[Closed] Promoting the Role of Civil Society in Gender-sensitive SDG implementation

Credits: UNDP women

 

Project Summary

In the spirit of ‘leaving no one behind’, the 2030 Agenda particularly stresses the role of women and girls as the accelerators for various aspects of sustainable development. Today, women remain globally underrepresented in leadership and management positions in the public and private sectors. In the labour market, women worldwide make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, while carrying out three times as much unpaid household and care work. Although Azerbaijan has a well-developed legislative base to ensure  equal rights of men and women to engage in all types of economic activity, inherit, own and sell property, receive bank loans and travel in and out of the country, the solid legal base does not always translate into the positive outcomes in women’s life. The national statistics suggests that women tend to receive less fortunate labour market positions - while women’s labour force participation rates in Azerbaijan are above those in neighbouring Iran and Turkey, they are below those reported in Kazakhstan, as well as most EU countries and in China. The data also indicates that the vast majority (73% in 2015) of inactive workers in Azerbaijan are women. In addition, women’s employment tends to be concentrated in sectors (e.g., agriculture, trade, education and health) in which wages and salaries are well below national averages, with most employed women receiving lower wages than men in the same positions. In agriculture, for example, men have better access to business support services, training, and education, which contribute to better work opportunities and higher pay. The sum total of these factors means that less than one-third of senior- and middle-management positions in Azerbaijan are held by female employees.  Ensuring gender equality and women empowerment is a complex and ambitious task that requires broad-based participation and multi-stakeholder partnerships including governments, civil society, academia, media and private sector. In this view, the project will support civil society driven SDGs implementation through gender lens and will incorporate the civil society organizations (CSOs)as the key agents to test and apply the twin-track approach to gender-sensitive SDGs implementation. The project will also build capacities of the local civil society organisations through a series of trainings and access to learning resources. It will facilitate effective networking and forge partnerships between the CSOs as well as national and local authorities.

 

Project Objectives

Overall objective
  • Promote greater participation of the CSOs in the gender-sensitive implementation of the national SDG agenda.
Specific objectives
  • Promote confidence building and dialogue between the civil society and the government around the SDGs issues;
  • Improve understanding and knowledge of CSOs, to apply gender-responsive approach to SDG implementation;
  • Increase participation of the ​CSOs in the implementation of gender sensitive SDG initiatives.
 
  • Educate women with the tools necessary to strengthen their abilities to identify and overcome the barriers that prevent them from leading more satisfactory life.
  • Encourage adoption of rights and mechanisms by women.
  • Improve the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) environment and sustainable management of WASH services in target communities.
  • Create conditions and environment for empowerment of the women population in target settlements to integrate into social life and play more active part in decision making process in the community.
  • Contribute to women’s empowerment by removing barriers to accessing information and services.
  • Reduce the discrimination and social exclusion of divorced and widowed women and wives of prisoners in the society.
  • Improve the national urban planning and development legislation and become more detailed to meet the accessibility needs of vulnerable people in open public spaces and streets, public facilities and public transport in Azerbaijani cities.
  • Strengthen the role of women in the provincial municipality councils by increasing their influence in decision-making for effective and gender mind governance.

 

Expected results

  • A platform for dialogue and networking between the CSOs and the government of Azerbaijan on including gender considerations in the implementation of the SDG agenda will be established  
  • CSOs will gain an increased understanding of the SDGs framework and capacities to apply gender-responsive approaches to the SDG implementation.
  • A grant programme to support CSO-led gender-sensitive SDG initiatives will be designed and implemented.

Achievements

2018 2019
  • Established and functional Project Management Team
  • The project’s Local Project Appraisal Committee meeting was organised.
  • A Call for Expression of Interest for the national CSOs was organized to engage them in the project’s capacity building and consultative activities. 
  • An introductory meeting and two consultative meetings were organized with the NCCSD Secretariat and members of the NCCSD working groups.
  • An introductory meeting and two consultations were organized with the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs.
  • A meeting with the leadership of the NCCSD was planned to ensure probability for the continued dialogue and collaboration of the civil society with the government in the implementation of the national Sustainable Agenda 2030. 
  • An engagement plan for the CSOs participation in the SDG nationalization processes was developped.
  • UNDP organised two consecutive trainings “Designing civil society projects to implement the sustainable development agenda with a focus on gender equality”.
  • UNDP organised two consecutive trainings “Leaving no one behind – inclusive and equitable implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals”.
  • To facilitate greater public awareness of the specifics of the current CfPs, UNDP organised an information session. 
  • UNDP organized Training for Trainers (ToT) “Support to civil society in Advocating, Monitoring and Evaluating the Implementation of SDGs at National and Local Levels” on 11-13 March 2019. 
  • UNDP has discussed and agreed with the NCCSD Secretariat to include the master trainers in the NCCSD sdg.az website and promote the services of the master trainers to various stakeholders including the NCCSD working groups. 
  • Social media training for the master trainers and support them in developing a Facebook page to promote their services to various interested groups. 
  • UNDP developed the Call for Proposals (CfPs) to collect the best project proposals from the CSOs and support implementation of various activities that will contribute to the SDGs processes in Azerbaijan. UNDP hired Grant Manager who supported the project in drafting the CfPs guidance, co-facilitating an information session and evaluating the proposals. As a result of the CfPs, nine CSO projects were awarded the contracts.