Project profile — Women's Voice and Leadership - Colombia

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 their activities, building their 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 is implemented by Oxfam-Québec in rural conflict-affected regions of Colombia. It aims to strengthen the capacity of local women’s rights organizations and at least one network that work to defend the rights of women and girls and to promote gender equality.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved management and sustainability of local women’s rights organizations in Colombia; (2) enhanced performance of women’s rights organizations programming and advocacy to advance gender equality and empower women and girls; and (3) strengthened women’s networks and movements to address issues related to women and girls’ rights in Colombia.

Results achieved as of March 2023 include: (1) 15 Women’s Rights Organizations and national networks received ongoing funding and technical support to strengthen their management and programming for women’s rights. They also reached 35 grassroots organizations and women’s collectives. Young women identified as 41% of participants, 27% identified as Afro-Colombian women, 33% as indigenous women, and 40% as rural mestizo women; (2) 13 Women’s Rights Organizations who received multi-year funding implemented programmes that promote and protect women and girls’ rights, increasing their participation in decision-making scenarios, and implementing advocacy campaigns reaching 26,462 people; and (3) two national rural women networks that received direct funding report an improvement in collaboration and collective actions with their members, with Women’s Rights Organizations and networks influencing 25 laws and public policies at the national and local levels.