2. How Can NGOs Improve Their Work in Gender and Development?

Interview with Irma van Dueren of NOVIB (the Dutch Oxfam). Novib recently
completed an evaluation of its Gender Route Project. This project worked
with several of NOVIB's NGO partners to help them improve their work in
promoting gender equality.

Can you give me an overview of the project?

Twenty-five of our partner organizations participated in the project. All
went through the same process. First, they completed a gender
self-diagnosis
using various gender analysis tools we provided them. That would then give
them an idea of where their strong and weak points lie in regards to gender
equality. This would be the departure point for the whole project. After
that, they would write up a work plan detailing where they wanted to start
and where they wanted to end. Some started with their weak points while
others started with their strong points. Initially most of the work was
concentrated at the organizational level. However, others then moved on to
improve their work at the target group or beneficiary level. They all
received funding from NOVIB to allow them to implement the plan over 3 to 5
years. Each year there would be workshops where they could exchange
experiences, learn and receive more training.

Why did NOVIB begin this project?

NOVIB is a donor. We fund at least 1 000 partners worldwide and we pay a
lot
of attention to gender issues. We have 7 criteria that all partners are
evaluated against. These criteria involve gender equality, of course. So,
an important goal was to support partners in developing good gender
policies. Before the Gender Route project, we would provide training
sessions and consultancy assistance to partners as well as other
interventions. But we didn't do it very systematically so the learning was
quite limited. The partners asked for more systematic support over a longer
period of time. That's when we decided to initiate this project which would
involve more partners from all over the world going through the same
process. At the end, we would be able to analyze the results and see what
types of gender interventions work in particular circumstances. Along the
road, partners could learn from each other and exchange experiences.

What types of interventions took place at the beneficiary level?

Most of the work was at the organizational level. So, a lot of the
activities involved analyzing their decision-making procedures and their
organizational cultures, for example, to make them more gender friendly. At
the same time, they would try to improve their services to beneficiaries.
For example, some of them would do a gender analysis before beginning
projects or have more women participate in planning and monitoring. Others
would look more critically at how men and women are involved in their
programs. So, they might look at countering gender stereotypes in their
activities or involving women in leadership roles.

What were some of the successes?

It's quite difficult to summarize them. There were lots of achievements.
At
the organizational level, some of them completely restructured their
structures to make them more women-friendly. So, they might have looked at
the organization's infrastructure and facilities or policies around child
care and maternity benefits. Others might have changed their sexual
harassment policies to make the organization safer for women. These changes
would make it easier for women to keep on working with the organization and
also increase their involvement in decision-making. All organizations did
different things, but I can say that all organizations became more gender
sensitive. In all of them women became more visible and in some of them we
saw that more women staff were hired. We also saw more women in leadership
positions. A lot also happened around organizational culture where men were
trained to be more gender sensitive.

At the program level, in all organizations we saw more women participating
in
programs. Also, they would have greater decision-making roles. There would
be more gender sensitivity in the programs as well as awareness raising and
training activities.

What were some lessons learned?

It was meant to be a linking and learning project through which we tried to
take lessons from experiences from all over the world. It was done in all
the regions where NOVIB works. It worked better in some regions than
others. In some places, there were workshops every year where the partners
would share their experiences and give feedback to each other. This
happened
in South Asia, for example.

Another strong point is that it was over a period of 5 years. So, partners
could grow as they tried new things. It would be very difficult to measure
results over a short period of time. Even now, partners are asking for more
time to do more work.

So for now we can say that the project has been positive in terms of
allowing
organizations to share information and develop over time. And the
organizations really have changed. In all the organizations gender has
become much more visible. In some cases, we can say that at least gender
hasn't fallen off the agenda while in others there really has been radical
change. In the workshops we didn't just involve the gender coordinators but
also the directors of the organizations. So, the leadership would become
much more aware of the project and the issues. If you only involve the
gender coordinators, it can be very lonely for them when they come back from
a workshop. So, one thing we've found is that management has to be behind
it
for it to work.

Were you able to see impacts at the beneficiary level?

It's difficult to say. The major focus was at the organizational level
under
the assumption that changes there would eventually work down to the
beneficiary level. Most partners now say they would like to continue at the
target group level. A lot of activities took place at that level but if you
talk about what the actual impact was on their daily lives, I think it's too
early to say. In fact, we've recently discussed follow-up for the project
and we've decided that we would like to continue it at the beneficiary
level.

Beyond continuing the work at the beneficiary level, what are the next
steps?

For the partners that were involved, many want to disseminate the lessons
learned to others. For example, in South East Asia there is going to be a
new Oxfam International project on gender mainstreaming whereby all the
lessons from the Gender Route will be shared with a much bigger group of
NGOs. Some other groups are going to write a book about their own cases.
At
the NOVIB level, we are going to start a Gender Tools project documenting
cases and instruments we have used over the years. This will involve our
own
people in NOVIB as well as other donors.

How has thinking about gender and development changed since you began the
project?

A lot of things have changed since we began the project. Our thinking has
changed. We're now just talking about a rights-based approach to gender and
development and we're talking a lot more about gender and diversity. The
Gender Route has been part of this change. During the Gender Route, as
discussions took place on gender issues, we saw for example that talk of
violence against women kept coming up. So, we've now started a violence
against women project. The issue of gender and ethnicity kept arising so
that has helped us formulate our gender and diversity policies.

What is the idea of a rights-based approach?

NOVIB and all the other Oxfams have decided that we will now work under a
rights-based approach which means that all people we work with should have
access to 5 basic rights. These include the right to a sustainable
livelihood, the right to safety and the right to basic social services among
others. Through this rights-based perspective, we talk about how people can
work towards obtaining these rights. Before, we talked about sustainable
development which was quite vague. So, now we look at the law to see which
rights people should have access to and how we might help them achieve them.

In terms of gender, how does that change what you would do?

We take the international and national rights framework as a starting point.
For example, we recently participated in a justice and accountability
conference to follow up on the Tokyo Tribunal judgement. This judgement
dealt with rights for women abused in war situations. In this case, we
would
analyze what kinds of legal mechanisms are there and what needs to be
changed
to make them work for women. So, it's much more concrete. Before, we would
talk about supporting victims by intervening in the home but now we've
expanded that work by focusing on their rights in the national and
international contexts. We want to work at all levels including the home
and
the community as well as the national and international frameworks.

Information on the Gender Route Project can be found at www.novib.org.

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