Women Rehabilitation Organization has launched the new project “Capacity building and political engagement of civil society organizations engaging in gender equality programming in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq“, funded by The United Nations Democracy Fund

WRO is pleased to announce the launch of its 2 year program in partnership with the United Nations Democracy Fund, UNDEF, in response to the significant request of national NGOs to participate in capacity building programs. The program will train, coach and mentor 10 local CSOs through an integrated and compressive approach over the course of 11 months and create governmental advocacy and participation platforms for local CSOs.

Summary

Women Rehabilitation Organization (WRO) through its Capacity Building and Political Engagement of Civil Society Organizations Engaging in Gender Equality Programming in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) project seeks to strengthen and empower underdeveloped civil society organizations (CSOs). The overall objective is to increase the representation and participation of women focused civil society organization in cooperation and communication with government and non-governmental entities to ultimately better serve and advocate for the IDPs, refugees and host community members affected by the current conflict. By doing so, WRO expects that the participating CSOs will have greater understanding of operational structure and gender programming through capacity building activities and be given a platform to coordinate and advocate. The projects will address the gaps in culturally competent and gender sensitive quality service provision though bolstering the capacity of civil society to meeting the needs of the community, while strengthening and facilitating the voice of these women and girls in civil society and governmental platforms.

The implementation of this project will strengthen CSOs through capacity building activities that will increase their knowledge on operational structure, gender mainstreaming, and advocacy to further engage in gender-based program designs and initiatives to meet the needs of the community and have an increased rate of participation of local women CSOs and their beneficiaries in government platforms. In order to increase the CSOs capacity, WRO will host a 4 part comprehensive training on organizational and institutional capacity as well as gender programming and advocacy. Participation and engagement among civil society will be conducted through workshops engaging with parliamentarians, non-governmental organizations, governmental bodies and UN agencies and the creation of an advocacy committee.

This project will work with national CSOs to address the gaps in quality service provision and simultaneously bolster the capacity of CSOs in order to meet the needs and provide services for the most vulnerable including women and girls all the while facilitating their inclusion and providing a platform for their voices to be heard on a larger scale. Through the use of practical and theoretical trainings, workshops, guidance and coaching, CSOs involved in this empowering capacity building project will be able to maximize their capacity and deliver results which will strengthen their ability to meet the needs of vulnerable populations.

Project objective: To strengthen the capacity of gender equality focused civil society organizations (CSOs) to engage with government to meet the needs of vulnerable women and girls, especially those of displaced and host populations affected by the current conflict.