It is position paper
Compassion Fund’s Gender Mainstreaming Strategy 2016-2019 Background The Compassion Fund (CF) is a large international non-government organisation which helps over 30 million people every year, thanks to charitable donations from people all over the world. CF works on long-term community development projects which seek to address the causes of poverty and help people move towards self- sufficiency. Mission: To work with poor and excluded people to eradicate poverty and injustice. Vision: A world without poverty and injustice in which every person enjoys the right to a life with dignity. Values • Mutual respect - recognize each person's innate worth and the value of diversity. • Equity and justice - work to ensure equal opportunity for every person. • Honesty and transparency - accountable at all levels to ensure the effectiveness of actions and open in communications with others. • Solidarity with the poor, powerless and excluded. • Courage of conviction - creative and radical, bold and innovative in pursuit of making the greatest possible impact on the root causes of poverty, without fear of failure. Since CF’s Board adopted the Gender Policy nearly a decade ago, many offices have made significant progress. However, there have also been challenges and constraints that the organisation needs to identify and acknowledge if they are to achieve their mission and vision. The Gender Audit which started in January has just been completed. CF’s Board believes that gender equality is not an add-on; it should be at the heart of the organisation’s work. They believe that if the organisation is to be true to its vision of participatory and sustainable development and to providing a voice for the world’s poor, they must ensure that their work is equally supportive and representative of women and girls. The long-term goal of the Gender Audit is to help the organisation create an organizational culture in which women and men, girls and boys enjoy full and equal worth, dignity and rights. Two simultaneous conditions prompted the organisation to carry out a gender audit. First. CF’s Gender and Development Department is working on its first five-year Gender Mainstreaming Strategy 2014-2019. It seemed an opportune moment to push towards greater integration of gender issues in programming. As the gender audit Scope of Work (SOW) noted, despite: … a lot of thinking about gender ….in the mission, …there has been very little action towards integrating gender into our work. We believe therefore that it is now the time to take this more seriously, by looking at what we have done/achieved, what capacity we have, and the gaps and challenges. We can then design activities that will take us towards mainstreaming gender within the newly developed strategy. Secondly, the organisation recognizes the importance of expanding action beyond programming, committing itself to addressing gender inequalities “at all levels of program and front office structures” through the gender audit process. As part of this strategy development the Department undertook an organization-wide Gender Audit, a self-assessment and action planning process to determine progress in integrating gender equality into the organization’s and programs. The Gender Audit Process and Methodology The purpose of the gender audit is to provide a tool for organizational planning through a participatory process of self-assessment. There are four steps to the process: • Initially, a small group carried out a brief review of the current gender integration strategy and results. This may be done by one or more consultants or by a small task force within the organization, or the two together; • The second step involves a survey of staff attitudes and actions about a range of gender issues in their organization and analysis of the survey responses; • The third step provides for discussion of the survey responses; and, • The fourth step starts the creation of an action plan to address issues raised during the audit process. In sum, the audit process: • Creates a picture of people’s perceptions and understandings of gender in their organization, • Provides a forum for discussing gender issues, and • Develops an action plan for gender integration in the organization’s programs and practices. The Compassionate Fund used the audit process developed by InterAction’s Commission on the Advancement of Women. InterAction’s gender audit tool was designed to be used by NGOs and Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) “to systematically take stock of and address the status of gender equality in all aspects of their operations and work.” The process is primarily a self-assessment methodology for an organization that uses a readiness checklist, a questionnaire, and a set of focus group discussions involving all staff members to clarify strengths of the organization, challenges to the organization, and the steps needed to move closer to the organization’s vision of gender equality. Overall, the audit seeks to improve how an organization manages its efforts to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. By involving the entire institution, it gives people a chance to learn how gender relations affect their daily lives, at home and at work, and how the institutional environment can help to model greater gender equality. A unique characteristic of the InterAction audit process is its attention to four different aspects of an organization’s operations: political will, technical capacity, accountability, and organizational culture, which are defined below. Political Will – the ways in which leaders use their position of power to communicate and demonstrate their support, leadership, enthusiasm for and commitment to working toward gender equality in the organization. Technical Capacity – Level of ability, qualifications and skills individuals in an organization need to carry out the practical aspects of gender integration for enhanced program quality, and level of institutionalization of gender equitable organizational processes. Accountability – Mechanisms by which an organization determines the extent to which it is “walking the talk” in terms of integrating gender equality in its programs and organizational structures. Organizational Culture – Norms, customs, beliefs and codes of behaviour in an organization that support or undermine gender equality: how people relate; what are seen as acceptable ideas; how people are expected to behave; and what behaviours are rewarded. InterAction envisions these components as a tree, rooted in a strong political will that allows and encourages gender equality to grow and branch out into the areas of technical capacity, accountability, and organizational culture: Modifications to InterAction’s Gender Audit Tool The following aspects of InterAction’s Gender Audit were modified The Compassion Fund chose to bring in assistance to facilitate the audit rather than to handle some of the tasks internally. A consultant was hired to organize and facilitate the audit process, including the design and analysis of the questionnaire, preparation of presentations, conducting the focus groups and writing of the reports. An oversight committee, Gender Working Group, was set up to monitor the overall process. The questionnaire used by InterAction was shortened and revised to be more relevant to the Compassion Fund's context. The number of questions was reduced from ninety to just over fifty. Questions relating to areas on which the government has established regulations, such as maternity and paternity policies, were not included, and questions about programming were revised to reflect the programming process at the Compassionate Fund. InterAction supports the modification of its tools, including the questionnaire, to make them appropriate for each organization’s particular needs. In the InterAction Gender Audit, it is common to compose focus groups as mixed groups of men and women representing a range of staff positions. This has the advantage of introducing people to those they may not know and encouraging people to learn about the opinions of those they may not interact with regularly. After initially designing the Compassion Funds’ focus groups in this way, a change was made in the composition of focus groups to mostly same sex and same level staff grouping. Background Values The Gender Audit Process and Methodology Modifications to InterAction’s Gender Audit Tool Compassion Fund’s Gender Mainstreaming Strategy 2016-2019 The Task To support CF in developing its Gender Mainstreaming Strategy, IDO has been commissioned to draft Position Papers that will provide critical inputs on issues that need to be addressed and some tools and techniques to address identified issues. Based on your analysis of the data provided, each team will draft a Position Paper on Gender Mainstreaming. Data provided • Newsletter sent to all CF staff • Survey Data • Focus Group Data Please note there is no additional data available. What is a Position Paper? The purpose of a position paper is to generate support on an issue. It describes priority issues that need to be addressed, the approach to addressing identified issues, the rationale behind the approach, and how issues should be addressed, by whom and within what timeframe. A position paper is always based on the data, which provide a solid foundation for your argument. Position Paper Template I. Executive Summary (500 words) Brief overview of the position paper, outlining its aim, key findings and recommendations II. Situation analysis of the Compassion Fund (1000 words) • Identifying and prioritising key issues to be addressed using the Gender Audit Survey and Focus Group Data. • Providing a clear rationale for prioritising key issues. III. Recommended Actions (1200 words) Recommendations for addressing key issues through the use of gender mainstreaming Tools/Techniques IV. Conclusion (300 words) VI. Annexure 1 Summary Factsheet/s on the recommended Tools/Techniques VII. Annexure 2 Definition of key terms used in the position paper (e.g. equity, equality, gender mainstreaming etc). VIII. Reference list The Task What is a Position Paper? Position Paper Template I. Executive Summary (500 words) II.