Results achieved at the end of the project (March 31, 2015) include: 1) placement of 564 volunteers funded by the Volunteer Cooperation Program; 2) capacity building of developing country partners in the areas of (i) women’s rights, (ii) sustainable livelihoods and (iii) policy dialogue; 3) project implementation and organizational capacity building in 65 civil society organizations, in developing countries and in Canada; 4) over 440 training activities provided to 13,685 people (10,044 women and 3,649 men, that is, 73% and 27%, respectively) to develop or improve their knowledge of and skills in (i) program management, (ii) program development, (iii) results-based management, (iv) monitoring and evaluation, (v) gender equality, (vi) environmental issues, (vii) communications/media, (viii) public engagement/education, policy dialogue, (ix) knowledge sharing, (x) networking, (xi) organizational diagnosis, (xii) finances, (xiii) leadership, (xiv) climate change adaptation and (xv) governance; and 5) improved organizational performance and delivery of their services and projects for 90% of partners through the application of this knowledge and these skills in their professional activities. In practical terms, this improvement translates into the number of people affected, which increased from 85,000 in 2009 to 217,256 in 2015 for the community economic development and sustainable livelihoods sector. In the women’s rights sector, 24,456 women, girls and men were reached through access to justice work, the fight to end violence against women and girls, and participation in decision-making bodies and in policy dialogue. The total number of girls’ clubs put in place over the six years is 49: 46 in Swaziland and 3 in Ghana. These results contributed to a national dialogue on women’s and girls’ rights, on gender equality, and on creating economic opportunities for women and rural producers, thereby encouraging their empowerment. They also allowed over 14 million Canadians to be reached through the media and for over 24,000 people to be directly engaged in 469 events, notably networking events, speeches, photo exhibits and round tables.
