On December 4th, 2023 the Inclusion, Gender and Diversity working group of the OIC division organized an experience exchange on including Inclusion, Gender and Diversity considerations in our projects and programmes. This exchange drew on experiences from gender analyses that were conducted in several projects and programmes.

The Inclusion, Gender and Diversity working group of the OIC division has been active since 2018 and has been supporting OIC staff to move the IGD agenda forward in their work. One aim of the group is to build IGD capacities  in project cycle management. On one hand, this is due to increased donor pressure and on the other hand we are convinced that we will improve the impact of our work by not leaving anyone behind. The experience exchange aimed to highlight how IGD aspects were and are included in different types of our projects and provided an overview of the main results of gender analyses conducted within our projects. It allowed us to see how we are doing with carrying out GM1 and GM 2 projects with respect to targeted action and mainstreaming. Likewise, it served as a barometer to see what has worked well and what has not worked as well. It aimed to improve the activities of the IGD working group in terms of which further support is needed by OIC staff. The results will inform the revision of the IGD groups plan of action as well as the OIC strategy revision.

Colleagues responsible for different projects were invited to present IGD aspects and gender analysis results from their projects. Five projects from 4 different regions covering a broad variety of topics were highlighted within the experience exchange. Two projects are being implemented in East Africa, one in MENA, one in Western Balkans and one in South Caucasus.

Temesgen Geremew presented the Women Empowerment and Health Equity Project FGM Project in Ethiopia which is a Gender Marker 2 project. It aims to increase community acceptance and social action for the reduction of child marriage and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) to empower women and girls. He highlighted how a step by step approach to including different stakeholders and solid institutional commitment from district and local authorities helped to induce a change in mind-sets with respect to these culturally sensitive issues. Involving female community conversation leaders that were backed by (male) religious leaders has also proved conducive to implementing the project.

Manual Lackmaier highlighted the Skybird programme in East Africa, that focused on Ethiopia and Uganda, but included other East African countries. The Skybird programme aimed at increasing innovation and strengthening capacities in WASH and related fields. One focus was on enabling a gender -sensitive and effective WASH service delivery, making it a Gender Marker 1 project. The main lessons learned with respect to fostering Inclusion, Gender and Diversity here were that Senior Management support of the partner National Society is essential and that synergies with other RCRC movement were tapped into to further this agenda.

Hanna Steger, Simona Mencinger and Clara Mohtar introduced the Menstrual Hygiene Management component within a wider WASH Humanitarian Aid project in Lebanon. A gender analysis was conducted in schools that elicited that 30% of girls interviewed are embarrassed buying MHM items and 20% reported that their periods disrupt their daily activities. It was highlighted how the MHM work could link into other activities that the Lebanese Red Cross already had in place and that the emergency approach does not exclude Inclusion, Gender and Diversity considerations.

Christian Diemt introduced the CONEX Balkan project that aimed to improve the socio-economic situation of marginalized people in 6 Western Balkan countries. The gender analysis that was conducted was reported to have mainly elicited already known facts showing that patriarchal norms, roles and behavior are still prevalent. Recommendations of the gender analysis were to include adequate complaint and feed-back mechanisms and to consider employing men in traditionally perceived female jobs.

Lena Lang introduced the CONAKA project in South Caucasus with the objective to increase resilience of Covid-19 affected people and of IDPs from Nagorno Karabakh. One component was on understanding gender inequalities and gender roles in the Covid-19 crisis and integrating special needs of women, girls, men, and boys into Mental Health and Psycho-social Support services. The gender analysis confirmed that there was quite some progress in the last years made in Armenia and Georgia on gender roles, but that many traditional gender roles still exist. These are that women are still mainly involved in care work and that employment of women is focussed on women led sectors with less income and more part-time employment opportunities. The gender analysis was quite comprehensive, but it was too broad to cover a specific focus for the implementation of the project.

In summary it was elicited that getting senior management of National Societies on board is essential and a good way of doing this was engaging them in trainings. Working with specialized organisations e.g. with expertise on gender equality, disability inclusion or ageing and with RC/RC partners has proved useful in implementing these aspects into our programmes. Generally, it was observed that there is still a big gap between theory and implementation. Having guidelines and strategies in place is not enough. In many cases, the implementation of these guidelines and strategies proves to be difficult. For the implementation of IGD a budget for staff resources and focal points as well as for adaptations of infrastructure should be considered in project proposals. In all contexts it became clear that the design of project activities has to consider the culture as well as religious and social specificities of a geographic area. It was discussed that cultural change takes a long time and will usually not happen within one short project. In this connection, there was a discussion on how to ensure the sustainability of IGD measures, for example by maintaining a flexible mindset and programming structure that allows taking up opportunities for including IGD in our work that arise unexpectedly.   

Concrete recommendations on how to move forward were to

• Define a clear scope and focus for Gender Analyses and make sure to ask the right questions. This is something that the IGD focal points can support with.

• Learn from other National Societies –e.g. Uganda RC and look towards implementing some of the lessons learned in our own structures.
• Involve more men in IGD work. AutRC is cooperating with WIDE on how to engage men and boys in bringing gender equality forward.
• Link the lessons learned from the  MHM components of different projects in different regions. A concrete suggestion was to make menstrual hygiene products available in the toilets in AutRC OIC offices.