Women in Governance Programme (WIG)

Background:

The Women in Governance (WIG) Programme under the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) is a programme funded by Joint Country Programme/Norwegian Church Aid (JCP/NCA) which has been implemented under the ZEC Pastoral Department since 2012. It is implemented through the existing structures of the Catholic Church in five dioceses as well as through activities at National level. The five dioceses the programme has being implemented include: Livingstone, Chipata, Solwezi, Mongu and Monze.

The specific objectives of the programme have evolved over time in response to emerging issues in the dioceses and indeed at National level. The overall goal of the programme is “To increase women’s participation in governance (leadership and decision making) in the Catholic Church and in the wider Zambian society”.

The evaluation, therefore, focused on the WIG programme as implemented from 2012-2015 in selected parishes in Livingstone, Chipata, Solwezi, Monguand Monze dioceses and through National level activities.

Objectives

1. To examine the extent to which the overall goal and objectives of the programme have been fulfilled, and

2. To identify lessons learned and provide recommendations which will assist both JCP/NCA and ZEC to plan for the future implementation of similar programmes under the next strategic plan.

Methodology:

The evaluation framework was used to create a series of templates to summarize and analyse information from the following sources:

• Documents – including the WIG documents, monitoring and progress reports, and any other relevant reports etc.
• Developed evaluation instruments – semi-structured interview questionnaires for Key Informants.
• Guidelines for structured focus group discussions. Focus group discussions were suitable and useful for some Dioceses and beneficiaries.
• Person-to person interviews with key informants were undertaken. The list of key informants was provided by WIG programme staff.
• Field visits to a selected project sites was undertaken as per recommendations of the programme staff.
• The evaluation approach was participatory ensuring that there was full participation and ownership of both the evaluation process and products by all stakeholders. Stakeholders included ZEC National Pastoral Coordinator, programme staff, Dioceses, project beneficiaries etc.
• Two de-briefing sessions were provided to WIG staff and the Dioceses at the end of the field work.

Key findings:

1. The evaluation found that the partnership between ZEC WIG and JCP/NCA was very good. The ZEC regards JCP as a valuable partner in the implementation of the women in leadership program.

2. The institutional arrangements put in place for the implementation of the WIG and the women in Leadership outcome programmes are good and enable the implementation of WIG.

3. The evaluation found that the ZEC WIG supports upstream initiatives that are producing valuable policies, strategies and tools which have enabled partner Dioceses to improve planning, analysis and monitoring. These initiatives are yet to produce visible changes to people’s lives and hence their impact on women in leadership is not yet visible. Downstream activities supported by WIG on women’s empowerment through leadership and literacy programs were already producing tangible results in addressing women participation in governance issues.

4. The implementation of project in some centres (like Sitaka) in Mongu diocese has been very slow due to coordination challenges and lack of sufficient knowledge and understanding by the coordinators of the project. National office equally has challenges communicating with Sitaka, because the area does not have any network signal. The only time there is communication is when the Parish Priest, Fr. Patrick Fumbelo comes into the main town which is Kaoma 86Km away from Sitaka or during monitoring trips.)

Recommendations:

1. The late disbursement of funds has impacted on the implementation timeframe, there is need to recognize that not all the outcomes might be achieved. There is therefore need to adjust the expected outcomes to make them realistic and consider a no cost extension to the programme.

2. There is need for ZEC to consider local resource mobilization to support the programme. This could include allowing the Diocese to raise funds through partnerships with the private sector as well as undertaking consultancies related to the work that they do.

3. Participants in training must evaluate the quality of the training being offered by the programme. This will be an incentive for the trainers to further improve their delivery, participants’ evaluation will also provide an avenue for obtaining feedback on the training.

4. There is need to explore the issues of male engagement in all the programme components. Specifically the plight of the men as a group needs to be further analyzed and a strategy for their engagement adopted.

5. WIG should consider incorporating the component of conflict sensitivity in the planning and implementation of the programme as it will help in the understanding the context in which the programme operates; the interaction between the intervention and the context of the programme and help act upon the understanding of this interaction, in order to avoid negative impacts and maximize positive impacts of the programme

Recommendations for ZEC

• There is need for capacity building in resource mobilization of ZEC secretariat and diocesan staff to diversify funding for the programme
• ZEC should explore extending implementation to other dioceses while phasing out dioceses that are highly capacitated and that are already achieving significant results
• ZEC need to work on a staff retention strategy to manage the high turnover of staff that has an effect on delivery
• Male involvement at the diocesan level as well as involvement of youth needs to be structured and prioritized