CANADA NEPAL GENDER IN ORGANIZATIONS

Section I: Executive Summary

5. Recommendations

On gender capacity building during conflict:

Donors must ensure a long term commitment for NGO capacity building in gender equality for sustainable change at district/community. Starting with capacity building of NGOs to be GROs and then working through them to build other NGO capacity replicates the model in a cost-effective manner. Especially now that the conflict constrains development projects, working through the PNGOs for replication and project delivery is an appropriate strategy. When NGO capacity is built, better results are achieved in the community level projects.
NGO capacity building needs to be complemented with positive changes in the enabling environment, with sufficient time and resources allocated for district programs. CNGO worked at district level with committees and NGO associations, linking the program back to central level institutionalization. This process takes much effort and time to achieve results with the involvement of multiple stakeholders.

Next Phase Support for Gender Change

With this recommendation, the authors propose a way forward to support the PNGOs for at least another three to five years through a new phase of project implementation and strategic capacity strengthening support.

The proposed design is based on the concept of scaling up the CNGO model. There are now GROs in six districts, seven counting Kaski. They are the best resource for new projects and scaling up the gender change work. The purpose is to challenge gender inequality by empowering women and working with men: to work toward balanced gender relations by addressing strategic gender needs.

Some elements of a project design are:

Central level coordination: senior gender capacity building support and program direction; monitoring; disseminating the CNGO toolkit; serving as an "umbrella" for all the PNGOs
PNGOs refresher/upgrade capacity building on a semi-annual basis from central support unit
PNGOs supported to upgrade their own capacity (e.g. resources and facilities upgrade, funds for internal human resource capacity building)
PNGOs funded to design and deliver gender equality projects that address the root causes of conflict and/or respond to the results of the conflict, e.g. women's role in peace building and mediation, widows and orphans relief support and empowerment, violence against women support, as determined by district needs assessment using participatory methods
PNGOs as district level "executing agencies" to plan and support small project implementation on gender equality through PPNGOs (from current PPNGO batch and selection of new ones by PNGOs)
PNGOs supported to continue to build gender integrated capacity of PPNGOs
PNGOs supported to train and coach selected Line Agency field staff/extension workers on gender integration in their sector - sectors such as agriculture and health (requires some PNGO capacity upgrade in sectors and depends on government ability to actually conduct field work)
PNGOs supported to continue their lead role as district GRO in advocacy - through gender allies networking, GECs and DDC/NGO collaboration and other advocacy methods
Each PNGO supported to select a neighbouring district to then build one or two NGOs to perform as GROs - replicating the concept in about a dozen districts

Some qualifying conditions are:

Long term time frame and commitment- at least 5 years
Responsive to change - "deliverables" are subject to annual review, and are adjusted as conditions permit, e.g. during cease-fire, project resources are mobilized at an accelerated pace; during times of tension and conflict escalation, project deliverables are minimized as necessary in order to keep district presence yet not endanger lives
Combination of small projects at community that address immediate needs with longer term capacity building projects that tackle women's strategic interests
Most importantly, this project concept must happen immediately - whether in some phased-in short term support with a longer term phase to follow or a fast/responsive project design, in order to both capture the benefits of the CNGO project and to respond to Nepal's critical problems