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GENERAL INFORMATION
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Name
of Initiative
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Women Mayors's Link
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Initiative URL (if available)
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Submitted
by
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Country
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Romania |
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Organisation
Name
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Equal Opportunities for Women Foundation |
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Organization
URL (if available)
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http://www.sef.ro |
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Organisation's
Vision/Mission
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Women Mayors’ Link (WML) is an initiative of the Stability Pact Gender Task Force (SP GTF), and by having the Executive president of Equal Opportunities for Women Foundation - Dina LOGHIN - as the Regional Project Manager, EF Foundation, IASI – Romania is the WML Leading Organization.
WHO WE ARE:
a. Stability Pact Gender Task Force (SP GTF) – the initiator
The SP GTF was established in July 1999 as the result of an Appeal to Participants of the Stability Pact signed by 150 prominent NGO, Government and Parliamentary Representatives and political activists from throughout South Eastern Europe and beyond. Signatories to the Appeal called for full participation of women in the stabilization process as stakeholders in ensuring stable, democratic, and prosperous development of the entire region. The first steps in the SPGTF were supported strongly by the CEE Network for Gender Issues and the OSCE, which became the Sponsor of the SPGTF.
As practically all countries in South Eastern Europe were holding elections in 2000 and 2001, and women’s average representation in legislative bodies was 7%, the first priorities of the SP GTF were to undertake major region wide action to empower women to run for office and to use their voting rights. SPGTF activity in this field contributed to the rise in women’s representation in SEE Parliaments from 7% to 15% on the average, with the spillover effect of governments seeing gender equality as an important issue that requires a systematic response in the form of Gender Equality Machinery.
The GTF is a structure with full participation of SEE Governments, Parliaments, and civil society actors,. It was initiated by key gender equality actors in SEE, and supports a broad range of initiatives as part of its aim of full participation of women and men in developing stable and democratic societies in SEE.
a. Equal Opportunities for Women (SEF) Foundation – the implementer
Equal Opportunities for Women (SEF) Foundation is a local democracy and human rights organization (based in IASI, Romania) that promotes equal opportunities for women and men, working in the benefit of women and realizing appropriate activities in their protection and defense. The organization has legal status since March 1st, 1996, and it is registered as a non-profit juridical entity.
OUR MISSION:
To promote equal opportunities for women and men by supporting women’s efforts to raise their standing and visibility in their professions and communities, so they may contribute to the greatest possible extent in Romania's economic, social and political transformations.
OUR VISION:
Romania as a country with a balanced participation of women and men in decision-making at all levels, in which women are active and responsible citizens in building a participative culture to consolidate democracy, foster economic development and support social consensus for life in human dignity for all.
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PROJECT INFORMATION
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| 1.
Why, when, and how did the project begin? |
Why did the project begin:
Women Mayors’ Link (WML) is an initiative of the Stability Pact Gender Task Force (SP GTF), a project developed in the 12 countries and territories of the Stability Pact (SP) Region and having the Executive president of Equal Opportunities for Women (SEF) Foundation - Dina LOGHIN - as the Regional Project Manager. This is why SEF Foundation, IASI – Romania is the Women Mayors‘ Link Leading Organization.
From its very beginning in 1999 the Stability Pact Gender Task Force was focused on political empowerment of women. It was or still is involved in training and campaigning for more women to be elected in local governments in 12 out of 13 countries/territories of the Stability Pact region.
As a result of this work the very first women mayors have been elected in Macedonia, their number was doubled in Albania, and some capitals got women mayors (Belgrade, Ljubliana, Zagreb). The biggest number of women mayors is in Romania, but mostly in small impoverished rural localities where men were not interested to take the responsibility for poorly paid and hopeless positions. In Slovenia the situation is the opposite. There are less than 8% of women mayors, but they are mayors in the most developed cities.
Wherever women were elected as mayors they still represent a negligible minority and they cope with enormous difficulties connected with the cost post war or transition period.
In the SP GTF Women Can Do It trainings these women mayors were trained to become role models of the new type of community leaders. They were encouraged to orient towards every day needs of their voters/followers, to practice politics in ‘women’s way’, based on inclusion of civil society actors, on participatory democracy, on consensus building, on acceptance and respect for diversity, on interethnic cooperation, on regional and international partnership and solidarity. As the power of communication and collaboration was included also in any training program, women mayors from SP countries have expressed their desire to network in both the South East of Europe (SEE) and the developed UNECE countries, as an important step towards the International network of Women Mayors, which should be a framework for the transfer of know how and exchange of experiences and good practices.
When did the project begin:
The project began in May 2002 with the first phase (Preparatory phase), to be continued with its second phase (Implementation phase) until April 2004.
How did the project begin:
As Sonja Lokar’s idea has been transformed into the WML Project, and the SP GTF got the first donation – from the German Government – we worked together to develop the implementation strategy.
There were two important priorities:
- to invite international experts to be involved in the Project - as members of the International Project Board, and
- to invite both the Governmental and the NGO Focal Points in the targeted countries to be part of the working team (While SP GTF is including three Focal Point Persons for each country [as parliamentary, governmental, and NGO representatives] only one person is part of the working team of the WML Project. This is not excluding the other Focal Points' contribution, but we had to consider their roles and responsibilities in each country. Please find the attached ‘SP GTF terms of references’.)
Another important step was to inform about and invite the potential partners in our project.
The first International Board Meeting took place in Vienna on September 7th, 2002 – when we finalized the implementation strategy.
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| 2.
What are the goals of the initiative? |
Overall Goal:
To improve women mayors’ leadership skills in building:
(a) regional and international partnership and cooperation for projects that improve the quality of life of women and children in local communities; and
(b) gender-balanced development and social consensus in local communities
Specific Goals:
§ First phase (Preparatory phase)
(a) To collect information about Women Mayors in the Stability Pact Region and developed UNECE countries (women mayors’ profiles and localities profiles) by using the e-mail list serve and the interactive web page of the project;
(b) To create a framework for cooperation between women mayors at both national and regional levels.
§ Second phase (Implementation phase)
(a) To foster cooperation between women mayors/local governments and local women networks in preparing small projects of improving the quality of life of women and children in local communities;
(b) To initiate and facilitate regional and international exchange of best practices in similar projects;
(c) To lobby for a better representation of women in local government;
(d) To support women mayors efforts in increasing people’s participation in the problem solving process in their communities.
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3.
Who participates in the initiative?
[Please
identify participants, beneficiaries, and implementation partners. Provide
specific demographic (age, income, rural/urban) information about your beneficiaries.] |
PARTICIPANTS:
Women mayors from targeted SP countries and territories, Women mayors from developed UNECE countries, the International Project Board members, National Governmental and Non-governmental Focal Points of the SP GTF, local NGOs - as partners of Women mayors in projects’ implementation
BENEFICIARIES:
50 selected Women mayors from targeted SP countries and territories: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYRoMacedonia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo/a, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia.
IMPLEMENTATION PARTNERS:
a. Stability Pact Gender Task Force;
b. Equal Opportunities for Women (SEF) Foundation – Romania
c. The Network of National Association of Local Authorities of South East Europe (NALAS Network);
d. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities from Europe (CLRAE);
e. The CEMR Committee of Women Elected at Local and Regional Authorities;
f. National Governmental and Non-governmental Focal Points of the SP GTF
g. Women ambassadors of the UNECE and Central and Eastern Europe countries to the countries members of the Stability Pact.
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| 4.
Please identify the project’s most important partners and
explain their role in the project and in helping to mainstream gender. |
a. Stability Pact Gender Task Force – the Initiator
SP GTF is carrying out overall supervision, monitoring, and evaluation of the project.
b. Equal Opportunities for Women (SEF) Foundation – Romania - is the Women Mayors‘ Link Leading Organization;
SEF is responsible for the project management by allocating the necessary expertise, equipment and space, as well as additional human resources in need (as its contribution) for the project implementation.
c. The Network of National Association of Local Authorities of South East Europe (NALAS Network)
The NALAS Network was an important partner in helping us to create the National Networks of Women Mayors in each country. The Romanian organization – FALR – has helped with fund raising (by applying for co-funding the Matching Conference). The representative of NALAS Network in the International Board (Mrs. Monika Romenska, Deputy Executive Director of the National Association of Municipalities of the Republic of Bulgaria) helped us also in the process of International networking at European Level. Due to her intervention we received the support of The CEMR Committee of women elected at local and regional authorities.
d. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities from Europe (CLRAE);
CLRAE send us in the beginning of the WML Project the Fact Sheets on the Situation of Local and/or Regional Democracy in South-Eastern European Countries (Document prepared in the framework of the Stability Pact activities by the Congress’ Secretariat on the basis of the Congress monitoring reports on local and/or regional democracy in member and candidate States).
e. The CEMR Committee of women elected at local and regional authorities –
The working relation was established in June 2003. We are waiting for two representatives to participate in the Matching Conference in November. This is an important partner for the gender mainstreaming process, and we are working together to develop a strategy for this.
f. National Governmental and Non-governmental Focal Points of the SP GTF –
Their role was extremely important – as they did the very hard work in organizing the National Networks of Women Mayors in each targeted country. As we changed the funding strategy we should redefine their roles.
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| 5.
Please describe the management structure and processes of the project,
with particular emphasis on transparency and accountability. |
a) The International Project Board is an advisory board of seven members:
· Ms. Sonja LOKAR - Supervisor, SP GTF Chair, Slovenia
· Ms. Dina LOGHIN, M.A. - Regional Project Manager, Executive President, SEF Foundation, Romania
· Mrs. Monika ROMENSKA – NALAS Network Representative, Bulgaria
· Ms. Stella AVALLONE – Director, Cultural Forum of Austria in Milan, Italia
· Mrs. Gina GAGNON, M.A. – Expert for Institutional capacity and Entrepreneurship skills building – Human Strategies for Human Rights, CA USA
· Ms. Rose THELEN - Expert for Creating Public Response to Private Violence, Duluth, MN USA
. Ms. Heidrun THOMAS - Expert on Youth - Interkulturelles Zentrum, Austria
Three out of the above mentioned are the experts involved in projects’ selection – I kindly invite you to see the attached ‘Expert terms of references’. They worked together by email in preparing the guidelines for the women mayors’ proposals, and we have had permanent consultation – all board members – for both the proposals and project implementation.
b) The project team – as established in the project, with the allocated budget - consists in:
- the Regional Project Manager
- the project assistant
- the accountant
However, other staff members of SEF Foundation contributed to the project development, most important of them:
- Gabriela Buleu – PR Director
- Linda Fischer - Fund Raising and Development (we applied four times for co-funding the initiative)
c) The resource partners – the working team:
We sent letters of invitation, with the Terms of references to all SP GTF Contact persons, inviting them as resource partners in the WML project. The final agreement included:
§ Albania – Governmental FP - Mrs. Lavdie Ruci
§ Bosnia and Herzegovina - Governmental FP – Mr. Bakir Sadovic
§ Bulgaria – NGO FP – Mrs. Stanimira Hadjimitova
§ Croatia – NGO FP – Mrs. Lovorka Marinović
§ FYRoMacedonia - Governmental FP - Elena Grozdanova
§ Greece – Mrs. Kalliope (Kelly) A. Bourdara, Deputy Mayor Athens
§ Kosovo/a - Governmental FP – Mrs. Cyme Mahmutaj
§ Hungary – NGO FP - Marta Bonifert and Parliamentary FP Mrs. Zita Gurmai
§ Moldova – NGO FP Ala Mindicanu and Ecaterina Mardarovici
§ Romania – NGO FP - Claudiu Petrina
§ Serbia and Montenegro
- Serbia – NGO FP – Mrs. Tanja Ignjatović
- Vojvodina – NGO FP – Mrs. Marija Gajicki
- Montenegro - Governmental FP – Mrs. Danka Latkovic
§ Slovenia - Governmental FP – Ms. Violeta Neubauer
Each resource partner received the allocated budget – according to the number of women mayors in their country – and was responsible to organize the National Network Meeting (here including translating the materials, media coverage etc).
Each resource partner signed a contract and presented narrative and financial reports related to the events they organized in the respective country.
A list serve was created for the internal communication:
spgtf-womenmayorslink@yahoogroups.com
By the end of September 19, 2003 the list serve will be opened for the women mayors who joined the project.
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| 6.
What tools and processes did you use in monitoring and evaluating the results
of the initiative? |
a) Monitoring:
The initial project included as expected results for the first phase:
- Accessible database and list serve to be used by the women mayors in both SP and in developed UNECE countries
- Successful development of the matching conference, which means successful networking process at national and regional level - in SEE, and then successful networking process at regional level – in Europe and North America.
So, for the progress report we planned to monitor the networking process and the use of ICTs in project implementation. The reports of the National Network Meetings present the networking process (number of women mayors who joined the project, number of projects that we received) at national level. Sonja Lokar, Mary Ann Rukavina - SP GTF Associate Director (representing the SP GTF), and/or Claudiu Petrina – project assistant, Dina Loghin (representing the WML project) attended the meetings - for the external evaluation. Press releases and a press conference during the National Network Meetings were used for project promotion, and the media coverage of the events is reflected also in the reports for each country.
For the second phase the monitoring process is included in the project implementation as
survey of projects’ development and implementation, in order to collect the data (using both qualitative and quantitative research methods) for the final report and the publication of the results. The resource partners will monitor the WML project implementation (development of local networks), the experts will monitor the projects implemented by women mayors, and the management team will monitor the networking process at regional level (SEE and Europe and North America ) and the use of both the interactive project website and the list serve.
b) Evaluating:
The initial project included as evaluation not only the progress reports but also the impact assessment report. The second Board meeting (Vienna 11-13, 2003) was the framework to evaluate the project after one year of implementation, and to change the funding strategy. While consultations are on line, immediately after the Matching conference the third international project board meeting will be held for the evaluation of that stage of initiative development.
Here I have to mention the great opportunity we have because of our inclusion in the Gender Evaluation Metodology project. GEM helped us to work to develop the necessary tools not only to better evaluate the WML initiative but to create new opportunities for project future development and sustainability.
We kindly invite you to see the GEM Testing Profile as reviewed early September 2003.
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| 7.
What results and/or immediate outcomes has the initiative achieved,
and what impact has it had on the beneficiaries, participants, and community? |
First phase (Preparatory phase) – already achieved
(a) Database of Women Mayors in Stability Pact Region – on the project website: http://wml.sef.ro
(b) National Networks of Women Mayors in the SP countries/territories - Please find attached the ‘National Women Mayors meetings development’.
(c) Preparation for Regional Network of Women Mayors – Pleased find attached the Conference Program as of 10 September.
Second phase (Implementation phase) – not yet achieved
(a) Regional and international partnership and cooperation for projects that improve the quality of life of women and children in local communities
(b) Gender-balanced development in local government.
Social consensus building on priorities in local communities.
Because the initiative is not finalized yet, we didn’t collect enough data to evaluate the impact. Generally it is a positive impact on women mayors – in terms of empowerment, and we make them more gender aware. |
| Describe
how the initiative reflects each of the Gender and ICT Awards' criteria
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| 8.
Strategic use of ICTs. |
· The initiative collects information about Women Mayors in the Stability Pact Region and developed UNECE countries (women mayors profiles and localities profiles) by using the e-mail list serve and the interactive web page of the project. It also empowers women mayors by improving their leadership as well as some particular skills (proposal development, project implementation and written communication). By the project website and by sending on different list serve news about the project, which is in fact about and presents the activities of Women Mayors in support of Justice and Development Initiatives for Women and Girls – the initiative support also the promotion of gender equality.
. The initiative is 90% implemented by email and internet. The International Board members, the project Team members, and WML project Partners are working by email and by the interactive project website. In addition, an e-news letter will be soon created to initiate and facilitate regional and international exchange of best practices in similar projects.
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Mobilizing awareness and participation and/or building capacities.
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· The initiative is creating a framework for cooperation between women mayors at both national and regional levels. It uses different technology in order to and by facilitating the creation and maintenance of three levels of networks of Women Mayors: (1) the National Network in each target country; (2) the SP Regional Network, and (3) the International Network in all UNECE countries. We face here: the problem of existing Infrastructure, the level of training in communication skills, including using internet, and the foreign languages’ knowledge.
. On one hand the initiative adds a new group of Women (Women Mayors) to Women's Networking Initiatives in the SP Region (like that one of Women in Parliaments) and in the UNECE (like that one of Women Ambassadors) Countries by working with women and men in both Governmental structures and NGOs. On the other hand, the initiative supports women mayors efforts in increasing people’s participation in the problem solving process in their communities, by involving in the project implementation other organizations, business and government.
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| 10.
Contributing significantly to the promotion of gender equality and/or
women’s empowerment. |
The initiative was designed to foster first the social change by providing support for selected projects’ implementation in order to Improve the Quality of Life for Women and Girls with focus on justice: (1) Organizing efforts to end domestic violence, and development: (2) Women’s entrepreneurship and skills training and (3) Educational opportunities for young girls. In doing so, it fosters also cooperation between women mayors/local governments and local women networks in preparing the above-mentioned small projects. Moreover, the initiative is an opportunity to lobby for a better representation of women in local government. |
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| 11.
Please describe processes or mechanisms that are in place to ensure
the project’s sustainability. |
The National Networks Meetings have been successfully developed. As we discussed during the meetings, former women mayors will keep the membership but as observers. So, the idea is that the former women mayors will constitute the group of experts for the networks, and their role will be the transfer of skills and the project sustainability (as former mayors they will have more time to allocate for this). We intend to submit a proposal to train this group of experts – particularly in gender mainstreaming the local governance and the use of ICTs.
Because there is a high degree of diversity in the SP region (countries already members in the EU, countries in the accession process, and the other) the exchange of experience with women mayors from the developed UNECE countries is a real need. The interactive website and on line forums seem to be mechanisms to use. However, we look forward for the Matching conference to be held in 20-23 November 2003 to finalize the strategy and have the women mayors’ ideas related to the project’s sustainability.
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| 12.
How can your project be replicated elsewhere? |
The project includes as activity the publication of the results which will be posted on the project website as well, and we will invite other groups in other regions to replicate the initiative. For those interested we can send the necessary materials and we can provide them on line the technical assistance to start up the projects. If donors are interested in the initiative we can train a core group of project initiators and implementers in the other regions.
As the Governance and Participation is an important sectoral approach of Gender mainstreaming and includes Local Governance (Decentralization, Community Planning and Service Provision) we are very optimistic. |
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13.
What are the key lessons learned from the implementation of the
project? *
(Please include information on unexpected outcomes, both good and bad.) |
As the second stage of the initiative will end in April 2004, and we had to postpone the Matching conference for November 2003 (initially was scheduled for early June 2003) we cannot mention right now the key lessons learned. However, as this moment we appreciate the below mentioned outcomes:
§ unexpected outcomes - good
Women mayors in some countries decided to formalize the networks, in order to increase both their opportunities for access to training and technical assistance (through grants) and lobbing (by becoming organizations members in NALAS Network).
By the mailing and e-mailing campaign (as part of the international networking process) the initiative attracts media/government attention as well as general public interest in each country, in SEE and at the European level until now.
§ unexpected outcomes - bad
Because both SP GTF and SEF are generally implementing gender mainstreaming tools, we just forgot that not all women mayors are gender aware. This created some difficulties in motivating women mayors to join the initiative at regional level.
Because of the male dominated boards and/or not enough solidarity between women we failed in raising funds for the projects’ implementation (submitted by the women mayors) until
Now.
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| 14.
How might your initiative benefit from a multistakeholder partnership?
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WML initiative it is a multistakeholder partnership.
The good development of the initiative is due to this multistakeholder partnership. |
| General
Remarks and Additional Information |
| Remarks |
I want to emphasize the beauty of the WML initiative that works on both Strategic Gender Interests and Practical Gender Needs of women and girls. But, above all, I want to congratulate the ICT Gender Award initiative which, while it was a difficult exe |
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| Attached
files |
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