Making a Difference in Palestine

F

January 2011

ABC Consulting Al Rimawi Building – Top floorAl-Irsal StreetRamallah, West BankPalestineTelefax: 02 297 3779E-mail: waddah@abc.psWebsite: http://www.abc.ps

Programs Evaluation for The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH)

Combating Violence against Palestinian Women through the Empowerment of Community-Based Organizations First Draft

Acronyms

ABC Associates in Building Capacity ConsultingCBOs Community Based organizations MIFTAH Palestinian Imitative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy UNSECR United Nations Security Council Resolution

Table of ContentsI. Executive Summary...................................................................................................................4

II. Project background...................................................................................................................4

III. Project Overview...................................................................................................................4

IV. Evaluation Methodology.......................................................................................................5

V. Analysis.....................................................................................................................................6

A. Summary Strengths and Weaknesses of the Project................................................................6

B. Detailed Findings......................................................................................................................8

1. Project Management.......................................................................................................8

2. Relevance.......................................................................................................................10

3. Effectiveness...................................................................................................................11

4. Efficiency.........................................................................................................................12

5. Outcomes and Impact....................................................................................................13

6. Sustainability..................................................................................................................14

VI. Recommendations, and Lessons Learned..........................................................................15

VII. Project Strategic Plan for the next phase...........................................................................17

VIII. ANNEXES.............................................................................................................................22

I. Executive Summary

II. Project background project overview ( عن أكثر توضيح إعطاء على االتفاق تم

بالمشروع الخاصة بالنبذة تستعين ان ممكن انك واعتقد المشروع، )

MIFTAH launched an initiative to activate women’s community-based organizations (CBOs) in the Nablus and Hebron districts in fighting gender-based violence through the scope of SCR 1325.

While CBOs have the benefit of local connections, they suffer from a lack of internal capacity and coordination, hindering their effectiveness. As such, the primary focus was strengthening a platform of organizations in a coalition to promote key gender-based violence issues.

Two coalitions of women’s organizations in Hebron and Nablus were formed in 2007. A plan of action was set for each coalition for 2008 aimed at helping them implement UNSCR 1325, with a special focus on gender-based violence and reproductive health.

MIFTAH had previously been working with the UNFPA on similar activities but this was the first time that a project had been developed with the focus solely on SCR 1325.

The goal and objectives of the project were as follows:

Overall goal: Contribute to the elimination of gender-based organizations and promotion of gender

equality in the Palestinian society

Objectives Empower community-based organizations in Nablus and Hebron districts Advocate women’s issues related to violence against women and women’s presentation

in the decision making positions in both Nablus and Hebron districts

III. Project Overview project background

Palestinian woman’s political, social, legal, and economic rights are significantly influenced by the Israeli occupation. The effects of living under these conditions are compounded by the

patriarchal culture of Palestinian society. Thus gender-based violence is the product of two distinct but interrelated types of violence: the first perpetrated by the Israeli occupation; the second by the violence of a conservative society aggravated by the difficulties inherent in living under occupation.

Israel’s policy of imposing harsh movement restrictions, economic closures and military responses has had a drastic effect on the quality of life of the Palestinian population as a whole. At the same time, Palestinian women’s representation in key decision-making positions is still minimal.

Despite efforts made by Palestinian governmental and civil society organizations to protect women and reduce violence, this continues to worsen. The latest Domestic Violence Survey conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2006 shows that 23.3% of married women and 25% of unmarried women have experienced physical violence.

Security Council Resolution 1325 marked the first time the UN council addressed the impact conflict has on women and recognized the important contribution women can make in conflict resolution. This made it particularly relevant for Palestinian women.

IV. Evaluation Methodology

In December 2010, the Palestinian initiative Imitative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) contracted Associates in Building Capacity (ABC Consulting) to evaluate a project titled Combating Violence against Palestinian Women through the Empowerment of Community-based organizations. ABC proposed a utilization-focused assessment that would provide accessible results and clear recommendations around five key aspects of the project: 1) project management, 2) design and relevance, 3) effectiveness, 4) efficiency, 5) outcomes and impact, and 6) sustainability. The evaluation recognizes the strong work of MIFTAH and its deep commitment to development in Palestine, while offering recommendations for strengthening and improving that work for even more successful results. The evaluation report itself is laid out in a user-friendly manner that allows for easy reference.

ABC initially proposed four methods for the evaluation before they had been offered clear details of the project, its objectives, and activities. These methods were: 1) document review, 2) face-to-face and telephone interviews, and 3) focus groups and/or workshops, and 4) project strategic planning workshop. Upon receiving more details about the project and understanding its scope, it was decided to conduct a review of project documents, focus groups/workshops with trainees and members of the coalition, structured individual interviews with project manager and coordinators, structure interviews with donor and telephone interviews with members of the coalition and, finally, project strategic planning workshop. These methods rendered both solid data and offer clearly indicative results about the project from which ABC has developed concrete recommendations.

The following workshops and interviews were conducted:

Partnership organizations in Hebron, conducted January 4, attended by 22 members of the coalition.

Trainees from Hebron, January 4, attended by 15 trainees from the Information Ministry; Ministry of Education; Security forces; Ministry of Religion; local government civil servants and other members of CSOs.

Partnership organizations in Nablus, conducted June 5, attended by 18 members of the coalition.

Trainees from Nablus, conducted January 5, attended by 11 trainees from the Ministry of Social Affairs; Ministry of Education; Information Ministry; Police; Nablus Municipality and Nablus local government.

Project strategic planning, conducted January 17, attended by 9 women from project staff and members of coalitions in both Nablus and Hebron

An Interview with the project coordinator, conducted January 4, 2011 An Interview with the project manager, conducted January 13, 2011 An Interview with the project donor, conducted January 18, 2011 Telephone interviews with five members of the coalition in both Nablus and Hebron.

V. Analysis

A. Summary Strengths and Weaknesses of the Project

Project Strengths Project WeaknessesProject Management

Management employed a participatory approach throughout the project.

Studies carried out in advance of the project focused the scheme.

The idea for the project was new and unique – linking UNSSCR 1325 with issues related to Palestinian women.

Linking women’s rights to broader political issues about Israeli human rights violations brought more organizations into the coalition

Many organizations joined the coalitions. In Hebron 37 CBOs joined and 25 joined in Nablus.

Networked and linked between and among women organizations , Go’s related ,journalists, human rights organizations and political parties.

Membership rules for the coalition were not agreed

The coalition did not form a leadership hierarchy

Membership in the coalition was not static, meaning parties left and joined at will throughout the project

A number of CBOs adapted UNSCR 1325 in their programs and activities.

The awareness campaign on UNSCR 1325 was very informative and successful; a great number of CBOs became familiar with 1325.

Project Design & Relevance Participants considered the training and

information given on SCR 1325 to be helpful and relevant

The project targeted influential groups – local and national decision makers, including the Minister of Social Affairs, social workers and the Ministry of Education, school teachers and social workers

Serious attempts were made to adapt the resolution to the Palestinian situation.

.

The resolution suffers from a lack of practical case studies where implementation has led to legally binding regulations.

Lack of trust of international declarations. Many Palestinian women don’t have trust that UN resolutions can be applied. Most UN resolutions are not able to be implemented.

Effectiveness

Member organizations felt that they had concrete examples of achievements from the project

Key decision makers were targeted

The system for documenting violations against women did not work on a practical level for a number of the organizations( This was not the project aim )

The project faced difficulties in getting

through to grassroots activists(not clear for me)

Efficiency The management from MIFTAH was well

structured and used the expertise that project field coordinators had gained from other schemes to feed into the current project.

MIFTAH uses creative cost effective ways in communicating with big number of CBOs like using text messaging.

Pre and post evaluation for the trainings implemented.

Contracted the same trainers for both areas

The structure of a coalition meant that some organizations did not participate enough in the process

No membership rules were employed for the coalition, meaning that organizations joined and left throughout the process. This created confusion and mean MIFTAH were sometimes unable to decide who to contact at various stages of the project

Outcomes and Impact The project was successful when

individual organizations targeted local By not including male participants within the

coalition, the project may have had more

government figures and ministries (ministry of Education & ministry of religious Affairs)

Media campaigns (billboard posters, …) meant the project reached a wider audience and had a greater impact

The Union of Palestinian Women have agreed to include UNSCR 1325 within its programs

A number of individual organizations said they would continue to work on monitoring and documenting gender-based violence as well as working on increasing awareness.

impact.(Rephrase)

Sustainability On individual organization level, MIFTAH

as well as other CBOs will continue working on several aspects of UNSCR 1325.

There have been ‘Training of Trainers’ workshops put in place to keep the project going after completion

The training material and the two studies can be used to keep ideas from the project alive and the promotional materials (stickers..etc)

Members of organizations of the coalition has worked to develop its relations with relevant GO’s

The structure of the coalition is not self-sufficient, meaning that although individual organizations can continue to work on UNSCR 1325 related activities and projects, the coalition is unlikely to be sustainable

B. Detailed Findings

1. Project Management

Evaluations of project/project management investigated two aspects: Management structure of the project & Management of the coalition.

A. Project Management

MIFTAH structured its management in order to make the project as efficient as possible. They employed local project coordinators who already knew their areas and were involved in a number of other MIFTAH projects in the area. This meant that funds were not needed to employ separate managers and those involved were able to use their experience to help run the project as effectively as possible.

The project was run by a coordinator, who used one assistant. The coordinator was overseen by a manager but this person was part-time employed, ensuring that the management structure was kept lean.

According to MIFTAH, decisions were delegated as much as possible to CBOs in order to use their local knowledge and stop the project from becoming top-heavy. For example, in the initial studies carries out, women’s organizations were heavily involved in the content and planning stages.

Project coordinators used efficient communication techniques such as text messaging in order to cut down on costs and improve the speed at which information could be passed down the line. MIFTAH tried hard to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the CBOs in order to share out tasks as efficiently as possible. We can add: MIFTAH implemented two workshops to announce the project and to discuss the activity matrix with the members before the implementation; changes made by the participants have been approved by the donor. In addition to numbers of the central meetings that were implemented in Ramallah to discuss the timeframe, and the target group of the trainings.

B. Coalition management and decision-making

Coalition management looks at the way the participating organizations arranged their meetings, took decisions and structured the hierarchy within the group. According to interviewees at the Nablus focus group, all members were given a say on decision making within the coalition. Rather than having a strict hierarchy, decisions were made from the bottom-up, in order to play to CBOs’ local knowledge and specializations.

By forming a coalition, members felt that they could increase the strength of their message when raising awareness about SCR 1325. The structure of a coalition also managed to knit together a diverse selection of organizations, who would otherwise not have cooperated.

Members also articulated that having a coalition meant they could divide tasks according to the specializations of each organization. For example, if they were hoping to target the Ministry of Religion to spread the message about SCR 1325, they could delegate to an organization that already had the knowledge and contacts within that area of government. By cooperating, members felt they were able to both advocate more strongly and get inspiration for continuing projects elsewhere.

However the structure of a coalition also faced difficulties. By bringing together such a diverse range of organizations, there were inevitable rifts between members when interests diverged.

The coalition was unable to decide on membership rules and this also caused problems for the project. At various times during the scheme, CBOs would join or leave the coalition and this meant that at times, project coordinators did not know who to contact about decision making. Without a clear hierarchy within the coalition, the project also suffered, as decision-making was a slow and unclear process.

Recommendations:

From the coalition: they would like to see more male participants in the process in order to broaden the scope of the project.

From MIFTAH: they would like to see roles given out to member organisations on the basis of their strengths and for them to take on more responsibility.

They would also recommend that the coalition employ a more detailed documentation of minutes of meetings.

From ABC: ABC would recommend a formal set of regulations for membership of the coalition in order to ensure that decision-making runs in a smooth manner and so MIFTAH knows the right organization to contact about any part of the project.

2. Relevance

Relevance evaluates how well organizers linked SCR 1325 to the Palestinian cause. This takes into account the scope of the resolution and the practical training received by participating organizations.

The Palestinian National Authority has instigated policies to improve women’s participation such as adopting the quota elections system and the President’s ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). However, Palestinian women’s contribution to political leadership continues to be minimal.

Serious threats to the unity of Palestinian society have emerged because of internal fighting. Women who are member of political factions, or those who have family members involved, face arrests, imprisonment and worse. Using SCR 1325 as a basis for the project was a very positive aspect of the initiative, according to most of the participants. The link to an international cause gave the project a wider scope and connected it to a broader struggle for women’s rights.

However, in some cases, participants felt that not enough time was spent making the resolution relevant to Palestinian women. The resolution itself overlooked Palestinian women in its specifics, focusing instead on women in armed conflict zones, such as Eastern Europe and Africa.

This meant that project coordinators faced difficulties when relating an international resolution to the local level in Palestine. Some trainers felt that having more case studies would have given them better practical training on how to implement it. Other participants felt that the project should reach out to new areas. Regions such as the Jordan Valley and Gaza have a much worse record of human rights abuses and so could have been a better choice of location for the project.

By using the resolution as a jumping off point, the project also suffered from a lack of clarity about which part of the UNSCR should be focused on. Participating organizations were keen to look into violations perpetrated by Israelis but tended to leave out problems of gender violence within Palestinian society.

SCR 1325 also lacks the mechanisms for implementation and any compulsory time frame for member states. This makes it difficult to enforce in a legally binding sense. All resolutions pertinent to the Palestinian Question are not legally binding for Israel. Moreover, Israel, a signatory of the resolution, has actively tried to impede its implementation.

Recommendations:

From the coalition: Participating organizations recommended that smaller( CBOs) in remote areas? Or in the line of contact with the Israeli side? “Near the wall, .etc” should have more input into decision making at all levels.

From the trainees: They recommend using case studies from the past in order to better illustrate how the resolution relates to practical instances.

They would also suggest linking the coalition to Gaza where there may be a clearer need for the project.

From ABC: In order to keep the project relevant, ABC would recommend using the same structure in an area like the Jordan Valley, which still has regular ongoing disputes between Israelis and Palestinians. This would serve as a better template for documenting violations.

ABC also recommends that the project focus on violations within Palestinian society as well as those perpetrated by Israelis.

3. Effectiveness

Effectiveness evaluates the achievements of the project in terms of which groups were targeted and how well the coalition lobbied key decision makers.

Focus groups with member organizations of the coalition in Hebron and Nablus gave very positive feedback about the achievements of the project.

In Hebron, CBOs mentioned the following activities as examples:

Many originations has been reached out (37 in Hebron and 25 in Nablus) Conducting workshops and media campaigns on UNSCR 1325. Networking amongst women organizations Using joint initiatives to target decision makers Using the strength of a coalition structure to find advocates and supporters from civil

organizations Empowering women organizations, especially in increasing their knowledge about 1325 Training the member organizations and their board and staff - during this project there

were between 200 and 250 women trained on gender, civil peace, monitoring and documenting violations and on how to organize activities (billboards on buses and other locations in Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus)

Hosting meetings with decision makers – six in total Conducting meetings with political parties on increasing women’s political participation Sending a petition to PLC members asking them to activate the resolution Sending a letter to the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education regarding violence

in schools Conducting observation visits in the old city in Hebron to document ongoing clashes

between Israelis and Palestinians

However both focus groups felt that it was very difficult to give hard evidence to assess how effective the project had been in terms of decreasing violence against women. Indirectly, the project was successful in achieving its goals but these achievements were in the form of increased awareness on the UNSCR 1325. The coalition also targeted local politicians and decision makers directly – making them supporters of the cause.

They worked with the Ministry of Religion and asked them to ask preachers to include information about violence against women in their weekly sermons.

They also conducted media activities, targeting influential people within the media in order to spread information to a wider audience.

Trainees within the project also gave positive feedback about how effective their training had been. In Hebron, 13 of the 16 trainee focus group participants said the training was excellent, up to their expectations and that the content and the topics were effective. They used the training to relay information to others and were inspired to continue to research SCR 1325. They encouraged groups to document and monitor violations and preached the same message in mosques – reaching a wide audience.

One trainee from the Ministry of Religion said she was now training other women preachers about violence against women and using the mosque to increase awareness.

Trainees felt they were successful in increasing awareness across the board by conducting workshops. According to them, they increased awareness about SCR 1325 within community organizations and within the regional assembly. However they often struggled to get through to grassroots activists because of logistical difficulties – these people were widespread across Palestine and did not have good communication networks. The funding supplied did not enable them to get through to many.

They also faced difficulties in instigating a system for documenting violations against women. Although this was an important part of the training, they did not manage to coordinate a system that could be transposed to be used in all of the diverse member organizations. During the focus group of trainees in Hebron, a number of them said the training in this area had been patchy.

Recommendations:

From ABC: In order to increase the effectiveness of documenting violations, ABC recommends that a more workable template be created. Many participants said they found the process of documentation difficult to implement in a local capacity.

ABC also recommends that the project make more use of grassroots organizations in order to widen the range of participants.

Build the capacity of the coalition to be able to work collectively as a coalition so as to more have effective objectives Decision-making and planning in the coalition needs to continue to be “bottom-up” and participatory.

4. Efficiency

Efficiency analyzes how well funds were distributed and whether costs were excessive throughout the project. This takes into account the management and organizational structure as well as the process of decision making.

The management from MIFTAH was well structured and used the expertise that project coordinators had gained from other schemes to feed into the current project.

MIFTAH uses creative cost effective ways in communicating with big number of CBOs like using text messaging, can we add: all the materials of the project were distributed by the web-page of MIFTAH.

MIFTAH managed the project in a participatory way based on the CBOs experiences and capacity.

Activities were conducted within the time frame.

Recommendations:

From the trainees: They would recommend conducting more needs assessments to ensure that funds are targeted in the right areas.

5. Outcomes and Impact

Outcomes and impact assesses what bearing the project has had on the lives of the people that it was intended to help. According to MIFTAH, the impact of the project is ongoing so it is not possible to analyze the outcomes as a whole. However many of the participants mentioned

individual cases where elements of the project had had a significant impact on a particular organization or sector of the community. MIFTAH have started the process going and this is one key impact of the project.

The training in Hebron led one participant to request for a permit to start a women’s magazine, in order to disseminate information on women’s issues as well as UNSCR 1325. The magazine will also carry information more generally about women’s rights.

Another participant put forward a petition, signed by 2,200 women asking the Prime Minister to pay more attention to her local area. Following its submission, the PM visited the town. This was a significant achievement as almost half the population of the town signed the petition and the visit served to significantly increase awareness about local issues. One women’s organization, which previously did not have the funds to rent a center for their work, formally requested land from the town Mayor. They are in the process of constructing the center with the help of the UNDP. The General Union of Palestinian Women, an important voice for women’s rights, agreed to adopt the resolution as a framework for their projects. This was a notable achievement and one with potentially long-lasting results.

The trainees in both Nablus and Hebron said that the training they received had a major impact on their understanding on SCR 1325. This in turn led them to spread the ideas amongst people in their communities, increasing the range of influence. Nablus and Hebron trainees said they already knew about violations against Palestinian women by Israelis but the biggest impact of their training was that it gave them the problem solving skills to turn the knowledge into practical solutions.

However, the project came up against the same problems in reaching grassroots organizations and so the range of impact was limited to some extent by their inability to get to key activists and organizations.

Recommendations:

From the trainees: An increase in the amount of media training would help increase the level of impact that the project had.

They would also recommend including more male participants in the training in order to have a greater impact.

From ABC: - Distribute roles and responsibilities among coalition member organization according to the strengths and specialization could have more effective activities and impact. Collective work can have more impact- Training a group of TOT trainers to reach out women in remote areas and educate them and increase their knowledge about their rights. - Conduct a town hall meeting with decision makers since this techniques is considered as one of the most effective techniques in advocating women rights.

6. Sustainability

Sustainability evaluates the extent to which the work of the project can continue after the official completion deadline. This takes into account how well the organizational structures can sustain themselves and what steps are being taken to keep the work going.

In order for the work of combating gender-based violence to continue, it is necessary that the coalition formed becomes self-sustaining, without the aid of MIFTAH.

The idea of forming a self-sufficient coalition proved problematic from both the point of view of MIFTAH and the member organizations. Most of the participants from the member CBOs at the focus group said they doubted that the coalition was sustainable because the project was managed and funded by MIFTAH. They believed that any ongoing activities would have to be rooted in individual organization rather than as part of a coalition.

The project coordinators at MIFTAH also doubted the sustainability of a coalition. However, from their standpoint, the coalition needed to focus more on creating membership rules to ensure that it was a stable structure – rather than having organizations leaving and joining throughout the process. The coalition would also need to form a strategic plan, independent of MIFTAH, for ongoing activities.

The next aim of the project is to put together a program for training trainers. The grassroots organizations involved in the project were positive about its effects but they suffer from an inability to train others to continue to pass on ideas. This will form the next part of the project in order to help it become more sustainable.

Creating a workable template for documenting violations will also form a key element making the project sustainable. One participant from the Medical Relief Society in Hebron said the ability to document violations now formed a crucial part of her legal cases. By giving trainers a format for documentation, the project increased levels of sustainability. MIFTAH have also taken steps to sustain the project. They plan to have a workshop imminently with political parties to call for 30% of their membership to be women.

Recommendations:

From MIFTAH: Making the structure of a coalition institutionalized so that a coalition could continue

without ongoing funding by MIFTAH.

From ABC: ABC recommends that a forum is created in order to keep trainees in the loop for any

future projects.

VI. Recommendations, and Lessons Learned

A. MIFTAH & Participant recommendations

The coalition said they would like to see more male participants in the process in order to broaden the scope of the project.

MIFTAH would like to see roles given out to member organisations on the basis of their strengths and for them to take on more responsibility.

They would also recommend that the coalition employ a more detailed documentation of minutes of meetings.

Participating organizations recommended that smaller CBOs had more input into decision making at all levels.

Trainees recommended using case studies from the past in order to better illustrate how the resolution relates to practical instances.

They would also suggest linking the coalition to Gaza where there may be a clearer need for the project.

Trainees would also recommend conducting more needs assessments to ensure that funds are targeted in the right areas.

They would like to see an increase in the amount of media training to help increase the level of impact that the project had.

They would also recommend including more male participants in the training in order to have a greater impact.

MIFTAH recommends making the structure of a coalition institutionalized so that a coalition could continue without ongoing funding by MIFTAH.

B. ABC recommendations

ABC would recommend a formal set of regulations for membership of the coalition in order to ensure that decision-making runs in a smooth manner and so MIFTAH knows the right organization to contact about any part of the project.

In order to keep the project relevant, ABC would recommend using the same structure

in an area like the Jordan Valley, which still has regular ongoing disputes between Israelis and Palestinians. This would serve as a better template for documenting violations.

ABC also recommends that the project focus on violations within Palestinian society as well as those perpetrated by Israelis.

In order to increase the effectiveness of documenting violations, ABC recommends that

a more workable template be created. Many participants said they found the process of documentation difficult to implement in a local capacity.

ABC also recommends that the project make more use of grassroots organizations in

order to widen the range of participants. ABC recommends that a forum is created in order to keep trainees in the loop for any

future projects.