Welcome to CARE Insights

In the second report from our event highlighting the importance of locally-led action, we focus on a recurring theme from the discussion—money. Speakers underscored some uncomfortable truths and made recommendations for how larger international organisations can transform power relations to better support locally-led initiatives.

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"When we talk about ending gender-based violence, we have to remember violence is embedded in particular cultures, belief systems and power."

At the end of 2021, a panel of women from across Asia came together to discuss why locally-led action is crucial for addressing gender-based violence, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first report from the event, we share the speakers’ insights into how one pandemic affected another.

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Women have a human right to participate in public life and decision-making, even in emergencies. Yet, women directly affected by crises are still excluded from most humanitarian responses and from public decision-making more broadly. CARE’s Women Lead in Emergencies approach supports local women’s groups to take a lead in responding to the crises that affect them and their communities. A new report focuses on lessons emerging from piloting this approach in the Omugo refugee settlement in Uganda, and what these tell us about some of the assumptions underpinning the model and toolkit for practitioners. Some of them may surprise you.

The South Sudanese civil war began in 2013 and has led to the displacement of nearly one million South Sudanese in Uganda alone. Women and children make up 81% of the refugee population. With funding from Global Affairs Canada, CARE Canada and CARE Uganda have been supporting refugees and the host community since 2017. Women Lead in Emergencies (Women Lead) activities began in January 2019 in the Omugo settlement and have been extended to the Siripi settlement as part of the third phase of the programme (April 2020-March 2021). Below are five lessons from piloting the approach in Omugo.    

1. There are some pre-conditions for women’s participation

Our assumption was that, as part of their action planning, women’s groups would identify activities directly related to their ability to engage effectively in community and humanitarian decision-making. For example: leadership and life skills training, networking with other women, access to information, provision of childcare or transport costs to enable them to attend meetings, and brokering access to humanitarian duty-bearers. However, the experience and decisions of the women’s groups in Omugo suggest that there are some foundational barriers that need to be tackled first or in conjunction with such activities:

• Functional adult literacy: The women noted that being able to read, write and present themselves in English is an unofficial precondition for being able to participate meaningfully in community meetings and other decision-making spaces within the settlement.
• Income generating activities: The women’s groups were also clear that with financial resources comes influence and power and, without them, they would not be taken seriously by their community or decision-makers such as government and humanitarian agencies.
• Psychosocial support: The Rapid Gender Analysis on Power and Participation identified the need for psychosocial support for women in the community and all the women’s groups noted the importance of this, as well as participation in their group activities, in supporting them to overcome their trauma and reducing negative coping mechanisms. 

2. Engaging men early is a priority for Women Lead projects and for women

Women who are active in public life have an increased risk of experience gender-based violence and stigma. Engaging men and boys is therefore a mandatory activity in all Women Lead projects, regardless of whether the women’s groups identify men’s engagement as a priority in their action plans. However, the Omugo pilot shows that women may also prioritise activities that involve their male relatives and leaders. Women’s groups in two villages identified involving men from the community in the project to be important for their own active and safe participation in Women Lead activities, and public life more generally.

To address this, each of the women’s groups elected to have ‘orientation’ sessions with men from their households to introduce them to the concepts and objectives of Women Lead, and for male relatives and influential men from the community to be included in the literacy classes. The women’s groups also supported an extension of CARE’s Role Model Men programming to Omugo and decided which men were invited to participate – rather than the selection process being led by men in the community, as is more often the case.

 3. Different groups have different needs and the approach must allow for adaption

Intragroup dynamics have a significant impact on the way in which activities are planned. In Omugo, three factors have affected how groups have engaged with the Women Lead approach:

• Whether the group is newly formed or already existed can have an impact on how quickly the group can mobilise and the amount of effort required to build group cohesion. Our experience in Omugo challenges the assumption that pre-existing groups will be more cohesive or effective than new groups. At the same time, there are early indications that self-initiated groups – new or established – may have greater commitment and collaboration than when humanitarian actors select participants for group activities.
• Presence of an experienced leader or activist in the group can be highly beneficial in terms of organisation but can also have risks when the group comes to depend on a single person. Reflect sessions with group members - where women’s groups explore how gender and other social norms affect different women’s participation and leadership - provide an opportunity for the group to discuss their leadership structure and/or individual leaders, and to find alternatives where they are not serving group objectives well. 
• Inter-generational dynamics can hinder the extent to which all women participate equally. Women in each of the groups noted how paying respect to one’s elders is very important in their cultures and this means that younger women are expected to leave the talking and decision-making to more senior women. Given the responsibility placed on girls at a young age, both culturally and due to conflict and displacement, it is important these young women are also given the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and participate in collective action.   

4. Collective planning and action should be done in a flexible and participatory way

Women Lead is an approach with five distinct but iterative components: Analyse; Reflect; Co-Create; Act and Learn. The Co-Create component is at the heart of the Women Lead model: it is where women’s groups identify their common goals, what activities and support will enable them to achieve them and how they will spend the Women Lead budget allocation for their group’s activities. We assumed that:

• the Co-Create phase would build directly on the Rapid Gender Analysis on Power and Participation and the Reflect sessions, and that;
• Co-Create sessions with women’s groups would lead to a time-bound action plan and that this would be documented in some form.

In practice, co-creation of action plans differed among groups, along with the extent to which groups found it helpful to stick closely to the set of activities and timings defined by the model. The time needed by each of the groups to reach the stage of developing action plans may vary and more time may be needed to introduce the concepts of women’s right to participate before progressing to the co-creation activities. Some groups looked for ‘quick wins’ like making improvements to the Women’s Centre where they meet or farming a piece of land together to produce food for their families and for sale. These activities helped them to build solidarity and trust before tackling larger action goals that were more directly linked to women’s participation and leadership in decision-making. 

The form that action planning has taken also evolved. Group members have started to journal their individual and group activities and are now also exploring the use of videos and voice messages to document actions taken as a group. The Co-Create project component will likely require considerable flexibility and tailoring to the needs of specific groups. 

5. The power of peer networking and mentorship between women’s groups

The pilot has provided new insights into the potential role of reflection and exchange between participating women’s groups in the co-creation process, as well as group exposure to women leaders and mentors. During Reflect and Co-Create sessions, women’s groups expressed the desire for more platforms to enable women to network, share experiences and identify common concerns. Women Lead has supported various activities to facilitate this, including:

• bilateral exchanges between participating women’s groups and/or between groups and elected women leaders
• two Women’s Conferences bringing together women’s groups, community members and other humanitarian actors
• a Women’s Forum community event during ‘16 Days of Activism.'

These exchanges support mentorship and inspiration between women’s groups at different stages of maturity, which can be important for their own group development and planning. Networking between women’s groups can also support their identification of overarching common concerns and objectives in ways that build broader solidarity, and which might provide a platform for groups to take action together to claim rights and lead or influence humanitarian response.

So far, CARE has piloted or is using the Women Lead model in Colombia, Mali, Niger, the Philippines, Tonga and Uganda. In 2022, this will be expanded to include Bangladesh, Ethiopia and South Sudan. It is being used in all types of emergency, from natural disasters to protracted crises, from conflict settings to global health pandemics, and as such offers rich opportunity for lesson learning and the potential to increase impact at scale.

In 2022, CARE will publish an independent, multi-country evaluation assessing the impact of the initiative across the countries it has been implemented. This will offer valuable learning both for CARE and the humanitarian sector on the importance, feasibility and impact of increasing the power, voice and leadership of women even during complex crises. Keep an eye on CARE Insights where the evaluation will be published in Spring 2022.

For more information

Read the full Learning Report.
Check out the accompanying Learning Brief, which highlights some of the ways women in Omugo are leading in emergencies.
Discover CARE’s new framework for Women’s Voice and Leadership.

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