The Strengthening Capacities of Women’s Rights Organizations to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls (SLOC-VAWG) Project which was designed to motivate change in harmful sociocultural norms and practices that exacerbate violence against women and girls across three states in Nigeria (FCT, IMO and Gombe), is currently in the 6th month of its final year within the project timeline. Teenage Network was awarded the co-ordinating role to foster the implementation of the organizational effective training for all the implementing partner organizations.
The 14 partner organizations (WROs/CBOs) implementing the SLOC-VAWG Project have established ourselves as credible organizations empowering and partnering with the communities we serve, to identify and address harmful traditional practices that promotes violence against women and girls. Using a multi-pronged approach to community engagement, we are working with community level committees, girls and boys school clubs, women peer education circles, men groups, faith-based groups, age-grades and traditional councils among others to shift harmful, archaic and patriarchal perceptions that put women and girls at risk when put into action. Through strategic community wide awareness creation, interrogation of the origins of these practices, elimination of some of them and setting up sanctions to curb future actions, We (SLOC-VAWG project partners) across Gombe, Imo States and the FCT are beginning to record significant changes. Contributing towards this are series of capacity building strategies received from ActionAid SLOC-VAWG project team. These include; identified and tailored trainings (Women’s Peer Education Programming, Gender Based Violence Programming, Strategic Behavioural Change Communication, Intensive Resource Mobilization & Diversification, Gender Transformative Programming, Strengthening Community on Community Engagement Strategies for Preventing & Protecting Women and Girls from GBV etc.), Community Organizing through Cross Learning, Mentoring sessions, field visits for verification & outcome harvesting/Success Stories gathering, and on the spot coaching, report reviews and provision of feedback for further learning.
With approximately 5 months of implementation to go, there is still a lot more that we (SLOC-VAWG Project partners) need to put in place to ensure that these changes are deepened and sustained. It is also imperative that we set up systems and structures within our individual organizations to improve our organizational health, place us as credible organizations that will attract recognition and partnership among a wide range of stakeholders including development partners and donors and ensure proper management and sustainability while achieving set goals and mandates.
To achieve this goal, Teenage Network coordinated a 2-day training on Organizational Effectiveness for Executive Directors and a Board member each from the 14 SLOC-VAWG project organizations, in collaboration with ActionAid Nigeria
(Women Rights Unit). The training Participants were equipped with basic knowledge of Organizational Effectiveness and its relevance to their respective organizations, Roles and responsibilities that management and board members of women’s rights and community-based organizations have towards attaining organizational effectiveness and sustainability, outlined, Participants were equipped with knowledge and skills on leadership and people management and how this is translated into staff relations, staff development and retention for organizational growth.