Mid-Term Review of the AGIR Programme - Sida

2 F I N D I N G S
Akilizetho has a history of gender mainstreaming practices but, with the support
of the AGIR programme, their approach has improved and has become
more technically proficient. The training activities were also a good opportunity
for networking, which allowed Akilizetho to have access to materials
and information on many themes on gender from lead organisations in the
field (in this case, WLSA and Forum Mulher).
The inclusion of gender, HIV/AIDS and human rights elements in the interventions
of the OE is considered to be a key result of AGIR support. The recruitment
process for OE projects requires that 50% of the recruited staff are
women, although this is not always achieved, due to capacity imbalances. For
example, most of the provincial coordinators (80%) are men. Among electoral
observers this ratio is also low; the justification for this is that electoral observation
involves physical hardship that few women will accept. Human
rights are seen as a basic element in their work and electoral participation is
among them. The observatory also takes advantage of having, among its
members, the LDH to ensure that human rights are mainstreamed in their interventions.
At ORAM, gender is in their strategic plan and in its interventions are also
combined with human rights. For example, in the database created on land
rights, they included information with DUAT (Land Certificate), who are
more vulnerable to rights’ violation.
Only a few organisations have formal structures concerning gender. Most often, management
and programmatic practices exist that contribute to the mainstreaming of
cross-cutting areas such as gender. Some examples are:
Organisations, such as Akilizetho and Juvenile Parliament have specific structures
to mainstream gender issues. In the PJ, there is a specific area of Gender
and Human Rights in their internal structure.
Many of the CSO partners have designated specific individuals in their organisations
to monitor gender-related activities: In Akilizetho a specific gender
officer is responsible for this area of mainstreaming these elements in the organisation’s
programming. A programme officer with ORAM performs the
same role, while the OE has two programme officers responsible for ensuring
that gender policies are incorporated in their actions. At each ORAM branch,
the staff responsible for the planning and monitoring of programmatic areas
are also responsible for tracking gender mainstreaming in all relevant areas.
At ACAMO, the Departments of Woman and Children and of Social and Legal
Assistance deal with gender and human rights issues respectively. However,
these were not created under AGIR.
According to the Joint Outcome Matrix published in Oxfam’s annual report for 2011,
the foreseen joint outcomes and respective indicators for gender and HIV/AIDS by
2014 are:
Joint Outcome 5.1.4: Internal systems and policies in gender and HIV/AIDS
create a safe working environment in partner organisations. To be achieved by
the following indicators:
i) Key Partners have an implemented and operational gender policy
ii) Key Partners have an implemented and operational HIV/AIDS policy
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