CANADA NEPAL GENDER IN ORGANIZATIONS

Annexes

Annex 5: Description of Tools

Tools used with PNGOs | PNGOs and Decision-making Culture

1. Introduction to methodology and tools applied in the outcome mapping exercises

The outcome mapping was focused on the impact of the CNGO project in five aspects:

PNGOs organizational gender mainstreaming
Results at community level in gender attitude and behaviour
PPNGOs gender equality and organizational capacity
District Line agencies change in gender awareness
Overall district environment for gender equality and local government - NGOs collaboration

Methodologies adopted were specific for each aspect and based on familiar tools of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). A team of four facilitator evaluators from the PNGOs was developed in each district. The team of evaluators, including all district level facilitators, consultant, project advisor and project director came together at Hetauda for a two and half day workshop. The methodology was discussed, problems articulated, routines worked out and travel plans finalized in that workshop. The workshop was facilitated by the consultant, Kanchan Verma Lama, and guided by the expertise of the Project Director, Chris Hunter and Project Advisor Barbara Duffield; Sumedha Gautam assisted in managing logistics and translation work throughout the workshop, and in district visits in the three eastern districts and Surkhet in the west. Sarita Karki supported the evaluation by her translation and logistical support in Mahottari, Surkhet, Doti and Dadeldhura.

The methodologies consisted of:

Secondary documents review
Focus group discussions with the eleven PNGOs, the PPNGOs and community groups
Individual interviews with:
- district officials (government line agencies and local bodies)
- PNGO staff and members
- Gender allies and Gender Equity Committee (CNGO promoted)
- NGO CC and NGO Federation

The tools used were:

Semi structured questionnaires
Venn diagram
Gender Analysis Matrix
Decision Making Matrix

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2. Tools used with PNGOs

2.1 PNGOs and Women's Empowerment

This session was used to map the impact of CNGO's efforts on changes in empowerment level of PNGO's members, individually and organizationally. This was done separately in two focus groups, one with men by men facilitators and another with women by women facilitators. The facilitators were instructed to verify all answers with 1 or 2 examples in every exercise.

Women's Group

Participants: Women executive committee members and general members (ranging from 9 to 12). Entry: We are here to hold a discussion with you about women's empowerment. We want to know about the level of women's empowerment in your organization. We would also like to know about:

Just by being a woman, what do you feel about women's empowerment?
What constraints do you face in the process of being empowered? What other internal or external factors hamper in the process of women's empowerment?

Question 1:
How do you feel when you are empowered? (Each individual member writes only one answer on one metacard)----this is equal to a definition by women about women's empowerment. The answered cards will be presented by each individual member one by one while probing will be done by the facilitator, such as: Why do you think so and so on based on the answers. Not to be subjective but to maintain objectivity, facilitator would not reply from his/her side but just probe.

Question 2:
Reflect and write (on metacard) evidence that you felt empowered and illustrate how you felt at that moment? It can be at three different levels:

Family level, Community level, Organizational level

Answers were encouraged more at organizational level. When some members could not write, they were offered peer support to write. At this point the participants were asked to explain the reasons behind her feeling of being empowered at that moment and analyze the factors that made her to be so. The women were requested to rank their own answer (empowerment) at the level she would think appropriate as per the empowerment framework. This exercise was done to understand the perceived level of empowerment, i.e., about changed attitude and behaviour (impact) of women's empowerment through the changes introduced by CNGO. The facilitator probed with deeper questions such as:

Why do you feel it as a different and significant experience in your life? What changes do you particularly mean by saying so? Were you not able to do so before? Was it possible for you to do so if you were not in a group? Was there any repercussion for you being empowered in the family or organizational environment? How did you deal with that? etc,etc.

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Levels of empowerment:

Definition of the "empowerment levels framework"

Welfare level: State of material welfare supply of women relative to men, such as, nutritious food, income etc that help women to maintain their livelihood in a better manner. At this stage, no issues related to empowerment are addressed; it is rather a kind of support to women for their material well being.

Access level: The state of recognition that there is a gender gap between men and women in accessing resources. When women realize that there is no gap in accessing resources equally with men, such as, education, employment, skills training, etc., they would rank their empowerment at this level.

Awareness level: This is the state of "conscientisation" when women (and men) internalize that distinctions made towards women due to being women by sex only is a "human doing" through systematically established and practiced social norms and values; that these can and must be changed for achieving gender equality. Without challenging and changing these discriminatory norms and values, gender equality cannot happen.

Participation level: The state when women have participated in the process of needs assessment, problem identification, project planning, management, implementation and evaluation of projects and programs and also about own development, equally with men.

Control level: This is a state when women and men feel that there is not any dominance of one sex over the other. This is achieved when there is a balance of power between men and women in all kinds of decisions affecting their life. This is a state of emancipation to feel free of restrictions on mobility, resources, decision making, etc. for women. Practically, in the PNGO working society, this implies that men need to give up some power that has been controlled in a biased manner. Thus this is a situation where women are still struggling and so are the men. However, without arriving at this level, gender transformation cannot be achieved.

Question 3:
Remember an incident in your life when, even if you were capable of being empowered or wished to be empowered, you could not make it happen due to some vital factors. Please cite an example.
(one answer per metacard for individual participant ) The facilitator then probed after every individual answer to check validity and appropriateness.

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Question 4:
What constraints do you face on the way to empowerment only because of being women?
(individual answer on metacard)

Question 5:
Work in small group:

What are the three major initiatives or efforts implemented by your organization to achieve women's empowerment?
In your opinion, what kinds of efforts should your organization undertake in order to advance women's empowerment effectively?

Men's group:
The organizational aspect of empowerment of women was discussed with the men members in a separate group with different questions, led by men facilitators.
Entry: We want to know about your working experiences as men, how have you worked on women's empowerment issues and what constraints have you gone through in doing this?

Question 1:
Write down your contribution during the last two to three months to women's empowerment (on metacard). The answer could be given at three levels: Individual, family and community level.
After writing up, each of the participants read it out to others while the facilitator asked the following probing
questions:
Why do you think that was great? When actually did you do that? How did you do that? Why did you do that?

Question 2:
While working for promoting gender equality, what kinds of constraints do you face? Since you work differently than other men, do you face any kind of problems?

Question 3:
In your opinion, what are the three most important changes that were implemented by your organization to achieve gender equality in the organization? What are the problems faced during the process of implementation?

Note: Questions 1 and 2 were asked at individual level and questions 3 and 4 were asked in group. However it is advisable to ask individually.

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2.2 PNGOs and Decision-making Culture

The purpose of the session was explained as below: We want to know about the decision making process in your organization today. How does each woman and man member describe their own role in decision making? Who brings proposals to meetings? What level of motivation is there among them to initiate new proposals? What impact has been realized due to involvement in the decision making process at individual level and organizational level? Is it helpful to maintain transparency and develop accountability among the members?

The session was held separately with dalit, women and men members. The discussion was based on the last or the second but last meeting of the PNGO board. The questions were answered individually by each member on metacard.

Question 1: Participation and Transparency in decision making

When did you hold the last meeting of your board?
How, who and when were you informed about the meeting?
Who attended the meeting?
What was the agenda?
Who proposed the agenda? How were the topics decided for the agenda?
What was your own role in bringing any proposal?
What was your role in expressing opinions for decision making?
How did you feel about expressing your opinions in the decision making process? How difficult or easy it was?

Question 2: Ownership of decisions

What was your feeling about the importance of your role once the decisions were taken? Did you own it? Yes, No. Why do you think so?
How would you assess your responsibility for the implementation of the decisions taken by the meeting?

Question 3: Benefits: Individual and organizational

List down the individual benefits that you obtained by being involved in the participatory and transparent manner of decision making. If none, give reasons.
Has the process benefited your organization? If yes, what are those? List down. If none, give reasons.

Complete the matrix with the cards (or answers):

Target member	Participation	Ownership	Benefits
Dalit (men and women separately)			Individual	organizational
Women
Men

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