India
March 8, International Women’s Day, is an opportunity to celebrate the “economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present and future.” Women hold great potential as agents of change within developing communities and given a chance and a voice, they can become the catalyst for huge global change.
Counterpart weaves gender-sensitive approaches into its global development efforts, promoting women’s participation and capturing women’s potential as entrepreneurs and caretakers. Many of Counterpart’s projects provide women with the tools and training they need to become active participants in their own development.
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Today, in honor of International Women’s Day, we provide a window into three such projects:
- The Garima Program, meaning “dignity” in Hindi, works with women in northwestern India to facilitate their ability to address reproductive health issues more effectively and increase their access to information about the country’s justice system. Every third woman in India faces domestic violence at some point in her life, ranging from pre-birth elimination of girls, dowry harassment and deaths, sexual harassment in work and public spaces, domestic violence and rape. While laws exist to protect women, the application and enforcement of these laws has been incredibly limited. Counterpart hopes to empower these women, educating them on their own rights and responsibilities, so they can begin to advocate on their own behalf.
- Over half of all grant funding under Counterpart’s Initiative to Promote Afghan Civil Society is distributed to women-led or women-focused NGOs, and half of all the I-PACS partners are women’s organizations. Counterpart understands that in order to mobilize a community, women must be involved. Counterpart builds up Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) like the Afghan Women’s Education Center and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs with skills training and small grants. Counterpart also trains government and CSO staff in Gender Awareness and Gender Analysis, so they too can better include women in their activities and discussions.
- In Senegal, as part of the Food for Peace project, Counterpart delivers micronutrients and administers deworming medications to thousands of school-aged children. While not directly “women focused,” these small and inexpensive steps prevent serious illness in young girls, like anemia, and permanent cognitive defects from a lack of iron. Counterpart supports a women’s association and has improved their ability to cultivate, package and market local rice produced in the Senegal River Valley. This small business opportunity has shown to be incredibly fruitful – over a 3-year period, association members improved the calibration of rice into specific sizes for more consistent packaging, set up a rice processing unit and sold a total of 60.5 MT of rice through marketing at a local agricultural fair.
