between the baseline and End Line stage. One WRO from KPK reflected the following in their CAT4GJO, “After stepping into the WVL-P journey our policies on human resource management, accounting and finance, administration, and gender policy are well documented and those policies are available to staff…[we] also developed our gender just policy and strategy.”

Over the course of the project WROs have reported submitting a total of 165 proposals out of which 52 proposals were successful, with 100% of successful proposals aligned with women’s rights. WROs shared changes in project and proposal design processes, incorporating a gender lens and forming committees for inclusive proposal writing. One WRO shared in their survey, “We’ve notably reduced our reliance on consultants for proposal writing, indicating a heightened internal capability and a decreased dependence on external resources.” Gender-responsive budgeting significantly improved as a result of activities under WVL-P, with WROs now allocating budgets for addressing gender pay gaps as cited in the CAT4GJO, carrying out internal and external audits, and using financial software such as QuickBooks. Leadership roles within WROs saw a positive shift, with 76% of decision-making positions held by women, 7 of 12 WROs with female EDs, and one WRO with a shift to a young female ED. WROs reported improvements in women’s leadership, gender transformative values, and self-care practices within their organisations, such as the introduction of women friendly spaces and designated room for women staff members to use as a safe space.

4 WVL-P Website link: https://wvlp.org.pk/who-we-are/

The project’s effectiveness under Pillar 2 was reflected by WROs in an average increase of 39.8% under the domain of transformative gender justice programming and advocacy, with an increase of 42% in capacity area 1 of ‘Design and Implementation of Gender Transformative Programs’ (point increase of 1.7 on a 4-point scale). One WRO shared the following in their CAT4GJO, “[we] prioritize inclusive planning and execution of programs, conducting consultations with the targeted audience before intervention and proposal submission…with a core principle of “Nothing about us without us,” the organisation places women at the center of its programs, particularly focusing on social and economically marginalized women.” WROs customized their campaigns to align with local cultures, traditions, and socioeconomic factors, building trust within communities. One example reflected in figure 7 is of a WRO in Peshawar KPK engaged school girls in a campaign to make them aware of child sexual abuse, as it is prevalent in the context of the province. Another example reflected by community women from all the WROs is that their participation was ensured by involving and convincing male allies and elderly women in the community to support the participating women, as these individuals were the gatekeepers to the larger community and to households. Even during the FGDs conducted with various WROs and community members in the End Line Evaluation, it was noted some women from distant areas were accompanied by men who were there to assist them with mobility. Additionally, a few of these men even participated in the meeting.

“There was initial reluctance from a brother who believed that such activities fueled gender divisions. Our WRO understanding the importance of inclusivity, welcomed him, and after attending a few sessions, he became comfortable with our work.”

— WRO Community Member, FGD.

The project was able to effectively enhance its footprint regarding the number of WROs included and supported under the project, while also effectively generating new and innovative ideas through the short grants. One issuebased grantee shared the following, “The WVL-P project has significantly benefited our organisation by providing resources that enabled us to enhance our genderfocused initiatives and promote inclusivity effectively through an innovative initiative... increased the visibility of diverse groups of women like women with disabilities, women belonging to religious minorities specifically engaged with domestic work and home-based work.” Despite challenges such as Covid-19 and floods, the project adapted well, such as by moving activities online and enhancing WROs’ digital capabilities by regular use of online modalities like Zoom, WhatsApp groups, calls, email, and joint webinars for learning and sharing for meeting and collaborating. External factors like floods and the pandemic were managed through collaborative discussions and resolutions, with the project reallocating funding for urgent interventions such as through the provision of hygiene kits in two WRO communities. WROs demonstrated resilience and adaptability in community engagement, supported by adopting online modes for delivery such as the use of social media and establishment of YouTube channels, as well conducting community engagement following social distancing Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs).

Figure 6: Image from a school run by a WRO under the WVL-P project

WVL-P under Pillar 3 increased the effectiveness of national and sub-national women’s rights platforms, networks, and alliances in influencing gender-sensitive policy change. All five alliances reported an increased ability to collectively engage in gender-sensitive policy change, meeting the End Line target and strengthening collaborative efforts among WROs. Mainly, the WVL-P project supported the alliances to expand and strengthen their networks within and across the provinces.

At the same time, all research grantees showed improved ability/knowledge to respond to women’s rights issues, with a high effectiveness rating (3.5 out of 4 from survey) for the support received from Oxfam. The following is a quote shared from the survey of one research grantee:

“The WVL-P project has played a pivotal role in shaping our approach to gender sensitivity…through its focused initiatives, the project elevated our awareness of the distinct challenges confronting women in Malakand Division, particularly within the context of legislative policy gaps. This heightened awareness has fundamentally influenced our perspectives, fostering a deeper understanding of power dynamics and gender relations within our community. Moreover, the emphasis on networking and collaboration has broadened our connections with various stakeholders, ranging from NGOs to marginalized groups, enhancing our collective understanding of gender dynamics.”

— Research grantee

All five alliances actively influenced policies, laws, frameworks, mechanisms, procedures, and plans. Examples include initiatives on the Child Marriage Prohibition Bill, the Homebased Worker Policy, The Punjab Women Protection Act 2016, and the creation of Rules of Business for the Domestic Violence Law demonstrating tangible legislative impact. All 12 WROs reported an advancement in the engagement and effectiveness of alliances and women’s rights networks at the provincial and national levels, while 115 out of 12 WROs noted an improvement in their ability to engage with provincial and national alliances and in their ability to use evidence to influence policy and practice on women’s rights. The two symposiums held to disseminate the knowledge products created under the project, titled ‘Promote Shared Knowledge for Continued Actions Supporting Gender Justice in Pakistan,” shared 12 knowledge products, further contributing to the evidence-based advocacy efforts under the project. A FEM Consortia6 was established for future impact in Pakistan, where

5 One WRO’s staff (AAN) shared that they couldn’t get actively involved with alliances due to internal challenges like lack of staff there was usually one person from their team managing and it was hard to engage at networking level with the alliances.

6 FEM Consortia is a consortium of 12 women’s rights organisations and five (5) alliances formed through the Oxfam WVL-P Project. It embraces feminist principles to transform entities and sustains the impact of the WVL project’s efforts. FEM Consortia’s organisational structure includes a 24 members Executive Council and 33 member Working Group. The overarching goal is to increase the enjoyment of the human rights of women and girls and advance gender equality in Pakistan.

Figure 7: An alliance member personalizing the ‘W’ in WVL-P as part of a group activity during the second cluster workshop in Karachi

all long-term core partners are collectively engaging to work together to advance gender equality. The strength of the platform derives from the continued collaboration between the WROs and alliances who have worked together under WVL-P. The FEM Consortia strives to elevate its visibility through inventive strategies like FEM Cafés, conferences, and art events, fostering gender equality discourse. The Fem Conference was conducted on 20-21 February 2024 in Karachi. The purpose of organizing and conducting the conference was to share a blooming network of 17 organisations’ (12 WROs and 5 alliances) collective efforts to embrace the feminist principles of Oxfam Canada and transform the organisations into more gender-just entities. The Fem Consortia was thought of, idealized, and formally given shape a year back. Fem Consortia will be taking forward the gender just agendas in four thematic areas:

• Women in politics and legislation

• Girls and adolescent rights

• Working women

• Women and vulnerability due to climate change

The conference actually took forward the agenda of Fem consortia in a very bold and meticulous way. The four papers on these areas were presented by eminent consultants and researchers. Over 200 academics, civil society members, parliamentarians, researchers, artists, media, scholars, and poets, etc., participated.

Overall, the project resources were found to be costefficient and sufficient, and disbursements were mostly timely under activities for all three Pillars. Aspects that contributed to the efficiency of the project included a proactive approach by Oxfam to design activities and plan events to maximize efficiency. This included combining related objectives under different activities and budget lines to save time and be cost-efficient, such as planning for multiple sequential events when flying to a different city. Similarly, during the GLP, in-house thematic resource persons were mobilized rather than hiring external consultants ensuring the quality of the program while prioritizing efficiency. In discussion with Oxfam and based on the desk review, the involvement of a third party for funds transfers also contributed to the overall efficiency, ensuring timely transactions and adherence to financial compliance.

Apart from the cost-effectiveness, the efficiency in terms of value addition is also important to note. The CAT4GJO proved to be an efficient and a smart tool under the project for strengthening organisations based on the needs identified by the organisations themselves, shifting power to the WROs to decide their strengths and gaps. Similarly, the GLP triggered a journey of organisational and programming transformation through an in-house trained resource pool of GLPiers across WROs, passing on the skills to others within the organisation and at the community level. This allowed for a trickle-down effect to the communities as well. One WRO ED shed light on the value added in the following way, “equipment, resources and training received for institutional support greatly benefited us. We received essential equipment and resources crucial for team performance, while simultaneously building women’s leadership skills, and our annual reassessment of institutional needs was flexible, necessary, and useful for project success”. Additionally, in terms of the project’s Feminist MEAL methodology, EDs reflected that it was useful and helped to meet the project results efficiently, as it strengthened the capacity of the MEAL staff of the WROs. The monthly MEAL Working Group meetings were found particularly useful and efficient by its members, as reflected in the MEAL focus group discussions held. The feminist tools introduced to the WROs, such as photovoice and cellphilming helped the WROs to better capture their results in their communities and within the WROs themselves, as well as strengthening their MEAL capacity. One participant in the MEAL FGD shared that,

“After attending meetings and receiving guidance from Oxfam, I underwent personal and organisational changes…started creating consent forms, vouchers, and report forms during community visits, making the reporting process more structured. This approach allowed me to capture details efficiently and present them in a comprehensive report.”

The assigning of a knowledge management role to one alliance also contributed to the overall efficiency, ensuring consistent and effective information collection and dissemination through the website and at the symposiums. While the provincial alliances focused on local linkages with WROs and advocacy efforts, the national alliance added value by improving the visibility of the project and by ensuring that beyond their provinces, the WROs and alliances were sharing information at the national level across the WVL-P platform.

“It must be highlighted that…the WROs, the grants section, and the research they did, they were not in isolation. If someone did research or wanted to advocate in Islamabad or Lahore, as the national alliance we were able to take those messages and studies to the national level to academia, parliamentarians, and civil society.”

— Alliance member

In terms of the impact of the WVL-P project, there has been a positive impact across its three Pillars, influencing women’s transformative leadership, strengthening gender transformative programmatic capacities of WROs, and fostering networks and linkages between WROs and alliances.

“The impact of this project might not be fully discernible at this moment. However, the investments made in individuals and institutions are seeds planted for future change. Those who have been invested in will carry the torch, having internalized the values and lessons imparted”

— Alliance member.

All WROs shared in their CAT4GJO that they have improved across all domains of gender-just organisational strengthening between the baseline and End Line stages.

Figure 8: Image from the Women Cyclathon organized by a WRO (source: WVL-P website)

One significant impact has been the tangible changes in organisational frameworks through the improvement and creation of new policies by WROs, such as antiharassment policies (cited by all WROs), development of code of conducts, introduction of Iddat7 leaves, as well as changes in the maternity and paternity policies. The following is a reflection from one WRO regarding changes to policies,

“Our HR policies are revised in light of gender just practices, and are now being practiced as a result of WVL-P. Our staff members are oriented on policies, and these are available to all staff members. We have revised our leave policy, as per our staff’s suggestions to include Iddat8 leaves in our policy to support our staff and create a conducive environment.”

Additionally, the GLPiers have shared the lasting impact that they have experienced as a result of their involvement in the program, citing both personal and professional development of the GLPiers themselves and their wider communities where GLPiers have engaged in outreach sessions to implement their institutional GLP sessions. Two GLPiers have become EDs of their organisations after

the GLP, sharing that they have become more confident and decisive in their leadership roles as a result of the GLP.

“The GLP training extends beyond fostering self-realization; it encompasses an indepth exploration of power dynamics and strategies for strengthening movements.”

— WRO ED

WROs collectively increased their reach as an organisation and attributed it to effective use of digital media and enhanced capacity to engage a greater number of recipients. WROs have reported an overall reach of 284,398 prior to joining the WVL-P, and a reach of 445,594 after joining WVL-P, attributing the increase of over 160,000 in reach to an increased ability to use social media and digital avenues, an increase in the thematic areas that they work in, as well as an expansion of the geographical areas they work in. Active campaigns in-person and through digital media such as for ‘16 days of activism’ (see Figure 10) and International Women’s Day were also cited as effective to increase the reach of the WROs and alliances. The personal relationships formed between the alliances and WROs as a result of the project are also a significant aspects to reflect on, where beyond professional linkages, friendships have formed.

Figure 9: Participants in a 16 days of activism campaign by one of the projects WROs

7 In Islam the Iddat is a mandatory waiting period for a widow during which she may not marry another man and keep her interactions with other men to a minimum.

“The personal connections and friendships cultivated during WVL-P are key factors ensuring its sustainability beyond the project. As both professionals and friends, we are committed to supporting each other’s work at all levels indefinitely.”.

Additionally, the issue-based grants were impactful by enabling WROs to design effective projects on critical women’s rights issues, addressing concerns such as menstrual hygiene during Covid-19 and gender-based violence, as shared by the following grantee,

“The impact of the grants has been significant, notably in expanding our outreach. Through the short-term grants, we engaged extensively with women and girls, particularly in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This allowed us to directly support and collaborate with these individuals, addressing their specific needs and concerns during these trying times.”

Research grants similarly played a crucial role in studying topics like unpaid care work and domestic violence laws, creating evidence-based research which was disseminated to the larger group of WROs, grantees and alliances who were part of the project.

“The research document we have generated … isn’t just data; it represents a rich source of authentic information, a comprehensive understanding gleaned from the field, and the community’s voices captured in our findings… while the research study might have been a starting point, it has laid the groundwork for us to not only expand its initiatives but also to establish itself as a reputable organisation capable of generating meaningful change through evidence-based approaches.”

— Research grantee

In terms of sustainability, no specific lens for assessing sustainability has been shared by GAC, and during the End Line, Oxfam, WROs and alliances were asked to share what sustainability means to them, and to comment on how they perceive this under WVL-P. Sustainability was defined at two levels by the project stakeholders consulted, i.e. at the individual and the organisational level. At the individual level, the effects and impact of the project are likely to be sustained, especially with reference to the technical capacities of individuals, such as skills developed in the CAT4GJO, FMEAL, GLP, PRA, and gender responsive budgeting. The individual capacities will help individuals to share knowledge within their organisations, wherever they work and also become resource persons and share these skills and knowledge forward. One example that is already visible in this regard is of an ED sharing her policy strengthening skills with other organisations as a consultant. At the organisational level, WROs have shown a commitment to strategically align their programming and organisational plans to the feminist approaches under WVL-P, where discussion with staff at all levels of the organisation during field visits reflects a deep commitment to a gender transformative approach and ownership of the project. The introduction of new policies and improvement of existing policies such as on safeguarding and HR, and institutionalization of skills learn by individual staff in particular will sustain beyond the end of the project.

“The strengthening of institutions, the policies that have been made, their technical things, in terms of software, concepts, skill sets, the capacity that has been built, I think it will sustain.”

— WRO ED

The networks and connections established between WROs and alliances will be sustained where the collaboration and willingness of the partners to engage under the FEM Consortia can already be seen as a positive step in this regard. Both WROs and alliances were confident in the sustainability of these connections, with one alliance member sharing,

“We have personally developed a good relationship, apart from our professional association. Whenever we need information about an issue in a certain city, we immediately think to reach out to the WVL-P WROs in that location first. We are confident that they will help us over a call and trust their ability to provide valid information to us.”

Within organisational sustainability, WROs and alliances both shared that financial support is identified as crucial for sustaining some of the changes in management, boards, and organisational functioning and practices. Financial sustainability is identified as a major challenge for both WROs and alliances. With the end of the project, WROs may struggle to sustain their organisations with the same number of staff, depending on the funding portfolio of the WROs. Alliances operate on a volunteer basis and similarly face a shrinking funding landscape for women’s rights causes.

PROJECT OVERVIEW 2

The WVL-P is a five-year project implemented by Oxfam between 2019 and 2024, funded by GAC, as part of the larger WVL program funded by GAC in 28 countries across the world. The aim of the project is to apply a feminist approach through the values of participation, inclusion, and empowerment to support the capacity and activities of local WROs and groups seeking to empower women and girls, advance the protection of women and girls’ rights, and achieve gender equality. In the specific context of Pakistan, WVL-P is a unique project that prioritises a feminist perspective by integrating the 10 principles outlined in the project’s Theory of Change and has taken its partners, i.e. the WROs and alliances as co-creators, co-implementers, and co-owners. The project underwent a Baseline and Mid-term Review (MTR) process, whereas this report corresponds to the End Line Evaluation of the project.

The ultimate outcome for this project is the increased enjoyment of human rights by women and girls and the advancement of gender equality in Pakistan, and the project outlines three intermediate and six immediate outcomes, all geared towards the overarching goal of enhancing the enjoyment of human rights by women and girls and promoting gender equality in Pakistan.

In line with the WVL Program, WVL-P provides four types of support: (1) multi-year funding to a select group of 12 WROs; (2) fast, responsive funding for discrete activities and short projects open to Pakistani WROs (and individual activists) to allow for nimble, timely, and strategic responses to events and opportunities and to pilot innovative ideas; (3) institutional capacity strengthening support; and, (4) network and alliance building for movement building to amplify the voices of local WROs and to foster an enabling environment in which broader

collective action can coalesce. Oxfam worked with the partners reflected in box below. The core WROs and the alliances under the project were included from all four provinces and the federal area. The core WROs are listed below:

core WROS

1. Advocacy Research Training and Services (ARTS) Foundation

2. Association of Business Professional & Agricultural Women (ABPAW)

3. Awaz-e-Niswan (AAN)

4. Breaking Barriers Women (BBW)

5. Development Empowerment Women Association (DEWA)

6. National Organisation for Working Communities (NOW-C)

7. Pakistan Rural Workers Social Welfare Organisation (PRWSWO)

8. Roshni Welfare Organisation (RWO)

9. Saiban Development Organisation (SDO)

10. Society for Human Advancement and Disadvantaged Empowerment (SHADE)

11. Ujala Seher Organisation (USO)

12. Women in Struggle for Empowerment (WISE)

The alliances under the project are: Feminist Fridays, Human Resource Development Network (HRDN), Legislative Watch Group, Mumkin Alliance, and Women Lead Alliance Balochistan (WLAB).

COUNTRY CONTEXT 3

WVL-P was designed and implemented under a shrinking space for civil society and rights-based work within Pakistan, with groups and organisations working towards women’s rights facing restrictive regulatory frameworks, limited space for organizing, and limited access to funding for gender transformative changes and programming. Oxfam remained cognizant of these challenges and was conscious of the effects of the external environment on the work of alliances and WROs, such as by conducting a civic space assessment with the WROs at the baseline and again at the End Line stage (conducted by the End Line Evaluation team). The findings from this assessment are included in the latter part of this country context section.

Over the course of WVL-P, various roadblocks like Covid-19, political instability, legal constraints, climate disasters and economic downturns have affected the country, further limiting the space and freedom of civil society, including WROs’ ability to mobilize and carry out their activities. Increasingly, there has been an enforcement of policies aimed at suppressing dissenting voices within the media, non-governmental organisations, and political opposition. Furthermore, the government has been unable to effectively implement measures to hold accountable those responsible for abuses against women and girls, including instances of “honour killings” and forced marriages.8 In response, WVL-P has employed proactive planning and strategic initiatives by strengthening the capacity of the WROs to work on the gender issues in their own contexts, and effective policy implementation to mitigate risks arising from these contextual factors by introducing and strengthening the connections between WROs and provincial alliances, which facilitated WROs’ access to support and lobbying opportunities among there areas. Guidance and support were extended to WROs to meet pre-requisites for registration with the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), such as advice on applying for a Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) certification, which is a smoother

process, before pursuing EAD registration to improve the likelihood of getting registered with the EAD. This support has played a pivotal role in creating a conducive atmosphere for WROs to establish robust systems, including essential documentation like EAD registration, facilitating their pursuit of individual efforts and enabling them to apply for funding from international donors.9

Covid 19: WVL-P was implemented throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, where the project adapted swiftly to the unforeseen impact of Covid-19 since early 2020. Mitigation steps included adjusting operational modalities, utilizing online platforms, providing safety kits to WROs, and modifying plans to address pandemicinduced changes.

Legal Landscape: The introduction of the “Policy for NGOs/NPOs Receiving Foreign Contribution-2021” in November 2022 aimed to streamline and expedite the approval process for NGOs to implement projects, emphasizing online submissions and consultations. WVL-P’s core partners are navigating the regulatory landscape for NGOs in Pakistan, particularly focusing on EAD, Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP), and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) registrations.

Economic Landscape: The economic environment in Pakistan, impacted by Covid-19 until early 2021, faced subsequent challenges. After a brief growth in 2021, the economic situation declined in 2022 due to internal political instability and rising fuel prices. This decline manifested in rising taxation, inflation, and unemployment, disproportionately affecting women and girls. The ongoing economic conditions, marked by a large fiscal deficit, declining foreign exchange reserves, high prices of raw materials and basic commodities, high unemployment, and a sluggish economy, are attributed to political instability and compounded by natural disasters.10

8 https://www.hrw.org/asia/pakistan

9 Oxfam, 2023, Women’s Voice and Leadership Mid-Term Report

10 https://www.paradigmshift.com.pk/economic-cost-political-instability/

Natural Disasters: Frequent climate-induced disasters, especially the devastating floods of 2022, have raised concerns about the declining ability performance of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in reaching vulnerable segments due to cumbersome regulations. Social activists emphasize the need for policymakers to ease regulations and eliminate barriers for CSOs, enabling more effective operations during humanitarian crises. Despite Pakistan’s facing regular disasters, the catastrophic flood in 2022 served as a wakeup call for policymakers. The stringent regulations imposed on CSOs in recent years, responding to international demands like Financial Action Task Force (FATF),11 lack of adequate support, capacity building, and resources, posed significant challenges to the flood response, especially in rural areas. The floods affected two-thirds of the country, resulting in substantial casualties and displacements, significantly impacting the activities of two of the partner WROs in Jaffarabad, Balochistan and Mirpurkhas, Sindh. One partner suffered loss of equipment as a result of the torrential rains during this time and had to evacuate staff. The other partner’s office was not impacted, but their community areas were heavily impacted.12 Oxfam supported both these WROs for their flood response in their community areas.

Political Landscape: The political situation has seen a lot of changes and fluctuations over the past four years. In 2021, the prime minister (PM) at the time was removed from office as a result of a no confidence vote in parliament. Following this, the ruling party’s Members of Parliament resigned in large numbers, and a new ruling coalition was formed by opposition members known as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). A new PM was elected by parliamentarians, under whom the government continued till August 2023, when the national assembly was dissolved and government handed over to a caretaker set-up in preparation of general elections. Simultaneously, the provincial assemblies were also dissolved, between December 2022 (KPK and Punjab) and the middle of 2023 (Balochistan and Sindh). Overall due to these changing circumstances, civil unrest prevailed and the political atmosphere remained charged.13

Assessment of Shrinking Civic Space: Oxfam’s Civic Society Monitoring tool was employed twice during the project (Baseline and End Line) to better understand what is happening in civic space at a local and national level. The findings from this section are reflected in the subsections below. A comparison between the Baseline and End Line trends is also discussed below, pertaining to three main trends, i.e. becoming positive, remaining the same, or static and becoming negative. Figure 13 reflects the meaning of each of the rating categories.

Regulatory Framework: Regarding the broader legal framework governing civil society’s role in facilitating an open and functional civic space, the prevailing trend is negative, as compared to the baseline where a static trend was observed. Within this overarching trend, the legal framework has been categorized as either completely closing off space for civil society operations or repressing it. Navigating the regulatory landscape has become more challenging, with complicated registration and compliance processes. Each project now requires a no objection certificate (NOC) from the EAD, involving the Charity Commission and various hurdles. Mandatory police verification for staff, difficulties in social media posting, and corruption issues persist. Favouritism within the EAD raises questions about fairness, security clearance involves vetting by 14 agencies, and the Charitable Commission follows outdated laws not in line with the current contextual needs. NGOs face challenges in presenting renewal letters, leading some organisations to fail in their renewal efforts. On a positive note, there are more amenable registration policies, offering improved space for obtaining necessary NOCs. EAD now grants project-specific permissions, but success often depends on personal connections. Renewal fees changes, increased scrutiny, and rejections for many applicants are observed.

11 FATF: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. The inter-governmental body sets international standards that aim to prevent these illegal activities and the harm they cause to society.

12 https://afpak.boell.org/en/2023/08/04/csos-tangled-policy-net

13 https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2356551/pakistan

Access to Funding: The choice of civil society to mobilize domestic and/or foreign resources has also experienced an undesirable trend, consistent with the baseline, where the rating for access to funding was tied between completely closed or significantly constrained and repressed. The impact of FATF has significantly complicated financial regulation, making the process of opening a bank account difficult due to persistent restrictions. The regulatory framework is perceived as a tool to stifle voices, with a pattern of victimization against human rights and WROs. The government’s lack of proactive measures exacerbates difficulties, as arbitrary account closures force NGOs to relocate funds,

suggesting a preplanned effort to create obstacles. Regarding access to funding, participants shared it is intricately tied to EAD registrations, deliberately complicated to impose restrictions. Both domestic and foreign funding avenues are limited, and FBR’s PCP registration requirement adds constraints, imposing additional document submission obligations. The departure of donors limits opportunities for funding, with tightly controlled banking channels. Working in specific regions within the country such as the newly merged districts and Balochistan, as well as some thematic areas regarding women’s rights, pose challenges in terms of access.

Figure 10: Criteria of assessing the civic space

Administration and Bureaucracy: Consistent with the baseline, a negative trend came forward in terms of the role of national and local administrations (e.g. branches of government, local authorities) in facilitating the activities of civil society. While six of 10 EDs viewed the facilitation as being completely closed, three viewed the civic space as being contested and heavily contested by power holders who impose a combination of legal and practical constraints on the full enjoyment of fundamental rights. One reflected that the space was narrowed. Viewing facilitation by local and national administrative bodies as completely closed, the process of obtaining permission for a single event is convoluted, requiring a District Commissioner’s NOC. Navigating through bureaucracy involves individuals and organisations directing you to different sources, creating overall difficulty in securing permission. Instances of abrupt directives to cease activities without notice showcase a lack of clarity within the administration about their own laws, compelling unnecessary hurdles. The absence of an enabling space is apparent, relying on bribes and contacts, with double standards in permissions for events. While there is more space for social welfare, civil society faces greater restrictions, highlighting its significance. Individual personalities hold more weight than the institution in this process. WRO EDs shared that through the project, the WROs’ capacity to engage and address challenges has improved, strengthening collaboration with local administration. Local NGOs face additional complications from international NGOs (INGOs) and the donor community, imposing unnecessary NOC requirements contrary to the law.

Safety and Wellbeing of the People: In terms of the safety and well-being of activists, staff, and leaders of civil society, a bleak trend emerged – consistent with the baseline. However, under this trend, the rating of the degree to which the safety and wellbeing of civic society was being repressed varied. While four participants believed it to be completely closed, four considered it to be repressed and two viewed it as narrowed. Expressing views freely on various subjects proves challenging due to fear of personal threats, leading civil society members to institutionalize caution, especially on sensitive topics like gender-based violence. Restrictions on discussing certain issues limit WROs use of specific terms and openly stating advocacy and awareness work while digital platforms

permit only generic posts, not advocacy content. Constant threats and intrusive calls, including physical assaults and being labelled as traitors contribute to a threatening environment. Security threats from incidents like bomb blasts pose challenges across regions. Despite the hostile atmosphere, some individuals have grown in capacity to respond effectively, exercising caution in content dissemination, as seen in Punjab province. In light of these challenges, the families of WROs’ staff often suggest leaving the country for safety, but commitment to work and confront challenges persists among the WROs who work towards women’s rights.

Access to Information and Public Voice: Consistent

with the baseline, the overall trend remained pessimistic for access to information and freedom of expression of civil society. However, under this trend, ratings for access to information and freedom of expression varied, with the former receiving ratings in the obstructed category and latter receiving ratings in the closed category. While consultations are undertaken with CSOs and WROs by the government, their practical value is limited, and expressing what these organisations genuinely want proves challenging. Although the Right to Information (RTI) Commission is accessible to them, exercising freedom of expression remains a formidable task for which reason they are unable to make proper or effective use of the accessed information.

Freedom of Assembly, Association and Dissent: A shift in the overall trend of freedom of assembly - to meet, share views, and protest has been observed, from static in the baseline to dismissive negative now. Similarly, seven participants’ ratings under this trend directed towards complete closure of space for civil society to exercise freedom of assembly, association, and dissent, while one rated it as repressed, and two viewed it as narrowed space. The extent of space available depends on the specific issues being addressed. While topics like Gaza or Kashmir afford more room, for other issues like gender issues or political instability the available space is limited.

Dialogue and Consultation: Consistent with the baseline, a static overall trend was observed with respect to the openness of the regime to engage meaningfully with civil society on policy issues and reform. Moreover, with respect to rating, a completely closed civic space

in law and practice was observed. It was suggested that the NGOs and other civil society members are not consulted when creating regulations and policies concerning them, therefore, there is no such process or instance of consultation.

Access to Justice and Legal Services: In line with the baseline, a negative trend emerged with respect to the access of civil society to legal services and justice in case of violations of rights. Moreover, the rating for access to justice and legal services by civil society also fell among the completely closed category. There is no entitlement for civil society to contest certain policies. Furthermore, a stipulation at the conclusion of the current regulations and laws governing NGOs explicitly prohibits legal challenges. Also, there is only a provision for a single review concerning NGO registration, and this process often proves unsuccessful.

Legitimacy and Accountability of Civil Society: Here legitimacy and accountability are divided into two categories. While the first category pertains to civil society’s accountability towards themselves or their communities, the second refers to the state’s accountability towards civil society. Contrary to the baseline, where a static trend was observed, a negative trend emerged in the End Line. With respect to civil society’s self-accountability there is major inclination towards the obstructed category with substantial leaning towards the repressed category as well. However, with respect to the state’s accountability towards civil society, the ratings suggest complete closure/absence of accountability.

Civil Society’s Self Accountability/ Accountability Towards Communities: Accountability toward communities exists within civil society, but there is a recognized need for improvement. Efforts are consistently made to collect feedback and consider community perspectives. While some organisations do maintain personal accountability, it’s essential to acknowledge that not all organisations uphold an equal level of accountability. Therefore, a select few voices cannot represent everyone.

State’s Accountability towards Civil Society: The absence of responsiveness and the failure to communicate reasons for state-imposed restrictions demonstrate a lack of accountability. This lack of transparency hinders the establishment of legitimacy and accountability for the actions of the state. The influence of the EU and Western organisations and governments spending aid on Pakistan holds significance, and their opinions can impact the situation. These organisations can exert pressure on the government, compelling it to take further action to open up space for civil society. INGOs, along with these entities and donors, play a pivotal role in creating such space. Their involvement should extend beyond funding; they should engage in advocacy and support civil society in establishing an enabling environment. The unequal relationship between the state and civil society disproportionately impacts women and people of diverse identities more vulnerable in CSOs. The risks are heightened, and the available space is further constricted.

OVERVIEW OF THE END LINE EVALUATION 4

GLOW Consultants conducted the End Line Evaluation for the WVL-P project. The main objective of the End Line Evaluation was to assess WVL-P’s progress towards the project’s ultimate, intermediate, and immediate outcome indicators based on project output/activities implemented from the inception onwards (2019 to date). This evaluation was built on the project process starting from the baseline year of 2019, to the MTR report’s findings, and after the MTR process (2023), while assessing all the same criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability, whilst also looking at the impact (not included in the MTR). Additionally, findings have been provided against the PMF indicators at the end-line stage, allowing for a comparison between the baseline and End Line indicators of the project.

The evaluation process was based on the WVL-P Mid-Term Review’s methodological framework, guided by specific objectives for the End Line Evaluation and incorporated the feedback of the WROs on the End Line methodology. Overall, Oxfam Canada’s Feminist Principles and FMEAL methodology were of paramount importance in evaluating the intervention related to women’s rights and gender equality. The study team used a mixed method approach to collect both quantitative and qualitative data for this study, as well as both secondary and primary data, elaborated on during the next section of this report. The details of the methodological process are provided in this section. The main steps are outlined in figure 15 below:

Figure 11:

Step by step process of the End Line Evaluation

FINDINGS 5

RAPID ASSESSMENT - CAT4GJO Reflections and Assessment by 12 WROs

CAT4GJO functions as a self-assessment tool aimed for collaborative learning with WROs to strengthen transformative and gender-just organisations. It encompasses six domains and 22 capacity areas aligned with the standards of gender-just criteria. The six domains and the corresponding 22 capacity areas of the CAT4GJO address all three pillars of the project. It acts as a foundation for the project interventions. The tool

quantifies the outcomes using a numeric rating scale from 0 – 4. Based on practical examples and mutual learnings, the self-assessment process is comprehensive, involving the active participation of all WROs’ respective staff.

In the End Line Evaluation, the CAT4GJO assessment was done through a self-assessment tool incorporated into group activities during 2 provincial cluster-based workshops. Each WRO completed the assessment through a consultative process, engaging both management and staff.

rating scale

N/A = Not applicableor not a priority for our work

0 = Nascent or no capacity in this area

1 = A little – needs lots of improvement

2 = A fair amount – not enough to reach organization’s goal

3 = Good situation with some room for improvement

4 = Ideal level of capacity with little room for improvement

Figure 12: Left - figure of the CAT4GJO domains; Right - CAT4GJO rating scale for each domain

AT4GJO - Domain-wise Increase:

The chart above presents a comparison between the domain-wise overall average ratings of the CAT4GJO at the baseline and End Line stages. The arrows and corresponding percentages reflect the points increase between the baseline and the End Line as a percentage, e.g. there has been an increase in 36.5% in Domain 1 between the baseline and End Line.

The overall ranking clearly depicts a significant increase in all the domains. However, Domain 2, 3 and 5 (Gender Just Structures and Process, Organisational Resilience and Sustainability, and Transformative Gender Justice Programming and Advocacy) have shown the most significant overall increase with the percentages of 37.1%, 37.6% and 39.8%. Domain 4, Strategic Gender Justice Relationships and Linkages has shown the lowest increase, that of 25.8%, although the average rating at the End Line is one of the highest for this domain. It shows the strengthened connection among WROs and alliances throughout the data

collection process for End Line Evaluation. The bond at the professional and personal level, not only among each other but among WROs was quite evident. WROs joined other networks/coalitions on district and provincial and regional level to support transformation and a gender-just society. This domain is one of the highest scoring ones for the WROs, alongside Domain 1, with average scores of 3.1. Throughout the CAT4GJO exercise, examples were included of what has been done such as changes in policies, development of advocacy plans, incorporation of FMEAL tools in programming, safeguarding code of conducts, and child protection policies. Importantly, the WROs were also very conscious of gaps in their capacity areas and reflected a deeper understanding of what needs to be done in the future as well, such as the scoring on safeguarding, where WROs reflected a significant improvement since the baseline yet the average score for the domain is at 2.7 out of 4 with WROs recognizing the importance of further embedding safeguarding practices in all aspects of their work.

“We modified and revised the vision mission strategy under WVL-P and updated the policies in the context of feminist principles.”

— WRO CAT4GJO

“Our HR policies are revised, in placed and now being practiced. Our staff members are oriented on policies and our policies are available to all staff members. Currently we have revised our leave policy as per staff suggestions (Honeymoon and Iddat leave) included in our policy.”

— WRO CAT4GJO

“Under WVL-P we have included new thematic priorities in our 5-year strategic plan. Two new areas are included that are skills development and environment.”

— WRO CAT4GJO

“We have implemented the institutionalization of GLP which is a gender transformative initiative. We won another project which uses gender transformative approach of change.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

“We have introduced the new safeguarding policy in our organisation. Previously we focused only on sexual harassment at the workplace but now we are focusing more on the comprehensive safeguarding policies.”

— WRO CAT4GJO

Ultimate Outcome:

The Ultimate Outcome (1000) of WVL-P is increased enjoyment of human rights by women and girls and the advancement of gender equality in Pakistan. The following paragraphs shed some light on the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, and efficiency under this outcome, although it is important to note that the project’s true reflection is possible at the intermediate outcome level as opposed to the ultimate outcome level, where the latter will require concerted efforts over time to be fully realized.

In terms of relevance, the findings of the evaluation reflect that the project’s ultimate outcome was relevant to the needs of the WROs and the communities. At the time of the baseline, it was reflected that there is a shrinking space for women and girls’ rights within the country’s civil society and for pursuing women and girls’ rights within the country, as reflected by the discussion with WROs’ EDs held at the time. In light of these challenging circumstances, the project activities of strengthening the capacities of the WROs, alliances, and supporting short grantees for research and issue-based projects was relevant to the overall improvement of women and girls’ rights. At the End Line, the space available for civil society and rights-based work was still cited as restricted and closed by the WRO EDs, whereas the capacity of the WROs to deal with some issues had improved as a result of the strengthening of their systems, the use of financial management software such as QuickBooks, and through the guidance provided by Oxfam for EAD and PCP registration.

“I can safely say that all the positive changes in the way we work towards women’s rights can be attributed solely to the WVL-P and Oxfam. Our policies, proposal writing abilities and the very infrastructure of our office which allows us to function as an organisation has been provided by the project.”

— WRO ED

The project’s design of supporting WROs’ organisational and programmatic capacity, as well as collaboration between alliances and WROs was overall coherent to achieve the ultimate outcome. Before the project the relationship between the core WROs and their respective alliances were either dormant or non-existent, making it difficult for collective action and collaboration. In order to improve the overall enjoyment of rights by women and girls, the laws, regulations and policies need to be improved alongside better service delivery by WROs. Some of alliances and WROs working together for the first time include Mumkin Alliance working with PRWSWO, Legislative Watch Group working with ARTS Foundation, and Feminist Fridays working with ABPAW and DEWA. Also, alliances worked in collaboration across provinces as well coordinating among each other. In the figure 20, alliances and WROs members can be seen indulging in the discussion during the End Line Evaluation cluster workshop.

“The collaboration extended to Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN) and the provincial alliance. The unique aspect of this collaboration, facilitated by WVL, lies in the fact that it wasn’t predesigned. We were given the liberty to conduct need and capacity assessments and evolve our programs accordingly. As an organisation rooted in Lahore, our unique context and approach were acknowledged, mirroring the diversity within the alliance.”

Therefore, the project’s design can be seen as coherent with the context of Pakistan and the specific context of the WROs and alliances under the project.

In terms of effectiveness, the indicators for this outcome, both indicators, i.e. Indicator 1000.a and 1000.b, have achieved their End Line targets. All core WROs reflected that their ability to protect and promote women and girls’ rights has improved as a result of the project. Some examples provided by WROs include how their organisational strengthening has improved their ability to protect and promote women and girls’ human rights and advance gender equality, as well as the strengthening of their gender just programming, improved networks and collaboration with other WROs, gender sensitive budgeting, and inclusion of women into their Board of Directors (BOD). The indicator level findings are provided below:

1000.a. #/total WROs who have met organisational goals and objectives as stated in their Capacity Strengthening Action Plans

1000.b. #/total WROs with staff who agree their organisational strengthening journeys have improved their abilities to protect and promote women and girls’ human rights and advance gender equality

All WROs surveyed reflected that they have met their organisational goals and objectives as stated in their capacity Strengthening Action plans

All WROs surveyed reflected agreement that their organisational strengthening journeys have improved their abilities to protect and promote women and girls’ human rights and advance gender equality

Some examples provided by WROs regarding goals and objectives they had met included creating gender just policies, improved proposal writing ability amongst staff, integration of financial software, MEAL trainings, and women conducive office spaces and structures. These are further explored in the following sections of this report.

“We’ve notably reduced our reliance on consultants for proposal writing, indicating a heightened internal capability and a decreased dependence on external resources.”

— WRO team, Survey

Additionally, across all 5 domains of the CAT4GJO assessment, the average scores of the WROs have improved between the baseline and End Line. The greatest increase has been in Domain 3 on ‘Organisational Resilience and Sustainability’ (increase of 1.46 points in rating, or of 36.5%) and Domain 5 on ‘Transformative Gender Justice Programming and Advocacy’ (increase of 1.59 points in rating or of 39.8%).

Overall, the project resources were found sufficient to achieve targets, provided value for money and disbursement was mostly timely. WROs and alliances shared that at the time of contract renewal each year, there were some delays in receiving funds and that at the start of the project, there were delays in receiving initial funds between the co-creation workshop and contract signing. Other than this, they found the process to be time-efficient and meeting their needs. Additionally, the inclusion of SPO throughout the project was an efficient way to manage the funds transfer and catering to the financial compliance required under the project. Value for money is evidenced through the creation of a network of alliances and WROs through WVL-P focused specifically on implementing gender just practices and feminist principles in their work. In terms of the project’s Feminist MEAL methodology, EDs reflected that it was useful and helped to meet the project results. Particularly the monthly MEAL Working Group meetings were found useful and efficient by its members, as reflected in the MEAL focus group discussions held. The feminist tools introduced to the WROs, such as photovoice and cellphilm helped the WROs to better capture their results in their communities and within the WROs themselves.

“The introduction of modern tools and digitalization by WVL transformed traditional MEAL methods, fostering creativity and innovation. The inclusion of community radio and other elements increased confidence and contributed valuable insights. The creation of a MEAL position in our organisation was initiated by WVL, emphasizing learning and accountability across the board and staff.”

— Participant in the MEAL Working Group FGD

The following subsections present the findings of the evaluation with respect to the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, and efficiency of Pillars 1, 2, and 3. In terms of impact and sustainability, this report presents these findings collectively once the sections on the various Pillars have been completed, as both these aspects are seen as holistic and not tied to any one Pillar or outcome.

Pillar 1: Capacity, resources, and autonomy

(1100 Improved management, programming, and sustainability of local WROs in Pakistan, particularly those representing vulnerable and marginalized women and girls)

Relevance

The design of Pillar 1 was relevant especially in the context of introducing and reintroducing feminist approaches within WROs, with one WRO ED sharing the following,

“WVL-P was unique in bringing forward a feminist approach for gender just organisational strengthening and transforming women’s leadership, something we have not found with traditional donors who work on capacity strengthening”.

All WROs reflected that they found the project to be inclusive, participatory and empowering from the perspective of the support they received and incorporated into their own organisations. The activities under the project were found to be relevant to both the context of the country and the needs of the WROs, with EDs reflecting that when the project was introduced, there was a tightening space for the WROs in Pakistan, with regulations making it harder to operate and funding opportunities being reduced. This was evidenced by civic space assessment at the baseline, where 5 of 8 WRO EDs rated the regulatory framework as repressed and all 8 WRO EDs consulted rated access to funding as repressed, with inadequate funding for small-scale CSOs and WROs. In this context, the project’s design of strengthening the capacity of the WROs and providing support to them was very relevant to the circumstances at the time to improve their management, programming, and sustainability as local organisations. At the End Line stage, WRO EDs have shared that while the regulatory framework and access to funding has further become closed off in comparison to the baseline, the activities and capacity strengthening under the project, as well as advice offered by Oxfam to resolve regulatory issues, have made these issues easier to navigate.

Additionally, commenting on the relevance of the project, WROs’ staff shared that the CAT4GJO ensured that the individuals’ needs and capacity areas of each WRO could be tailored to under the project. The CAT4GJO served as a participatory self-reflection tool that allowed WROs to comment on the deep structures, strategies, policies and practices within their organisations. A WRO staff can be seen engaged completing their Socratic wheel during the CAT4GJO exercise during End Line Evaluation. Each WRO decided its own capacity strengthening areas and way forward, with the project giving the WROs the power to decide what is important for them. One Program Manager shared during the cluster workshop that,

“As a result of the CAT4GJO, we were able to develop our capacity strengthening action plans specifically tailored to our own needs under the project… throughout the project it was the process of learning new ways and unlearning old ways of capacity assessment – that is what was so interesting and helpful about the CAT4GJO”.

This also allowed the project’s activities to remain relevant for the WROS while catering for the varying contexts of different provinces or program area or themes they were working on within the larger umbrella of women’s and girls’ rights.

Additionally, the ED and alliances shared in their FGDs that the Covid-19 pandemic coincided with the start of the project, and with it brought the deteriorating condition of women’s and girls’ rights into sharper focus within the country, citing examples such as a rise in out of school girls and gender-based violence. Therefore, as a result of the pandemic, the project became even more relevant than it previously was in its support for gender-just organisational strengthening, with a trickledown effect to the communities to improve the overall enjoyment of rights by women and girls in the WROs’ communities. Additionally, the focus of the project on transforming women’s leadership was much improved under the project, with relevant support such as the Gender Leadership Program (GLP), where at the start of the project, 61% of all leadership positions were held by women, whilst at the End Line this had increased to 76% women in leadership positions. Overall, all WROs

Figure 13: WRO staff completing their Socratic wheel during the CAT4GJO exercise

management reflected in their KIIs that their ability to lead their organisations had improved as a result of the project, reflecting that the support to improve the organisational structure and facilities were also crucial to creating a conducive, gender just environment.

“We lived in a context where even basic needs such as electricity were not reliable, with constant load shedding. This affected our work and of course made it difficult for our staff including women to work effectively. In this context, the project providing solar panels for us was extremely relevant and it helped us as an institution to be sustainable.”

— WRO ED

Coherence

In terms of the coherence of Pillar 1, the logic model’s link between improving WROs’ management, programming and sustainability increased enjoyment of women’s rights in target areas was coherent. The activities conducted occurred sequentially and tied together well as per the WROs’ staff, allowing WROs’ staff to internalise the feminist approach in their organisations and at a personal level, with one ED reflecting the following,

“…the step by step approach of the project was useful for us to internalise the feminist approaches of the project, supported by the interventions such as GLP, MEAL working group, PRA and gradually becoming more focused on how to improve ourselves, our programming and our networks.”

The embedding of feminist values in all the project activities, design and ways of working within WROs and between Oxfam and the WROs was evident.

“Our relationship with Oxfam has been incredibly cordial and approachable. Unlike other donor relationships, we never felt pressured to conform to a specific agenda or set of rules. It was a free and open exchange, empowering us to express our thoughts and concerns openly.”

— WRO ED

As stated under relevance above, all the WROs reflected that feminist values were included under the project, with examples related to Pillar 1 including the use of tools and techniques that were participatory and inclusive, sharing power with the WROs, such as the Co-creation workshop and developing the logical framework and targets in consultation with the WROs, as well as use of techniques and tools such as the PPR, CAT4GJO and PRA – operationalising the approach of ‘nothing about us without us’.

“WVL-P project aimed to enhance the capabilities and confidence of individuals, staff, and communities involved. They provided training, resources, or support to enable them to take an active role in shaping and implementing project activities”

— WRO Staff, Survey

Figure 14: WRO office visit by the evaluation team, reflecting artwork on feminist principles

Effectiveness

Overall, the project was found effective in strengthening the capacity of local WROs representing vulnerable and marginalized women and girls. All 12 WROs’ management reported an increased ability to lead their organisations (Indicator 1100.a), and all WROs conveyed using new and/or improved governance and management practices (Indicator 1100.b). Similarly, all 12 WROs’ management reported that there has there been an improvement in organisational governance and management practices within their organisations as a result of the project (Indicator 1110.a), with nine WROs sharing that they would rate this level of improvement as ‘good’ whilst three rated the level of improvement as ‘excellent’. FMEAL tools such as photovoice, theatre/ dramatization and Cellphilm as well as practising the PRA tools; safeguarding policies such as child protection, employee code of conduct and confidentiality; QuickBooks usage; procurement preference for women vendors and supporting them to open bank accounts, filing taxes and capacity building; gender-inclusive HR policies such as on harassment; and intentional inclusion of more women and young persons in leadership roles. The CAT4GJO results reflected that WROs had improved their capacity area regarding gender-just HR policies and practices by 39.5% (1.6-point increase on a scale of 4) between the baseline and End Line stage. One WRO reflected the following in their CAT4GJO,

“After stepping into the WVL-P journey our policies on human resource management, accounting and finance, administration, and gender policy are well documented, and those policies are available to staff… [we] also developed our gender just policy and strategy.”

Additionally, safeguarding policies and mechanisms were cited most frequently by WROs as a best practice they had adopted, with all WROs sharing that they had improved in their safeguarding policies and practices as per their CAT4GJO capacity areas of safe and ethical programming, child protection and protection from exploitation and abuse, and ensuring safety. The focus on safeguarding was evidenced by the field visits conducted during the

15: Complaint Box at one of the WROs’ offices captured during the field visit

evaluation, where complain mechanisms and code of conducts were displayed and shared by all WROs with their staff.

“Through WVL-P, our organisation experienced a significant enhancement in our overall capacity across multiple sectors. Specifically, our gender leadership underwent substantial growth at every level, including the Board of Directors and our staff members. This evolution reflects a concerted effort to foster genderinclusive leadership, ensuring diverse representation and decision-making within our organisation.”

— WRO staff, survey

In terms of the success rate of proposals submitted to donors, 31.5%14 of proposals were successful (52/165) and of these, 100% were aligned with women’s rights (Indicator 1110.b). Examples shared by WROs regarding changes in the process of designing projects and proposals included using a gender lens for the design of new projects and forming a committee for proposal writing which takes various stakeholders on board before writing a proposal, supported by training in fundraising and proposal writing.

14 This has been derived by dividing the cumulative number of proposals accepted out of the cumulative number of proposals submitted by the 12 WROs multiplied by 100- i.e. 52/165 *100.

Figure

WROs also cited reasons for unsuccessful proposals, including difficulty with EAD registration and MoUs, as shared in the country context above. Taking this as a starting point, it is evident from the figure 24 below that across the project, WROs submission of proposals has seen a rapid, upward trajectory as the project has progressed and proposal writing trainings have been implemented, seeing a sharp rise during 2021 and again in 2023.

In terms of gender responsive budgeting, all 12 WROs reflected that their budget and financial management had become more gender responsive as a result of the project (Indicator 1110.c), with one reflecting this as adequate, nine of these reflecting that the improvement was ‘good’, whilst two rated the improvement as ‘excellent’. Some examples shared by WROs with more gender responsive budgeting were increased spending on female staff salaries to ensure that there is no gender pay gap, providing pick and drop for female staff, larger budget allocated for programming of gender equality initiatives, and working with women in the community.

Under indicator 1120.a, WROs were surveyed to define what they consider to be leadership roles, and then to state which of these roles were occupied by women and which by men. Overall, 76% of these leadership positions were reported to be held by women, exceeding the collective target proposed by WROs for 75% women representation in leadership at baseline level, whilst 24% were accordingly held by men, 7 of 12 WROs now have female EDs, and one WRO has seen a shift to a young ED. WROs also commented on change experienced as a result of the WVL-P project in the number of leadership positions held by women. One WROs’ experience is shared below:

“Prior to the implementation of WVL-P, decision-making positions were predominantly held by men within our organisation. However, following the WVL-P initiatives, there has been a transformative shift in key positions... For instance, previously held by men, key positions such as the Executive Director, Project Coordinator, and MEAL Officer are now occupied by women…. It’s a testament to the success of the WVL-P program in facilitating opportunities for women to excel and contribute effectively at the highest levels within our organisation.”

— WRO staff, survey

All 12 WROs shared that there had been an improvement in women’s leadership, gender transformative value and practices, including self-care practices within their organisation, since their involvement with WVL-P (Indicator 1120.b). Out of these, 10 WROs shared that they would rate this improvement as ‘good’, whilst two WROs reflected that they would rate this improvement as ‘excellent’. Some reasons reflected included the GLP training conducted with some female staff members

Figure 16: WROs’ and alliances reflection on what WVL-P means to them

which helped develop their personal and professional development, change in policies to include self-care practices provisions. All WROs’ workplace were employing respectful language towards women and making modifications to the workspace for safe spaces for women such as the introduction of a ‘Pink Room’ and ‘Zannan Khana’ for women staff members to use. Additionally, right from the beginning of the project, OiP provided hands on process support to all WROs to roll out the CAT4GJO, which itself is an empowering and participatory tool. This set the tone where the identified capacity strengthening areas were established for the subsequent provision of relevant resources, trainings, guided modules, and workshops e.g. GLP, Advocacy Workplan, Support Function Workshops, QuickBooks refreshers, proposal development & resource mobilization training, and gender inclusive budgeting training.

Efficiency

Under Pillar 1, the WVL-P project was efficiently delivered, with activities and resources delivered on time and in a cost-efficient manner. The synchronized nature of the project’s interventions under Pillar 1, by strengthening organisational capacity (including financial strengthening and policy strengthening), and supporting female leadership through the GLP was found to be an efficient way to ensure that the WROs could move towards sustained change. In terms of funds transfer, the inclusion of SPO was as a 3rd party for this purpose led to greater efficiency to manage the funds transfer on time and by catering to the financial compliance required under the project, as discussed in the overall section above related to the ultimate outcome.

The CAT4GJO tool proved to be an efficient and a smart tool under the project for strengthening of the WROs, as it allowed for greater adaptability and catering to the personal priorities of each WRO based on the needs identified by the organisations themselves, shifting power to the WROs to decide their strengths and gaps. Similarly, during the GLP, in-house thematic resource persons were mobilized rather than hiring external consultants ensuring the quality of the program was ensured while prioritizing efficiency.

“Equipment, resources, and training under the GLP received for institutional support under the WVL-P greatly benefited us. We received essential equipment and resources crucial for team performance, built women’s leadership skills, and our annual reassessment of institutional needs was flexible, necessary and useful for project success”

— WRO ED

Some aspects highlighted by the EDs to improve efficiency included designing a longer-term project for sustained change and support to these organisations, keeping in mind that Covid-19 also shortened the implementation window.

The following table summarizes the findings related to the indicators under Pillar 1:

Figure 17: A WRO ED sharing her experience on the project » View

Table 1: Indicator-wise findings under Pillar 1

Indicator

1100.a. #/total WROs with their management reporting increased ability to lead their organisations

1100.b. #/total of supported WROs who are now using bestpractice governance and management practices such as: a result tracking and reporting system, an emergency plan or risk management strategy, a strategy for funding diversification, revised HR practices, an AWP, a communications plan, SOPs for procurement, etc.

1110.a. #/total WROs reporting increased ability to manage and/ or govern their organisation

1110.b. % success rate of proposals submitted to donors;

of these, the % success rate of proposals submitted to donors aligned with women’s rights

1110.c. #/total of WROs reporting improved gender-responsive budgeting and financial management

1120.a. %/total leadership and decision-making positions

by women in the WROs

1120.b. #/total WROs with staff who agree they have improved leadership in gender transformative values and practices, including self-care practices

Change Story under Pillar 1:

Breaking barriers to become a more resilient and gender-just organisation

Breaking Barriers Women (BBW) emerged in 2017 with one laptop and a vision, aspiring to advocate for the rights of women and differently-abled individuals, operating initially from a shop in Quetta, Balochistan. BBW started its journey of transformation and recognition after becoming part of WVL-P in 2021. The support of WVL-P helped BBW build a core team and Board of Directors (BOD) and set up an office environment conducive to their mission. As a women-led organisation, BBW’s mission is clear — to work tirelessly for women and differently-abled individuals. The alignment with WVL-P’s core agenda further fueled their passion, to work for women and girls’ rights in Baluchistan.

“We are now more aware of the management skills required and how to decide and execute a plan for the organisation. Our board comprises of both men and women, with four women and one man included. The management decisions are taken by the BoD and executed by the ED but with the active cooperation of other staff members.”

— Staff BBW, Observation Guide.

Through strategic interventions, BBW evolved in multiple dimensions. The implementation of the GLP, coupled with training on PRA Gender Budgeting, and FMEAL tools enhanced the organisation’s capabilities to become a nurturing and resilient organisation. The effect of these changes led to the development and implementation of a Strategic Plan, Financial Management Policy, Procurement Policy, HR Policy, and a comprehensive Gender Policy. This symbolized a transformative shift towards making BBW a more gender-just organisation. The project design further supported BBW to make inroads within their community by starting a small concept café, bringing women together from different areas of work to raise awareness on GBV and linking GBV survivors with the Women Development Department (WDD) and sharing their helpline number.16 The group has 35 members now, including professionals like doctors, lawyers, psychologists, and others. This success demonstrates the growing support for women’s rights in Balochistan and the diverse voices joining the fight with BBW. The development of strong linkages at the provincial and national level during the project has elevated their profile not only in Balochistan but throughout Pakistan. The following is a link to a clip of BBW’s ED on the change inspired by the project: Reel of Sadaf Ajmal - ED BBW

16 WDD Balochistan Helpline No: 1089

“In terms of policies, processes, and procedures, I can confidently claim that our organisation is well established in this realm. Our internal organisational infrastructure is strong, demonstrating sustainability in various aspects, including staff continuity, the strength of the core team, reporting mechanisms, system efficiency, and continuous growth in personal capacity.”

— ED BBW, KII

Figure 18: BBW staff during the field visit by the evaluation team

Pillar 2: Capacity and resources for programming and outreach (1200 Enhanced delivery of campaigns and programming by WROs to advance gender equality in Pakistan)

Relevance

In the larger context of Pakistan, the relevance of improving the programming of WROs remains, with the country ranking 145th out of 146 countries on the World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap Index and improving only slightly by 2023 for the same index, ranking at 142. At the same time, Pakistan is 161st out of 191 countries on the Human Development Report’s 2022 Gender Inequality Index. This reflects overall that there is a need for WROs and CSOs to program more effectively to respond to the evolving needs of women and girls in the country.

The aim of enhanced delivery of campaigns and programming by WROs in Pakistan was achieved through WROs taking ownership to decide on their own priority areas of programming through the CAT4GJO, with WROs reporting a 39.8% increase or 1.6 points increase on a 4-point scale on Domain 5 on ‘Transformative Gender Justice Programming and Advocacy.’ Some examples provided by WROs regarding their improved capacity in programming included starting a YouTube Channel to reflect community voices, using PRA tools after receiving training, launching advocacy plans through various organisational platforms, and the use of FMEAL tools in their programming. Additionally, all issue-based grantees reflected that the support they received under WVL-P was relevant to their needs, as well as being responsive to the issues on the ground regarding women’s and girls’ rights. The needs addressed under the project were highlighted by the grantees as including funding opportunities for small organisations and innovative projects on women’s and girls’ rights that traditional donors were not inclined to fund, given the shrinking civic space and limited donor presence in Pakistan for women and girls’ rights – which the project addressed through flexible funding. One grantee shared the following,

“…it was according to our need of being a small organisation, the grant supported us a lot through strengthening our links with community for strategic interventions… there was also a supportive environment for us to develop and design an innovative idea.”

The project’s Theory of Change allowed for flexible programming, in response to dynamic gender issues, limited space around advocacy in Pakistan, and evolving circumstances such as changing legal and political dynamics, Covid-19, and flood response. Over time, as the project unfolded, the relevance of the Theory of Change and project design under this Pillar became increasingly apparent. This was the case when funds were redirected under the Pillar to address the needs arising due to Covid-19 and floods in the WROs’ target communities, to procure and distribute relevant items such as hygiene kits. By constantly assessing the effectiveness of the interventions against the outlined pathways, WROs were able to make informed adjustments to their campaigns and programming. This iterative process, informed by the initial project design, allowed for a more nuanced and contextually appropriate approach, contributing to the overall success of the project in advancing gender equality in Pakistan.

Figure 19: Community engagement activity conducted by a core WRO staff member

In the FGDs with community members they shared that the thematic areas where their WROs worked under WVL-P, addressed some of their most pressing needs. Some examples shared of most pressing needs regarding women and girls rights include early marriages and women protection, labour rights, care work, in Bahawalpur, Jaffarabad, Multan, Lahore, and adjacent areas; primary and secondary education in Peshawar, Multan, and adjacent areas; GBV in Quetta, Lahore, Mardan, Lower Dir, Jaffarabad, Bahawalpur and adjacent areas; child protection in Bahawalpur; entrepreneurship and livelihood support in Dir; labour and health workers rights in Karachi; and political participation and voting rights in Karachi, Lower Dir.

Coherence

Overall, the Pillar 2 was complimentary to Pillars 1 and 3, reflecting coherence to achieve the overall outcome, where particularly Pillars 2 and 3 were closely interlinked and followed from Pillar 1’s organisational strengthening. While Pillar 3’s knowledge sharing led to evidence-based programming, Pillar 2’s transformative programming led to evidence and knowledge products for dissemination. WVL-P has effectively operationalized feminist values and principles, particularly inclusiveness, participation, empowerment, and accountability, in enhancing the delivery of campaigns and programming by WROs to advance gender equality. In line with the feminist

Figure 20: Reflection on some of the community programs implemented by WROs under WVL-P

principle of inclusiveness, the program has worked towards ensuring that the perspectives and needs of diverse groups of women at the grassroots level have been included in the project by working with WROs from across all provinces of the country and in both rural and urban areas. The project has actively worked towards inclusiveness by engaging WROs representing diverse communities, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. WROs community areas included women of different age groups, ethnicities, speaking different languages, religions, professions, and literacy levels. One community member reflected the following,

“Before WVL-P, our Aurat Akath group predominantly comprised of elderly women, but now we are proud to have women of all ages actively participating in our group. This diverse representation enhances the richness of our community.”

The feminist approaches trickled down to the work the WROs were conducting in their communities, one example is of a WRO ensuring that the voices of younger women are heard and given due credit, by linking them with elderly women in the community to present a united front for their cause. The use of FMEAL tools such as theater and photovoice to implement feminist approaches was coherent and reflected as a successful model by the WROs’ staff during the MEAL FGDs and organisational visits.

Communities spoken to under the FGDs reflected that they felt included, heard, and encouraged to participate in the activities conducted by their WROs and were supported through various means such as flexible timings for events to match with the needs of the participating women’s schedules, day schedules to mitigate risk for community women to travel back from events during evening or night time, involving male allies for a conducive environment of participation, and collaborative engagement through WhatsApp groups for addressing any concerns. Similarly, all issue-based grantees surveyed reflected that the project’s implementation was inclusive, participatory, empowering, and accountable, for example by ensuring participation of women from diverse groups, supporting participation of women by engaging male allies, and using feedback mechanism for accountability.

Furthermore, the commitment to accountability is evident in WVL-P’s efforts to enhance the gender-transformative programmatic capacity of WROs. By ensuring that WROs are equipped to respond effectively to key women’s rights issues, the program holds itself accountable to the larger goal of achieving gender equality. The enhanced delivery of campaigns and programming by WROs has significantly contributed to advancing gender equality at various levels, such as empowering women at the local level to take a stand for their rights and women from community coming ahead and taking the lead, for example, by engaging with local administration and leading campaign for women and girls’ rights awareness in their own areas – with various partnerships playing a pivotal role in enhancing the delivery of campaigns and programming by WROs to advance gender equality. The WROs have strategically employed process-based, policylevel advocacy to address key women’s rights issues. This is especially evident in case of Balochistan where the project is able to show some tangible results in early child marriages. By using different interventions and through targeted public campaigns at local level, they have successfully raised awareness at community level and engaged with law makers to promote gender-sensitive policing practices.

Figure 21: Community members reflecting their thoughts during a FGD conducted in Mardan, KP

“Empowerment of WROs through the project to lead our own advocacy agenda and decide our own mandate was a one-of-akind endeavor. Whilst we are best placed to decide which issues need to be responded to in our context, before WVL we had not been part of a project that gave us this much freedom and recognized our agency to define our priorities and programming to women’s rights.”

— WRO ED

Effectiveness

The project’s effectiveness under Pillar 2, was reflected by WROs in an average increase of 39.8% under the domain of transformative gender justice programming and advocacy, with an increase of 42% in capacity are 1 of ‘Design and Implementation of Gender Transformative Programs’ (point increase of 1.7 on a 4-point scale). One WRO shared the following in their CAT4GJO,

“[we] prioritize inclusive planning and execution of programs, conducting consultations with the targeted audience before intervention and proposal submission…with a core principle of “nothing about us without us,” the organisation places women at the center of its programs, particularly focusing on social and economically marginalized women.”

WROs customized their campaigns to align with local cultures, traditions, and socio-economic factors, building trust within communities. One example reflected by community women from all the WROs is that their participation was ensured by involving and convincing male allies and elderly women in the community to support the participating women, as these individuals were the gatekeepers to the larger community and to households. The project was able to effectively enhance its footprint regarding the number of WROs included and supported under the project, while also effectively generating new

and innovative ideas through the short grants. One issuebased grantee shared the following, “The WVL-P project has significantly benefited our organisation by providing resources that enabled us to enhance our genderfocused initiatives and promote inclusivity effectively through an innovative initiative... increased the visibility of diverse groups of women like women with disabilities, women belonging to religious minorities specifically engaged with domestic work and home-based work”.

Despite challenges such as Covid-19 and floods, the project adapted well such as by moving activities online and enhancing WROs’ digital capabilities by regular use of online modalities for meeting and collaborating. External factors like floods and the pandemic were managed through collaborative discussions and resolutions, with the project diverting funding for urgent interventions such as through the provision of hygiene kits in two WROs communities. WROs demonstrated resilience and adaptability in community engagement, mitigated by adopting online modes for delivery such as the use of social media and establishment of YouTube channels, as well conducting community engagement following social distancing SOPs.

Efficiency

Overall, Oxfam project resources were efficient under this Pillar, primarily due to the contextualized approach of WROs ensuring that the impact of the initiatives is maximized within the allocated resources. Apart from the cost-effectiveness, the efficiency in terms of value addition is also important to note. CAT4GJO proved to be an efficient and a smart tool under the project for strengthening organisations based on the needs identified by the organisations themselves, shifting power to the WROs to decide their strengths and gaps. Similarly, the GLP triggered a journey of organisational and programming transformation through an in-house trained resource pool of GLPiers across WROs, passing on the skills to others within the organisation and at the community level. This allowed for a trickle-down effect to the communities as well.

Additionally, in terms of the project’s Feminist MEAL methodology, EDs reflected that it was useful and helped to meet the project results efficiently. WROs identified areas of success and where adjustments were needed

through a dynamic feedback loop, responsive programs, and real time reporting under the FMEAL mechanism. This approach allowed for a deeper understanding of the unique challenges faced by women in Pakistan, ensuring that the initiatives undertaken were not only responsive but also transformative in addressing the root causes of gender inequality. Particularly the monthly MEAL Working Group meetings were found useful and efficient by its members, as reflected in the MEAL focus group discussions held. The feminist tools introduced to the WROs, such as photovoice and cellphilm helped the WROs to better capture their results in their communities and within the WROs themselves, as well as strengthening their MEAL capacity. One participant in the MEAL persons FGD shared that,

“After attending meetings and receiving guidance from Oxfam, I underwent personal and organisational changes…started creating consent forms, vouchers, and report forms during community visits, making the reporting process more structured. This approach allowed me to capture details efficiently and present them in a comprehensive report.”

Overall, the Feminist MEAL methodology proved instrumental in ensuring that the delivery of campaigns and programming by WROs in Pakistan not only met project results but also fostered a more inclusive and equitable society.

Figure 22: Use of dramatization and theatre during an International Rural Women Day event, sourced from the WVL-P website

“When capturing images, I used to rely on general community permissions and didn’t personally seek consent from all those involved. However, after attending MWG meetings and receiving guidance. I started creating consent forms, vouchers, and report forms during community visits, making the reporting process more structured. This approach allowed me to capture details efficiently and present them in a comprehensive report.”

— Participant in the MEAL Working Group FGD

following table summarizes the indicator-wise findings under Pillar 2:

The

Table 2: Indicator-wise findings under Pillar 2

Change Stories under Pillar 2:

Women’s leadership at the community level – GLP Institutional Sessions

One of the notable aspects of GLP is the impact of its third module, which empowered GLP leaders to extend their knowledge by training and sensitizing men at the community level on feminist principles through GLP institutional sessions carried out by GLP leaders as part of the third module. Though engagement with men in the community was not new for the GLPiers, engaging community men to share feminist principles with them has been a different journey after GLP. Through an enhanced understanding of feminist concepts gained from the GLP course, there has been a perceptual shift in their approach to understanding their respective fields and areas of work fueled by their growth at the personal level, which gave them the confidence to take this forward to the community levels.

“GLP institutional sessions for me consisted of developing yourself and then developing others.”

– GLPier FGD Cluster Workshop

GLP’s institutionalization has been highlighted below, to showcase a GLPier taking the lead and sharing feminist principles with men in the community:

Nazia, a dedicated GLPier working with Awaz e Niswan (AAN), conducted GLP institutional sessions to generate a discussion and building understanding toxic masculinity and how it impacts gender dynamics, connecting it to gender analysis and power sharing. Nazia shared that she found herself empowered through the GLP to engage men in numerous transformative discussions through a feminist lens. She replicated the GLP training in a 2-day workshop with male community members from Lyari in Karachi (organisation’s community area) which covered themes like positive masculinity and alternative narratives and resulted in productive meetings and subsequent follow-up sessions with these men. The breakdown of feminist principles generated open discussions and led to the sharing of personal experiences amongst the men, increasing the understanding of gender dynamics. After the workshop, participants were tasked with experiencing gender role reversal at home, to support women and experience their

workload to develop greater empathy, leading to behavioral change among the male participants of the community. As a result of implementing the GLP with men in her community, Nazia shared that her doubts about decoding and presenting the feminist lens among those men were all resolved and she now felt proud of her own strength and capacity to be a leader.

Figure 23: Nazia during the cluster workshop in Karachi » View

MEAL Working Group – Strengthening WROs and Communities

The MWG was a forum created under WVL-P for MEAL focal persons from all 12 WROs to strengthen their capacities on feminist approaches to monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning. The MWG meetings were coordinated by the OiP MEAL focal person on a monthly basis. The significant impact of the MWG under WVL-P intersects with MEAL staff members and also other team members from around all Pillars, specifically around Pillar 1 and 2, as it has significantly elevated the capabilities of WROs’ programming and enhanced engagement at the community level. The implementation of Feminist MEAL, seamlessly integrated into core programming, has become a transformative force for WROs, amplifying the impact of their projects.

In the past, my community engagement involved writing notes that often got lost, leaving me without tangible support for my studies. However, with the adoption of feminist tools like photo documentation and self-filming, I now have solid proof that can be easily shared and developed into studies. These tools, especially in feminist monitoring, have allowed me to embody feminist principles in both my community and organisation “

— MEAL Person, FGD Cluster workshop.

The implementation of Feminist FMEAL has become a standard practice, ensuring that the gender-focused policies are not just theoretical but deeply embedded in their projects. The introduction of permanent MEAL positions within the WROs has added a sustainable component to their programming, strengthening the overall structure of WROs.

“Being part of the MWG had two notable impacts on me. Firstly, it enhanced my report writing skills, enabling me to perform better. Additionally, the use of FMEAL tools and techniques has made the community more engaged and has increased a sense of inclusion.”

— MEAL staff, FGD Cluster workshop

The use of FMEAL has provided voice to the community members as they feel more included and engaged with the use of FMEAL tools like photovoice, cellphilm, video diary, poetry, artistic illustration, dramatization, storytelling, and community radio.

“We really enjoyed the activities that were held with us. We were trained in different modes. The facilitator played games, and dramas to make us understand the importance of our rights, after having these sessions, we have also directed and played a drama, focusing on the girls’ education.”

— FGD Community Visit

The learnings and impact of MWG extends beyond mere data collection; it has sparked a new transformative journey for members, leading to increased ownership and a heightened sense of responsibility in their position and provided them a gender and feminist lens in monitoring and evaluation. They have externally benefited from this in terms of their professional growth. One of the MEAL members from a WRO recently advanced in his career and shared that his expertise in the FMEAL approach was an added value that was highly appreciated and acknowledged. The skill set around FMEAL learned under WVL-P played an important role in his career progression.

This immersive experience not only improved interpersonal skills but also became a platform for sharing ideas, collaboration, and strengthening the organisation.

Pillar 3: Platforms for collaboration and collective action (1300 Increased effectiveness of national and subnational women’s rights platforms, networks, and alliances to effect gender-sensitive policy change)

Relevance

The activities undertaken in WVL-P under Pillar 3 proved highly relevant to the alliances’, WROs’, and research grantees’ needs, particularly in enhancing the effectiveness of national and sub-national women’s rights platforms, networks, and alliances to bring about gendersensitive policy changes. All 5 alliances attested to the relevance of the project in light of a shrinking funding landscape for women’s rights advocacy and in linking WROs to alliances in their respective provinces and at an inter-provincial level for collective action and information sharing. One alliance member elaborated that the project’s relevance is evident in its

“strong emphasis on inclusivity and transparent leadership within alliances and WROs, reflecting a comprehensive approach to women’s empowerment under WVL-P.”

The project has emphasized on effective communication of financial transparency during meetings, not only emphasizing accountability but also aligning with best practices in organisational governance.

“Networking with the WROs was very useful for us, and we gained many insights. We got to know about the ground reality of various districts within our mandate and learned from the WRO’s experiences. We wanted to do advocacy to include more women in one of the DRCs [Dispute Resolution Committees] but did not have enough information about the current status, such

as how many women were currently in the DRC and so on. We got this information from one of the WROs and could then act in an informed way in or work.”

— Alliance Member

From the viewpoint of the WROs, their involvement with alliances was tailored to address their perceived needs, linking them with their provincial alliances as necessary. This connection was previously lacking. Similarly, in terms of the research grantees, all shared that the project was relevant to their needs by addressing issues related to women’s and girls’ rights for a focused study on gathering evidence-based knowledge. Additionally, the emphasis on shared leadership through forums such as the Review, Reflection, and Learning (RRL) and Program Peer Review (PPR) within WVL-P significantly contributed to the relevance of its activities, fostering diversity and cultivating emerging voices within the alliance. Including alliance members within the GLP, although part of Pillar 1, was further shared as relevant by alliance members in building personal relationships, networking, and providing shared learning opportunities between alliance members and WROs, therefore also contributing to Pillar 3.

Coherence

The project activities demonstrated coherence in enhancing the effectiveness of national and sub-national women’s rights platforms, networks, and alliances to bring about gender-sensitive policy change, in continuation of Pillars 1 and 2. Reflecting on the evolving context in Pakistan since the project’s inception in 2019, an alliance member shared that the

“project addressed core issues for women persisting from the 1980s, maintaining discourse and activism amid challenges through the evolving context in Pakistan for rights based work”

since the project’s inception in 2019. Ongoing networking efforts, exemplified by linkages in different regions, indicated a sustained commitment beyond the project’s completion. Unlike other projects, it went beyond

outlining intentions and focused on creating a conducive environment for women’s rights organisations by working on their own capacity, their networking, and programmatic capacities to thrive and contribute effectively to their thematic areas. In terms of the operationalization of feminist principles, all research grantees surveyed reflected that the project’s implementation was inclusive, participatory, empowering, innovative, and accountable. This included the approach taken by Oxfam to implement the project, as well as the approach of the grantees in conducting their research.

“The design phase of WVL-P involved a thorough policy review of each organisation, and the process was extensive and participatory. The incorporation of feminist principles in programming was a key focus, emphasizing the importance of gendersensitive practices within the Oxfam and the design of WVL.”

— Alliance member

An additional aspect that was key to the coherence of the project was the modification in the project design to include four alliances at the provincial level and one designated alliance for the knowledge management and dissemination role, as opposed to one national alliance only as originally planned. This was done in consultation with the core WROs. This ensured that meaningful collaboration could occur at the provincial level between WROs and alliances, since the target areas and relevant laws and policies concerning the WROs and alliances overlapped. Similarly, assigning responsibility on one alliance to manage the knowledge and dissemination through a WVL-P website allowed for the creation of sustainable and accessible online learning resources that allowed for visibility of the knowledge products and campaigns such as ‘16 days of activism’ under the project to the wider public.

Effectiveness

The WVL project has been instrumental in significantly increasing the effectiveness of national and sub-national women’s rights platforms, networks, and alliances to affect gender-sensitive policy change. One example is the work of Mumkin Alliance with RWO and PRWSWO

who worked on legal age related to child marriage age in Punjab. Although it is still a work in progress, there is a likelihood that it will lead to specific changes in the law in the coming years. The following are the key findings regarding the effectiveness of the activities under Pillar 3:

• All the alliances shared that their ability to collectively engage in gender-sensitive policy change had increased as a result of the project (Indicator 1310.b), with four alliances rating this as good and one as adequate. WROs are now engaged in meaningful participation with alliances. Surpassing the End Line target (12 achieved vs. eight targeted) indicates that more WROs than anticipated agree that women’s rights platforms, networks, and alliances have increased in effectiveness at both provincial and national levels (Indicator 1300.a). This suggests a higher level of impact in strengthening collaborative efforts among WROs, contributing to enhanced effectiveness in influencing gender-sensitive policies. Alliances worked with media to ensure that they could highlight the advocacy issues with one member sharing,

• All the research grantees’ ability/knowledge to respond to women’s rights issues improved. The key topics covered included how to influence decision making, with specific reference to gender sensitive policy making. It discussed aspects like key asks, actor identification, networking, alliance building, advocacy, and outreach. The grantees’ rated support received from Oxfam at 3.5 out of 4 (excellent), indicating a generally high level of effectiveness in influencing gender-sensitive policy change due to the support received from WVL-P during the short grants. The ratings also suggest that the support from WVL-P during the short grants has been instrumental in significantly increasing the effectiveness of most organisations and individuals in influencing gendersensitive policy change, with an overall positive impact reflected in the high average rating.

“The WVL-P project has played a pivotal role in shaping our approach to gender sensitivity…through its focused initiatives, the project elevated our awareness of the distinct challenges confronting women in Malakand Division, particularly within the context of legislative policy gaps. This heightened awareness has fundamentally influenced our perspectives, fostering a deeper understanding of power dynamics and gender relations within our community. Moreover, the emphasis on networking and collaboration has broadened our connections with various stakeholders, ranging from NGOs to marginalized groups, enhancing our collective understanding of gender dynamics.”

— Research grantee

• All five alliances were able to work towards influencing policies/ laws/ frameworks/ mechanisms/ procedures/ plans etc. (Indicator 1300.c). Efforts of enabling alliances to engage the media and work towards influencing the Child Marriage Prohibition Bill, the Homebased Worker Policy, The Punjab Women Protection Act 2016, and creation of Rules of Business

Figure 24: An alliance member speaking about the effectiveness of WVL-P » View

for the Domestic Violence Law demonstrate tangible legislative impact as a direct response of the WVL project, underscoring the promising success of exceeding the End Line target.

• All 12 WROs shared that the effectiveness of alliances and women’s rights networks at the provincial and national levels improved after the WVL-P (Indicator 1300.a). Four of 12 WROs stated that the effectiveness is adequate, whilst six found it good, one excellent, and one WRO did not respond to the question, as they were not part any provincial alliance under the project due to operating in the federal capital.

• 11 of 12 WROs shared that there has been an improvement in their WRO’s ability to engage with provincial and national alliances (Indicator 1310.a). The one WRO reflecting that there has not been an improvement shared that their organisation had not been engaged with any alliance under the project. As reflected previously, the project played a pivotal role in achieving a significant milestone in 2021 – the creation of Rules of Business (ROBs) for the Domestic Violence Law. This complex, two-decade-long process involved collaboration with various stakeholders, including families and key figures such as the commissioner director and ombudsperson. The project facilitated a coordinated effort with WROs, leading to the crafting of ROBs during the last cabinet meeting of the previous government. The project’s impact is evident in engagements with the Women’s Commission, showcasing its effectiveness in advocating for policy changes related to women’s rights. This narrative illustrates how the project has empowered WROs, enabling them to actively engage in alliances and platforms for policy and rule of business reviews.

• Overall, 11 of 12 WROs shared an improvement in their WROs’ ability to use evidence to influence policy and practice on women’s rights (Indicator 1320.b), whilst five WROs reflected this was adequate, and three reflected this as minimal. Another aspect of effectiveness was the creation and use of the WVL-P website, created to promote a sustainable and accessible online learning resource that provides an opportunity for all partners to collectively showcase their best practices as well as campaign to reach out to the wider public.17

The two symposiums held to disseminate the knowledge products created under the project, titled ‘Promote Shared Knowledge for Continued Actions Supporting Gender Justice in Pakistan’ shared 12 knowledge products, further contributing to the evidence-based advocacy efforts under the project. The establishment of a FEM Consortia by the 12 core partners and five alliances will contribute to the sustainability of the project. With regards to strengthening women’s rights, the strength of the platform derives from the continued collaboration between the WROs and alliances who have worked together under WVL-P, where the ‘FEM Consortia strives to elevate its visibility through inventive strategies like FEM Cafés, conferences, and art events, fostering a gender equality discourse. Unique initiatives such as FEM Gala, FEM Green, and FEM Post further amplify the consortia’s impact, celebrating inspirational women and advocating for climate change awareness and women’s leadership.’18

Figure 25: An alliance member sharing about their experience » view

The alliance members reflected that the project’s feminist approaches have fostered a close partnership between the alliances, WROs in the provinces, and Oxfam. The flexible and transparent leadership approach, coupled with shared leadership principles, has enabled effective collaboration, breaking down hierarchical barriers and ensuring active participation.

“I want to acknowledge Oxfam for a significant achievement. In the past, a male leader had been heading one of the WROs since 2000. However, through this project, a female member was brought to the forefront, who is now serving as the executive director of the WRO. This is truly remarkable…when you meet the current executive director, you’ll find her to be an outstanding woman. At the provincial level, encountering such empowered and conceptually clear women holds great significance. This project has actively promoted women’s leadership, and due to the strong partnership, we’ve developed, we plan to maintain ongoing engagement with them.”

— An Alliance Member

Alliances shared that while the effectiveness of the networking between the WROs and alliances has been good, the main work of the alliances to advocate as per their mandates could only be fulfilled for a year and a half, out of the four years of the project. This is because the provincial assemblies were dissolved in August 2023, and engagement with lawmakers was not possible for the majority of the project duration. Therefore, in terms of the effectiveness of advocacy efforts, it did face a setback due to these external factors, although networking and knowledge sharing between the alliances and WROs remained effective.

Efficiency

Overall, support under this Pillar has been efficient. Under the project one of the alliances was assigned the responsibility of knowledge management role which contributed to the overall efficiency, ensuring consistent and effective information collection and dissemination through the website and at the symposiums. While the provincial alliances focused on local linkages with WROs and advocacy efforts, the national alliance added value by improving the visibility of the project and by ensuring that beyond their provinces, the WROs and alliances were sharing information at the national level across the WVL-P platform.

“It must be highlighted that…the WROs, the grants’ section, and the research they did, they were not in isolation. If someone did research or wanted to advocate in Islamabad or Lahore, as the national alliance we were able to take those messages and studies to the national level to academia, parliamentarians, and civil society.”

— Alliance member.

Additionally, alliances reflected that Oxfam was proactive in troubleshooting any queries that arose, and was encouraging of alliances efforts to conduct various events, consultations and meetings. Moreover, during a group discussion during the End Line data collection, commendations from all alliances were received for including women’s foundations and feminist writers through project activities on sustainability. One alliance member further added that diversity within the alliance has motivated exploration for expansion of the alliance and knowledge production.

The revitalization of the alliances themselves and their relationships with their provincial WROs was a value addition to the working of the alliances and empowerment of women and girls’ rights. Secondly, media engagement and exposure visits have helped to expand both the reach and knowledge of the alliances regarding the communities associated with the core WROs, making inroads with the

communities falling under the provincial mandate of the alliances. Other aspects include, the formation of interprovincial connections between alliances and WROs, central knowledge management support/ dissemination as a result of the website, the project’s visibility due to the website and linkages, and through identifying and connecting relevant allies in the quest for gender equality together.

“This collaboration will endure, whether or not the project persists. The project has connected us with a substantial network of WROs, and our alliance with them instils confidence. Working collectively toward a shared goal and vision as organisations ensures an unstoppable force.”

— Alliance member

The following table summarizes the indicator-wise findings under Pillar 3:

Indicator

1300.a. #/total WROs who agree the women’s rights platforms, networks, and alliances have increased in effectiveness at the provincial and national levels

1300.b. # of women rights legislation, polices framed and/or role of business developed in respective provinces and at the national level

1300.c. %/total targeted policies/laws/frameworks/mechanisms/ procedures/plans etc. that were influenced by interventions (e.g. advocacy/consultation/ collaborative drafting) from WROs, networks, and alliances

1310.a. #/total WROs reporting increased ability to engage in alliances/ platforms for policy and rule of business reviews

1310.b. #/total project-supported alliances

1320.a. # of campaigns initiated by WROs using influencing to address women’s rights issues

1320.b. #/total WROs reporting increased ability to use evidence to influence policy and practice on women’s rights

Table 3: Indicator-wise findings under Pillar 3

Change Story under Pillar 3:

Feminist Fridays: shaping legislation for women

Feminist Fridays (FF) is a Peshawar based alliance. The role of alliances within WVL-P has been to serve as a link between WROs and policymakers, facilitating advocacy for women in policy-making. Feminist Fridays is one of the alliances supported under the project and was established in 2017 by a small group of women working in the development sector, committed to advocate and address crucial women’s issues such as domestic violence and child marriages. WVL-P has strengthened the networking capabilities of FF, expediting their advocacy endeavors with pertinent stakeholders. WVL-P provided significant support to FF in two key ways: expanding their network and geographical focus area and providing key financial assistance enabling them to expand their membership and accelerate their efforts. Throughout WVL-P, FF’s membership grew from 20 (exact number not available adding an estimate on the based on the discussion) to 73 women, with 30 women regularly participating in the alliance meetings, as opposed to before the project when there were eight to nine regular members.

What started from Peshawar has transcended geographical boundaries, due to WVL-P reaching out to WROs in various districts of KPK, enhancing collaboration and networking among active women in places like Mardan and Dir. It is more than just networking; it is about building meaningful relationships and gaining a deep understanding of the ground realities in different districts.

“Networking with these WROs was very useful for us. We got to know about the ground reality of various districts, based on information that we did not have otherwise.”

— Alliance Member, Group Discussion

A significant contribution of Feminist Fridays is compiling the ROBs of the Domestic Violence Act. Their relentless advocacy, supported by WVL-P, has played a pivotal role in shaping the development of these regulations. For them, this achievement stands as a testament to the power of collective action and underscores the impact of women coming together to effect legislative change.

“The ROBs of the Domestic Violence Act have become the result of our continuous advocacy that happened due to the support from WVL-P. We believe it is the biggest success for us, but not to be sidelined either is out work with the WROs, which was also very beneficial.”

— Alliance member, Group Discussion

Feminist Fridays, with support from WVL-P, has become an emerging platform for women of KPK that has shaped legislation, influenced policies, and networked with WROs of other provinces to support women’s rights across the country by connecting with all 12 WROs under WVL P, as they continue to share knowledge, break barriers, and advocate for change.

Impact Findings:

The WVL-P’s impact can be seen across all its Pillars, affecting women’s transformative leadership, enhancing the WROs programmatic capacity for gender just programs, and in building networks and linkages between WROs and alliances. The following is a summary of the main impacts of the WVL-P project, with these points explained in more detail below the boxes:

i) CAT4GJO indicates that all WROs have improved across all domains in terms of gender-just organisational strengthening. All WROs have made new or improved policies on inclusion, gender, and harassment.

iv) Critical issues addressed in the target areas through the longterm and short-term grantees; prioritizing small WROs and newly emerging dimensions such as COVID-19.

ii) All WROs’ management sharing that their ability to manage and lead their organisations has improved to a good or excellent degree.

iii) There has been a significant increase in the number of community members/ target beneficiaries reached through the WROs’ programming as compared to before WVL-P.

v) Improved capacity of WROs by incorporating FMEAL in programming and prioritizing ‘nothing about us, without us’ and understanding power dynamics between the community and the WRO

Overall, the improvement and creation of new policies by the WROs is a very significant aspect related to impact as these policies are tangible changes in the organisational framework. The reflections from the CAT4GJO suggest that these policies are also moving into implementation, which further strengthens the impact such as anti-harassment policies (cited by all WROs), development of a code of conduct, introduction of Iddat leaves and honeymoon leaves, as well as changes in the maternity and paternity policies. The following is a reflection from one WRO regarding changes to policies,

“our HR policies are revised in light of gender just practices and are now being practiced as a result of WVL-P. Our staff members are oriented on policies, and these are available to all staff members.

vii) Knowledge dissemination and sharing improved in academia and civil society through knowledge sharing events/ WVL-P website. All research grantees shared that the project led to greater dissemination opportunities.

We have revised our leave policy as per our staff’s suggestions to include honeymoon and Iddat leaves in our policy to support our staff and create a conducive environment.”

These are some examples of policies that have been moved into implementation.

The capacity strengthening of the organisation’s policies and frameworks, alongside the technical skills training has led to another impact, that of WRO’s management stating that their ability to lead the organisation has improved to a good or excellent degree. The GLP has also been an instrumental tool for bringing about change under the project, bringing forth both personal and professional development of the GLPiers and their wider communities where GLPiers have engaged in outreach sessions.

“The GLP training extends beyond fostering self-realization; it encompasses an indepth exploration of power dynamics and strategies for strengthening movements.”

— WRO ED

WROs collectively increased their reach as an organisation and attributed it to effective use of digital media and enhanced capacity to engage a greater number of recipients. WROs have reported an overall reach of 284,398 prior to joining the WVL-P and a reach of 445,594 after joining WVL-P, attributing the increase of over 160,000 in reach to an increased ability to use social media and digital avenues, an increase in the thematic areas that they work in, as well as an expansion of the geographical areas they work in.

The project was able to support small WROs19 to implement projects on critical issues in their communities, regarding women’s rights, using innovative approaches and key community insights, including responses on issues such as menstrual hygiene during Covid-19, on home-based workers, and gender-based violence.

“The impact of the grants has been significant, notably in expanding our outreach. Through the short-term grants, we engaged extensively with women and girls, particularly in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This allowed us to directly support and collaborate with these individuals, addressing their specific needs and concerns during these trying times.”

Similarly, the research grants were crucial for activists and organisations conducting research on various topics such as on unpaid care work, analysis of domestic violence laws, and economic development of legislation on women living with disabilities. The flexible nature of the project and funding allowed for response to even rapidly evolving issues such as Covid-19.

Within those projects and research implemented under the short grants and the long-term grantees’ programming, there was an incorporation of feminist approaches such as ‘nothing about us without us’ and ‘do no harm.’ Core WROs’ staff reflected that in particular they were now conscious of their own power within the community and were conscious of power sharing during program activities.

Another aspect to highlight is the work of the alliances. The project has made significant strides in influencing legislative and policy developments related to women’s and girls’ rights in Pakistan. One notable accomplishment is the establishment of ROBs for the Domestic Violence Law in 2021. Active campaigns in-person and through digital media such as for ‘16 days of activism’ and International Women’s Day were also cited as effective to increase the reach of the WROs and alliances. The personal relationships formed between the alliances and WROs as a result of the project are also a significant aspect to reflect on, where beyond professional linkages, friendships have formed. Another aspect of impact related to the work of the alliances is the knowledge dissemination and sharing improved in academia and civil society through knowledge sharing events and symposiums, as well as due to the WVL-P website. All research grantees shared that the project led to greater dissemination opportunities.

Figure 26: Artwork created under the Peer-to-Peer exercise during the first cluster workshop in Islamabad

19 Small WROs: Small scale organisations working with small budgets on women rights issue.

“The main impact is that the WROs, the grants’ section, and the research they did, they were not in isolation. If someone did research or wanted to advocate in Islamabad or Lahore, in the alliance we were able to take those messages and studies to the national level to academia, parliamentarians, and civil society.”

— Alliance Member

While there may be a tendency to focus solely on WVL-P, it’s crucial to recognize the achievements within the larger context. Placing individuals, and especially women, committed to gender transformative approaches at the center of organisations, programs, and networks fosters long-term success, challenging the rigid structures within institutions. This transformative process, though challenging, marks a significant and enduring success for the program. While it is challenging to gauge the immediate impact of the project, the investment in human resources is pivotal. The real impact is seen in the empowerment of individuals and organisations, equipping them with knowledge and skills. This human resource, whether within the current project or future endeavors, becomes a driving force for change. The impact is discernible in the capacitated individuals and the policies influenced.

“The impact of this project might not be fully discernible at this moment. However, the investments made in individuals and institutions are seeds planted for future change. Those who have been invested in will carry the torch, having internalized the values and lessons imparted... The journey involves putting a dent in entrenched issues, and progress is being made, especially in regions where the project has concentrated its efforts.”

— Alliance member

Sustainability Findings

Overall, the effects of the project will continue beyond the end of the project period. Although no particular lens for assessing sustainability has been shared by GAC, during the End Line, Oxfam, WROs, and alliances were asked to share what sustainability means to them and to comment on how they perceive this under WVL-P. The various stakeholders consulted including the Oxfam team and WROs shared the opinion that sustainability of the WVL-P project must be seen from various angles. This included looking at sustainability from an individual and organisational perspective. Using this lens, the following are the key findings related to sustainability under the project:

At the individual level, the effects and impact of the project are likely to be sustained especially with reference to the technical capacities of individuals such as skills developed in the CAT4GJO, FMEAL, GLP, PRA, and gender responsive budgeting. The individual capacities will help individuals to share knowledge within their organisations, wherever they work and also become resource persons and share these skills and knowledge forward. One example that is already visible in this regard is of an ED sharing her policy strengthening skills with other organisations as a consultant. The three modules followed by the GLPier and GLP institutional are also significant from a sustainability perspective, as the GLP extends beyond fostering self-realization. It encompasses an in-depth exploration of power dynamics and strategies for strengthening movements. The acquired knowledge and skills serve as sustainable resources, providing invaluable support to organisations and institutions. When individuals who undergo this training integrate back into their respective organisations, they bring with them a profound understanding of how to navigate power dynamics effectively. These trained individuals become instrumental in utilizing the available space within their organisations to spearhead initiatives, as evidenced by their GLP institutionalization sessions and action plans in the community.

At the organisational level, WROs have shown a commitment to strategically align their programming and organisational plans to the feminist approaches under WVL-P, where discussion with staff at all levels of the organisation during field visits reflects a deep commitment to a gender transformative approach and ownership of the project. The introduction of new policies and improvement of existing policies such as on safeguarding and HR and institutionalization of skills learn by individual staff in particular will sustain beyond the end of the project.

“The strengthening of institutions, the policies that have been made, their technical things, in terms of software, concepts, skill sets, the capacity that has been built, I think it will sustain.”

— WRO ED

In the MEAL FGD, participants shared that as a result of the project, the staff at WROs have become more open to the idea of having women lead the organisation. The use of FMEAL approaches is become the part of the organisation as well.

“An example of sustainability that we can already share is that regardless of whether a donor is asking for us to do so, we are practicing FMEAL tools in our other projects as well.”

— Participant in the MEAL FGD.

The networks and connections established between WROs and alliances will be sustained where the collaboration and willingness of the partners to engage under the FEM Consortia can already be seen as a positive step in this regard, aiming to connect WROs with alliances in the long-term. Strengthening the network through effective (friendly and accessible forums either online or in-person) and regular communication with alliances and WROs are considered crucial for long-term success. Both WROs and alliances were confident in the sustainability of these connections, with one alliance member sharing,

“we have personally developed a good relationship, apart from our professional association. Whenever we need information about an issue in a certain city, we immediately think to reach out to the WVL-P WROs in that location first. We are confident that they will help us over a call and trust their ability to provide valid information to us.”

Figure 27: Key sustainable findings under the project

Within organisational sustainability, WROs and alliances both shared that financial support is identified as crucial for sustaining some of the changes in management, boards, and organisational functioning and practices. Financial sustainability is identified as a major challenge for both WROs and alliances. With the end of the project, WROs may struggle to sustain their organisations with the same number of staff, depending on the funding portfolio of the WROs. Alliances operate on a volunteer basis and similarly face a shrinking funding landscape for women’s rights causes.

“It’s evident that projects come and go, but the individuals involved are permanent. While WVL-P may not continue, our alliance will persist. This project provided substantial support, accelerating the advocacy process – an impactful contribution. The articles, radio talks, and TV discussions we conducted at various platforms significantly heightened our advocacy efforts.”

— An alliance member

Overall, there are some key achievements regarding sustainability within the project, although this can be built upon further in a second phase with a more defined sustainability model and addressing financial sustainability of both WROs and alliances.

RECOMMENDATIONS 6

Listed below are some key recommendations for partners and Oxfam.

Recommendations for Partners:

• Sustain institutional memory and continue institutionalization through refreshers and trainings within the organisation: At the moment WROs have invested time and efforts to institutionalize the various practices by the WROs towards passing on knowledge and skills from the project. This practice must be continued, with refreshers at the organisational level and the training of new staff on the relevant tools and techniques including the GLP, FMEAL, MWG, PMC, PRA, and PPR.

• Prioritize practice of annual CAT4GJO to formulate yearly working plans: Under WVL-P, WROs have made it a practice to conduct yearly CAT4GJO exercises which build into their capacity strengthening and annual working plans. This practice should be continued even after the end of the project, with staff already well-versed in administering the tool and having the requisite templates and formats available with them for use. Additionally, the staff trained on CAT4GJO may leverage their skills as consultants for other organisations looking to assess organisational capacity from a gender just lens.

• Generate discussion between staff and BoD on ways to further strengthen safeguarding policies and practices: All WROs reflected in their CAT4GJO that whilst they had improved their safeguarding policies, they wished to further improve these policies and practices of these policies within their organisation and at the field level. A discussion on how to improve practices must include dialogue among the BoD, management, and staff at all levels of the hierarchy to capture the varying perspectives and experiences regarding safeguarding of all individuals in the WROs.

• Conduct bi-annual, participatory review on the use of feminist principles and language within the organisation: All organisations were intentionally including feminist principles in their workspace and trying to improve the working environment for women. Further improvements can be made on a bi-annual basis where female staff are surveyed and suggestions taken regarding needs and requirements to make the workspace friendlier and more conducive.

• Strengthen gender-just linkages and relationships with external WROs and government stakeholders: WROs and alliances should pass on their strengths by training and collaborating with grassroots level WROs who were not part of the project, through collaboration and support through trainings on the feminist approach, CAT4GJO, FMEAL tools, PRA, QuickBooks and GLP. These external WROs may be supported to improve their gender just programming ability. A need has been highlighted by WROs and alliances to engage more closely with government stakeholders as well.

Recommendation for Oxfam:

• Further support for financial sustainability of partner alliances: In a second phase or follow-up project in Pakistan or in similar contexts, greater focus is needed to ensure the financial sustainability of the alliances involved, perhaps through developing linkages with regional/ global advocacy funds to enable more regular funding opportunities for advocacy.

• Leverage innovative FMEAL strategies: Further innovative FMEAL strategies may be adopted for contexts such as that of Pakistan, where some tools such as photovoice and cellphilm are challenging to implement in the field due to cultural norms.

• Greater engagement with government stakeholders and male allies: Both alliances and WROs have reflected a need to work more closely with government stakeholders regarding the space available for

advocacy and rights-based work and with male allies to ensure that the approach towards women’s rights is more holistic in a second phase of the project.

• Scaling up CAT4GJO: The value of the CAT4GJO tool for small to mid-level WROs has been reflected under the project, where its use can be scaled up as a general way of working with partners elsewhere in Oxfam’s work. In the data validation workshop, an alliance member shared how the scaling up of the tool may also include customization for alliances to utilize the CAT4GJO as well.

BEST PRACTICES

Throughout the duration of the implementation of WVL-P, partners actively embraced and implemented a range of best practices that brought prominent and sustainable changes at the organisational and individual level among the 17 core partners. Which were evident in both theoretical frameworks and practical applications throughout the comprehensive End Line Evaluation process. Continuing to employ these practices in the future will sustain the project’s momentum and effectiveness.

From conceptual models to real-world execution, the project demonstrated a steadfast commitment to excellence, ensuring that the principles learned and applied were not only understood but effectively utilized to achieve significant outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS 8

Overall, the WVL-P project was found to be relevant, coherent, effective, efficient, sustainable, and creating an impact in the landscape of women and girls’ rights in the target communities and areas in Pakistan. Out of all the indicators reported at the End Line, 19 of 24 have met or exceeded targets (this includes 22 indicators listed in the End Line TORs, as well as the two ultimate outcome indicators as well). This holds true for the ultimate outcome and under all three Pillars. The following figure 45 provides a recap of the key highlights under the project:

Figure 28: Recap of key findings under the project

• The GLP’s effect on the personal and professional growth of the women under the project was one notable highlight, as reflected above, as was the improvement in the willingness and capacity of the WROs to conduct a self-assessment of their capacities using the CAT4GJO. The CAT4GJO results reflected that against all domains and all capacity areas, the capacities of the WROs had been strengthened on average. The ability of the WROs to independently conduct the exercise had also notably improved in the own estimation of WRO staff.

• In the project’s clear evidence, the highlights include the knowledge and skills in FMEAL and, more importantly, how they have been rolled out at the organisational level and in the communities.

• The connections and networks created under the project among WROs and between WROs and alliances are particularly significant and must be highlighted,

with the important role of HRDN in connecting alliances and WROs across provinces as well. Overall, all these highlights are significant in light of the unique design of WVL-P, which has sought to strengthen the whole organisation rather than providing support of only a specific nature, as done under conventional capacity strengthening projects.

• In terms of the WoW between OCA and OiP, the results reflect that the model and collaboration has been quite successful, with trust between the two teams and open channels of communication to both provide and seek support.

• Challenges in project implementation resulted in lessons learnt, with the main aspects being the shrinking civic spaces in the country, the effects of floods and Covid-19, the lack of provincial assemblies, and by default the lawmakers for advocacy efforts.

Appendix 1: Detailed domain-wise findings from assessments using CAT4GJO

The next sections provide key findings for each Domain under the CAT4GJO toolkit.

Domain 1: Women’s Transformative Leadership

Domain 1 focused on building the capacity of WROs on Women’s Transformative Leadership. As evident through the graph, WROs’ capacity to engage in cultivating Women’s Confidence and Leadership Capacity has increased at the End Line stage. Notably, WROs have shown a steady increase within the capacity areas of this domain scoring 3 or higher in the capacity areas.

“After stepping into the process of WVL-P we have developed our gender just strategic plan for the next 5 years; then we have revisited our mission, vision and core principles as accordance with the gender equality and women rights”.

— WRO CAT4GJO

Across WROs a trend of engaging women at leadership and decision-making roles has been visibly increased. Under WVL-P, various significant examples were observed during field visits, one of prominent examples was a WRO appointed a young woman for the first time at a leading position as a Project Manager, and intends to continue the practice. In another WRO, a young woman was promoted to the level of ED due to her developed expertise and capacity under WVL-P. An increase of women inclusive BODs has been observed under WVL-P in all WROs. One WRO taking a step forward to promote young women leadership included 3 new young feminists from their volunteer group as a Board Members. An example of increasing efforts to promote diversity and inclusion is of a WRO expanding their mandate to include women with disabilities and transgender women in their respective communities.

“Under WVL-P, promoting young women leadership has been a liberating and a learning process”.

— WRO ED, KII

To further cultivate women’s confidence and leadership capacity all WROs took the step to build women’s leadership at the community level in various project interventions during WVL-P, by training community women and creating formal groups under women leadership at the grassroots level like Champions of Change, Aurat Akath, Emerging Women Leaders, Women’s Assembly etc. Community leaders are replicating it further in their community areas, as per reflections from the WROs and visible through the engagement with the diverse communities’ group in under End Line Evaluation All WROs have also empowered their community members to directly engage with relevant public institutions and stakeholders like police for filing reports and demanding relevant support, similarly local administrations and public offices.

“The capacity of our staff and board developed under WVL-P, especially the GLPiers”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

“Under WVL-P young girl staff member’s representation increased at our organization from 70% to 80%, which are holding key positions…the budget that goes to salaries for women staff increased from 83% to 85%”.

— WRO, CAT4GJO

Domain 2: Gender-Just Structures and Processes

Domain 2 concentrated on enhancing the overall capacity of WROs to become gender-just organizations by adapting appropriate structures and processes. A noteworthy observation is that at the End Line, WROs exhibited a nearly double increase in capacity areas compared to the baseline, as visible in the graph. In order to embody gender-just values,

WROs have taken measures to integrate these values into their respective organizations, by incorporating them into HR policies. WROs have made these changes by revising their anti-harassment policies and promoting equal gender representation in decision-making positions.

“After stepping into the WVL-P journey our policies on human resource management, accounting and finance, administration, and gender policy are well documented and those policies are available to staff…[we] also developed our gender just policy and strategy.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

Within this domain, the most notable increase in averages at the End Line stage is observed in the third capacity area, encompassing Self Care, Collective Care, and Organizational Culture, with WROs achieving an overall average ranking of 3.2. Due to inclusion of women in decision making and leadership roles within all WROs, there has been an adaptation of self and collective care within WROs. The observational guide during visits to all WROs clearly indicated their internalization of self and collective care principles was being implemented, leading to efforts to cultivate a respectful, safe, and inclusive organizational culture. A concrete manifestation of the commitment to self and collective care was evident through the establishment of a dedicated and friendly space for women in the office. Other WROs had an optional room available for use as a women-friendly space based on requirements, although its permanent availability was constrained by office space limitations.

“As a result of the GLP we are paying special attention to self-care as the staff member signed self-care agreement20 and we talked about it in the organization”.

— WRO, CAT4GJO

“We are very flexible with this regard having feminist wellbeing, working hours, having women friendly space at our office, flexible hours and other learning spaces.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

In this particular domain, capacity area 4 Environmental Best Practices, has an overall average of 2.6, marking the lowest among the capacity areas. Despite this, there’s a widespread commitment among all WROs to incorporate ecofriendly practices within their organizations. Among the 12 WROs, 3 have established and implemented comprehensive environmental policies, while 2 others are in the process of crafting their own policies. The remaining organizations, although without formal policies, are actively adapting environment friendly best practices. This includes the substitution of plastic bags with reusable cloth alternatives, embracing recycling and reusing principles, cutting down on paper usage, fostering kitchen gardening initiatives, and participating in impactful tree planting campaigns. As an initiative to amplify the message of climate change, one WRO distributed 600 plants to various stakeholders. This collaborative effort involved working hand-in-hand with district management and the cantonment board of the district. Moreover, with the support of WVL-P, all 12 WROs are now equipped with energy solutions such as solar panels, generators, inverters a transformative step that significantly propels them towards a more environmentally friendly future.

“Our organization has a well-developed environmental policy and we use it as a crosscutting for all our projects.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

“In our programing the climate change and friendly enjoinment agenda is our top priority. Currently during the 16 days of activism we design our activities plan which was integrated with climate crisis and gender injustice, green financing with local elected representative.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

Domain 3: Organizational Resilience and Sustainability

Domain 3 is dedicated to fostering organizational resilience and sustainability, a noticeable increase in average can be seen across all capacity areas within the domain, close to double what the average was at the baseline. This surge reflects the efforts of all WROs, as they strategically plan the sustainability of their organizations. Notably, 9 WROs have not only crafted but also implemented comprehensive 4 to 5-year strategic plans, a process including the insights from their respective community members. Before the project the WROs were not practicing any such thing. Additionally, three organizations are now in the process of adopting a five-year strategic plan. Despite this they have consistently devised annual plans, incorporating feedback from the pertinent community members to steer their organizations towards resilience and sustainability. Additionally, the greatest increase in the overall average can be seen in the capacity area of mobilizing resources (capacity area 2), an increase of45.8%.

“After the resource mobilization training, our WRO has enhanced its efforts in mobilizing resources through the implementation of a designed Resource Mobilization Plan. This plan has played a pivotal role, demonstrated by the successful submission of eight project applications, the acquisition of three new projects, and the extension of three renewals of ongoing project.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

All WROs have also taken steps to foster and integrate intergenerational learning and exchange by actively engaging young persons in their organizations, and youth in volunteers and at community level for leadership skills support. And a culture was observed in the organizations for peer learning, where young staff share their expertise of using technology and senior staff members support with the conceptual clarity and practical experiences.

“The young volunteers, community activist and interns are placed in our organization and shall be provided with leadership skills.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

“In our organization, young female staff members are focal persons and are getting exposure of International, National and Regional Networks, including Women Mobilize Women (WMW), working in networks and coalitions.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

Domain 4: Strategic Gender Justice Relations and Linkages

Domain 4 is titled Strategic Gender Justice Relationships and Linkages and includes the capacity areas of CA1 (Working in Network/Coalitions), CA2 (Communicating and Sharing Knowledge) and CA3 (Fostering, Strengthening, and Sustaining Movements). As has been the trend previously the WROs reported an increase in the specific capacity areas from a baseline average to the End Line average across all capacity areas. The greatest increase in this domain has been in capacity area 3 with 27.6.

All the WROs reflected through the self-assessment that under WVL-P their linkages have strengthened with other WROs and alliances not only within their province but across other provinces partners as well. To foster linkages, WROs have taken steps to become part of national, regional and global level women movements and networks like Aurat March (AM), 16 Days of Activism, Women’s Action Forum (WAF), The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), National Labour Council, Girls Not Brides and Women Mobilize Women among others. All WROs are taking steps to disseminate and share knowledge through using social media, newspapers and via YouTube channels relevant to their areas of work.

Below are some examples of change under this domain:

“Our organization has developed / generated knowledge and information on women’s laws, paralegal?? and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material, pamphlets for Violence against Women and Children, which we disseminate to our beneficiaries, stakeholders and other audiences. And we shared this knowledge material, experience and strategies with partner organizations to exchange the knowledge. We encourage the relationships and share the experiences with our partners and networks. We even shared the funding opportunities to our partners”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

“Our organization, according to priorities, mission, vision and goals, carefully identified the network/ collations and partnership which match and support us to generate opportunities, resources, capacity, strengthen these relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders and achieved results and social change.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

Domain 5: Transformative Gender-Just Programming and Advocacy

Domain 5 included the capacity areas of CA1 (Design and Implementation of Gender-Transformative Programs, Including Standalone, Women-Specific Programs or Projects), CA2 (Engaging Men and Boys as Allies and Beneficiaries of GenderJust Communities), CA3 (Routine Involvement of People we Work with in Program Development and Implementation), CA4 (FMEL) and CA5 (Women’s Rights and Gender Justice Focused Advocacy and Campaigning).

“We undertake new research to fill evidence gaps and our research methodologies include participatory action and feminist research methodologies…we also use the information from our alliance in designing projects to identify the issues, developing the policies and advocacy for the women’s empowerment”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

As reflected in the graph above a great improvement was shown by the WROs in these specific capacity areas. The greatest increase in percentage in this domain, is also the capacity area with the greatest increase across all domains, i.e. CA5 on Gender just advocacy and campaigning. One WRO shared that it had begun implementing a gender program after the MTR, launching a project on women’s property rights awareness. Another WRO shared that they have developed an organizational advocacy plan and are implementing it via planned communication strategies.

Some other examples shared by the WROs in their CAT4GJO are included below:

“We started a new program, Community Voice, on our YouTube Channel, reflecting the opinions of our partners on our work.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

“FMEAL provides an opportunity of two-way communication… We have taken into account feedback from the community and have used it to improve our program and planning of our project”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

Domain 6: Safeguarding

Domain 6 is focused on safeguarding to improve the culture of safety among all WROs through policy making. It includes three capacity areas ensuring safe and ethical programming, child protection and protection from exploitation and abuse and ensuring safety. As is clear from the graph, this domain also showed a remarkable improvement by the WROs in the relevant capacity areas because of the great increase in scores from the baseline to End Line surveys

“We have designated a safeguarding focal person, have updated the members of gender monitoring committee, and a complaint box for the reporting of such matters”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

The highest increase can be seen in the capacity area of safe and ethical programming. During whole data collection exercise, a culture of respect and safety was observed within all WROs. The core partners shared that WVL-P increased their understanding and capacity to adapt practices for safe and ethical programming.

“Complaint committee members’ names are displayed within the office, [we are] using safe and well-maintained vehicles for field visits and strictly follow the guiding principles of Oxfam especially Do No Harm, honoring context & complexity”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

The lowest increase in this domain has been in the capacity area of child protection, though all WROs adapted child protection measures and advocate about it in their respective communities as well. Some WROs are still in the process of adapting child protection measures in practice and implementing their policies effectively, within their respective organizations. This leaves room for improvement on this aspect in the future, as highlighted by the WROs’ own conservative rating of their current capacities.

Some examples are included below, as shared by the WROs:

“We use our Child Protection policy as cross-cutting for all of our projects and any that we receive in future. Corporal punishment at villages on children is a routine activity, therefore during project activities we sensitize families on child rights mentioned in the constitution and punishments in the PPC”.

— WRO, CAT4GJO

“As part of WVL-P, now we have a reporting mechanism for child protection issues and are also involved in child protection interventions through regularly established child protection committee within the organization and within 2 communities.”

— WRO, CAT4GJO

WROs ability to use CAT4GJO tool:

Based on discussion during the workshops, WROs stated that they now have a greater understanding of how to use the CAT4GJO tool for the qualitative explanation as well as the ratings against each capacity area under each domain. In terms of the desk review conducted as part of this evaluation, it was reflected in the MTR report that WROs had an increased understanding of the tool since the baseline. Whereas at the final evaluation stage, it can be reflected that the WRO staff’s understanding of the tools has increased further, as well as their ability to complete the activity as a team.

In the workshops, participants were asked to include the staff not present as part of the activity. Some ways in which the WROs were able to be more inclusive to their whole team, was by linking their colleagues back at the organizations to the workshop through online meetings such as on zoom, Microsoft Teams, and via WhatsApp. Some WROs had conducted a preliminary discussion before leaving for the workshop with the larger team and brought their notes with them to fill out the templates and provide the examples. WROs are fairly capable of completing the tool CAT4GJO independently. If those experienced in the tool leave the organizations, they are part of, the WRO may lose their expertise to independently administer the CAT4GJO, whilst any new WROs these staff members join will benefit. their capacity in the tool due to these resource persons.

“At the End Line stage, we are able to understand our organizational capacity through understanding CAT4GJO tool better, and rate our WRO accordingly.”

— MEAL officer, WRO Cluster Workshop

“Throughout the project it was the process of learning new ways and unlearning old ways of capacity assessment- that is what was so interesting and helpful about the CAT4GJO.”

— Program Manager, WRO Cluster Workshop

Figure 29: One WRO team during the CAT4GJO activity