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Governance Area: Service delivery

Just because they care: developing the capacity of family carers to advocate for their rights

Posted on by Victoria Nicholson

Family carers are an invisible force who care day in, day out for sick or disabled loved ones, without receiving payment and with little chance of respite. The effects of caring on the physical and mental health of carers can be devastating. Carers often face loss of employment, missed education opportunities, and social isolation due to their caring responsibilities.

Carers’ needs have traditionally been neglected by Governments, NGOs and other agencies in low and middle income countries. Since 2012 we have been working in The Global South to improve the lives of carers and to advocate for official recognition of the important role they play in society. Our vision is a world in which the needs of every carer – physical, emotional, economic and social – are routinely met. We want to achieve this through building strong partnerships with our carers, their families and wider communities, as well as with local, national and international NGOs, Governments and academics.

‘Our holistic “Carers Worldwide Model” […] is designed to create systemic changes for carers’

In 2014 we received funding from the Commonwealth Foundation to implement a three year project promoting the recognition and inclusion of carers in three states of India: Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Working with three local partners in India, this project focused on developing the capacity of carers and ensuring carer-specific services were developed to lessen the burden of caring. This involved disseminating our holistic ‘Carers Worldwide Model’ which is designed to create systemic changes for carers. The model comprises carers’ support groups; access to health services; respite and short breaks; access to employment, training and education; and advocacy activities. Our model is successful because it addresses the needs of carers at all levels – emotionally, physically, mentally and economically and encourages carers to advocate for themselves.

The results of the project exceeded expectations. A total of 1,963 carers as well as 2,012 care recipients and approximately 9,800 additional family members benefited. The benefits obtained by the carers included the establishment of new livelihood activities, access to medical and counselling services, and being provided with respite breaks. As a result of their advocacy activities, 90% of the carers involved in the project are now also accessing government or other NGO programmes and schemes. Such schemes include the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act – an employment guarantee scheme for the rural poor from which carers were previously excluded. As a result of the project 431 carers are now accessing employment through this Act.

Caregiver support groups To reduce loneliness and isolation, create social networks and support emotional wellbeing
Health services To provide access to physical and mental health services, including locally available counselling services
Respite and short breaks To offer a break from caring responsibilities along with the development of alternative high-quality care options such as day care centres
Employment, training and education To facilitate access to employment, training or education, tailored as appropriate to co-exist with caring responsibilities
Recognition To strengthen the collective voice of caregivers to advocate for their needs and the provision they require at community, regional and national level, leading to changes in policy and practice

To increase impact at a district level, 148 village level carers groups were federated into three Carers Associations, one in each of the three project states. Each Carers Association is comprised of carer representatives who have been elected by the village level carers groups. The Associations meet quarterly to formulate responses to issues raised in the village groups, plan engagement with government officials and other stakeholders, and to organise events at district level. Government officials are now recognising the individual and collective needs of carers. For example, the Commissioner of Disability for the Government of Karnataka announced in 2018 a 100% commitment to supporting carers and scaling-up the work of our project across the state.

A district level carer group meet in Jharkhand

Last year we received further funding from the Commonwealth Foundation to develop a new project that will upscale and complement the previously funded project in India. We intend to make use of existing partnership operations, carers groups, and Carers Association networks and increase the reach we have in India. Key priorities include:

  • Implementing services at a local level that directly support carers, and ensuring the services become enshrined in policy
  • Designing an approach to engagement that is capable of influencing local, state and national level policy, immediately enriching our plans not only for our work in India but also further afield in Bangladesh, and informing our longer-term South Asia strategy

Leveraging the infrastructure and capacity created by our work to date, we feel that the project is positioned to capture and capitalise on the momentum already created at village and district level, and achieve significant steps towards establishing a robust civil society movement, able to petition for the recognition of the human rights of Indian carers. Through increasing momentum, we intend that this project will enhance the capacity of the Carers Associations and help sustain the representation of the population of carers overtime. Ultimately, we anticipate that this new funding will support the project’s transition from a grassroots carers initiative, to a robust movement of civic society poised to achieve the aims of a global strategy to reach 100,000 carers and their family members by the end of 2019.

To find out more about this current project and to learn about our other work, please visit our website and our Facebook page today.

Victoria Nicholson is a Communications Officer at Carers Worldwide.

Confronting assumptions: gender equality

Posted on by Heather Cole

I was recently asked to provide input and expertise around ‘gender’ in a workshop for Commonwealth Foundation grant partners; the Foundation has identified this as an area of work in the 2017-2021 strategic plan and recognises the deep connections between gender inequality and the SDGs.

One participant pulled me aside before the workshop and said ‘Before we start, I have to tell you that I really don’t know anything about gender’. My immediate response was: ‘You know everything you need to know, what we need to do is make it visible’.

Their question reminded me of why it can be so hard to talk about ‘gender’ in our programme design; we all live with, and participate in, inequalities around gender, and it can be destabilising and threatening to talk about. Sometimes, it can feel as if we are supposed to ‘know’ what it means and how we want to engage with it. Thinking about how gender inequality operates in practice, and how what we do can contribute to it, as well as concrete ways to challenge it, often generates feelings of apprehension and even defensiveness.

‘Gender equality’ is a concept that most of us agree with in principle – it is hard to find anyone working in development, for example, who would suggest that women should be discriminated against. At the same time, it is also not easy to define what we mean by ‘gender equality’ or to articulate what this might look like in the everyday lives of women and men. It is also not always easy to look at the ways that we participate in and tolerate inequalities in our own lives.

‘Talking about what “should” happen as well as what happens in practice helped us to think about our own assumptions, and about the realities of the contexts we’re working in, and being honest about the realities and needs of women and girls.’

As we worked through the analysis tools in the workshop, and pulled on the threads of how gender inequality is sustained, the conversations moved to the participant’s specific programmes and contexts. We started to dig deep into the ways in which the lives of women and girls can be so different to those of men and boys. There was so much intuitive good practice informing the programme design without necessarily an articulation of the underpinning theory of change. The questions asked reflected the apprehension; is it ok to have programming for women only, or should it be 50-50? What does ‘gender equality’ look like? How do we focus on supporting women and girls without creating additional risks in their lives? How will we know whether our work has made a difference and what kind of difference it has made?

Posing these questions led us to the conclusion that women and girls need specific programming because of long-term, structural disadvantages and marginalisation. We also identified that having 50-50 programming often means that men and boys dominate, and the voices and perspectives of women and girls get lost again as patriarchal dynamics are replicated. This is especially important when we are working at the intersections; men and women with disabilities, for example, will have some experiences in common and at the same time, women will face additional issues that may not be visible or important to men in a mixed group. These might include a significantly higher chance of exposure to sexual violence, responsibility for the care of others, including children, reduced control of resources, and no potential to rely on women in their families to provide care for them. All of these issues matter a great deal to women and have a significant impact on their lives; it is critical for women and girls to have a safe space to work on these together.

‘It takes courage to confront our own assumptions and […] to design programmes that are innovative and take us into new territory.’

A significant part of our discussion revolved around outcomes and indicators, and the importance of disaggregating data so we can see clearly what change our work has made. We looked at the difference between long-term strategic changes, and the importance of not losing sight of the immediate gender needs of women and girls. We also looked at the ways that some of the most important changes and benefits are difficult to measure, and the ways in which we can capture these deep changes more creatively and representatively.

As we worked through the theories of change for each new grant project we considered targeted advocacy and engagement to open up spaces for women to represent their own interests, and the need to build solidarity for women within the public arena. We challenged some of the taken-for-granted assumptions, and looked at what programming might look like if we started from the realities of women’s lives.

Talking about what ‘should’ happen as well as what happens in practice helped us to think about our own assumptions, and about the realities of the contexts we’re working in, and being honest about the realities and needs of women and girls. For example, in contexts where care for children with disabilities is undertaken primarily by women, should we be programming to encourage greater involvement of fathers (because we have an ideal about family life that is shaping our intended outcomes), or should we recognise that the social supports and core relationships of mothers are also often with their sisters, friends and aunties, and work to strengthen these? These kinds of questions are challenging but are essential to our work, and asking them ensures we are in a better position to give women more control over their lives, more opportunity to fulfil their potential and participate in social decision-making.

It takes courage to confront our own assumptions and hopes about gender equality and more to design programmes that are innovative and take us into new territory. This as a process of learning and evolution is meant to bring depth to our analysis and bring us closer to the communities we serve. It is a step toward better programming and stronger outcomes for women and girls. The participant that had approached me with trepidation at the beginning of the workshop took me aside when it had finished: ‘I just didn’t know what I was looking at. My eyes are open and I see it’. The journey has just begun.

Heather Cole is a Gender technical consultant and Doctoral Candidate researching violence against women activism in humanitarian spaces at De Montfort University.

When the tough get going: civil society resilience

Posted on by Sarah Peck

The term ‘resilience’ is often thrown around in the context of climate change, but my research on civil society in Barbados and Grenada showed that resilience is in fact essential to achieving social justice goals.

Between September 2014 and January 2018 I worked with the University of Sheffield and the Commonwealth Foundation on my Doctoral research. The purpose of the project was to understand more about how civil society groups operate in the Caribbean: their hopes, challenges, and everyday experiences; my purpose was to foreground the opinions and voices of civil society activists.

A summary of the project findings is available here.

Recent academic and practice-based engagement with civil society has focused on understanding civil society through the lens of sustainability, and less tangibly the wider civil society space they occupy. This is partly in response to changes in donor funding and the global economy, increased emphasis on terrorism and security, and also in response to the closing down of civil society space around the world. The sustainability literature does, however, highlight two key areas of concern for civil society: firstly, the ability of civil society to operate in an increasingly restrictive environment and, secondly, the ability of CSOs to continue their work with reduced levels of international funding.

‘Many are starting to utilise technological advances such as PayPal and crowdfunding to maximise their financial connections to diaspora groups.’

Whilst greater understanding of what sustains civil society is important, I want to use the remainder of this piece to think about the related, but subtlety different, concept of resilience. Resilience can be defined as the ability to recover from difficulties or challenging events. Critiques of this definition include the notion that ‘bouncing back’ does not challenge the status quo: they dispute the idea that vulnerabilities are entirely self-created and that responsibility lies with the individual and their coping mechanisms (see Commonwealth Insights paper ‘What makes societies resilient’). Despite these convincing critiques I want to put forward an argument for considering civil society’s’ resilience as well as its sustainability. For me the concept of sustainability implies stasis and predictability; the assumption that if certain procedures are continuously followed civil society will be sustained. This sidelines the importance of national and regional contexts and indeed innovation in the sector – factors that are far less predictable. The idea of resilience is perhaps more useful for reflecting the inherently variable, dynamic, and fluid nature of civil society. These inevitable fluctuations make being part of civil society exciting and challenging, and the need to be flexible, adaptable and resurgent in the face of change is critical. Resilience in this context can be thought of as ways of rearranging the status quo and taking control of the complexities that are part of civil society work.

This can be illustrated in a number of ways as civil society resilience takes many forms. During my research civil society activists described occasions when they have had to bounce back in the face of criticism from outside and inside the sector. This increases fatigue and places an emotional toll on activists, but in response civil society groups are finding alternative ways of engaging, for example through different media, and are using their social networks for support.

‘Groups also […] commit to a culture of reciprocity to aid their resilience and continue the work they do’

It was also apparent that civil society groups in the Caribbean need to develop financial resilience in the face of multiple challenges, including: reductions in donor funding, increased competition between organisations, and changes in the global economy. Working in civil society is often associated with having several part-time occupations, and often working during unpaid hours over evenings and weekends.. Not knowing where funding for the next project might come from also increases anxiety levels. This insecurity has the potential to reduce human resources and human capital in the sector. In the face of this, civil society groups have to be resilient to succeed. To build their resilience they are crafting multiple financial opportunities to sustain their work. This includes income-generating schemes within the organisation and engaging with the corporate sector and philanthropic institutions. Diaspora groups also offer a valuable source of revenue and other forms of social support. Many are starting to utilise technological advances such as PayPal and crowdfunding to maximise their financial connections to diaspora groups. Users of crowdfunding felt that the system had the potential to create more democratic relations between donors and civil society.

Civil society groups are also promoting their resilience through social connections, with friendships, for example, providing morale. Groups also: mentor each other, use volunteers, and commit to a culture of reciprocity to aid their resilience and continue the work they do.

In the future, developing networks between locally based organisations across the Caribbean region could allow the sharing of experience and resources and build solidarity. Civil society in the Caribbean may also benefit from meeting in informal settings to build a feeling of solidarity, share experiences, and share expertise. This could provide a forum to discuss wider issues that may be relevant for the sector. Such a forum may also offer moral and emotional support for civil society groups during challenging times.

Civil society groups need to be resilient if they are to sustain their work and identity as a sector that promotes social justice. The idea of civil society resilience promotes the ever-changing nature of the sector and the need to be versatile and adaptable. A key question is: what is the role of the international community in helping civil society groups become more resilient?

Sarah Peck is a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) candidate at the University of Sheffield.

Increasing access to sexual and reproductive health rights and HIV services for women and adolescent girls

Issue

Nigeria demonstrated its commitment to achieving sexual and reproductive health for all by adopting the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, and developed a National Reproductive Health Policy and Strategy in 2001. Despite these initiatives, women living with HIV in Nigeria still face challenges accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Services.

Project

The International Community of Women living with HIV West Africa (ICWWA) and Womankind Centre for Women Empowerment (WCWE) aim to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services for all women living with HIV (WLHIV) in Nigeria.

The project plans to start by building the capacity of WLHIV to advocate for their SRH rights, and training them to document incidences of violations as they occur. The project also aims to create a broad alliance of thirty Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working on SRH to support evidence based advocacy, raise awareness among police, health care providers and community leaders on SRH rights of WLHIV. This will empower them to challenge discrimination faced by WLHIV and engage in dialogue with policy makers on accessing SRH services.

By the end of the project, awareness about SRH rights of health care providers and other stakeholders will have been raised, resulting in better access to SRH services by WLHIV. WLHIV in all their diversity will also be better placed to continue to advocate for their rights and to raise the issues that affect them with policy makers and other key stakeholders.

International Community of Women Living with HIV in Nigeria West Africa

ICWWA is a regional West African network, based in Nigeria, working to promote the rights of Women Living with HIV (WLHIV). The organisation’s main areas of focus are advocacy, mobilisation and capacity building of WLHIV for them to play a primary role in HIV programming in Nigeria. ICWWA has been engaging in dialogue with government bodies and departments for many years. For example, it has engaged with the Federal Ministry of Health on a number of initiatives on maternal health and also participated in the development of the Health Sector HIV strategic Plan. It also works closely with the National Agency for the Control of AIDS in the implementation of some of the agency’s HIV/AIDS programmes. ICWWA will partner with the Association of WLHIV in Nigeria, Womankind Centre for Women Empowerment (and the Unique Aid Foundation (UAF) to deliver this project.

Association of women living with HIV in Nigeria

ASWHAN is an association of Women Living with HIV with offices in Ondo and Lagos. Its main objectives are to provide economic empowerment, care and support for women living with HIV.

Womankind Centre for Women Empowerment

Womankind Centre for Women Empowerment is a support group of Women Living with HIV, based in Nasarawa. Its overall objective is to provide care and support services to its members. Unique Aid Foundation (UAF) is an association of people living with HIV, based in Abuja. Its main objective is to strengthen communities to respond to the challenges posed by the AIDS epidemic.

Promoting effective implementation of the right to information act

Issue

Promoting civic-state engagement is essential to support effective implementation of the Right to Information Act in Sri Lanka.

Project

Transparency International Sri Lanka is increasing public awareness on the use and applicability of Right to information (RTI) and facilitating discussions between civil society and the regulatory bodies around RTI issues.

Working at both a regional and national level, Transparency International Sri Lanka is building the capacity of civil society organizations to use the recently passed Right to Information Act.

The project is forming thematic coalitions of civil society organisations (CSOs) on issues related to Health, Education, Transport, Water and Sanitation, and Public Administration, based in Colombo, Matara, Ampara, Trincomalee and Jaffna districtsacross Sri Lanka. These networks are presenting issues and solutions that surround the implementation of the act in special consultations with relevant ministries.

Transparency International Sri Lanka are is also raising awareness of the Act and public understanding of RTI pleas among small communities, using print and other media campaigns. In addition, the project is supporting RTI officers to ensure they are equipped to respond to demand.

The project is working to effectively secure civil society’s role as a ‘knowledge center’ on RTI, to ensure that citizens across the 5 districts can benefit from this legislature.

Endorsed project title: Promoting civic-state engagement to support effective implementation of the Right to Information Act in Sri Lanka

Transparency International, Sri Lanka

TISL is a national chapter of the global movement against corruption, and is committed to the promotion of good governance and eradication of corruption in Sri Lanka. TISL is the only organization exclusively working on anti-corruption, integrity and transparency related issues in Sri Lanka. Through a multi-sectoral approach, TISL engages with diverse stakeholders in the private and public sectors as well as the citizenry. www.tisrilanka.org

Improving the environment and the livelihoods of waste pickers

Issue

The 2012 National Waste Information Baseline Report from the Department of Environmental Affairs in South Africa found that in 2011 approximately 108 million tonnes of waste was generated, 90% of which ended up in landfills. On these sites, and in inner-city streets, informal waste pickers are collecting and recycling what others have thrown away, a service for which they are not paid.

Project

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) will support waste pickers and their organisations in Johannesburg, Sasolburg, and Pretoria, South Africa, to effectively participate in decision-making in order to secure better working conditions and improved livelihoods. The research in many cities suggests that the formal inclusion of waste pickers in municipal waste management contributes to higher recycling rates, increased efficiency and cost effectiveness, as well as significant environmental benefits. Despite these contributions, waste pickers in the project locations struggle for formal recognition and inclusion in solid waste management plans, and for decent working conditions and fair compensation.

Through this project WIEGO will support the organising efforts of local waste picker organisations, to ensure the official inclusion of waste pickers in municipal waste management policies and systems, and to secure better working conditions and more secure livelihoods. This will be achieved through training, awareness-raising (both for waste pickers and decision makers), and facilitated negotiations and liaison with key officials and allies. Further, waste picker organisations will be strengthened within the context of vibrant regional, national, and international networks.

Endorsed project title: Improving the environment and livelihoods of waste pickers in South Africa

Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organising

WIEGO is a global action-research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy, through increased organization and representation; improved statistics and research; more inclusive policy processes; and more equitable trade, labour, urban planning, and social protection policies. Alongside informal workers, WIEGO uses its credible, grounded knowledge of the informal economy to leverage supportive policies, services, and resources for the working poor.www.wiego.org

Empowering women living in institutional settings

Issue

Women face a number of challenges ranging from security issues and financial hardship, to social exclusion.

Project

Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Malta are helping to improve the lives of women living in institutional settings in Malta. This project aims to build the capacity of women to articulate the needs and challenges they face. It will support women living in shelters who have experienced domestic violence, and female asylum seekers who live in open centres.   It will establish Women Advocacy and Mobilisation Groups (WAMGs) and train the women in human rights, communication and advocacy so they can engage with policymakers for enhanced service delivery and improved access to services.

It is expected that this project will lead to an improvement in the policies, structures and services that directly impact the lives of women in institutional settings.

Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS)

The Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) Malta, established in 1993, is part of an international network in 50 countries dedicated to providing assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and other displaced persons. JRS Malta specialises in the field of legal assistance and social work services (including healthcare and psychological support), awareness-raising in schools and spiritual care. JRS Malta has been providing services (including legal, access to medical care and psychological services) to women living in Open Centres for 15 years.

www.jrsmalta.org

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Partner organisation

Women’s Rights Foundation (WRF) Malta aims to ensure that women’s rights are protected through policy and legal reform, raise awareness and offer training to end violence against women. It provides free legal advice and initial legal representation to women who are survivors of domestic violence, sexual exploitation, human trafficking and those discriminated against due to their gender. Over the years, WRF has worked with women living in shelters as a result of domestic violence.

 

Enhancing participatory governance

Issue

Stronger systems of participatory governance between the local community, civil society and government institutions are essential to promote participatory and responsive governance.

Project

Eastern Social Development Foundation (ESDF) are enhancing participatory governance in Sri Lanka by strengthening citizen engagement with government institutions.

The project will build the capacities of community based organisations (CBOs) in the Batticaloa District in East Sri Lanka so that they can work with their local government institutions to promote participatory and responsive governance. CBOs will strengthen their institutional structures and policies to better manage their organisations, understand the prevailing issues, and work together with service providers and government functionaries to identify solutions to community needs. This will include advocating for improved services and structural changes to rural communities, such as increased representation of women in local government committees.

By the end of the project, it is expected that stronger systems of participatory governance will have developed between the local community, civil society and government institutions.

Eastern Social Development Foundation

Eastern Social Development Foundation (ESDF) is a community based organisation located in the eastern part of Sri Lanka. They have been working with communities and government institutions to defend human rights, promote equality, good governance since 2008. ESDF is the main project implementer and is responsible for overall management of the project.

Partner organisation

Organisations Council for Peace and Co-existence (OCPC), Sri Lanka is a council made up of 19 civil society organisations in Batticaloa District. They have experience of working with government institutions especially at the local level and have previously worked with ESDF on strengthening civil society participation in governance. They have previously executed a project with funding support from USAID on promoting transparency and accountability in local government with the participation of CBOs which resulted in increased women’s participation in the activities of local authorities.

 

Promoting the integration of refugee communities

Issue

The South African refugee protection model is based on local integration. This policy promotes refugee integration into society and participation in social and government processes. However, refugees are not integrating effectively into society.

Project

This project recognises that while services provided to refugees by government are important and help to alleviate pressing needs, a long term improvement in the situation will require that refugees themselves are able to influence the policies that affect them. This will be achieved by building the capacity of leaders of refugee organisations to better represent and organise their communities, and for these groups to design and implement issue-based advocacy campaigns.

It is expected that the project will lead to refugee communities engaging in dialogue with the government, and building better relations with their host communities.

Lawyers for Human Rights

Lawyers for Human Rights was established in 1979 (LHR). It strives to promote awareness, protection and enforcement of legal and human rights through the creation of a human rights culture. LHR has a specialist programme that advocates, strengthens and enforces the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other marginalised categories of migrants in South Africa. LHR also work in the areas of land reform and housing, environmental justice, strategic litigation and penal reform.

www.lhr.org.za

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