Project profile — Women’s Voice and Leadership – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

This project is part of Canada’s Women’s Voice and Leadership Program, which supports local and regional women’s organizations 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. This project provides Congolese women’s organizations with the tools, resources, funding and mentoring needed to strengthen and sustain their technical and organizational capacity to drive change and promote the rights of women and girls, as well as advance gender equality in five provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This project is implemented by The Carter Centre. Project activities include: (1) providing tailored, long-term training and mentorship for Congolese women’s organizations; (2) providing Congolese women’s organizations with direct, multi-year funding; (3) establishing and strengthening networks of women’s organizations by facilitating exchanges to share experiences, accomplishments and lessons learned in order to build solidarity around a common vision for the feminist movement; and (4) supporting women’s rights organizations in the design and development of their advocacy strategies. This project supports new and innovative approaches to promote the rights of women and girls and advance their empowerment through a separate fund open to a broad range of Congolese women’s organizations.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved management, sustainability, performance and innovation of local women’s rights organizations; (2) increased collaboration, collective action and innovation of local women’s rights organizations and platforms to advance gender equality and the rights of women; and (3) increased effectiveness of women’s rights organizations, platforms and movements to affect policy, legal and social change in the DRC.

Results at the end of the project (June 2024) include: (1) enjoyed the benefits of the project by 868,321 people (the majority being women) directly and a further 5 million indirectly; (2) strengthened capacity of 17 supported women's rights organizations to sustainably manage their programs; (3) 20 women's rights organizations received funds to achieve at least 50% of their objectives; (4) 10 women's rights organizations expressed a greater capacity to work together on key issues and common concerns regarding women's rights; and (5) 10 women's rights organizations strengthened their ability to defend women's rights and network to promote them. These results contributed to increase enjoyment of human rights by women and girls and the advancement of gender equality.