Project profile — Women’s Voice and Leadership - Middle East

• Jordan (100.00%)

• Democratic participation and civil society:
Democratic participation and civil society (15150) (25.00%)
Human rights (15160) (25.00%)
Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions (15170) (50.00%)

• Gender equality (principal objective)

This project is part of Canada’s Women’s Voice and Leadership Program. This program which supports local and regional women’s organizations and networks working to promote women’s rights, and advance women’s empowerment and gender equality in developing countries. This is done by supporting activities, building institutional capacity, and promoting network and alliance-building as women’s rights and feminist organizations are critical agents of change. The program also responds to the significant gap in funding and support for women’s rights organizations and movements worldwide. The project helps address the challenges facing women’s rights organizations in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq by strengthening their organizational capacity through training and mentoring, providing multi-year core funding, flexible short-term funding for nascent organizations and creating opportunities for the feminist movement to thrive in the three countries.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) improved management, programming and sustainability of local women’s rights organizations (WROs) in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, particularly those representing vulnerable and marginalised women and girls; (2) enhanced delivery of quality and inclusive services and advocacy by WROs to advance gender equality in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq; and (3) increased effectiveness of women’s rights platforms, networks and alliances to fully exercise their civic rights and affect gender-sensitive policy change and implementation in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

Results achieved at the end of the project (June 2025) include: (1) strengthened internal systems for women’s rights organizations (WROs) in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, adopting feminist Monitoring and Evaluation tools, safeguarding policies, and risk management practices; (2) supported all the 10 WROs to develop multi-year fundraising strategies and diversified their donor base; (3) enabled WROs to influence 3 national policies and developed 7 joint action plans. For example, in Lebanon WROs led digital campaigns on online Gender Based Violence (GBV) and political participation, in Iraq, WROs advocated for reforms to the Personal Status Law, and in Jordan, WROs contributed to labor law reforms and agricultural worker protections; and (4) reached 17,290 direct beneficiaries and over 2.38 million people indirectly. WROs provided services including legal aid, psychosocial support, and economic empowerment. For example, WROs in Lebanon supported 221 online GBV survivors, WROs in Iraq provided services to over 2,700 individuals, and in Jordan, WROs educated 471 agricultural workers and reached over 120,000 people through feminist clubs and digital campaigns.

• Proactive disclosure
• Related activities:
• Women’s Voice and Leadership in the Middle East
• Women's Voice and Leadership in the Middle East