Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration...

Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop

FEBRUARY 18-21, 2014

BALI, INDONESIA

Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 1 of 11.

I. Executive Summary

The Asia Foundation’s (TAF) Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop was held from

February 17-20, 2014 in Bali, Indonesia. The workshop brought together 39 participants from across the

Foundation’s field offices and theme-based teams and included an engaging series of presentations and

break-out discussion groups. The highly interactive format of the workshop was an important opportunity

for participants to network, discuss the Foundation’s work in women’s empowerment programming, and

deepen understanding of innovative and effective programming strategies. Further, the workshop was a

chance for staff to build skills necessary to ensure all programs can effectively take gender into account

through learning to use the Six Domains Gender Analysis tool. A workshop evaluation showed that

participants valued the chance to learn this tool as well as to learn about gender-sensitive monitoring and

evaluation and to exchange information and ideas with colleagues from other offices.

An important outcome of the workshop were the numerous suggestions for concrete steps that the WEP

team, field offices, and other teams can take to advance gender integration within TAF. These include:

facilitating cross-country learning and sharing best practices across offices, training all staff on gender

integration, developing a handbook to guide gender analysis in different sectors, and sharing new

approaches and discourse on gender and development, among others.

In the months following the workshop, participants have utilized the experience to increase connectivity

and information-sharing based on workshop learnings. For example, as a result of discussions during the

education session at the workshop, TAF staff involved with the Merali Scholars Program started an email

chain to link all of the people managing the program so they can share ideas. In addition, echo-sessions

to share information learned at the workshop, including the gender analysis tool, were held in TAF’s

Vietnam, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines and Bangladesh field offices and a gender training to share

similar information was held with the Philippines marines. Gender integration strategies discussed at the

workshop continue to be utilized to inform program design. Further, staff from the Women’s

Empowerment Program conducted a gender integration training in TAF’s Timor-Leste office immediately

following the workshop and plan to conduct similar trainings in the Sri Lanka and Philippines offices later

this year as efforts to continue to build TAF’s strength as a “Gender Smart” organization.

II. Introduction to the Workshop

The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, organized by TAF’s Women’s

Empowerment Program (WEP), was held from February 17-20, 2014 in Ubud, Bali. This ‘Gender Smart’


workshop, which was one step among many to implement TAF’s new Gender Equality Policy, brought

together 42 participants (Annex 1) from across TAF including program staff from 15 field offices, and from

six San Francisco- and Washington-based teams. The overarching workshop objectives were: (1) to

strengthen TAF’s programming on women’s empowerment issues, and (2) to enhance gender integration

and mainstreaming across a broad range of TAF programs. These objectives were developed based on

input from 26 program staff from across TAF offices, and several consultations with colleagues from other

thematic teams. The workshop was, in part, enabled through the generous support of TAF trustee, Gina

Lin Chu, and her investment in professional staff development for gender integration at TAF. Through

contributions like this, TAF is able to deepen its support of innovative and effective programming, and

ensure that all programs address the particular needs and experiences of women and girls throughout the

Asia-Pacific region.

The 3.5-day workshop was an interactive series of

presentations and breakout discussion groups in

which staff had an opportunity to connect with each

other, learn a variety of new tools, and discuss TAF’s

on-going work in women’s empowerment. Field office

presentations covered priority issues for TAF’s work in

women’s empowerment, including economic

empowerment, political participation, and violence against women. Many of the participants had never

had a chance to meet their colleagues from other offices and were eager to have the opportunity to

connect with one another and to learn about TAF’s range of complex and strategic programming in

women’s empowerment and successes and failures in integrating gender in other programs. Participants

also had the opportunity to practice gender analysis tools throughout the workshop and think critically

about how to apply these tools to their own work.

In his introductory remarks to the workshop, Gordon Hein, Vice President of Programs, emphasized the

importance of this workshop to “advance our shared understanding of issues and approaches, and how

The Asia Foundation can make its maximum possible contribution to advancing women’s empowerment

and gender equality in all their dimensions throughout the region”. Gordon noted the “wonderful history”

of TAF’s women’s empowerment work, highlighting TAF as “a pioneer in promoting women’s rights and

opportunities in Asia going back decades.” TAF did this, in large part, through recognition that in order

“for women to truly advance their role in society, it wouldn’t be enough for them to be the designated


beneficiaries of particular interventions. Rather, women would need to confront and overcome existing

power relationships in their societies, including increasing women’s participation in positions of decision-

making authority at all levels.” TAF’s current strengths in this area, he noted, are, in part, attributable to

a comprehensive approach to women’s empowerment, a dedicated ‘theme team’ of experts across the

Foundation, a long-term commitment to innovation in this field, and an organizational commitment to

achieving a just and thriving Asia.

In a session on the State of WEP and Gender

Integration at TAF, Senior Director of the

Women’s Empowerment Program Carol Yost

explained how WEP takes a coordinated, two-

pronged approach that aims to both address

women’s and girls’ distinct needs through

targeted programs, and mainstream gender into

all programmatic areas. Carol Yost noted that

while TAF has done a good job in designing and

implementing programs that address women’s

and girls’ immediate and longer term strategic

needs, we have lagged behind some other

organizations, including many of our largest

donors, in ensuring that gender is integrated into

our programs overall. In dollar terms, WEP has

grown steadily and there is almost $20 million in

programming projected for 2014. The extremely

large WEP portfolios in a few countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia

account for a significant portion of that total funding.

During a session on Assessing the Evidence, Kate Bollinger presented a comparative understanding of the

status and trajectory of gender equality measures in the Asia Pacific region as a whole, particularly in

relation to WEP's three core areas, and identifying priority actions. She noted that the Asia-Pacific region

continues to lag behind other regions, and is ahead only of the Middle East on gender equality measures

related to women’s economic participation. Overall, the region occupies 4th place out of six regions

During the workshop, Carol presented on the Lotus

Circle, a private fundraising initiative that WEP

launched six years ago. The vision of the Lotus Circle is

to create a community of individuals and corporations

that are committed to improving opportunities for

women and girls in Asia, and who contribute to WEP

programming for innovative and timely interventions.

The LC’s center of gravity is New York City, where we

organize regular events to engage with LC supporters

and new friends. The LC started with a few trustees

and committed advisors, and now includes a group of

15 Lotus Circle Advisors, primarily based in NY, who

helped launch TAF’s first ever fundraising event—the

Lotus Leadership Awards in 2011. The Lotus Circle

holds an annual event that raises flexible funds that

field offices can access to pilot test ideas, scale up

successful models, and enhance existing programs in

innovative new ways. This year, we are holding our

first gala dinner that will honor Dr. Muhammed Yunus,

the founder of the Grameen Bank and Ms. Nani

Sulminarni, a TAF partner in Indonesia.


according to the 2013 World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, which measures the degree to which

countries have closed the gender gap in areas of politics, economics, health, and education. Kate noted

that the East Asia-Pacific now has the highest primary school ratio of female-to-male enrollments among

all developing regions and second highest at the secondary level. In South Asia, girls still lag behind boys

in both literacy and primary completion, although the World Bank notes that gender parity at the primary

school level has been achieved in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and India. The share of

female parliamentarians in East Asian and Pacific countries is just below the global average of

approximately 18%, and the prevalence of violence against women in the Pacific is among the highest in

the world with about 60% of women having experienced some form of gender-based violence.

Meloney Lindberg, Country Representative in Mongolia, commented on how the situation for women has

evolved in Mongolia, where there is a ‘reverse gender-gap’ in education, with women outnumbering men

in higher education. This session was followed by a series of engaging small group discussions, where

participants split up into groups to discuss how the status of women has changed in relation to economic

opportunities; rights, security, and justice; and political participation; and identify programmatic

opportunities given TAF’s strengths.

III. Building a Gender Smart Organization

TAF's recent adoption of a new gender policy provided an excellent opportunity for participants to

collectively take stock of TAF’s current practices and begin to think about what is being done well and

what could be improved, as well as identify good

practices internally that can be adopted more

widely. Throughout the workshop, as well as

during a plenary session on Building a Gender Smart

Organization, participants discussed how TAF staff can

work more collaboratively and effectively within and

across field offices and themes, to become more

"gender smart". Carol Yost launched this session with a

summary of TAF’s institutional commitment to gender

equality, as demonstrated by the new policy. Carol also

Gender Smart Practices from Field Offices

Improving gender balance among staff

Gender expertise across all teams

Gender mainstreaming in projects and gender integration in program review process

Clear policy on gender mainstreaming in call for proposals from partner organizations

Gender consideration in Letter of Agreement

Compulsory gender training for program and finance & grants staff

Gender training and program development assistance for partner organizations


highlighted the value of trustee support, such as Gina Lin Chu’s support for the workshop. She then

moderated a discussion with Kerry Brogan, Meloney Lindberg, and Hana Satriyo who shared some

lessons learned and good practices from the Timor-Leste, Mongolia, and Indonesia perspectives.

Gender Analysis

The workshop was also an opportunity to practice

using the Six Domains Gender Analysis Framework, a

tool for systematically considering the gender

dimensions of program contexts. Barbi Rodriguez and

Kate Bollinger led several sessions in which they

introduced the concept and utility of gender analysis,

and demonstrated how to use this particular gender

analysis tool, which considers factors such as who has leadership, power, and access and control of

resources. Discussions of the framework aimed to facilitate deeper thinking on how our program activities

across the Asia-Pacific region can be adapted to encourage more meaningful participation by women and

men. Through case studies and group work, participants had numerous opportunities over the course of

the workshop to practice applying the framework to hypothetical contexts as well as to specific programs

in their countries.

Gender-Sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)

Senior M&E Advisor, Ana Coghlan, from Program Strategy,

Innovation and Learning (PSIL), led an interactive and engaging

session on Gender-Sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation that

prepared participants to identify critical components of the M&E

cycle and highlighted key considerations for integrating gender into

M&E processes. Ana noted that gender-sensitive M&E captures

different program processes and effects on men and women and is critical to all TAF programs because it

(1) provides accountability to both male and female participants, donors and TAF internally; and (2) can

improve the program’s implementation, outputs, outcomes and impact.


Donor Approaches to Gender Integration

Tracey Tuyen and Tamara Failor, from Public Support Development Services (PSDS), presented on how

the donor landscape has evolved with respect to gender integration and women's empowerment, looking

at both USG and non-USG donors, and how in some instances – though not all – higher donor expectations

on gender have emerged. Following their presentations, they moderated presentations by Ana Coghlan

of PSIL, Pauline Tweedie of TAF/Thailand and PSIL, and Hana Satriyo of TAF/Indonesia, who reflected on

their interactions with and impressions of bilateral donors from Australia, the United Kingdom, and

Canada respectively.

IV. Innovative Women’s Empowerment Programs

The workshop was also intended as an opportunity for staff to learn from the range of programs TAF is

implementing in three mutually reinforcing areas: increasing women’s rights and security, advancing

women’s political participation, and expanding women’s economic opportunities.

Women’s Rights and Security

The workshop included several sessions which addressed different aspects of TAF’s programs that

promote women’s rights and security. Barbi Rodriguez moderated a session that focused on different

office’s experiences Conducting Research on Violence against Women (VAW). The discussion highlighted

findings and strategies to leverage international best practice. Samneang Moul from TAF/Cambodia gave

a comprehensive overview of the lessons learned from conducting a political economy analysis of VAW

and access to justice in Cambodia. Antonieta Maia from TAF/Timor-Leste discussed the ongoing research

on VAW that is funded by DFID under the Programme Partnership Agreement (PPA), as well as her

involvement in the first household survey on VAW conducted in Timor-Leste. Rukhsana Shama of

TAF/Pakistan, talked about the USAID-funded Gender Equality Program’s survey work on gender-based

violence.


Ellen Boccuzzi, from TAF’s Governance and Law

theme, moderated a panel on the Gender

Dimensions of Access to Justice, which featured

Prasith from TAF/Laos, and both Kerry Brogan and

Carmenesa Soares of TAF/Timor-Leste. This panel

discussed gender dimensions of access to justice

including property and inheritance, family law, and

traditional justice.

Meloney Lindberg moderated a roundtable discussion on Educating Women and Girls, to examine TAF’s

recent scholarship support to young women and girls to continue their education. Shamim Sarabi from

TAF/Afghanistan, Hong Siv Lim from TAF/Cambodia, Sunita Anandarajah from TAF/Malaysia, and Nguyen

Thi Ngoc Anh from TAF/Vietnam presented on their country’s efforts under the Merali Scholars Program,

and lessons learned on helping young women successfully complete university. Following this session,

participants launched an ongoing email listserv to link all of the TAF staff managing a Merali scholars

program and facilitate information sharing.

Women’s Political Participation

A session on enhancing inclusive participation examined gender-specific barriers to participation and

qualitative distinctions of participation. Natalia Warat from TAF/Indonesia discussed (1) women’s

representation in Indonesia’s parliament and executive offices; (2) legal reforms and changes in elections

and political party laws to encourage women’s participation; (3) effective strategies for working on

different levels of advocacy and capacity building for engaging with political parties and male politicians;

and measuring impacts and achievements; and (4) the 2014 elections context. Kerry Brogan and

Carmenesa Soares from TAF/Timor-Leste discussed the Support for Good Public Policy Program, funded

by DFAT, that is engaging district-based NGOs that work in the area of advocacy, gender, and monitoring

of government programs to actively engage in the policy making process. They also addressed the Local

Governance program, funded by the Government of Norway, which supports female suku (village) council

members to actively engage in council meetings, and suku planning and decision making process. Shahid


Fiaz from TAF/Pakistan described TAF’s innovative work on voter education which targets women in the

tribal areas.

Hana Satriyo and Novi Anggriani led a session on

Gender Responsive Budgeting as a Local Governance

and Gender Integration Tool. Gender Responsive

Budgeting (GRB) is a dynamic approach to empower

stakeholders to identify and then track whether/to

what degree public sector budgets reinforce gender

equality goals. Participants were introduced to

international best practice in employing the tool, and

how TAF utilizes GRB to enhance local participation,

promote government accountability, and promote

gender-sensitive budget priorities.

Women’s Economic Empowerment

A plenary session on the Economic Empowerment of Women, moderated by Pauline Tweedie from PSIL,

delved into recent TAF-supported research around

the region to identify constraints to women-owned

small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), as well as

innovative TAF programs to promote women

entrepreneurs and advance gender-equitable

economic policies. Kate Bollinger summarized the

key findings from the APEC-funded study on barriers

to women’s entrepreneurship in Malaysia, Thailand,

Indonesia, and the Philippines, highlighting the need for more networking opportunities and access to ICT

for business women. Nayef Ahmed, from TAF/Bangladesh, discussed how women’s economic

engagement has evolved in Bangladesh, including through TAF’s innovative efforts to cultivate Women’s

Business Forums. Reecha Upadhyay, from TAF/India, described the achievements of the recently-

launched South Asia regional project, SAWES, which is engaging and supporting South Asian women

Building Better Budgets for Women and the Poor (funded by DFATD)

This program aims to improve the capacity of women's groups and NGOs to work together and advocate for local plans and budgets which integrate the needs of women and the poor, improved local regulations and policies which ensure transparent and accountable gender-responsive and pro-poor programs, and improved national and provincial policies and capacities to support lower-level government in implementing gender-responsive and pro-poor programs. The program has succeeded in increasing budget allocations for programs targeting women and the poor and also established centers of excellence (local NGOs in program areas) which have high-level knowledge and skills in gender budgeting.


entrepreneurs from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Maldives,

and Sri Lanka. Lastly, Chen Tingting presented on

TAF/China’ longstanding efforts to protect the rights of

migrant women workers.

Cross-Cutting Issues

A set of small-group breakout sessions provided the

opportunity for colleagues to exchange information and

ideas about cross-cutting issues that inform WEP

programs across sub-regions. Lisa Hook and Kourtnii Brown from the Environment Theme and Kate

Bollinger led a discussion on Gender and the Environment, in which Anujin “Anu” Baatarkhuu from

TAF/Mongolia remarked on some of the underlying gender dynamics in TAF/Mongolia’s Environment

programs. In a session on the Nexus of Gender and Conflict, Noraida Chio and Nadine Ragonjan from

TAF/Philippines, and Khun Jieb from TAF/Thailand discussed the gender dimensions of the peace

dialogues in Philippines and the extent to which women in the various factions in the conflict have been

able to articulate their concerns; and the critical role played by some women’s rights organizations, like

WePeace, in Southern Thailand to address the constraints gender places on female participants, such as

where discussions can be convened. During a session on Engaging Men for Gender Equality, Barbi

Rodriguez facilitated a discussion in which Rozana Majumdar from TAF/Bangladesh and Maryam Raufi

from TAF/Afghanistan reflected on how their respective programs work with male religious leaders to

promote social justice for women within an Islamic framework. Noraida Chio and Nadine Ragonjan from

TAF/Philippines also shared their experiences and lessons learned from their efforts to engage religious

and military actors in advancing gender equality in the Philippines.

V. Workshop Results and Next Steps

Melanie Weniger from WEP led a session on Analyzing and Sharing our Impact, in which participants

discussed how TAF could improve its efforts to assess and articulate the impact of its work on a program-

wide basis, and made concrete recommendations for moving forward.

South Asia Regional Project (SAWES) Impact

Over 30,000 people on the SAWES Facebook

Innovative regional collaborations facilitated through the exposure tour

Launch of Business to Business (B2B) portal for women entrepreneurs across the region

Strengthened networks of women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka

SAWES One Year Anniversary Newsletter

Expanding SAWES reach to Afghanistan, Myanmar and Pakistan through the next exposure tour in Bangladesh


A closing plenary discussion resulted in individual actions plans for all participants, as well as numerous

suggestions for concrete steps that the WEP team, field offices and other TAF teams can take to advance

gender integration within TAF. These

included: using OneTAF to facilitate cross-

country learning and sharing best practices

across offices, training all staff on gender

integration, developing a handbook to guide

gender analysis in difference sectors, sharing

new approaches and discourse on gender and

development, stronger internal policies and

practices for a ‘gender-friendly’ organization, and establishing a gender-sensitivity ranking system or

gender audit for field offices.

A workshop evaluation showed that participants appreciated the chance to apply a gender analysis tool

to their programs, learn about gender-sensitive M&E, and share information/ideas with their colleagues

from other offices. One month after the workshop, participants from Vietnam, Mongolia, Pakistan, and

Bangladesh had already conducted follow up echo-sessions with their colleagues and partner

organizations on the gender analysis tools we used during the workshop. An echo session was planned

for the TAF/PH office in April, as well as a gender training with the Philippines marines that would utilize

content from the workshop. The Environment team had also used the Six-Domains Gender Analysis

Framework to inform a proposal to the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) for a program on

disaster risk management and small and medium enterprises in Vietnam. Lastly, participants welcomed

and were grateful for the opportunity to network and learn from each other, many of them meeting at

the workshop for the very first time.

The WEP team also made progress on several of the recommendations and requests made by workshop

participants. Immediately following the workshop, Kate Bollinger and Barbi Rodriguez traveled to Timor-

Leste to conduct a gender training with program staff in Dili, and plan to conduct similar trainings in Sri

Lanka and the Philippines later this year. A handbook on gender analysis in various governance-related

sectors is currently being drafted, and will be shared in the coming weeks. The WEP team also looks

forward to having a Junior Associate join the team in June, who will further enhance opportunities for

cross-country learning and resource-sharing through OneTAF.


Annex 1: Workshop Participants

1 Afghanistan Maryam Raufi

2 Shamim Sarabi

3 Bangladesh Rozana Majumdar

4 Nayef Ahmad

5 Cambodia Hong Siv Lim

6 Samneang Moul

7 China Chen Tingting

8 India Reecha Upadhyay

9 Indonesia Novi Anggriani

10 Natalia Warat

11 Hana Satriyo

12 Laos

Phoutsavanh Souk-

Onsy

13

Viengprasith Thiphasouda (Prasith)

14 Malaysia Sunita Anandarajah

15 Mongolia Anu Bataarkhuu

16 Meloney Lindberg

17 Myanmar Mi Ki Kyaw Myint

18 Pakistan Shahid Fiaz

19 Rukhsana Shama

20 Philippines Noraida Chio

21 Nadine Ragonjan

22 Thailand Pauline Tweedie

23

Ruengrawee Pichaikul (Jieb)

24 Timor-Leste Kerry Brogan

25 Antonieta Maia (Neta)

26 Carmenesa Soares

27 Vietnam Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh

28 GL (US) Ellen Boccuzzi

29 PSDS (US) Tracey Tuyen

30 Tamara Failor

31 WEP (US) Carol Yost

32 Eileen Pennington

33 Barbara Rodriguez

34 Kate Bollinger

35 Melanie Weniger

36 PGM (US) Gordon Hein

37 PSIL Ana Coghlan

38 ENV (US) Lisa Hook

39 Kourtnii Brown

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