CRISP - Project

Project

Women Focused Networks – Women’s Rights Are Human Rights

This CRISP project worked with women in the South Caucasus in strengthening their human rights education and in addressing women’s rights violations in their communities. The project carried the activities of its predecessor from 2019 forward by expanding the support circles the women had established.

Quick facts

DURATION

01.04.2020 - 31.12.2020

LOCATIONS

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - South Caucasus

PARTICIPANTS

Women from both rural and urban

regions of the three participating countries

BENEFICIARIES

from rural and urban areas as well as thier communities

With the support of gender-experts the country team members and the newly-involved participants were able to get acquainted with special tools and techniques aimed at a positive mindset and self-empowerment. Subsequently, in the course of the workshops, the country teams’ women developed skills of systematization methods and by applying those they ascertained their team’s strengths and weaknesses which influenced on the efficiency of their work, as well as identified and discussed issues raised during the implementation of the project under inconstant circumstances in the countries. All women of the three countries will be continuing with their individual support circles beyond the project’s end. As one Georgian participant stated: “The workshop was a new start to a new life and the first courageous step that they took after a 44-day-long war”.

The participants, who are facing increasingly complex challenges in their everyday work, first got some insight in central aspects of complexity theory. They also trained the classification of different problems according to the CYNEFIN framework and discussed what constitutes leadership competence in the context of complex tasks.

On the second day, the participants took part in the simulation game "Großbürgerhausen", in which a citizen forum is simulated. The challenge here was to agree on a joint proposal for a resolution on the use of the site of an old weaving mill in a German city. The simulation gave the possibility to experience complex dynamics in a safe environment and to reflect on prototypical challenges arising from them. On day three, the focus was put on the application of the gained competences to challenges in their practical work. Here the participants used their own case studies to train the use of methods for visualizing and structuring complex issues. 

Project Goals
  • Long-term independence of the networks of the support circles of women in Georgia, Armenia and Azarbaijan. 
  • Expansion of the support circles
  • Raising women’s awareness of the UN-Agenda "Women, Peace and Security" (UNSCR 1325)
  • Capacity building of the participants in the fields of “Community Development” and Human Rights Education
Target Groups

Participants are women from rural and urban areas as well as the capitals of the three target countries.

Activities
  • Activity 1: Capacity building training for 24 participants 
  • Activity 2: 6x regional workshops: Capacity building and knowledge transfer to new women, men and young people from the regions through multipliers* 
  • Activity 3: 6x situation analysis with local stakeholders* and community representatives 
  • Activity 4: 6x regional workshops: Planning of human rights initiatives 
  • Activity 5: 6x Implementation of local initiatives 
  • Activity 6: 1x evaluation workshop of the 24 participants and 2 women from each of the 6 regions (36 in total)
Outcomes / Achievements

The women who participated in the project in 2019 acted as multipliers in 2020 and passed on their knowledge to other women, men and young people in the regional workshops. This way, they took on more responsibility for the network's tasks and made the project a success in this respect.

Each support circle involved at least 2 new women from 6 villages from the participating regions. Men and young people also participated in the regional workshops. During the initial capacity building workshop, the support circles worked with an expert from the working group on the implementation of the UNSCR NAP in Georgia. The women learnt about the goals of the resolution and about the current status as well as challenges of the implementations of the respective NAP in their country. They also exchanged "best practice" examples.

Each support circle implemented an initiative that addressed a women's rights-related issue. This involved at least 5 people involved. The information about the initiatives was published in social media such as the facebook pages of the partner organisations.


Partner

This activity was implemented in close partnership with


Donor

The project could be realized thanks to the kind support of the German Federal Foreign Ministry