Project profile — Women’s Voice and Leadership - Pakistan

• Pakistan (100.00%)

• Government And Civil Society, General: Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions (15170) (100.00%)

• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Children's issues (significant objective)
• Desertification (not targeted)

This project is part of Canada’s Women’s Voice and Leadership Program, which supports local and regional women’s organisations and networks that are 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 globally recognized, significant gap in funding and support to women’s rights organizations and movements around the world. The project seeks to advance gender equality in Pakistan by: (1) supporting the work of, and strengthening women’s rights organizations (WROs); (2) supporting capacity building in proposal development, leadership skills, media, legal frameworks pertaining to women, and on feminist monitoring, evaluation and learning; (3) providing organizational development training to select WROs based on needs identified by them; (4) providing direct grants for operational support and to facilitate the implementation and monitoring of WROs’ programs; and (5) providing responsive funding, research grants and funding for developing one national level alliance.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved management, programming and sustainability of local WROs in Pakistan, particularly those representing vulnerable and marginalized women and girls; (2) enhanced delivery of programming by WROs to advance gender equality in Pakistan; and (3) increased effectiveness of national and sub-national women’s rights networks to bring about gender-sensitive policy change and implementation in Pakistan.

Results achieved at the end of the project (June 2024) include: (1) 12 core women’s rights organizations (WROs) demonstrated more gender-inclusive practices in their respective areas. They enhanced their skills in community engagement, proposal development, gender-responsive financial management, and safeguarding practices. Also, these WROs improved their organizational, operational, and governing systems and developed more gender-just policies and compliance practices; (2) allowed that 75% of leadership positions within the 12 core WROs are occupied by women compared to 61% at baseline; (3) supported the 12 core WROs to organize 599 public events, engaging 4,224 stakeholders to advocate for women’s rights at the district level; (4) awarded 18 research grants to organizations to produce evidence-based research products on topics such as domestic violence, the rights of domestic violence workers, social protection, and the care economy; and (5) supported 5 women’s rights alliances (1 national and 4 provincial). This improved their ability to collectively engage in gender-sensitive policy change.

• Proactive disclosure