FINAL NARRATIVE REPORT - CARE Österreich East/EGY914/EGY914_report_1.pdf · 2015 Reporting period: ... (LPJ) that will replace ... Review CARE’s existing institutional assessment

Empowering Women to Claim Inheritance Rights

(WIN)

DCI-GENRE/2012/301176

1st

INTERIM NARRATIVE

REPORT

Project period: 1

st January 2013 – 31

st December

2015

Reporting period: 1st

January 2013 – 30th

April

2014

The European Union’s Investing in People - GENDER

EQUALITY Programme;

This project is funded by

The European Union and the Austrian

Development Cooperation

A project implemented by CARE, and

Partners ACDA, HDEA and CEWLA

January 2014 Page 2 of 27

CARE - DCI-GENRE/2012/301176 - 1st Interim report_Narrative_CARE_WIN_DCI-GENRE2012301176

Description

1.1. Name of beneficiary of grant contract: CARE Österreich

1.2. Name and title of the Contact person: Osama Abdou (Initiatives Manager CARE Egypt);

Judit Kontseková (CARE Austria, Program Officer),

1.3. Name of partners in the Action: Assiut Childhood and Development Association (ACDA),

Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA), Human Development Egyptian Association (HDEA)

1.4. Title of the Action: Empowering Women to Claim Inheritance Rights (WIN)

1.5. Contract number: DCI-GENRE/2012/301176

1.6. Start date and end date of the reporting period: 1st January 2013 – 30st of April 2014

1.7. Target country(ies) or region(s): Egypt (Assiut and Sohag Governorates)

1.8. Final beneficiaries &/or target groups1 (if different) (including numbers of women and

men): 120 champions, 6 community committees, 12000 women.

1.9. Country(ies) in which the activities take place (if different from 1.7): NA

1 “Target groups” are the groups/entities who will be directly positively affected by the project at the



2. Assessment of implementation of Action activities

2.1. Executive summary of the Action

The Empowering Women to Claim Inheritance Rights (WIN) project is being implemented under the leadership of CARE and in partnership with two intermediary organisations (IOs) - the Assiut Childhood and Development Association (ACDA) and the Human Development Egyptian Association (HDEA) in Sohag, the technical partner, the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA) and through six community based organisations (CBOs). This reporting period covers the first 16 months of implementation, which has seen the effective preparation of the groundwork for the successful roll out of community mechanisms to support women’s inheritance claims, and of advocacy work at multiple levels in the coming quarters. Specifically, community committees and 144 champions of change are in place in each of the six target communities and are ready to support women in facilitating negotiations with their family members or to refer them in exceptional cases to legal aid centres. Both groups are participating in the project on voluntary basis. The community committees are recruited from informal authorities in the project localities and are able to facilitate and mediate conflicts. Whereas the champions of change are young men and women, who are involved in identifying cases related to inheritance rights and refer these further to the committees. The six CBOs in cooperation with the champions of change have prepared and started their community awareness plans, which involves the cooperation with different stakeholders, among other the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which will support with messages during Friday sermons. This activity is outside the initial project framework and represents opportunities for the project to have a wider impact than expected. The legal analysis of women’s inheritance rights is completed and the contents of a legal guide for women are ready for publication. Agreements have been reached with legal support centres in both governorates to provide women with pro bono legal counselling and aid. This has all been made possible as a result of a lengthy but essential process in which the project team consolidated teamwork between partner organisations and developed detailed and tailored capacity building and support plans for all levels of project actors (CBOs, community committees, legal support centres, champions and role models, religious leaders). Capacity building of the IOs, CBOs, champions of change, and community committees are developed and being implemented. CARE and the project team have been able to fulfil most of the planned activities for this reporting period, albeit with some delay on specific ones. This is a considerable accomplishment considering the security challenges that restricted the mobility of the project's team following the political events from 30

th June and which affected the KAP study in Assiut. The WIN team has also had a setback with the

long delay in the approval of the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) for the partner organisation ACDA. This delay was communicated to the EU Delegation. In order to continue with the work-plan without further delays, IO and CBOs staff were hired as CARE staff on a temporary basis to allow them to receive financial compensation for their work while waiting for the formal approval from the Ministry. As the approval was granted, both IOs are currently regularly operating. One concern remaining is with our partner CEWLA, who are having trouble obtaining the ministerial approval. As agreed with the EU Delegation, the current modus operandi is that the expenses are accounted for by CARE. Alternative solutions have been negotiated

2. Despite these challenges, the WIN team has managed to make

important progress on all three expected results and has also managed to create significant community support for the project. Altogether 32 cases were solved successfully, where women were able claim their inheritance rights most importantly via amicable conflict resolution approaches of the established community mechanisms.

2.2. Activities and results The following is a summary of the activities implemented during this reporting period (organized in the same order as in the logical framework) and how they have contributed to the results to date.

2 By the time, when this report was drafted, the implementers were waiting for approval from the

Contracting authority to amend the local partner. The new partner suggested is the Layers for Peace and Justice (LPJ) that will replace the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA) due to administrative hurdles for their registration for this project.



1.1 Identify and select target communities and CSOs to lead community level advocacy The proper identification of suitable communities and the organisations within them responsible for the implementation of activities on the ground is essential for the success of any development project. To that end, CARE places a considerable amount of attention in the selection process which may take several steps. CARE led an orientation meeting with the IOs in February 2013 to set selection criteria for communities and CBOs and to develop immediate action steps prior to the kick-off meeting. The agreed upon selection criteria were as follows:

Community; non-negotiable criteria

Villages have to be among the poorest communities.

Population of 10,000 - 15,000

Have women and men leaders

Societal acceptance of the project

Stable security situation

Existence of inheritance problem

Community; preferred criteria

Existence of legal aid centers.

Existence of role models and champions.

Intersection with VSLA project.

Existence of any women’s rights projects.

CBOs criteria

Relevant vision and mission

Sound financial book record system

Previous experience in similar projects

Good reputation in the community

Preferably past experience with CARE/ IO

A follow up meeting was conducted in March in which the following six communities were selected:

Assiut Governorate 1. Dowaina village, Abo Teeg District 2. Elnekhaila village, Abo Teeg District 3. Bani Shokair village, Manfalot District

Sohag Governorate 1. Naidh village, Akhmim District 2. Seflaq village, Saqulta District 3. Coam Badar village, Almonshat District

It is noteworthy that 2 communities in each governorate intersect with the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) project which CARE is implementing and whose objective is to create local mechanisms for women’s economic empowerment. It is expected that this will create synergy between the two projects and leverage resources to enhance the impact of WIN in communities. The following step involved the selection of the community based organisations (CBOs) that would lead implementation in the field. A number of CBOs were visited and scored according to the set criteria. Based on the final scores, the following 6 CBOs were selected:

Assiut Governorate 1. Community Development Association,

Dowaina District 2. Al Rayan Association for Development,

Elnekhaila village 3. Bani Shokari Community Development

Association, Bani Shokair village

Sohag Governorate 1. Rural Women’s Development

Association, Naidh village 2. Islamic Charity Organisation Seflaq

village 3. Coam Badar Community Development

Association, Coam Badar village Most of the CBOs are working in the microfinance sector, health awareness, illiteracy classes, women rights issues like fight against female genital mutilation, and gender based violence. Once this process was completed, orientation meetings were held with representatives from the board of the selected CBOs. The meetings were organized by the IOs and aimed to introduce the project’s objectives, expected results, and proposed activities and agreements were signed with the IOs for the implementation. CARE and the IOs are continuously assessing the status of the partnership and the level of effectiveness of the CBOs through periodical meetings held at the CBO and project levels.

1.2 Institutional assessment of CSOs and determination of capacity building needs



At the core of CARE’s development approach is the creation of local capacities to enhance self-reliance and contribute to sustainability of project objectives. To that end, capacity building cross cuts all of CARE’s programming, is repeated parallel to all activities and requires a considerable amount of time and resources. To prepare the groundwork for the project’s capacity building plans, CARE contracted a consultant to support CARE and its partners in conducting institutional assessments that represent the baseline upon which capacity building plans will be developed. The specific objectives of the consultancy were to:

Review CARE’s existing institutional assessment tool and add sections to assess the status of women in management and governance structures.

Train project staff on using the updated institutional assessment tool.

Provide technical support to the team during the development of the capacity building plans.

Finalize the formulation of the capacity building plans.

The institutional assessment process involved a training workshop for CARE and IO staff to review the updated tool and make modifications if needed. The participants were trained on the application, data analysis, and reporting of the tool and by the end of the workshop, an action plan was developed for the implementation processes, and a communication strategy with the consultant was agreed upon to facilitate the feedback of the consultant to the participants during the implementation. CARE and IO staff then applied the tool to the 2 IOs and the 6 CBOs respectively. Data analysis and reporting proved challenging for the team as it was new to them to analyse data and develop the final report. However, the support of the consultant was key in the successful completion of this phase. Below are some common findings of the assessments:

1. Institutional capacity a. CBOs lack strategic planning. b. CBOs’ boards do not include representatives of the hamlets affiliated to the village. c. Committees are weak and inactive, and women’s representation does not exceed 30% of

the board structure in the best cases. d. CBOs’ understanding of constituency is unclear and is limited to the General Assembly. e. CBOs lack archiving and documentation systems. f. Employee appraisals are implemented in a superficial way, and there is a lack of proper

systems. g. CBOs use volunteers in their projects however they lack a volunteering system to attract

possible volunteers and best utilize them. h. CBOs have good relations with governmental officials however coordination with other

CBOs in the village and with the media is still weak. 2. Technical capacity

a. CBOs lack an institutional memory to support the design of new projects. b. They lack knowledge management capacity. c. They are not engaged in advocacy efforts and are limited to community awareness only.

3. Women’s status - The vision and mission of the CBOs consider women in their statements, however women’s representation is very weak in the decision making process, and they do not have gender sensitive policies. It’s worth noting that women are considered a target group in most CBOs’ projects, however they still lack sex-disaggregated database of their beneficiaries. Moreover, most of them are donor driven and they are not based on a specific gender responsive strategy.

Once the needs assessments were completed the capacity building plans were developed and presented to the CBOs’ boards to get their approval, commitment and comments. The plans are quite ambitious in order to address all the weak aspects of the organizations, the capacity building of the organizations will continue beyond the implementation period of the project in order to ensure sustainability. Thus, it was necessary for the board to show its commitment to the implementation of the plan. The capacity building plans involve a variety of approaches, including on the job trainings, providing the CBOs with manuals and tools needed for specific area, exchange visits, typical training workshops, and utilization of consultants.

1.3 Institutional assessment of partners HDEA and ACDA and determination of capacity

building needs The institutional assessment process for IOs was the same as that of the CBOs (described under activity 1.2), however the tool used for the IOs included a qualitative tool as well the quantitative tool used with the CBOs. A meeting was held with the IOs to discuss the draft capacity building plan and this meeting resulted in the identification of the roles and responsibilities in the project’s work-plan and



the selection of priority capacity building areas. The priority capacity building areas for IOs were determined as follows (not in any particular order):

1. Strategic planning 2. Monitoring and evaluation 3. Gender and enhancing women’s leadership in organisations 4. The rights based approach 5. Documentation and report writing (success stories, etc). 6. Filing system. 7. Volunteering unit management 8. Community resources mobilization 9. Accountability 10. Using media to market NGO work and using IT to spread work – exchange visits with Assiut

NGO for childhood and development 11. Provide NGOs with guides on policy and instructions on how to change internal systems.

The project has begun implementing some capacity building activities as described under activity 1.4 below.

1.4 Implement CSO and partner capacity building plans based on needs assessments In line with the priorities identified and agreed upon in the capacity building plans, the following capacity building activities were implemented.

1. Training for project coordinators in Assuit (6 from CBOs and 2 from IOs) on time management and presentation skills for one day. These sessions were held during the monthly project coordinator meetings in November and December.

2. Provision of IOs with sample internal policies and procedures from other NGOs in order to guide them in the changes needed to their policy with regards to their administrative systems. A committee has been formed in the IOs to study the documents and make recommendations to their boards.

3. A volunteer management training workshop was held with the participation of 40 members of the board of the 2 IO and 6 CBOs in both Sohag and Assuit as well as the project coordinators and management staff. The results included the drafting of 8 plans for the recruitment and management of volunteers. In Sohag, a media officer has been hired to lead the volunteering unit activities. Because of that, the number of volunteers increased from 25 before the training to 65. However, in Assuit, the plans are currently under review and will be put into action in the coming period.

4. Documentation and report writing skills training was conducted with the participation of 54 members of the board of the two IO and six CBOs in both Sohag and Assuit as well as the project coordinators and management staff. The training aimed also to improve the skills of the management staff to capture and write success stories. It was noticed that the quality of the monthly reports has been improved.

5. Part of the capacity building plan, 2 CBOs in Assuit have been provided with policies and procedures manuals to help them improving their internal capacity.

6. In Sohag, the 3 CBOs have been supported in their efforts to establish a volunteering unit. CBOs have been provided with tools to help them in the registration processes and monitoring their progress.

7. CBOs in Sohag have been supported to activate their media efforts, which resulted in creating a media committee in addition to creating a Facebook page of the project.

8. An exchange visit was held between HDEA and ACDA in December with the objective of visiting the latter’s media unit to learn how it produces regular newsletters and flyers and documentary films and uses IT to disseminate its work. The visit also included a review of their filing system and coding files in an archiving system. Following the visit, HDEA were assigned a task of making periodical newsletters as well as a film.5.

9. A participatory planning training was conducted for the champions of change in Assiut with the participation of Assiut and Sohag CBOs (see activity 3.3). The participation of CBOs in this training served a dual purpose: to introduce them to participatory planning and to guarantee that the CBOs are involved in the preparation of the community plans. A cascade training was



held in Sohag under the leadership of the HDEA where it passed on the knowledge it gained to the CBOs there.

10. The capacity building plan is constantly revised in order to ensure that it meets the organization's needs. We have included amendments to the plan during the annual meeting held in Luxor during plans for the second phase of the project. Which is explained in details in 4.3

11. CARE field officer administrator has conducted a financial training for one day to the IOs accountants, on the financial management of the project.

The coming months will see the continuation of the capacity building activities as well as periodical assessments of the progress of IOs and CBOs in their respective capacity objectives.

1.5 Promotion of women’s participation in CSO management and decision-making structures While this activity was originally foreseen to begin in 2014, HDEA in Sohag has already started the first steps towards inclusion of women in its governance structure. It has included 14 women from the 3 communities in its General Assembly (GA). The total number of the GA was 65 Female and 31 Male, and now the female composition becomes 79 female after adding 14 women. The idea was not just increasing the number of females but increase the female representation of the different communities in the GA. (The 14 women are mix between champions of change and field officers in the CBOs). During the coming period the project will have a major focus on this activity and it is expected that significant progress will be made with regards to women’s representation at all levels of governance and decision making across the six CBOs and their respective IOs. There has been a great increase in the numbers and representation of women CSOs. In Bani Shokeir village, there has been a 46.5% increase in the number of women in the GA. In Dwinh's village the number of women increased by 40% in the GA, in addition, women in Dwinh were chosen to head sub-committees. In Al-Nakhila a woman was elected as a member of the Board of Directors and an additional 14 women joined the assembly. In Com Bedar in Suhag there was a 11% increase in women members in the organizations, which makes the current total representation of women 44% in Suhag’s organizations.

1.6 Review and update the legal analysis of current policy and procedures for inheritance and

property rights, including analysis of gaps in implementation of CEDAW provisions CARE contracted a consultant to review and update the legal analysis of current policy and procedures for inheritance and property rights. The consultant updated and deepened the analysis already carried out on the same subject through the work of two previous projects led by CARE. The analysis addresses international instruments in particular CEDAW, Egypt’s constitutional safeguards for women’s rights, the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, and also the implications of Islamic Shari’a. The consultant also identified the gap between the Law and its application and addressed the wider discriminatory practices in society that undermine women’s ability to realise their property and inheritance rights in practice. Also the consultant identified realistic and relevant advocacy objectives, to support advocacy plans at governorate, national and international levels. The full study is available in Arabic

Progress on Expected Result 1: As a result of the progress the project team has made in activities 1.1 to 1.6 during this reporting period, the groundwork for effective teamwork between organisations has been established. The selected CBOs have the necessary community trust and credibility, track record and commitment to lead the project in their respective communities and a capacity building plan that will enable them to push for women’s inheritance rights is in place. The relations between CSOs and IOs is beginning to consolidate as a result of working together. The representation of women in the governance structures in the CBOs has been increased.The legal analysis of women’s inheritance rights has been prepared to establish the upcoming steps of advocacy and awareness raising.

ER1 activities related output/outcome indicators:

Activity planned Progress

Result 1

Activities

1.1 Identify and select target

communities and CSOs to lead

community level advocacy

1.2 Institutional assessment of CSOs

1.1 6 CSOs selected in 6 target

communities

1.2. Institutional assessment of CBOs



and determination of capacity building

needs

1.3 Institutional assessment of partners

HDEA and ACDA and determination of

capacity building needs

1.4 Implement CSO and partner

capacity building plans based on needs

assessments

1.5 Promotion of women’s participation

in CSO management and decision-

making structures

1.6 Review and update the legal

analysis of current policy and

procedures for inheritance and property

rights, including analysis of gaps in

implementation of CEDAW provisions

1.7 Set and implement Governorate,

National and International level

advocacy strategies and plan

conducted.

1.3. Institutional assessment of 2 IOs

conducted.

1.4. Capacity building plans for 2 IOs

and 6 CBOs created, and

implementation began with trainings on

3 topics and 1 exchange visit.

1.5. 14 women included into the

General Assemblies of IOs (from 3

communities) in Sohaq and a total

increase in the representation of women

in the villages of intervention as

explained in details in 1.5

1.6. Reviewed and updated legal

analysis drafted.

1.7 this activity has not formally started

but we have conducted several efforts

towards it such as building the capacity

of CBOs, lawyers, legal aid centres,

religious leaders, role models,

community leaders, and champions of

change who will have a major role in

advocating for women’s inheritance

rights

2.1 Conduct a study on community knowledge, attitudes and practices (pre-KAP study) towards

women's inheritance and property rights The purpose of the KAP study is twofold: to better understand the community knowledge, attitudes and practices towards women’s inheritance rights, to better design awareness raising messages that address their specific conditions and to serve as a baseline from which to compare the result of awareness raising and other community based activities on members of the target communities. To that end, CARE hired a consultant to lead in the design of the KAP study and provide overall guidance and support to the data collection teams in the field. The consultant reviewed all relevant project documents and accordingly drafted the survey tools. The draft tools were thoroughly reviewed by CARE and IOs staff through several rounds of comments. The tools included a variety of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods including focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews with CBOs, lawyers, legal aid centres, religious leaders, role models, community leaders, and champions of change. The quantitative tools included questionnaires for both men and women. Again as part of CARE’s capacity building strategies, data collection was conducted by volunteers from the communities whom the consultant trained on the various research tools. Part of the training included role-play to make sure of the quality of the implementation and to have common understanding of the details of the tools. A total of 407 questionnaires were implemented in Sohag, 5 FGDs and 1 in depth interview. While it was planned to implement the KAP in Assiut immediately after completing Sohag, the undersecretary of MoSA in Assuit requested to suspend such activities until receiving the formal approval from MoSA headquarters in Cairo. Accordingly, data collection was postponed until August when it was interrupted once again due to the poor security situation following the crack down on the sit-in of the Muslim Brotherhood which led to conflicts all over the country. Despite these challenges and the resulting delays, the research teams managed to collect a total of



440 questionnaires from Assiut. Qualitative data, collected through in-depth interviewees and focus groups discussions, were only collected from one village out of the three. However there was substantial qualitative data from the lawyers, IO and legal aid centres. Research findings were sent to the consultant who was responsible for the data analysis and reporting. The results of the KAP study were shared with the CBOs who used them and the recommendations in preparing community awareness plans. These findings and recommendations include:

1. The importance of including men as a main target group in awareness raising plans 2. The issue of women’s inheritance rights is related to women’s position in the community as a

whole and therefore women’s rights in general should be targeted to all community groups including youth through youth clubs and children through schools.

3. The importance of integration between organisations working for women’s rights and to that end, common activities and action plans have been drawn up between CBOs, community committees and legal support offices.

4. Highlighting success stories and disseminating them can provide women with motivation and demonstrate to men examples of women’s access to their inherence rights. This will also enable the work with role models. The importance of the use of local media, social networks and religious leader platforms to provide coherent and consistent messages around women’s rights.

5. The priority to create ‘ombudsmen offices’3 at the village level for women who seek access to

their rights in cooperation with organisations that provide legal counselling and support and which are usually based at the district or governorate levels.

6. Religious institutions can work on spreading rights awareness.

2.2 Form Community Committees in each of the target communities The purpose of community committees (also known as mitigation and conflict resolution committees) is to support women claiming inheritance by acting as mediators with their families and relatives to resolve cases in a friendly or amicable matter – and to refer to the legal support centres those cases where amicable methods are not sufficient. CEWLA supported the project team in drafting a list of criteria for membership in these committees which included criteria in terms of age, experience, and specializations so that it includes women leaders (if any), religious leaders, lawyers, members of senior families (clans) and youth leaders. Community committee members were identified in each of the target communities and meetings have been held to orient members on the objectives and methodology of the project, the role of the committees and how to coordinate with change leaders (champions) and with the project coordinators in order to have a smooth referral system to serve women who need support in accessing their inheritance rights. Among the community Committees there are stakeholders from different professions, including teachers, layers, municipal representatives, agricultural workers, etc. Due to this diversity and the expertise of some of them, they tend to support also the champions of change in assessing the cases so that they can effectively advise the individuals claiming or considering to claim their inheritance rights.

2.3 Discuss the findings of the KAP study with Community Committees, set and implement an

action plan for community awareness-raising Given the delays in the implementation of the KAP study (as mentioned above) and to be able to avoid the postponement of other activities, particularly given that community committees had demonstrated a commitment to the cause, the project team began to support these committees in drafting community awareness plans prior to the completion of the KAP study findings. Community plans, complete with objectives, activities per target group and responsible persons were finalized in all communities.. To date, during the planning phase the community committees have taken the following issues into account in:

Coordination and cooperation with the other projects within the CBO (in particular with the savings groups projects, health awareness raising, kindergarten services and micro loans).

Coordination with the champions of change.

Awareness activities are to be done through/led by experts or qualified persons (lawyers from counselling services offices, religious leaders).

3 The location of the legal support centers is usually remote for local women living in villages. Bringing

‘ombudsmen offices’ closer to women will enhance women’s access to legal support.



Introduction of new and innovative awareness raising ideas (film, sketches, plays, puppet shows) wherever possible.

The use of activities that are attractive to each type of target group (youth trips, mobile medical clinics for women, etc).

Coordination with the Church and with the Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) to work in churches and mosques as well as in youth centres.

Coordination with two schools in each community and with an Educational Institute in Neida.

The use of children’s rights as an entry point to address women’s inheritance rights.

Coordination with the Equal Opportunities Department in the Directorate of the MoE on the project to help coordinate with schools and with activities teachers in particular who can adopt awareness raising messages and integrate them in their classes.

The awareness raising issues in schools should target students, teachers and parents. Coordinating and linking the Equal Opportunities Department with the champions of change in order to follow up on activities

The KAP study findings were discussed in the annual planning meeting held in Luxor and

based on the meeting we have established a plan to build the capacity of the Champions of

Change.

A transfer of knowledge plan between different stakeholders in the projects

Amendments were made to the community awareness plan

Six follow-up meetings were held to discuss the work-plan of the committtees of the

Champions of change and the mediation committiees in the six targeted communities during

February

2.4 Build the capacity of Community Committees in rights-based approach; women's rights

especially inheritance rights, consultancy, mediating skills, conflict resolution, etc.

Six meetings have been held between CEWLA and the community committees with the participation of 75 community committee members and CBO staff. The results of these meetings include a plan of action for capacity building for the committees which include:

1. Communication, negotiation and conflict resolution skills. 2. Human rights conventions with a particular focus on CEDAW. 3. Designing advocacy campaigns for women’s rights. 4. Fighting violence against women, gender, and documentation. 5. The Egyptian Constitution and the legal criteria for property ownership and inheritance. 6. Project design and management and financial management of project budgets. 7. Exchange visit to ACDA to better understand the role of community committees in resolving

conflicts.

During the first quarter of 2014 we conducted the following:

1. A 4-day training on communication, negotiation, conflict resolution for a total number of 83 members of the community committees and Legal aid centers in Assuit and Sohag. It is worthy to note that the training has been conducted interchangeably among the two topics. The communication and negotiation skills were applied in the conflict resolution part of the training.

2. A 2-day training on monitoring and documentation for a total number of 52 of the community committees and legal aid centers. By the end of the training, participants were able to use the templates provided to them in their documentation processes. It is worthy to note that this training is crucial to document the number of cases the committees are dealing with and tracking of each care till they are closed.

3. A 2-day training on the international covenants and the constitution for a total number of 61 of the community committees and legal aid centers. By the end of the training participants were able to understand the most important relevant laws as well as the international covenants especially CEDAW. In addition, the consultant introduced how to formalize the decisions of the committees to be treated as judicial rulings.

All capacity building is led by CEWLA who will continue to provide technical support throughout the project.



2.5 Build the capacity of community and religious leaders to participate effectively in

community awareness-raising

While this activity was planned to start in 2014, CARE found an opportunity of cooperation with GIZ’s Support of Women’s Rights Project in Assiut. With the support of their resources, CARE conducted a two day training session for a total of 25 Islamic leaders from 3 communities on the Personal Status Law and inheritance issues. The outcome of the training is an action plan for the 25 religious leaders to include a message on women’s right to inheritance in their regular speeches in the mosques. Moreover the religious leaders committed themselves to send a monthly report to CARE on their attempts.. We have held 3 awareness raising training for 30 Imams and mosque administration officials in the target areas in order to start working on advocating against deprivation of women from their inheritance rights according to religious teachings. Moreover, we held 29 sessions in order to raise people’s awareness on the women’s inheritance rights from a religious perspective.

Progress on Expected Result 2: As a result of the progress that the project team has achieved under activities 2.1 to 2.5, the groundwork has been prepared for the start of local awareness raising and local mechanisms to support women in claiming their rights. Most notably, the community committees are in place and have demonstrated their ability and commitment to support the project objectives through their active participation in all meetings, trainings and planning processes.



Result 2

Activities

2.1 Conduct a study on community

knowledge, attitudes and practices (pre-

KAP study) towards women's

inheritance and property rights

2.2 Form Community Committees in

each of the target communities

2.3 Discuss the findings of the KAP

study with Community Committees, set

and implement an action plan for

community awareness-raising

2.4 Build the capacity of Community

Committees in rights-based approach;

women's rights especially inheritance

rights, consultancy, mediating skills,

conflict resolution, etc.

2.5 Build the capacity of community and

religious leaders to participate

effectively in community awareness-

raising

2.6 Conduct post - KAP study and

measure the change in community

2.1 KAP study completed

2.2. 6 Community Committees in

each target community established,

62 CC members selected (out of which

14 women)

Assuit: 30 members in total (7 females).

Sohag: 32 members in total (7 females)

2.3. Done during the annual meeting

held in Luxor, based on this discussion

work-plans were established and some

elements in the CC capacity building

plan were amended to meet the KAP

findings.

2.4. capacity building plans developed,

Four training topics were covered.

2.5. 2-days Training for 25 religious

leaders organized. In addition to three

training sessions to build the capacity of

30 imams and mosque administration

officials.



knowledge, attitudes and practices

(gender disaggregated data) 2.6 NA

3.1 Identify female and male Champions and Role Models A 3 day training on participatory planning was conducted in Assuit in April/May with the participation of 24 participants representing the CARE team, IOs, and CBOs staff. Also representatives from the board of the CBOs attended the first day of the training to support their staff in the implementation. The training falls under a wider objective of building the capacity of the project team in participatory planning to enable it to lead the process with CBOs during the development of the community action plans. CARE therefore contracted a consultant who led the training and who will provide on-going technical support to the project team through-out the implementation process. The training workshop focused on theoretical concepts and practical application of:

Formation of the constituency: It was agreed that the constituency will consist of 250-300 person/ village, distributed in 6 groups covering the village geographically. Also it was agreed that, 50% of the constituency should be women/ relatives of women that are negatively affected by the deprivation of inheritance. The rest could be men, youth, or girls. A detailed action plan was developed for forming the constituency for each village through two orientation meetings and home visits.

Election of the champions of change: A theoretical framework on the difference between elections and a referendum, and the different methods of conducting elections was presented to the participants. The participants approved the “relative majority” method for conducting the election in the communities. Moreover, the possible motivations for people to nominate themselves were discussed in detail, and alternative scenarios were agreed upon in case of a no show.

By the end of the training, participants developed action plans for home visits, orientation meetings, and election dates. Since then, 36 groups of the constituency have been formed (6 groups each 50 person, in 6 communities adding up to 1800 individuals) and orientation meetings were conducted between May and July 2013 during which their roles were discussed. In the second orientation meeting 4 champions were elected from each group for a total of 144 champions (84 women, 60 men). The criteria for the selection of champions included:

Have the desire for positive change to their community

Committed and serious in their roles and attend the activities of the Committee

Are influencers and leaders

Have community acceptance

Diversity in age / gender / geographical affiliation It is useful to clarify that the champions of change are essentially rights holders who will work on a volunteer basis to raise awareness and provide knowledge to other members of the community on how to access their inheritance rights. Champions are both male and female. As for the role models, a guiding questionnaire has been designed to identify the potential role models in the communities. Champions were able to collect 68 questionnaires from the three villages in Sohag and 60 in Assiut. A meeting will be held in July 2014 with these persons to identify which role models will be working throughout the duration of the project. It is expected that not all the nominated role models will fit in the project, however after the meeting the picture will be clearer. Role models are ‘duty bearers’ in the sense that they are examples of persons who have acted positively by giving their female family members their rightful share of inheritance. Their purpose is to demonstrate to other members of the community that there are positive examples of inheritance sharing and that the social norms that deny women’s inheritance are not universal and can be reversed.

3.2 Capacity building of Champions and Role Models The first set of training workshops conducted for the champions of change aimed to build their capacity to put an organizational structure (president, vice president,) and bylaws into place in their groups in order to better organize their work. The consultant conducted one workshop in August 2013 in Elnekhaila village in Assiut and CARE and IOs staff replicated it in the remaining villages between August and September. Overall, 145 champions from six villages participated in the workshops. By the end of this process 6 organizational structures as well as 6 bylaws were developed. The second set of trainings focused on religious and legal aspects of women’s inheritance rights and was held in December in Sohag for champions and CBO project coordinators. The training was



introduced by the legal advisor of Sohag Governorate and a lawyer. This helped champions of change identify the main awareness messages which include:

Women’s portion of inheritance is based on her kinship status. It may be the same as her male relatives or even more depending on the kinship relations and is not always half of that of men.

Providing financial and non financial alternatives to women’s inheritance are a way of tricking the system.

Divorced women have a right to inherit from their husbands in the first three months of edda, Islamic term meaning the period after the divorce where the husband and wife can get back together without having to write a new marriage contract.

It is possible to use common law (orf) contracts in inheritance court cases.

The right to take inheritance cases to court does not drop with the passing of time.

It is possible to add new inheritors on the legal document issued by the government at any time.

It’s noteworthy that most of the above mentioned concepts were misunderstood by the majority of the champions of change, and the training was therefore very beneficial to bring these issues up and turn the misconceptions into right ones.

The 3 days annual planning meeting that was held in Luxor which was attended by representatives of the three champion of change committees from the 3 targeted areas resulted in: • Developing a plan to build the capacity of the champions of change . • Developing a plan to transfer knowledge and initiatives. • Amending community’s awareness plans in accordance with the KAP’s study. In 2014 a number of trainings were held for the champion of change members as follows:

A 1-day training in order to inform the participants about the religious opinion on women’s inheritance rights.

A meeting in order to determine which messages we should focus on during the community awareness campaigns.

Empower 24 champion of change members with communication and negotiation skills. The training goal was to develop the skills of champions of change to enable them to successfully conduct the transfer of knowledge.

In Assuit, a one-day training per each village on home visit techniques and communication has been conducted. A tool has been provided to document the results of each home visit.

3.3 Support female and male Champions in setting and implementing activity plans/ initiatives

for spreading awareness and empowering women

A training workshop was conducted in Elnekhaila, Assiut in September 2013 to build the capacity of the champions in developing community action plans. The consultant conducted the training with the presence of the CARE team in Sohag including IOs and CBOs staff members for replication in their respective villages. By the end of September, all committees had been introduced to participatory planning and had created their action plans in coordination and with the participation of their respective CBOs. In January, A total number of 12 meetings where held for champion of change members in the six target villages of Assuit and Sohag. The purpose of these meetings were to view and discuss the community awareness campaign plans and to distribute the roles between the members. During those meetings we were successful in determining the responsible members for the home visits, reviewing the legislation regarding inheritance rights, and conducting an evaluation to determine who are the active and inactive members of the champions of change . In February, six meetings were held in order to analyse and discuss the findings of the KAP study with the champion of change and community committees´ members. In March, 3 meetings were held for the champion of change in collaboration with the Directorate of Endowments in Assiut in order to educate the champions of change about the inheritance rights of women according to Islam.



The champion of change members held 8 awareness campaigns in March that included awareness on the religious, legal, and social view on women’s inheretence rights. In most of the village 2 seminars were held for men and 5 for women. In Naidh village 60 men attended the sessions and 200 women. In Seflaq village 80 men and 205 women. In Coam Badar village 68 men and 194 women. In Bani Shokair village 42 men and 59 women attended. In Dowaina village 3 seminars were held for 150 women in Dwinh village and Nazlt Kaab. In Elnekhaila village 2 seminars on women's right to inheritance from a religious perspective were held targeting 105 female. In addition, a seminar on women's inheritance rights from a religious perspective was held in Elnekhaila Youth Center targeting 70 women and their children aging from 15 to 18.

3.4 Produce guide for women on how to secure their inheritance rights

CARE contracted a consultant to develop a guide for women on how to secure their inheritance rights. The guide introduces the steps and legal mechanisms and methods to be followed when filing lawsuits to claim the right to inheritance in detail, from the death of the testator to obtaining a judgment and its execution. The guide also addresses the importance of friendly methods undertaken before resorting to lawsuits. The guide is based in part on the findings of the report in activity 1.6 and presents essential information in a semi-formal language to be readily accessible for women of all educational levels. The content of the guide will be produced in two formats: an artistic format that contains sketches and illustrative drawings to facilitate the comprehension of the difficult topics of the guide and a video production that will facilitate the access to the information for illiterate women. The video production will be disseminated through the awareness raising activities in the project as well as through CARE Egypt’s website, participation and leading of any workshops or events outside the project, distribution to program partners and also through sharing on social media to enable as wide a dissemination as possible. Both the guide in the artistic and video formats will be produced in the coming months.

3.5 Improve the capacity of legal aid centres to provide legal consultancy, including

infrastructure improvements In addition to CBO work, community awareness and the work of community committees, the project would not be complete without the provision of legal assistance to women who need to take their cases to court following the failure of amicable attempts at resolving their inheritance claims. To that end, the project completed a mapping of legal support centres in Assiut and Sohag which resulted in the identification of the following centres:

Assiut

ACDA’s Legal Support Office

Legal Counselling Office in Abou Teeg

Family Counselling and Guidance Office of the Muslim Youth Association in Manfalout

National Council for Women’s Ombudsman Office

Legal Clinic in the Faculty of Law, Assiut University

Sohag

National Council for Women’s Ombudsman Office

HDEA’s Legal Aid Centre for.

Legal counselling office in Seflaq.

Legal Aid Centre in Bader Eltawayel.

Family advisory and guidance office (Government)

Meetings were held with these centres to introduce the project and learn more about their activities, scope of work, challenges and needs and to discuss opportunities for cooperation. From this activity, 3 offices were selected in Assiut and 3 in Sohag and MOUs for cooperation are under preparation. The first three from the above table have been selected with the following agreed upon areas of cooperation:

Operate mobile legal units with the cooperation of the Faculty of Law in Assiut University to tour the target communities.

Legal centres take responsibility for cases of women denied inheritance rights and transfer them to lawyers working on a volunteer basis in the centre.

Centres provide women with legal advice.

Legal, social and psychological counselling is provided whenever possible.

Provide legal support to community committees and elected committees.

Take on the cases of women deprived of their inheritance through their lawyers.

Provide legal consultations.



Hotline services.

Provide legal awareness through their lawyers, social and psychic workers.

Provide legal support to the mitigation and conflict resolution committees.

Sharing their legal services manual.

The project similarly will support the centres with their needs, the most prominent of which are:

Dissemination of information of the services of the centres in the target communities.

Financial aid to poor cases who cannot afford to pay court fees.

Capacity building for centres’ staff and lawyers.

Improvements in the infrastructure of the centres.

Creation of communication channels with conflict resolution committees. This link between the committees and the legal centres is vital for two interrelated reasons. First, it supports the legitimacy of the legal aid centres through the endorsement of the community committees (who in turn have influential community members within them). Secondly, it establishes greater legitimacy for women taking their claims to court as it proves that they have sought amicable solutions in the first instance and that these solutions have not found a reciprocal willingness from their family members.

The main training needs identified by the legal support centres and which the project can help provide include:

Communication skills, problem analysis and conflict resolution.

Designing advocacy campaigns for women’s rights.

Addressing violence against women, gender and reporting and documentation skills.

The Egyptian Constitution and the legal criteria for property ownership and inheritance.

Human rights conventions with a particular focus on CEDAW. The legal aid centres got the same training that the community committees have had. Please see details in 2.4. It was beneficial to include the legal aid centres with the community committees in the same trainings as their work is very much interrelated.

3.6 Initiate referral system for local women to access legal services The formal referral system where community committees forward cases to legal centres will be designed under the leadership of CEWLA as a part of their capacity building plan. It is planned that by the end of the project, about 300 women will have received support through this services (as per logframe indicators). However, champions of change are being trained on how to provide women with support and to refer them to the community committees as a first step towards an amicable solution. There have been no referrals from the community committees to date, however the progress on activity 3.5 means that the mechanism will begin to function within the next few months. In the meantime, the community committees have already begun to make promising actions by managing to resolve women’s inheritance cases in friendly or amicable ways and thereby not requiring the use of the referral system to the legal centres. To date, the project has recorded the community committees successfully supporting four women to receive their inheritance share (in Elnekheila and Coam Badar) and other cases are being dealt with similarly in amicable ways. Details of these cases will be provided in the next report and/or case studies. During the past months several cases were referred to the community committees by the champions of change or through the awareness campaigns for review:

Sohaq I. In Seflag village 15 cases were studied and 8 cases out of those 15 were resolved

where they got their inheritance. II. In Com Badar village, 9 cases were studied and 8 were resolved and 1 was referred to

the legal help offices. III. In Naidh village 14 cases were studied and we were able to settle 5 of them

Assuit I. In Dowaina village 8 cases have been referred and currently the cases are being

studied



II. In Elnekhaila village 4 cases have been referred and two of them got their inheritance. III. In Bani Shokair 2 cases have been referred where both of them got their inheritance.

Progress on Expected Result 3: As a result of the progress to date in implementing activities 3.1 to 3.6, 32 women have received their full share of inheritance or some form of compensation. The impact of the project’s activities on the lives of individual women has preceded the expected start. CARE expects that this number will increase exponentially in the coming period given that the systems that the project had envisioned to support women in their claims are now put in place. The community committees, champions, role models, religious leaders and the legal aid centres have all been prepared for respective awareness raising and supporting roles. Each group of stakeholders is clear on its role and objectives and has an action plan in place to begin its work as well as a support system in the form of capacity building and training plan in order to help them in doing so.



Result 3

Activities

3.1 Identify female and male

Champions and Role Models

3.2 Capacity building of Champions and

Role Models

3.3 Support female and male

Champions in setting and implementing

activity plans/ initiatives for spreading

awareness and empowering women

3.4 Produce guide for women on how to

secure their inheritance rights

3.5 Improve the capacity of legal aid

centres to provide legal consultancy,

including infrastructure improvements

3.1 3 days training on Participatory

planning implemented for 24

participants (from CARE/CBOs/IOs).

Constituencies of 250-300 persons

divided into 6 groups selected per each

locality.

144 champions selected (84 women/ 60

men), 4 from each of the 36

constituency groups.

Survey on identifying Role Models

implemented.

3.2. 2 day training for Champions of

change on the organizational structure

of their groups

1 day training for Champions of change

focused on religious and legal aspects

of women’s inheritance

3.3. 3 day training for champions of

change on developing community action

plans

12 meetings to clarify the roles of the

Champions

8 awareness campaigns in the target

areas

3.4. Guide for women on inheritance

rights is in process of preparation.

3.5. MoUs with 10 legal support centres

are under preparation.



3.6 Initiate referral system for local

women to access legal services

3.7 Support legal aid centers to be able

to provide financial support for payment

of court fees to poor women involved in

cases to protect their rights

3.6 Planned as part of the capacity

building plan of CEWLA

A total number of 52 cases were

referred in Assuit and Suhag and from

those cases 25 were resolved.

4.1 Recruitment and/or reallocation of staff in CARE and partners Some CARE staff including the Women’s Rights Program Director (10% level of effort), the Project Manager (50% LOE) and the Management Assistant (15% LOE) were reallocated to the project. The two Field Supervisor positions were announced internally and externally, and two candidates were selected for the positions. It is worth noting that both are ex-CARE and have great experience in the women’s rights field. For the M&E Officer position, the position has been filled in April 2014 and 30% of time is allocated to the project. IOs staff selection took place through interviews with the presence of CARE staff. Final selection has been made for all the three partners. The selection was made before the kick-off meeting to enable staff to attend the meeting. 12 field officers have been hired in 6 CBOs through a transparent process.

4.2. Documentation of roles and responsibilities with partners CARE completed the definition of roles and responsibilities of all partners during the kick-off meeting. During that workshop, the roles of each partner were discussed, questions clarified and any potential overlap or repetition of responsibilities were ironed out in order to ensure complementary roles and the smooth operation of the project at both the technical and administrative/financial levels. These have been recorded in detail and have been adhered to since then. During the past months, we have established a MOU with the Directorate of Endowments in Assuit and Sohag in order to discuss how to integrate religious leaders in awareness campaigns regarding women’s inheritance rights. Based on this meeting we agreed that we will establish 3 sessions to raise awareness of the champions of change and committee communitiesand the local Imam in the targeted villages. We have collaborated with ElNekhaila youth center in order to conduct awareness campaigns for the youth about women’s inheritance rights. In addition, we informally collaborated with ElNekhaila´s police station officials, who agreed to work with us on finding amicable solutions between the family members to solve inheritance issues.

4.3. Regular partners’ and stakeholders’ meetings, including “kick-off meeting” to initiate the

action and annual planning meetings Kick-off meeting The kick-off meeting was a four day event led by CARE and held in March. It was attended by 18 persons representing CARE staff, IOs staff and representatives from the board of directors of each IO. The meeting aimed to: 1) Build the capacity of the attendees on the rights based approach. 2) Develop the first year detailed action plan. 3) Identify the most expected challenges. 4) Risks analysis. 5) Build the capacity of the attendees on the rights based approach. 6) Create a mutual understanding of the project objectives, activities, and mechanisms. By the end of the meeting participants:

Were able to understand the basics of the rights based approach (RBA): its main elements, stakeholders, principles, mechanisms and strategies. This step is essential for the planning process as the project management adopts RBA as a methodology for planning either on the central or grass root level.

Reviewed the logical framework in detail having taken in to account the following factors: logical sequence; expected challenges per result; opportunities and resources; identifying things that need clarification; possible RBA mechanisms.

Completed a risk analysis: level of the risk (high- medium-low); resulting difficulties in implementation; mitigate measures. It is noteworthy that the unstable political and economic situation in Egypt was heavily mentioned among the high risks of the project. Mitigation



measures included merging the VSLA project with WIN, having flexible and alternative plans, gaining support from religious and community leaders, and raising awareness among community members especially men using innovative ways and forming a steering committee on the governorate level.

Had identified four committees as follows: 1- Technical committee - The committee will be formed by the CARE project manager, two

supervisors, and partners’ project managers. The committee has to meet quarterly and its main task is to review the progress against the plan and take corrective actions if necessary. Also the committee has to review the burn rate of the project.

2- Steering committee: The committee is formed from the Governor/ general secretary, undersecretaries of the relevant governmental bodies, National council of women, CARE representative, IO director of boards. The committee has to meet twice a year. The main task of the committee is to solve any administrative problems, and also to coordinate among the different stakeholders.

3- Mediation and conflict resolution committee/ community committee- The committees are formed on the village level from a number of mediators and arbitrators (3-9) as well as influential lawyers in the village according to specific criteria, which were determined by CEWLA. The committees’ roles are as follows:

Dispute Resolution

Coming up with binding agreements among disputed parties that can be formally documented

To assist in the implementation of binding agreements issued by the committees

Apply referral system for cases where friendly resolution didn’t succeed 4- People elected groups (Champions of change) - The process of electing champions of

change was discussed in detail in the participatory planning training however the team in the kickoff meeting agreed on some preliminary steps. First of all, a constituency of the right’s holders is to be formed in each village including a total number of 250-300 persons distributed among 6 groups. After orientation meetings and sensitization each group has to elect 4 persons that will represent the whole group in the planning and implementation of the project in the village. Accordingly a total number of 24 champions of change were elected in each village that bear the following responsibilities:

Representing the constituency (rights holders) in each village

Link between the needs of the rights holders and duty bearers

Develop and implement plans for raising awareness in communities

Refer cases to the mediation and conflict resolution committee.

Had completed the detailed action plan for year 1.

Had agreed on the roles and responsibilities of each partner CARE, HDEA, ACDA, CEWLA, and CBOs. Contradictions were cleared upon mutual agreement and the document has been sent to all partners. Also partners agreed on different mechanisms for effective coordination such as regular meetings, sharing reports, joint field visits and creating email groups for sharing information.

Capacity building and empowerment process: This subject was raised by the participants as crucial ingredient of the project. The participants discussed the target groups (IOs, CBOs, champions of change, religious institutions, media, lawyers and other stakeholders), methodology (training, technical assistance, exchange of experiences, self-learning, training with immediate application/application related training), suggested tools (interactive theatre, the use of simulation or role models), and measuring impact.

Regular meetings are held within the project at all levels: CBOs, partners and steering committee. 3-day Annual Planning for year 2-Luxor Meeting: This meeting was held in order to bring together representatives of the projects stakeholders including CBOs, IOs, Champion of Change committees and Community committees in order to participate in establishing a plan for the second year of the project. During the meeting we have developed the following:

The KAP study findings were discussed during the meeting and based on the study the capacity building plan for CBOs were amended, evaluation of the awareness campaigns we have re-evaluated the roles of the partners and redistributed some roles.



We have amended the awareness campaign plans for the 6 target areas in Assuit and Suhag. We have agreed to use untraditional methods in our campaigns such as interactive theatre, camps, sports activities, field trips where we can discuss women’s inheritance rights in an interesting and an entertaining way.

We have built the capacity of the CBOs on monitoring, evaluation, documentation, and reporting. Based on the meeting the CBOs developed monthly reports and submitted it to IOs.

To establish a transfer of knowledge plan where the Champions of Change will deliver the knowledge about women’s inheritance rights to 12000 women in the 6 target areas through the saving meetings that held with the beneficiaries, the field trips, and the meetings that are held in the beneficiaries homes.

We have developed a plan in order to integrate religious leaders in promoting women’s inheritance rights

4.4. Presentation of action to government authorities at national and local levels In both Assiut and Sohag, the project has been introduced to the Directorate of Religious Endowments. The Undersecretary in Sohag was impressed by the project and he demonstrated his willingness to cooperate and suggested to hold a governorate level meeting with all heads of districts in order to make use of the outreach possibilities at mosques at all levels. In Assiut, the Directorate of Religious Endowments created a plan for 2014 for sermons in mosques and religious lessons. CARE has signed MOUs with both Directorates and it is expected that the plans will be carried out starting early 2014. Following introductory meetings with the Undersecretary at the Directorate of Education in Sohag, the Director of NGO Department and the Equal Opportunities Unit, it has been agreed that the Directorate would cooperate in awareness raising on women’s rights through local schools by including awareness messages in school activities. A MOU has been signed with the Equal Opportunities Unit to that effect and activities are expected to roll out in early 2014.

4.5. Dissemination of experience from the action within CARE International regional and global

networks CARE is continuously updating its program staff with the progress of the WIN project. These updates which take place in weekly and monthly program meetings as well as in the more in depth semi-annual program planning and review meetings allow for the lessons and experiences gained in the project to be shared with others and for other projects to inform and provide WIN’s staff with feedback. It also allows for synergies between the projects that address women’s rights as is the case between the WIN and VSLA projects. In addition CARE shares the project with other partners in the GIZ sponsored Network of Women’s Rights Organisations which has over ten members working at the local and national levels towards women’s empowerment. While the network’s main areas of focus are the reform of the Family Law and addressing violence against women, they recognize depriving women from inheritance rights as a form of economic violence. CARE also participates in Assiut as a member of the Upper Egypt Network to Support Women. The network is still under development under the leadership of Plan International in Egypt. 14 NGOs and INGOs are members of this network, including CARE. The Network aims to protect Women’s rights in Upper Egypt. Additionally, the Field Supervisor in Assiut as a member of the National Council for Women participates in its monthly meetings and attended a national level event organized by them to discuss women’s position in the Constitution.

2.3. Please list activities that were planned and that you were not able to implement,

explaining the reasons for these. The project team has witnessed some delays and setbacks, primarily due to the delay in approval from the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) for ACDA and to the poor security situation which prevented some fieldwork, including the KAP survey in Assiut to be done on time. Overall however, CARE has worked with partners to proceed on all possible other activities as much as possible in order not to delay overall project progress. CARE hired ACDA staff and that of its CBOs as temporary CARE staff in order to be able to proceed with project activities while waiting for the formal approval from the Ministry. This was communicated to the EU Delegation on 6

th August 2013. We have filled the position of the

M&E officer whose 30% of her time is detected to WIN. As for the delay in the KAP survey, it has had some repercussions on the start of community awareness raising plans, however CARE has attempted



to mitigate this situation by moving forward with other activities related to awareness raising. Since the KAP study has been finalized we made up for the delay by intensifying the pace of awareness raising activities.

2.4. What is your assessment of the results of the Action so far? Include observations on the

performance and the achievement of outputs, outcomes and impact in relation to

specific and overall objectives, and whether the Action has had any unforeseen positive

or negative results (please quantify where possible; refer to Logframe Indicators).

Overall this reporting period has seen the effective preparation of the groundwork for successful implementation of project activities. Important steps in guaranteeing solid teamwork between partner organisations, detailed and tailored capacity building and support plans have been drafted for partners and groups (community committees, legal support centres, champions and role models, religious leaders) operating at all levels of project implementation and studies into community attitudes and at the policy level have been made. The immediate future will witness the implementation of local awareness raising plans and the activation of local mechanisms to support women in claiming their rights. Most notably, the community committees are in place and have demonstrated their ability and commitment to support the project objectives through their active participation in all meetings, trainings and planning processes. 52 of women have received support from the community committees to negotiate their right to inheritance with members of their family, and therefore the impact of the project’s activities on the lives of individual women has preceded the expected start. CARE expects that this number will increase exponentially in the coming period given that the systems that the project had envisioned to support women in their claims are now put in place. The community committees, champions, role models, religious leaders and the legal aid centres have all been prepared for respective awareness raising and supporting roles. Each group of stakeholders is clear on its role and objectives and has an action plan in place to begin its work as well as a support system in the form of capacity building and training plan in order to help them in doing so. With the political and security situation on the ground, as well as the widespread trends towards conservative attitudes, CARE and its partners in WIN consider that the progress to date has been very good and expect that the coming reporting period will show even greater progress towards the project’s objectives. With a focused attention on the outcomes and impact, below we provide a preliminary overview of the expected results and the related indicators.



Intervention

Logic

Objectively verifiable

indicators of achievement

Progress

Overall

objectives

Women in Upper Egypt have greater access to,

and control over, economic rights, resources

and opportunities

Improvements in Egypt’s ranking under

the Gender Empowerment Measure of

the UNDP’s Human Development Index

Greater share of land and property

ownership by women

More effective implementation of laws

that protect women’s rights to property

and inheritance

It is not possible to assess progress

at the overall objectives level at this

time

Specific

objective

Actors at the community and governorate levels

are working coherently through an integrated

approach to facilitate women's access to

inheritance rights and to enable women to better

manage their property and assets in Assiut and

Sohag governorates.

Improved access to justice for women at

Governorate level, reflected in %

increase in cases brought, heard and

decided in women’s favour

Strategy and mechanism in place at

community and Governorate level to

address women's inheritance and

property rights issues, across sectors

(including community committees,

NGOs, women, religious leaders)

Improvements in actors' and

stakeholders' programs to include

gender transformative measures and

indicators regarding inheritance and

property rights

It is not possible to assess progress

at the specific objectives level at this

time

Expected

Result 1

Local institutions (6 CSOs) are effectively

working together at the community level and are

actively advocating with intermediary

organisations (IOs) at the governorate level to

promote women's access to and management

By end of action:

Increase in CSO managers and staff

demonstrating appropriate knowledge

and practice in the area of women’s

CSO management and staff have

received training on women’s rights

and gender equality. It remains to be

seen the impact of these trainings on



Intervention

Logic



Progress

of inheritance and property rights, including

current legislation and the provisions of CEDAW

rights, gender equality, representation,

service provision and advocacy

Increased % of women representation in

management of CSOs

Increase in number of CSO-led lobbying

and advocacy activities that promote

and facilitate women’s access to

inheritance and property rights

their day to day work.

One of the IOs has increased the

representation of women in its GA.

More change is expected in the

coming months with this IO and with

the rest of the project partners.

Expected

Result 2

Local initiatives in 6 communities involving

multiple stakeholders, including women, create

community mechanisms to promote women’s

access to property and inheritance rights

Community Committees in each target

community established, trained and

functioning within 18 months

Community awareness action plans

agreed and resourced in each target

community by end of Q3, year 1

By end of action, improvement in

awareness, attitudes and practice of

women’s inheritance and property rights

amongst men and women in target

communities

By end of action, increased % of male

decision-makers and heads of

households in the target areas who

support gender equality in access to and

control over economic resources

Community committees in each

locality have been set up and

oriented on their roles and

responsibilities. In some

communities, they have already

begun mediation between women

and their family members.

Community awareness action plans

are completed and ready for

implementation.

Awareness, attitudes and practice of

women’s inheritance and property

rights amongst men and women in

target communities to be measured

by post-KAP study.

Expected

Result 3

12,000 Women are empowered to effectively

demand, access and manage their inheritance

and property

By end of year 2, 120 Champions

transfer knowledge on women´s

property and inheritance rights and how

to access them to 1200 other women

and girls

By end of action, % increase in women

The progress on result 3 is expected

to begin showing at the end of year

2.



Intervention

Logic



Progress

surveyed in project locations

demonstrate awareness of how to

protect their rights to property and

inheritance

By end of action ,legal aid centres in

each targeted community centre

established / supported and functioning

effectively

By end of action, legal aid centres

supported by the action have advised

300 women in specific cases to protect

their inheritance and/or property rights



Please list potential risks that may have jeopardized the realisation of some activities

and explain how they have been tackled. Refer to logframe indicators.

The following are the major risks identified during the kick-off meeting and the project team thought of ways to address and/or mitigate them. The full list of risks has been documented in the meeting report; however these represent the risks that can jeopardize the realization of most activities:

Conservative attitudes and particularly the recent attacks on international conventions and agreements related to women’s rights and CEDAW in particular. This may affect the ability of the project to achieve indicators at expected result 2, particularly ’improvement in awareness, attitudes and practice of women’s inheritance and property rights amongst men and women in target communities’ and ‘increased % of male decision-makers and heads of households in the target areas who support gender equality in access to and control over economic resources’. Here the project team plans to integrate religious leaders in awareness from an early stage and to make use of positive role models among them and to introduced activities that would pursue systematically a “men engagement” approach.

Political instability and lack of safety and security may jeopardize the implementation of activities and the priority put on women’s issues, particularly affecting the indicator at the level of expected result 1 ‘increase in number of CSO-led lobbying and advocacy activities that promote and facilitate women’s access to inheritance and property rights’. Here the project team emphasized the importance of flexibility in planning and in finding alternative solutions to the implementation of activities. Also it has been important to recruit persons from the local community to carry out most activities and awareness raising messages, in order to ensure that there is trust among the community.

Risk of resistance or being attacked by influential families. In this case, the project team elected to avoid such resistance and risk from the very start by selecting communities that have positive role models and who demonstrate a willingness to accept the principles of women’s rights.

If relevant, submit a revised logframe, highlighting the changes. There are no changes which need to be recorded in the logframe at this time.

Please list all contracts (works, supplies, services) above 10.000€ awarded for the

implementation of the action during the reporting period, giving for each contract the

amount, the award procedure followed and the name of the contractor.

NA

2.5. Please provide an updated action plan 4

For an updated action please see Annex 1

4 This plan will cover the financial period between the interim report and the next report.



3. Partners and other Co-operation

3.1. How do you assess the relationship between the formal partners of this Action (i.e.

those partners which have signed a partnership statement)? Please provide specific

information for each partner organisation.

CARE has maintained very good working relations with all of the IOs, CBOs and with the technical partner. CARE has worked to some extent with all of these partners in the past and therefore has established the necessary administrative and financial management systems that enable smooth workflow. CARE regularly invites partners to semi-annual program reviews in which CARE shares its progress across all areas of the Women’s Rights program and where comments and feedback on technical aspects and priorities and directions are welcome. CARE’s relations with its partners go beyond immediate project implementation. Using this program approach ensures that working relations are strong and fruitful as all partners are working together for a common objective. Administratively, CARE holds meetings at various levels on a regular basis to support planning, follow up, dissemination and problem solving. Meetings at the level of CBOs are held on a monthly basis while project partners hold meetings on a regular basis.

3.2. How would you assess the relationship between your organisation and State authorities

in the Action countries? How has this relationship affected the Action?

CARE’s overall working relations with State authorities have been very positive. Despite the usual delays in MoSA approval for the work of ACDA in Assiut, the project has been able to sign MOUs with the Directorate of Religious Endowments in Sohag and Assiut with the Equal Opportunities Department at the Directorate of the Ministry of Education in Sohag to extend the project’s awareness messages in religious sermons and in schools respectively. Both these agreements reflect the importance of the project’s objectives and the credibility of CARE and its partners at the governorate level and acceptance of the generous donor funding for this project. CARE also holds periodical meetings with the undersecretary of MoSA in both governorates in which the project progress is presented.

3.3. Where applicable, describe your relationship with any other organisations involved in

implementing the Action:

Other third parties involved (including other donors, other government agencies or

local government units, NGOs, etc) In addition to the cooperation established between the project and the Directorates of Religious Endowments and the Equal Opportunities Department in the Directorate of Education (mentioned above), CARE has cooperated with GIZ who have funded a training for religious leaders in Assiut where they have an ongoing women’s rights project. CARE is a member of a women’s rights network funded by GIZ and therefore has close relations with this organisation and its programs. The activities of the GIZ project happened to include awareness raising for religious leaders and this was a very opportune chance for cooperation between the two projects. CARE also linked with the National Council for Women’s Ombudsman office, the Faculty of Law at the University of Assiut and other legal support centres in Assiut and Sohag in providing pro bono legal support services for women. Moreover, CARE is a member of the network in Assiut that is led by Plan International in Egypt.

3.4. Where applicable, outline any links and synergies you have developed with other

actions. CARE has been approached by Dorex, a Dutch organization working to provide portable water connections and hygiene toilets to help them selecting their communities due to the long experience of CARE in Assiut. Accordingly, it was agreed that Dorex would select the project’s three communities among their intervention areas and this has had a very positive impact on the community members. Also in cooperation with a Women Rights project financed/implemented by the German GIZ, a training for 25 religious leaders was organized in 3 communities on the Personal Status Law and inheritance issues.



Further synergies and an enhanced impact on inheritance related attitudes are expected from linking the WIN project with the project on Women Economic Empowerment implemented by CARE Egypt in two out of the six targeted localities.

3.5. If your organisation has received previous EU grants in view of strengthening the same

target group, in how far has this Action been able to build upon/complement the

previous one(s)? (List all previous relevant EU grants).

CARE has implemented the Freedom from Violence (FFV) and Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) projects with EU funding. The two projects were implemented in three governorates of Upper Egypt and in Assiut respectively. In the FFV project, the communities in Sohag addressed women’s inheritance as a form of discrimination against women and the lessons learned and experiences gained from this work have formed a large part of the design and methodology of this project. In addition, the WEE project implemented in Assiut focused on women’s economic empowerment by providing women with economic empowerment initiatives that suit their context and raising awareness of women’s economic rights. Some of the communities targeted by WIN have also benefited from the previous projects and therefore CARE is building upon its previous success to create real change in these communities rendering them models for other communities to learn from.

4. Visibility

How is the visibility of the EU contribution being ensured in the Action? To date CARE has not yet published any of the reports, studies or guides outlined above. These steps are planned for the coming months and CARE will make sure to follow the Communication and Visibility Manual for EU External Actions with regards to the logos and statements of credit for funding.

The European Commission may wish to publicise the results of Actions. Do you have any

objection to this report being published on the EuropeAid website? If so, please state your

objections here.

CARE has no objection to publicizing the results of the project on the EuropeAid website. However, due to the sensitivity of the issues the project addresses and the high risk that they would be misunderstood or misinterpreted and thereby have a negative impact on the achievement of results and objectives, CARE kindly requests that it be involved in the review and editing of any such reports.

Name of the contact person for the Action: Judit Kontseková, CARE Austria, [email protected] Osama Abdou, CARE International in Egypt, [email protected]

Signature: ……………………………………… Location: Vienna, Austria Date report due: 30.6.2014 Date report sent: 30.6.2014

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



Annexes Annex 1: Activity plan Year 2 Annex 2: Legal Analysis – Executive Summary (English translation) Annex 3: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) Study Annex 4: Photos

Documents

FINAL NARRATIVE REPORT - CARE Österreich East/EGY914/EGY914_report_1.pdf · 2015 Reporting period: ... (LPJ) that will replace ... Review CARE’s existing institutional assessment