This report is a progressive account of a small policy research on Gender strategic plans implementation for central Equatoria state. The exercise covered six counties of Central Equatoria State. The county Gender officers were the prime target of the study. The study intends to measure the level of county gender officers in executing the state gender strategic plans at their jurisdiction of work. The approach is through the tools of monitoring and evaluation of counties gender officers' capacities in implementing the state strategic plans. This study was supported financially by Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) office in Juba.
Executive Summary
To know the efforts of Central Equatoria state authorities and communities in reaching a point of action for driving towards the three key principles for embracing gender namely;
1. Full gender equality and the elimination of gender discrimination;
2. The integrations and full participation of women in development;
3. An increased contribution by women in the strengthening of world peace
CEPO acknowledged that these principles are not easily achieved in totality but it is necessary to recognize how much they are localized by the state and the communities for reasonable work towards them. For practical talks regarding the work towards localization of these principles, CEPO has to undertake a project under funding from Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) for conducting activities as semi policy research on Central Equatoria State Gender strategies. The activities undertaken are directly engaging the county Gender officers on the following activities;
1. Carrying out Gender and women rights awareness raising/sensitization
2. Observing and monitoring of customary courts practices, county Gender officers commitment including their level of knowledge on the state gender plans/strategies
3. Same observation is also done on the police Gender desk
The methodology applied for conducting the activities mainly comprised of community leaders briefing, public event on Sundays in the church, on Friday in the mosques and market days, conducting focus group discussions and filling of standard checklist for customary court practices. Meanwhile CEPO conducted full observation by using SWOT analysis tool on the county and police Gender officers' level of commitment via field activities reporting.
The study exercise revealed that less was done by both the county and police gender officers in increasing the struggle towards reduction of Gender based violence and women rights violation. The constraints are centered on the following issues;
1. Most of the county Gender officers are not appointed by the government, they are rather volunteering for positions making them to do things according to their own will.
2. Limited funding by the county administration for implementing Gender and women rights activities in their budgets because the county authorities view the Gender Unit as something to be financed International NGOs (foreign aid).
3. The police administration treat the special protection unit (gender desk) as an isolated unit out of the police service, this has attributed to a lot of barriers such as special protection unit office building are taken for other purposes and officers engaged in the gender trainings are always transferred from time to time then consistency on issues become at stake
4. The special protection units in the police building are not at rights locations, because some of the current buildings are exposing the victims of gender based violence to the society.
5. Both county and police gender desk officers are not informed about the state gender plans/strategies. Therefore no priorities for achievement at their levels. Further there are lack of information sharing between the special protection unit and the county gender office
The key challenges faced during the study were the issue of county infrastructure which has limited the project outreach to some Payams in the counties. For better future works on gender, CEPO has the following recommendations for deliberations;
1. There is need for the state ministry of social development to adapt a participatory approach for developing the state gender plans/strategies.
2. The ministry of social development needs to work closely with ministry of finance in budgeting and with the state ministry of local government for inclusion of gender activities in the counties' annual budgets.
3. Capacity building for management of Gender Based Violence and women rights is indispensable for all actors in the area of gender with special focus on police administration in acknowledging the role of gender desk inclusive.
4. There is need for civil society, media and international community to focus on tracking the expenditure on gender for accountability purpose.
Background information
Gender Based Violence and violation of women rights are the key problems in our societies/communities with regard to women issues in six Counties of Central Equatoria state. The government is the first actor obligated to resolve these women issues and constraints in our society and communities. The state government central Equatoria through the ministry of social development and child welfare tried to address the problems of women rights and violence against women. The state strategy for addressing women rights and gender based violence were great if fully executed as planned.
One of the simple tactics for executing these plans is through engaging the county gender officers and the gender desks in the police fully. The county gender officers and desks are recruited and the county police gender desks are created both for the purpose of achieving gender objectives. CEPO feels it is important to measure the role of the county gender officers and the police gender desks in the achievement of the state gender objectives. With regard to this concern, CEPO won Norwegian people's aid Women's Legal and Human Rights Grant particularly targeting combating violence against women, grant dated January 2011. The project is undertook the followings activities;
1. Gender Based Violence TOT training that forecast on 12 gender desk officers from the 6 counties of Central Equatoria State (Juba, Terekeka, Lainya, Morobo, Kajo-keji and Yei)
2. Facilitation of gender based violence sensitization in the counties for 3 months
3. Monitoring of customary courts in the counties
4. Monitoring and evaluation of the counties gender officers and desks in the counties
Goal: Enhancement of Central Equatoria State gender and women rights strategies implementation
Objectives;
1) To evaluate how the counties gender officers are engaged in raising awareness on gender as per their training action plans.
2) To learn about the progress of gender officers' engagement in the customary courts monitoring in order to identify the related gender issues handled by the traditional courts.
3) To learn and understand the community concept on GBV issues and their perception and know what the measures they best would use to address the issues at stake
4) To monitor the county desk officers in their respective counties
Expected results;
1) To have slight review on Central Equatoria State gender strategies
2) To come out with working plans/ recommendations on gender based violence
Activities carried out;
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