CANADA NEPAL GENDER IN ORGANIZATIONS

Section I: Executive Summary

1. Introduction
Canada Nepal Gender in Organizations project (CNGO)¹ supports NGO capacity building and district linkage strengthening for gender equality and good governance. The project was aimed at strengthening the capacity of twelve participating NGOs (PNGOs) in six districts - Bara, Sarlahi and Mahottari in the central terai and Surkhet, Dadeldhura and Doti in the mid and far west regions - to serve as Gender Resource Organizations (GROs) for their respective district. These PNGOs are to contribute to gender sensitive development by providing technical services, training, advice and leadership for gender equality, as well as implementing gender integrated programs with communities, local government and other NGOs.

CNGO also implemented programs to improve the district enabling environment for gender change and NGO collaboration. CNGO facilitated collaborative relations among NGOs and local government with the formation of a District Development Committee (DDC) committee to provide a platform for coordination and collaboration. A coordinating and monitoring committee to support gender equality was established also in several of the CNGO working districts (Gender Equality Committee - GEC). Other civil society initiatives were designed to nurture a supportive environment for NGOs and like-minded organizations advocating for gender equality.

Several initiatives at the central level supported and linked with the district work:

an NGO database, operated by the Social Welfare Council, (SWC - CNGO's bilateral partner) to provide yearly data on NGO programs for policy and program analysis, with a multi-stakeholder management committee,
a consultation process leading to a new draft NGO Act (also known as Social Development Act),
a committee including His Majesty's Government (HMG) Ministries to advise and liaise on the DDC-NGO committees and Gender Equality Committees at district level, and
strategic planning support to the SWC.

Central level management committees guided and advised on these activities.

CNGO is almost complete, and the project management team decided to analyze the outcomes / changes resulting from the project inputs to assess impact and make recommendations for other gender equality and NGO capacity building projects. Two senior consultants worked with the CNGO management team to design a participatory process that engaged members of the PNGOs in a deep reflection of their changes, and the changes in the district environment. The PNGOs evaluated each other, thus they strengthened their own evaluation skills as well as contributed their insight to the process.

This "Outcomes Mapping" report complements "CNGO Lessons Learned", which documents key reflections from the project. In addition, the "CNGO Approach to Capacity Building for Gender Equality" summarizes how the project was implemented. Thus the "Outcomes Mapping" reports what was achieved, the "Lessons Learned" conveys what was learned and the "Approach" documents how it was done. These reports are supported by the Organizational Assessments completed for each PNGO, and the Semi-Annual Reports which regularly documented the project outputs and outcomes according to the Results Based Management framework.