tel: +385 (0) 463 3330, fax: +385 (0)1 463 3331
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Iblerov trg 9, 10000 Zagreb, Hrvatska
e-mail: [email protected]
www.map.hr
MB 1724169
FINAL EXTERNAL EVALUATION REPORT
OF THE PROJECT
Combating Gender Based Violence in the Western Balkans
FINAL REPORT
February, 2009
Commissioned by: CARE International NWB
Author: Nives Miošić-Lisjak
MAP Savjetovanja d.o.o.
Table of Contents
0.
Summary of Key Findings ................................................................ 3
1.
Introduction ............................................................................... 6
2.
Effects on Partners' Core Projects in GBV Prevention............................... 7
3.
2.1.
CESI – Education, Research and Public Campaigns on GBV.................... 7
2.2.
AWC – Preparing Future Professionals to Understand GBV ...................24
2.3.
MEDICA’s Integrated Approach to GBV ..........................................33
Relevance and Effects of the Regional Dimension of the Project ................39
3.1.
Regional trainings and exchanges of best practice............................40
3.2.
Regional conferences ..............................................................43
4.
Project Management and Coordination among Project Partners .................47
5.
Recommendations .......................................................................48
5.1.
Recommendations to CARE NWB .................................................48
5.2.
Recommendations to CESI ........................................................48
5.3.
Recommendations to AWC ........................................................49
5.4.
Recommendations to MEDICA.....................................................49
2
0. Summary of Key Findings
This report presents the final evaluation findings of the three-year project “Combating
Gender Based Violence in the Western Balkans”, implemented the period January 2006 –
December 2008 by CARE International NW Balkans, in the role of field office of CARE
Norway, and with financial support by the Norwegian women’s organizations’ resource
center FOKUS – Forum on Women and Development.
The main purpose of the final evaluation was to assess the effectiveness of the project and
its activities, efficiency in project implementation and management and impact and
sustainability of achieved project results. It is important to note that the report assesses
both individual achievements of each local partner and the relevance and effects of the
regional dimension of the project. Furthermore, given that MAP Savjetovanja has
conducted the mid-term evaluation during November and December 2007, this report also
reflects on its findings and assesses the level of integration of mid-term evaluation
recommendations.
The overall goal of the project has been the prevention of gender-based violence (GBV)
and the creation of an environment favorable to the respect of women’s human rights and
the enhancing of gender equality.
The project has primarily focused on the creation of partnership, provision of financial and
technical support and opportunities for regional networking among the three leading
feminist NGOs with expertise in combat and prevention of GBV - MEDICA from Zenica,
Bosnia&Herzegovina; Center for Education, Counseling and Research (CESI) from Zagreb,
Republic of Croatia; and Autonomous Women’s Center (AWC) from Belgrade, Republic of
Serbia.
The two main areas of achievement of the project have been the support provided for the
realization of organizational and programmatic priorities of each local partner and the
regional dimension, enabling exchange of best practices and mutual learning. The
multiyear frame of the project has enabled the local partners to expand and enrich their
core projects in GBV prevention and direct victim assistance, as opposed to inventing new
short-term projects that fit donor interest. The budget structure has ensured that two
thirds of financial resources be spent on direct project activities.
The uniqueness of this project is its regional dimension which has accelerated the
exchange of ideas, knowledge and experiences among the three local partners, by means
of providing logistical support, finances and frameworks for joint meetings and learning
events. The three local partners have appreciated the majority of regional trainings, which
were designed in line with their common needs. The project has also enabled partners to
attend each others’ public events.
Generally speaking, this three year project can be assessed as having fully achieved the
specific objectives of (1) increasing the capacities of select women and human rights NGOs
to advocate for development programs combating gender based violence; and (2)
promoting safe, respectful, and equality-based relationships in all of the target countries.
The third specific objective of integrating gender based violence prevention into
educational policies and to help institutions to deal more effectively with this problem is
assessed as partially achieved.
The capacities of each of the three partner organizations have been increased, according
to their specific needs at any given moment, which is an approach that proved to be highly
effective and respected by the partnering organizations. For CESI and AWC, this grant
enabled structuring the activities around already existing long-term programs in both
organizations, providing additional financial security (especially in years 1 and 2) that
enabled focusing on the contents and further development of the organizations’ programs.
3
For MEDICA, this particular grant proved to be one of the key factors in ensuring its
sustainability that was threatened due to the lack of strategic directions at the beginning
of the project as well as organizational management issues. The timely strategic planning
session redirected MEDICA towards institutionalizing its cooperation with local
stakeholders, which proved to be very successful, with strong potential for MEDICA’s
eventual integration into the social service provision activities financed by the local
government.
Through a multitude of public activities, campaigns and events organized, as well as
manuals produced and research conducted all three organizations were in the course of
the project constantly promoting safe, respectful and equality-based relationships. Each
partner organization decided individually on the specifics of public outreach, which was
adjusted to local circumstances, while opportunities to exchange knowledge and research
findings was provided through the unique regional component of project activities. All
three organizations were involved in highly visible public campaigns in their respective
countries, with high recognition rates of the problem among the target groups. However,
given that all of the target countries are still very conservative and patriarchal, with
strong influences of religions on policies, it is important that similar activities be financed
in the future.
When it comes to integrating gender based violence prevention into educational policies,
the partner organizations were all conducting activities toward achieving this goal, which
was most successful in the case of CESI, who ensured a long-standing collaboration with
the Croatian Education and Teacher Training Agency for the delivery of teacher-training
modules on GBV prevention. However, due to inconsistencies in the Croatian Ministry of
Education regarding the introduction sexuality education into regular curriculum,
prevention of GBV has not been integrated into the education policy. Sustained financing
of CESI’s advocacy efforts is therefore still needed to achieve this systematic change.
In the case of AWC, initial steps have been taken, in terms of identifying and securing
cooperation of the key university teaching staff, enticing students to take part in the
workshops and developing a very dedicated group of peer-educators. Despite not having
achieved the desired systemic changes in university policies and curricula, we would
suggest that AWC rethinks its decision and fundraise for the continuation of the revised
peer-education activities as well as for the completion of research regarding university
curricula and essential reading for students. This would be especially important in light of
the decision of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina authorities who have decided to
engage AWC and its peer educators to conduct GBV prevention peer-education among the
student population in Vojvodina. Furthermore, AWC was very successful in helping
institutions to deal more effectively with GBV, and their commitment and efforts has also
been recognized by the decision-makers, who have accredited AWC’s education program
for members of the judiciary social workers, police and other professionals who deal with
victims of abuse on a daily basis.
The final evaluation has indicated that MEDICA was most successful in achieving the goal of
helping institutions deal effectively with victims of abuse, as evidenced by MEDICA’s
position as the key non-institutional actor involved in the creation of prevention and
assistance policies, significant increase of funds deriving from local and cantonal budgets
and the successful creation of a cross-sectoral working group actively involved in both
program design and policy advocacy.
On the other hand, despite numerous workshops held in schools that were assessed as very
useful by the students and teachers there is no evidence of a longer-term impact.
Similarly, efforts invested into securing cooperation of the Pedagogical Institute of the
Zenica-Doboj Canton yielded only temporary results without evidence of attempted
integration of GBV prevention into the education policies at the cantonal level. Given
4
MEDICA’s strategic decision to put most of its efforts into integrating its services into the
services provided by the local and cantonal institutions as well as direct assistance to
victims of abuse, we would suggest that MEDICA rethinks the objective of influencing the
education policies, during the revision of its strategic plan. This decision should also take
into account the number of staff capable of managing projects by themselves.
5
1. Introduction
This report presents the final evaluation findings of the three-year project “Combating
Gender Based Violence in the Western Balkans”, implemented the period January 2006 –
November, 2008 by CARE International NW Balkans, in the role of field office of CARE
Norge, and with financial support by the Norwegian women’s organizations’ resource
center FOKUS – Forum on Women and Development.
The overall goal of the project has been the prevention of gender based violence (GBV)
and the creation of an environment favorable to the respect of women’s human rights and
the enhancing of gender equality.
The project has primarily focused on the creation of partnership, provision of financial and
technical support and opportunities for regional networking among the three leading
feminist NGOs with expertise in combat and prevention of GBV - MEDICA from Zenica,
Bosnia&Herzegovina; Center for Education, Counseling and Research (CESI) from Zagreb,
Republic of Croatia; and Autonomous Women’s Center (AWC) from Belgrade, Republic of
Serbia.
Hence, the specific goals are as following:
1. To increase the capacities of select women and human rights NGOs to advocate and
development programs combating gender based violence;
2. To promote safe, respectful, and equality-based relationships;
3. To integrate gender based violence prevention into educational policies and to help
institutions to deal more effectively with this serious and multi-faceted problem.
The main purpose of the final evaluation was to assess the effectiveness of the project and
its activities, efficiency in project implementation and management and impact and
sustainability of achieved project results. It is important to note that the report assesses
both individual achievements of each local partner and the relevance and effects of the
regional dimension of the project. Furthermore, given that MAP Savjetovanja has
conducted the mid-term evaluation during November and December 2007, this report also
reflects on its findings and assesses the level of integration of mid-term evaluation
recommendations.
Data collection, including preliminary analysis, was conducted in the period from
November 15th until December 18th, 2008, including field visits to Belgrade, Zenica and
Sarajevo and interviews in Zagreb. Methods of data collection included:
Analysis of project documentation of CARE, AWC, CESI, MEDICA - project proposal,
project budgets, project reports, strategic plans of partner organizations, support
documentation on project activities
Review of mid-term evaluation report
External evaluation of CESI’s parallel EC funded GBV prevention project
Semi-structured interview with representatives of AWC project team (2)
Semi-structured interview with AWC’s peer educators (2)
Semi-structured interview with CARE NWB’s project manager
Semi-structured interview with MEDICA’s director and project coordinator
Semi-structured interview with one representative of MEDICA’s cross-sectoral
working group
Semi-structured interview with CESI’s project team (2)
Participant observation of the project event – regional meeting in Zagreb,
December 18, 2008
The first part of the report discusses the effects of the intervention on partners’ core
activities, followed by its effects in partners’ organizational capacities. This is followed by
an assessment of the relevance of the project’s regional component and general project
management issues, including partner coordination. The report draws from the mid-term
6
evaluation in the parts describing project activities in years 1 and 2 of implementation and
where appropriate reflects on the findings and recommendations of the mid-term
evaluation. The final part of the report brings recommendations to each of the
organizations involved in the project, both in terms of programming and in terms of
organizational and project management.
It should be noted that the part of the report describing the effects of the partner
organizations’ activities is somewhat longer in the case of CESI than AWC and MEDICA
Zenica. The reasons for this difference are twofold – firstly, it reflects the number of
activities implemented by each project partner in the final project year, where CESI’s use
of CARE grant as matching in its larger EU grant enabled the execution of a higher number
of activities. Secondly, the evaluator has also conducted the final external evaluation of
CESI’s EU funded project in September 2009, which enabled drawing from that report
(especially the quantitative data analysis part) for the purposes of this report, since they
are considered very relevant in terms of presenting attitudinal changes and impacts of
focused longer-term GBV prevention activities on adolescents.
2. Effects on Partners' Core Projects in GBV Prevention
2.1 CESI – Education, Research and Public Campaigns on GBV
The participation in this project has directly contributed to the continuity and expansion of
CESI’s long-standing program entitled “Building Gender Awareness” which has combined
research, education of youth and teachers, public and media campaigns over the past five
years and longer, making CESI a leading Croatian expert NGO on the issue of education of
youth on gender equality and sexual education. As highlighted by CESI’s project manager,
the three-year timeframe of the project has significantly reduced the fundraising stress
and has enabled CESI to build upon their past work with teachers, upgrade their research
on GBV and youth and develop the program strategically, including the successful
application for a two-year grant of the European Commission. CARE’s primary focus on
supporting the core activities of the local partners, embedded in each partners’ strategic
priorities, combined with support for self-identified organizational development priorities,
has meant that CESI could place this project into its broader programmatic framework.
During the period of implementation CESI used the funds from CARE International as
matching funds its GBV prevention activities that included training of trainers and
workshops for teachers and high schools students, publication of relevant education
materials, follow-up research on GBV in adolescent relationships, media campaigns,
creation of a specialized website including an on-line help-line, disbursement of small
grants to partner schools and advocacy initiatives. The main target groups were
adolescents, aged 15-19, and teachers, pedagogues and psychologists employed in high
schools, with the goal to raise awareness of gender based stereotypes and related violent
behavior and to entice the staff in schools to mainstream the issue of gender based
violence in their everyday activities in classrooms.
It is important to note that CESI’s efforts to enhance awareness of GBV among young
people and education professionals take place in the strained political context where the
Croatian Government has been avoiding and postponing the integration of GBV contents in
the formal curricula, due to significant pressure from conservative interest groups,
especially the Catholic Church. This lack of political will continues despite the fact that
the problem of violence against children and women has become highly visible in the
public and policy arena. For that reason, CESI’s strategy to promote awareness on GBV has
been conditioned by the lack of straight-forward initiative on part of the Ministry of
Education. CESI has opted for gradual awareness-raising and skill-building among education
professionals who would act as multipliers in their own institutions and would thus, in the
mid-term perspective, compensate for the lack of formal education contents and, in the
7
long-term perspective, become competent to implement the prospective official curricula
on GBV, once and if such are designed and approved.
The long-term perspective has been reflected in CESI’s initiative to partner with the
Croatian agency for education which has recognized CESI’s teachers’ training on GBV as a
relevant component of the teachers’ professional development program for which the
teachers are given credit by the Agency. In parallel to the support for education
professionals, CESI has also delivered education workshops to interested high-school
students, recruited through youth organizations, individual teachers or schools. At the
same time, CESI has continued to generate the visibility and knowledge of GBV, especially
in the context of adolescent relationships, by means of a very visible public campaign, the
interactive website targeting youth and the delivery and promotion of the in-depth
research on the topic.
On top of that, CESI has remained open to react to the political issues related to sexual
education and has successfully mobilized over 170 NGOs to oppose the Government’s lack
of transparency and negligence of human rights and scientific criteria in the design of the
experimental sexual education programs, outsourced to NGOs, including a conservative
program endorsed by the Catholic church, promoting abstinence and heteronormativity.
2.1.1. CESI’s Education Activities
Education activities were divided into (1) teachers’ education in the form of training of
trainers (TOT), which were provided directly by CESI, and (2) adolescent education
activities, provided by the trained teachers and supported by CESI. Such an approach
ensured avoiding the trap of CESI’s becoming a direct provider of GBV education to youth,
which would have represented an unsustainable objective for a small, non-institutional
actor. At the same time the approach enabled raising awareness and building the skills of
education professionals who act as multipliers in their own institutions, thus compensating
for the lack of formal education contents. In the long-term perspective, these
professionals will be capable for implementing the official curricula on gender equality,
sexual education and GBV, if and when such programs get designed and approved.
Education activities for teachers
Education activities for teachers were organized around creative techniques – investigative
journalism, theatre, comics and film. The preparation phase included negotiations with
the Teachers’ Education and Training Agency, resulting in the official recognition of
these programs as part of the teachers’ additional education relevant to their
promotion. In cooperation with the Agency, CESI selected potential candidate schools
based on their type (gymnasium, three- and four-year vocational), infrastructure, human
resources and geographic location and issued a call for applications, resulting in the
Agency’s and CESI’s joint selection of 63 teachers from 32 towns to take part in the
education.
The four seminars took place in the period between October 4 and November 11, 2007, in
the form of three-day events. The first days of each seminar were dedicated to issues of
recognition and understanding gender-based violence, with CESI members acting as
trainers. The second day of the seminars focused on the particular form of expression
chosen by the participants, where expert input derived from a prominent investigative
journalist, actor, comic designer and film director. At the end of the third day, time was
ensured for individual action-planning which focused the teachers on the ways they could
integrate the issue of GBV into their curricular and extracurricular activities, as well as
their community engagement.
All participants were provided with relevant literature, manuals and other materials,
including copies of existing documentaries produced by Croatian NGOs and by Instituto
8
Promundo from Brazil, for which CESI has obtained the permission to distribute for free in
Croatia, therefore minimizing the amount of additional preparation time.
Impact of education activities on teachers
This section of the report is based on the analysis of 50 questionnaires from teachers who
took part in the education activities1. The questionnaire was sent to all 59 teachers who
continued with the implementation of project activities after their education2, so the
response rate to the questionnaire of 85% indicates the seriousness of approach to the
project and the respect for CESI on the part of the teachers.
In terms of motivation, the highest number of teachers (59%) states that they wanted to
raise awareness of gender stereotypes and enhance students’ recognition of violence in
order to entice positive changes in their behavioural patterns, while only 8% reported as
their motivation an opportunity to gain skills relevant to their promotion. This indicates a
high level of genuine interest in the issue on the part of the teachers. On the other
hand, the 8% are an indicator that the formal cooperation between CESI and the
Education Agency has a positive impact on the recruitment of new teachers, who thus
become exposed to and aware of the topic and are consequently able to react adequately
to the problem.
The increase in skills and capabilities of teachers before and after the project in
combating GBV was tested by means of self-evaluation. Although this is a highly subjective
method, the reported increase in knowledge and skills in all tested areas testifies to the
importance of such education activities to the overall increase in confidence of
participating teachers in reacting to gender stereotypes and GBV in schools. Not
surprisingly, the highest increase was reported in skills relevant to designing and
implementing GBV prevention activities, followed by an increase in recognizing gender
stereotypes and readiness to react to and support students in case of GBV. On average the
scores have increased from 3,59 to 4,69. The results are presented in Graph 2:
Teachers' self-assessment of skills and capabilities before and after
the project (N=50)
(1=none; 2=poor; 3=intermediate; 4=high; 5=excellent)
4,86
5,00
4,00
4,76
4,70
4,56
3,90
4,56
3,68
3,70
3,62
3,04
before
3,00
after
2,00
1,00
recognizing
gender
stereotypes
recognizing types
of GBV
designing and
conducting
educational
acivities about
GBV
readiness to react readiness to react
and support
to GBV in your
immediate
students in cases
of GBV
environment
1
In the scope of the external evaluation of CESI's GBV prevention project funded by the EC
Of the 63 teachers trained, 4 have subsequently realized that they did not have time to pursue the project
activities further.
2
9
94% of teachers plan to continue with educational activities dealing with and
preventing GBV, combining the methods applied in this project with other activities, from
incorporating GBV in their regular education activities and encouraging colleagues to do
the same, to assisting in designing peer-education activities and even joining an NGO
supporting victims of GBV. CESI is encouraged to provide further support in the form
encouragement, TA and soft counselling to those teachers (and students) who have
expressed a desire to get involved in peer-education, as such involvement would further
support CESI’s complementary projects funded by other sources, and would pose little
additional strain on the project team with potentially very high impacts. Graph 5
illustrates teachers’ plans for the future:
The desired further support from CESI is illustrated in Graph 3:
How can CESI further support your engagement in preventing GBV? (N=50)
50
37
40
28
30
23
23
individual
counselling
advanced
training in the
technique I
learned through
this project
27
26
28
20
10
0
training in other
techniques
additional
education on
how to work with
youth on GBV
skills in
supporting
vicitms of GBV
assistance in financial support
project design to
for
be financed by implementation
local
of activties
communities
and/or Ministry of
Education
The project team should carefully examine the expressed needs and take them into
account in further programming. For those activities that fall outside the areas of CESI’s
regular support provision, we recommend that the information be transferred and
contacts exchanged among CESI’s wide range of cooperating organizations and institutions
and the teachers, to ensure their continued involvement in GBV prevention among
adolescents.
Education activities for and their impact on students
Following successful education in using creative techniques to address GBV in adolescent
relationships, the teachers formed groups in their respective schools and started working
with youth on GBV prevention activities that were to be presented at the project’s final
event, where the best ones received prizes (see section on awareness-raising activities).
Outputs include 25 short films, 16 theatre plays, 12 comics and 10 newspaper articles.
In the 59 participating schools, a total of 879 students (68% female and 32% male) were
involved in project activities, producing films or theatre plays, comics or investigative
news articles, all dealing with GBV in adolescent relationships. The inspiration came from
materials provided by CESI in the form of documentaries, manuals, stories which the
students adapted in their screen-play development or in some instances from real-life
stories that the students were aware of.
10
The impact of these activities on students is assessed on the basis of 545 returned student
questionnaires that were disbursed at the end of the last school year3 with the assistance
of their teachers. As was the case with teachers, the response rate of the students is
unusually high (62%), indicating both the teachers’ and the students’ high level of
satisfaction with and appreciation of CESI’s engagement.
The students’ self-assessment of knowledge and skills related to GBV prevention reflects
an average increase from 3,08 at the beginning of the project to 4,01 at the end.
Students' self-assessment of skills and capabilities before and after the project
(N=545)
1=none; 2=poor; 3=inermediate; 4=quite high; 5=excellent)
5,00
4,27
4,20
3,94
4,00
3,61
3,26
3,07
3,03
3,00
2,96
before
after
2,00
1,00
recognizing gender
s tereotypes
recognizing types of GBV
readines s to react to GBV
you are expos ed or witness
to
ass isting and s upporting a
friend in a violent
relations hip now and in the
future
The highest increase is reported in recognizing gender stereotypes, indicating the
achievement of the project’s specific objective related to students’ recognition and
sensitivity to gender stereotypes. On the other hand the lowest increase is reported in
their readiness to assist and support a friend in a violent relationship now and in the
future. This response contrasted to the higher level of reported readiness to react to GBV
one is exposed to indicates that students are more likely to recognize and remove
themselves from violent relationships, but still feel uncomfortable with getting involved in
other people’s relationships even when violence occurs. This is corroborated by the fact
that 19% male and 9% female students involved in project activities think that one should
not get involved if a couple sorts out their differences by force. On the other hand, the
percentage of those who believe this to be correct is lower among adolescents involved in
project activities when compared to those of the general population (23% male and 16%
female) (see Graph below). Nonetheless, such findings indicate the need for further and
much more thorough and systematic approach to combating gender stereotypes and
patriarchal relationships on the part of society as a whole.
For the purpose of assessing the impact of project activities on the primary target group,
the project evaluation questionnaire copied a set of statements regarding myths about
violence in relationships from the research conducted within the project on the general
adolescent population. We compared the answers, and present the findings in the
following two graphs – (a) both sexes aggregated, and (b) disaggregated by sex.
3
In the scope of the external evaluation of CESI's GBV prevention project funded by the EC
11
Agreement levels with myths about violence in relationships
(general adolescent population vs. adolecents involved in project activities)
GENERAL ADOLESCENT POPULATION (N=1014)
ADOLESCENTS INVLOVED IN THIS PROJECT (N=545)
29%
Jealousy is a way of showing affection.
44%
A person who abuses others under the influence of
alchochol or drugs is not responsible for his/her actions.
7%
It is acceptable for a young man
to hit his girlfriend if she has cheated on him.
4%
7%
18%
Children need their father
even if he is abusive to their mother.
16%
17%
14%
Rape in marriage is not possible.
23%
Consequences of psychological/emotional abuse
are not as serious as consequences of physical abuse.
10%
22%
When someone decides to end a violent relationship,
it is easy to leave their partner.
12%
24%
It is good for some persons that
their partner hits them sometimes.
6%
10%
People who do not leave abusive partners
want to be abused.
12%
15%
If a couple sorts out their differences by force,
it is their own bussiness and one should not get invloved.
12%
19%
It is acceptable in some cases to use physical force
in persuading and getting people to do something.
6%
6%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
About half of the myths about violence in relationships are present in significantly
lower percentages among youth involved in project activities, when compared to their
peers who were not exposed to GBV prevention. This is particularly true of statements
referring to emotional and psychological aspects of GBV that were not recognized as
violence (e.g. jealousy) among the general population. All other statements, except for
one show at least some level of decrease. These findings support the relevance and
appropriateness of this particular intervention and at the same time strongly argue for
the introduction of GBV prevention in the regular educational curriculum.
The data was also analyzed according to the sex of respondents, as we wanted to find out
whether there were any differences in project impact between sexes.
12
Agreement levels with myths about violence in relationships
general adolscent population vs. adolescents involved in project activities
MALE ADOLSCENTS
GENERAL POPULATION (N=375)
MALE ADOLSCENTS
INVOLVED IN PROJECT (N=165)
FEMALE ADOLSCENTS
GENERAL POPULATION (N=639)
FEMALE ADOLSCENTS
INVOLVED IN PROJECT (N=380)
23%
43%
42%
Jealousy is a way of showing affection.
5%
A person who abuses others under the influence
of alchochol or drugs is not responsible for his/her actions.
16%
11%
3%
4%
It is acceptable for a young man
to hit his girlfriend if she has cheated on him.
7%
45%
20%
12%
12%
14%
Children need their father
even if he is abusive to their mother.
11%
Rape in marriage is not possible.
24%
17%
21%
33%
7%
Consequences of psychological/emotional abuse
are not as serious as consequences of physical abuse.
17%
31%
9%
When someone decides to end a violent relationship,
it is easy to leave their partner.
20%
19%
33%
4%
It is good for some persons
that their partner hits them sometimes.
12%
10%
People who do not leave abusive partners
want to be abused.
If a couple sorts out their differences by force,
it is their own bussiness and one should not get invloved.
9%
13%
20%
17%
18%
16%
19%
23%
3%
It is acceptable in some cases to use physical force
in persuading and getting people to do something.
11%
10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
It is evident for both sexes that participation in GBV awareness projects has for the
most part a positive influence on their attitudes. Male adolescents in the general
population hold myths to be true in significantly higher percentages than their female
counterparts, so it is not surprising that the still present agreement levels among boys are
higher than among girls who participated in the project activities. The most significant
difference is evident in the female perception of jealousy, where 20% less girls involved in
project activities, compared to the general female adolescent population, hold jealousy to
be a way of showing affection. Interestingly, the same statement did not show significant
differences among males. For the male population, the biggest difference is observed for
statements referring to consequences of psychological abuse and decisions to leave abusive
partners, indicating that involvement in project activities broadens their understanding
of the complexity of emotions within a relationship. Similarly, 12% fewer boys involved
in project activities, than their general population counterparts hold that rape is not
possible in marriage. These results are even more significant in the light of the research
findings that showed that a significantly larger proportion of girls tend to be both the
victims and perpetrators of emotional/psychological forms of dating violence, while a
greater proportion of boys tend to be perpetrators of sexual violence towards their
partner. Statements that do not show significant differences between the general
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adolescent population and the involved youth are those whose prevalence was not very
high in the first place (3-4% and up to 10%), or those whose wording left space for
ambiguous interpretation, not necessarily conveying the respondent’s readiness to accept
or condone the illustrated GBV.
The high levels of students’ satisfaction with participation in this project is evident from
the fact that 97% of students who responded to the evaluation questionnaire stated
that they would be willing to participate in further activities dealing with the
prevention of GBV in adolescent relationships.
Cross-referencing the student and teacher responses to the question regarding their
interest in peer education, yielded seven towns – Požega, Prelog, Pakrac, Karlovac,
Metković, Čakovec, and Osijek. Given both student and teacher readiness, we recommend
that CESI include these schools, teachers and students in their peer-education activities in
subsequent programming.
The evaluator holds that 31% of students who stated that they would like to join an
organization supporting victims of GBV is a significant unexpected result of the project,
since according to numerous research, Croatian population in general is not very interested
in civic engagement. Such a finding indicates that thought-through projects implemented
properly achieve not only their specific objectives, but positively impact young people’s
readiness for civic engagement.
An additional side effect of the project education activities is an increase in the quality
of relationships between the students and their teachers. Many teachers have stated
that the involvement in the project has positively impacted the student-teacher rapport,
increased confidence levels and provided insights into young people’s ways of reasoning,
enabling a much better mutual understanding. This is corroborated by the fact that 80% of
students involved in project activities trust their teachers’ abilities to help them or
their friend, should they find themselves facing or witnessing GBV, in the form of
direct assistance, advice and support. This finding is very relevant in the light of the
research which found that an extremely low number of adolescents would decide to
contact relevant persons in schools, SOS telephone services and/or police, to report
violence and ask for help.
In addition to supporting education professionals and students that have been treated as
the target group in this project, CESI has also delivered public presentations and workshops
to interested high-school students, recruited through youth organizations, individual
teachers, schools and public libraries. In the project implementation period, CESI
provided 29 workshops and 30 lectures for some 2500 individuals, of whom about 240
were teachers, pedagogues and psychologists, and the rest were high school- and students
in higher education. An added value of these activities is the recruitment of volunteers
for CESI and 20 peer-educators who have subsequently organized round tables for an
additional 820 high-school students in Velika Gorica near Zagreb.
These investments of time into direct education of youth have been much smaller in scope
as they have primarily served the purpose of demonstrating the methodology and providing
an impetus to the local institutions and NGOs to work with youth on GBV in the future.
Additionally, during 2006, to support the partner schools’ activities in the “16 Days”
campaign, CESI disbursed 16 small grants (130 USD each) for material costs (colored-paper,
glue, photocopying, markers) for the production of posters placed in the schools and local
communal areas, such as public libraries. The grants were well received by the schools, as
school budgets could not afford to cover material costs for such activities in most instances
and in some other cases, the external impetus motivated the schools to seek matching
funding and get involved in the campaign. The fact that CESI managed to engage 16
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schools in the feminist, nation-wide campaign is a unique success in Croatia where
educational institutions rarely get involved in any public citizens’ initiatives focused on
human rights. Nonetheless, in 2007, CESI decided not to disburse the small grants to
schools as CARE International’s December 15 reporting deadline was too tight for the
schools to produce the reports upon the end of the campaign, while at the same time, an
urgent need arose to cover material costs of the ad-hoc coalition on sexual education (see
more in the section on media and advocacy).
In conclusion, it can be stated that the education activities as a whole have achieved the
desired specific objectives of recognizing various types and forms of gender based
violence, and enabling and encouraging the teachers to continue working with youth on
GBV prevention and promotion of gender equality. When it comes to students, they have
been sensitised to recognize stereotypes and GBV, and empowered to remove themselves
from violent relationships and to a lesser extent to react when witnessing violence. The
latter, however should not be viewed as a shortfall of the project, since such an ambitious
objective is in the evaluator’s opinion beyond the scope of any individual project in a
country with prevalent patriarchal traditions and systemic, coordinated, long-term action
of state and non-state actors is crucial in achieving such behavioural changes.
2.1.2. CESI’s Research Activities
Based on CESI’s action research on attitudes, recognition and understanding of genderbased violence in adolescent relationships in Croatia, conducted in 2004, within this
project the team decided to design and conduct a wider research in order to gather
information on frequency, types, reasons for and consequences of violence in adolescent
relationships. The research aimed to identify possible risk factors for experiencing violence
or being violent, as a means to better understand the needs of young people, and target
educational and preventive activities to minimize the identified risks.
The research involved 1014 junior and senior year students from 42 urban and rural high
schools in Croatia, with the approval and consent from the Ministry of Education, Science
and Sports. Its results were analyzed and published in a book entitled “Violence Does
Not Pass on Its Own”, printed in 1000 copies and available for download from CESI
website. The research report was directly sent to all participating schools, social care
centres, relevant police departments, research centres and institutions, civil society
organizations, and to governmental organizations working in the fields of sex/gender
equality, violence prevention, education, health care, and children and youth.
The research results were publicly presented in Croatia on September 19, 2007, with
active participation of representatives of relevant state institutions. Besides the official
promotion in Zagreb, research results were also presented at 10 different events in other
parts of Croatia, of which the most significant one was organized together with the
Education and Teacher Training Agency - the expert meeting of some 220 secondary and
primary school teachers, pedagogues and psychologists. As part of the regional project
component, the results we presented at 4 events in Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Serbia. The discussions that followed the presentations in other countries emphasized the
need to conduct similar research in B-H and Serbia and to introduce educationalpreventive programs in obligatory school curricula in all three countries. In terms of media
coverage, information about the research results was announced in 4 daily newspapers, 3
radio stations, 1 TV station, 1 monthly magazine and 8 web portals in Croatia.
Impacts of research findings
The most significant research findings include more than two thirds of adolescents who
have experienced some form of violent behaviour from their partner, while about half of
those who have reported being the victim, also reported perpetration of dating violence in
the form of excessive jealousy, possessive and controlling behaviours, accusations and
emotional blackmails. As a considerable proportion of adolescents did not recognize these
15
behaviours as violent, but as a 'normal' part of every relationship, such findings provided
clear guidelines for the design of education activities within the project.
Apart from their clear use in further project implementation, the two consecutive sets of
research findings represent a basis for comparisons and monitoring the presence and
level of gender-based violence in adolescent relationships in Croatia, as well as
scientifically based argumentation for advocating the introduction of the topic in
standard education curriculum in Croatia. To that effect, CESI has used the research
findings to develop recommendations for changes in policies and programs that will
ensure introduction of gender equality principle into the educational system. The
recommendations have been emphasized during all presentations of research results to
relevant institutions throughout Croatia.
Regionally, the research methodology represents a valuable matrix for other ex-Yugoslav
countries to conduct similar research, while the results provide the basis for regional
comparative research and possible joint advocacy efforts. Concrete steps in that direction
are represented by 3 requests to use the questionnaire in smaller scale research in
Croatia (Faculty of Philosophy Zagreb and Centre for Social Care Varaždin) and BosniaHerzegovina (Sarajevo), and plans by two NGOs to replicate the survey in Serbia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina, for which the organizations are currently fundraising.
Moreover, the research report is listed as additional literature for the course 'Sociology
of gender' at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb,
representing an unexpected result of this project activity.
Unexpected international outputs include an article about the research results written by
the lead researcher and co-author of the report for Entre Nous – The European Magazine
for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Issue No.65 – Gender Issues in Sexual and
Reproductive Health, and published by WHO Euro in 2007.
Such national and international interest in the research findings indicates that teen dating
violence is an issue to be further researched and addressed by policy makers at all levels of
government locally, nationally and internationally and that CESI had correctly identified
and approached the problem. Therefore, the evaluator recommends fundraising from
Croatian national level institutions for longitudinal research on teen dating violence in
Croatia and international fundraising in partnerships with research and academic
institutions, such as the departments of sociology in Croatian universities, for additional
research design covering other aspects of gender based violence and prevention in
adolescent relationships.
2.1. 3. CESI’s Awareness Raising and Advocacy Activities
Media Campaigns
The most significant media activity in the final project year was the conducted national
media campaign on GBV prevention that was mostly funded by the EC, but with 9%
matching funds from CARE. Although not very significant percentage-wise, CESI’s ability to
put CARE as a matching donor for the EC funded project has had a positive impact on
CESI’s securing the EC funds.
A thoroughly prepared and implemented media campaign consisted of TV clips and
accompanying printed billboards and city lights, and the design and production of
promotional materials that were visually identical to the media campaign. The campaign
slogan “Silence is not golden”, which was developed as part of the media campaign, was
uniformly applied to all materials produced within the project’s media campaign. The
slogan itself is an antonym of the proverb “silence is golden”, and suggests that keeping
silent in experiencing or witnessing violence is not an appropriate reaction.
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Outputs of the media campaign
1. Four different TV clips were produced covering domestic violence, date-rape and
trafficking in women, while the fourth was a combination of the first three. The
sequencing in airing the clips was carefully planned, starting from the most widely
known form of gender-based violence – domestic violence, to introduce the campaign’s
logo and slogan. This was followed by airing the clip on date-rape, as a response to the
research result that showed that 29% of boys and 9% of girls believed that when a girl
says “no” to sexual intercourse she actually means “yes”. The clip on trafficking was
aired before and during the summer season, when many girls plan their summer
holidays, and travel to foreign countries to work as au-pairs, in order to raise their and
their parents’ awareness of the associated dangers. Finally, the fourth clip was aired at
the very end of the campaign, combining the already familiar shots from the three
clips, to reinforce the message.
CESI and its partner have negotiated with both the Croatian public radio and television
HRTV, and the privately owned RTL the airing of the TV clips for free. Given that HRTV
is the national public television, the free airing of socially engaged clips was expected
in the project design. On the other hand securing free media-time on RTL represents
an extremely valuable unexpected project result. Namely, CESI and its project
partner have successfully negotiated with RTL’s Foundation RTL Helps Children founded
by RTL Television and Večernji list, free media time both on TV and in one of the
biggest daily newspapers “Večernji list”. An additional unexpected result in terms of
free media time is the fact that HRTV offered additional broadcasting radio time, for
which the implementers produced a radio jingle, broadcasted on Croatian Radio and
Radio Sljeme.
In total the clips were aired 627 times on HTV and 116 times on RTL, while the radio
jingle was played 164 times in the period January – October 2008. The total value of
free broadcasting TV and radio time is estimated at some 2.3 million EUR.
2. The most powerful scenes from the TV clips were used for the production of four
different billboards and four different citylights, that were put in 76 advertisement
spaces all over Croatia, in the period March - April and August 2008. The project
partners successfully negotiated with P.I.O. free-of-charge spaces for billboards and
citylights, when they had available space. The total value of free billboard and
citylight space is estimated at around 40.000,00 EUR.
3. The same logic was followed in the design and production of four different newspaper
ads that were published simultaneously with the airing of the TV clips. The ads were
published 12 times in total in Večernji list between January 23 and October 1, 2008,
with additional accompanying newspaper articles that ran 5 times in the same period.
The estimated value of free newspaper space is 10.000,00 EUR.
4. Finally, 2000 T-shirts with the campaign slogan printed in the front, and CESI, OMG
and EC logos on the back were produced in women’s and men’s styles and in various
sizes. About half of the T-shirts were distributed to young people participating in the
project activities, while the other half was distributed during other educational and
promotional events within the project implemented by OMG and CESI.
Impacts of the media campaign on target audiences
Overall, the media campaign was very important in the development of complementary
project activities, as evidenced by youth idols’ reported readiness to participate in project
activities due to, among other factors, having seen the TV clips. Similarly, the TV clips
have significantly contributed to the high levels of recognition of the campaign slogan
among the target audiences.
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Impacts of the media campaign on the main target audience were measured by the
specialized market research agency Hendal, in the period 15 – 25 September 2008, on a
nationally representative sample of 400 youth aged 15-18. The main goal of this research
was measuring the efficiency of the campaign from the aspect of influencing opinions and
attitudes of the target group. Here we address and interpret its main findings, in relation
to the overall evaluation criteria.
On the whole, not surprisingly, the campaign was most noticeable on TV – with 68,3% of
the total sample remembering the family violence clip, 55,8% remembering the date-rape
clip, 61,2% recalling the anti-trafficking clip, and 6,8% recalling the final mixed clip. Other
media remembered, although in significantly lower percentages include newspapers,
magazines and billboards, as well as the Internet (YouTube).
All clips had very encouraging effects on the respondents’ readiness to act upon or report
violence, and made them think about the issues presented. Furthermore, the connection
between all three types of violence has been noticed by 91% respondents, with 72% of
those claiming to see the connection having correctly attributed it to some type of genderbased violence, indicating that the campaign has fulfilled it objective – recognizing the
connection between various types of violence. As for the term “gender-based violence”
itself, 13% of respondents claim to have heard it before the survey. Since the term was
used for the first time among the general population within this campaign, Hendal’s
analysts claim that this is not a poor result, given the relative shortness of the campaign,
and presume that continuing with the campaign would raise the percentage of recognition
and understanding of the term.
Finally, the campaign slogan “Silence is not golden” has an overall spontaneous awareness
of 5,5%, while 15,6% of those who could not remember the individual clips, remembered
the slogan. The slogan is very well accepted, and with a very high percentage of
recognition in all clips, indicating that the campaign designers did a good job in its
creation. This finding is corroborated by the fact that the slogan was also used as the
light-motif of the university students’ protests against conditions at the Law Faculty in
Zagreb in September 2008, indicating that it has become part of the youth and student
population jargon (see http://promethea.bloger.hr/post/ipak-se-krece/964948.aspx).
A Google search of the campaigns slogan returned some 150 campaign-related articles,
forum-discussions and blogs mostly from Croatia, although there was 1 comment on a
Slovenian site and 1 discussion on a Serbian web-forum. Discussants are adolescents and
parents alike, who talk about the contents of the clips, describe their feelings after
watching them, or argue the pros and cons of such an approach to violence in
relationships. The web discussions indicate that the media campaign has reached its main
target audiences.
Media Coverage CESI’s GBV Prevention Activities
The national campaign has been reported on in 3 national dailies on 7 different occasions,
and 3 national weeklies on 6 occasions. In addition, 27 different websites have reported on
the project activities. Furthermore, an article about the campaign has been printed in
“Školske novine” (School papers), a specialized magazine for education professionals
distributed to all schools in Croatia.
Other media related activities conducted in the scope of the project include the
negotiated collaboration with the Teen weekly magazine in 2006, whereby CESI regularly
published texts of contents relevant to teenagers. CESI also collaborates with the
PLIVAzdravlje (PLIVAhealth) portal submitting texts containing relevant information
regarding youth reproductive and sexual health.
18
Most CESI seminars organized in different cities were reported on in local print and
electronic media, as were student activities within the “16 Days” campaign. CESI was also
featured within Zagreb’s local Radio 101 CIVILDRETA show, specializing in civil society,
with sexuality education being the topic of this particular broadcast. During 2007, the
project coordinator presented the SEzaM web portal for youth in the Good Morning Croatia
show on National TV while one national daily and 3 local dailies published the information
on the portal in their newspaper. Additionally, a local TV station in Zagreb hosted a show
on gender equality, where CESI representatives talked about youth sexuality and violence
in adolescent relationships.
According to the analysis of the project’s press clipping, during the three project years,
CESI’s activities have been reported on in different media outlets 176 times, including 32
TV appearances, 43 radio broadcasts, 55 articles in print media and 47 web references.
2.1.4. Internet Education and Counseling
In late 2002, CESI developed a new web site called «SeZaM – Sexual Education for Young
People» (www.sezamweb.net) providing complete, clear and accurate information on
issues related to gender-based violence, sexuality, gender equality and adolescents’ sexual
and reproductive rights serves the purpose of educating youth, their parents and teachers
on how to approach sexuality. In the course of the project the web site has been updated
with new contents 91 times, indicating the seriousness of approach on the part of CESI and
the importance the team puts on this medium, as the most popular in their primary target
group.
The website also contains posts of youth who have experienced violence and their coping
with it and an FAQ section. Young people can pose questions directly via the Internet, so
the portal acts as an on-line counseling line. In the project implementation period, 1027
young people received advice from CESI on gender based violence, gender/sexual
identity and psychological aspects of sexuality. The number and content of questions
posted by youth corroborate the need for the introduction of a systematic educational
curriculum on sexuality in schools. Apart from Croatian youth, the site is also relevant
regionally, as evidenced from the monitoring activities, which show that 65 % of hits are
from Croatia, 23% from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, and 12% from other countries. In
the first project year girls were predominantly posting questions, however in the second
and third project year approximately equal numbers of female and male adolescents
posted questions.
The web-site also contains a link to the national campaign subdomain “Silence is not
golden”, which includes all information relevant to the national campaign, including TV
clips, posters and leaflets as well as a list of involved schools and brief descriptions of their
projects. In addition, discussion groups/forum on gender-based violence issues have been
developed, while 80 different web sites contain links to the project.
2.1.5. Awareness raising activities for youth
In order to additionally raise awareness of GBV in adolescent relationships, CESI has
organized (1) five public debates in high-schools, (2) the national gathering of youth with
presentations of the work youth have realized in the course of the project, and produced
(3) 1100 copies of DVDs with relevant information on GBV and lessons learned from the
project.
Public debates in high-schools
The five public debates were held during April and May 2008 in the high-schools
participating in the project activities in Samobor, Split, Zagreb, Rijeka and Osijek. The
purpose of the debates was to additionally motivate youth and strengthen the media focus
in the months before the final campaign event. In organizing these debates CESI have
19
shown innovativeness, by engaging Croatian youth idols, mostly pop singers, to be the
speakers at these events. This approach proved very efficient as on the one hand it
ensured a higher participation rate of youth and on the other generated additional
media attention. According to the project associate, her major concern prior to project
implementation was ensuring the participation of celebrities in public debates. However,
the quality of the TV clips, and according to feedback from celebrities, very clear and
useful presentation of the purpose of the activities, ensured their quick acceptance to
participate in the project and willingness to further collaborate with CESI.
Some 470 high-school students participated in the debates, and according to feedback
received from the engaged celebrities, the discussions were interesting and useful, since
both the speakers and the students shared their views on or experiences with GBV. It is
their assessment that most of the students were present due to the genuine interest in the
subject, and that they understood the main message. All interviewed celebrities revealed
that they gladly responded to CESI’s request, since they found the topic very relevant
and understood that their position as youth idols entails pressures of acting as positive
role-models for youth. Two of them said that their motivation was also enticed by the TV
clips which they liked, and took the opportunity to “contribute to something worthwhile”.
All have also stated that this approach was in their view appropriate, and that they
would gladly participate in any further similar activities organized by CESI, whom they
found very professional and easy to cooperate with.
Given the popularity of these events, and the expressed willingness of the celebrities
to be further engaged, it is recommended that CESI take the opportunity to organize a
higher number of similar events in future programming and explore the possibility of
using the celebrities’ personal contacts to engage even more youth idols in their
activities.
The National Gathering of Participating Youth
The project’s final event was envisioned as a celebration of the successful completion of
GBV prevention projects in schools, and as a place for meeting and networking of teachers
and students from all over Croatia. The event took place in Zagreb on June 21, 2008,
immediately after the ending of the school year, and involved some 600 students and their
teachers. The event also hosted the award ceremony for the works produced – 3 awards in
each category (film, theatre play, comic, newspaper article) were presented, followed by
the screening, performing or presentation of the awarded products. A jury consisting of
members of CESI, OMG, and expert trainers from teachers’ seminars rated the works
according to relevance of content, and quality of production and performance. The awards
consisted of a specially designed statuette engraved with the campaign slogan, the award
and the name of the project and school that received the award. They were also presented
with books donated by sponsoring publishers: Naklada Ljevak, Matica Hrvatska and
Algoritam. The official part of the event was followed by a concert of a renowned youth
pop-rock group.
The organization of this event entailed serious planning and coordination, in order to
organize the students’ arrival, secure the appropriate venue, and hire professionals to
ensure proper technical conditions, as well as skilful negotiations with performers and
sponsors of the event. The project manager has stated that the organization of the final
event, given its size, was one of her major challenges in the project. It required
substantial planning and coordination of activities, and numerous contacts with
participating schools. Nonetheless, the event with more than 600 adolescents from all over
Croatia went smoothly with active participation of many distinguished quests, including
representatives of the diplomatic corps in Croatia, representatives of international
development organizations and prominent public figures. Cooperation with the
Volunteers’ Centre in Zagreb ensured the participation of 20 volunteers, who have
subsequently become CESI’s regular volunteers.
20
Apart from celebrating the successful project end, this event enabled networking and
contacts of teachers and students from all over Croatia. However, the event did not
generate the desired level of media coverage, despite numerous invitations sent, which
is probably partly due to the fact that it collided with the Euro 2008 Football
Championship, and a vast majority of media space dedicated to it. On the other hand,
follow-up calls to journalists specializing in covering civil society issues could have
made a difference and contributed to additional project and main message exposure,
which the evaluator assesses as a missed opportunity.
Educational DVDs
The national gathering of youth was also used as an opportunity to present and distribute
the promotional and educational DVD produced within the project. The DVD contains
copies of documentaries explaining GBV and its consequences as well as ways for
combating it and copies of TV clips produced within the project. This DVD was made in 900
copies, although original plans were to make only 600. The increase in quantity is a
response to a higher demand by schools.
Following the final event, an additional DVD called “Lessons Learned” containing all
award-winning projects, the 3 minute film from the Final Event, video clips and
downloadable material (e.g. ringtones) produced within the project was made in 200
copies. Both DVDs serve as an inspiration and a set of guidelines for working with youth
on the prevention of GBV.
2.1.6. Policy Advocacy Activities
CESI has continuously monitored and reacted to all key policy initiatives related to GBV
and sexual education. Advocacy for the inclusion of gender perspective in violence
prevention programs for children and youth, as stipulated by the National Strategy for
Youth and the National Policy for Advancement of Gender Equality, has been an integral
part of the whole project. Activities included developing and maintaining contacts with the
media and policy makers, collaborating and networking between schools, institutions and
policy makers, continuous monitoring of competent state institutions’ work, developing
improved and sustainable models of gender awareness, creating recommendations, and
participating in relevant public panels, roundtables and working discussions.
The public presentation of the campaign Silent is Not Golden was held in March 2007 in the
Croatian Parliament and under the auspices of the Parliamentary Committee for Gender
Equality with participation of relevant domestic and international institutions. The fact
that CESI and OMG were able to ensure active involvement of the relevant parliamentary
committee in the organization of this event, as well as an impressive list of attendees from
relevant institutions testifies to their strong reputation among policy makers.
CESI is also actively involved in panel discussions with presidents of youth forums of
political parties involved in development of youth policy and regularly meets with
representatives of Youth Network Croatia within the process of developing the National
Strategy for Youth 2008 – 2012.
CESI’s high level of professionalism and the quality of education activities, as well as its
recognized expertise in the area of violence prevention among youth ensured their
participation in the Working group for the development of teachers training on gender
equality. Other members of the working group include representatives of the Ministry of
Education, Institute for Social Research, Agency for Teachers Training, Centre for Women’s
Studies and Government’s Office for Gender Equality.
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The Civic Coalition STOP HIGH RISK SEXUALITY EDUCATION
In January 2007 CESI initiated launching the Coalition, in response to the intentions of the
Croatian Education Ministry to introduce an experimental abstinence based sexuality
education into Croatian elementary and high-schools, prepared by Association GROZD. The
coalition consists of some 170 civil society organizations and 300 individual members, and
the Coalition Board that coordinates its activities, of which CESI is a member.
The coalition’s activities mainly consisted of exerting public pressure on the responsible
Ministry to transparently release all documentation related to this policy, which was not
only content-wise but also procedurally, decided upon in a manner contrary to the
principles of good-governance. In response to advocacy and lobbying within EU institutions
and like-thinking politicians in the Croatian parliament, and stirring up media attention at
home, this issue was placed on the national political agenda, and the Coalition was
successful in at least ensuring that an evaluation of the experimental implementation be
conducted. This task was delegated to the National Center for External Evaluation of
Education, with whom Coalition representatives met in Spring 2008, explained their
position and expressed expectations in terms of the evaluation methodology and
publicizing its results.
As the pilot phase of the experimental sexuality education program took place during the
2nd semester of school-year 2007/08, the evaluation results were publicly presented on
December 18, 2008 in Zagreb. Based on the evaluation results, which showed no
significant improvement in the level of knowledge of pupils who took the class and the
control group, as well as the expressed lack of interest to continue taking this class, as
well as inadequate training that the educators were provided with, the Ministry of
Education has publicly announced that the program will not be part of the official
curriculum. The evaluation has also concluded that the design of educational programs of
such nature should not be outsourced to CSO, but prepared within the institutional setting
of public health and educational institutions, with possible cooperation with CSOs in the
delivery of such programs. Such an outcome, as well as the fact that an independent
evaluation has been commissioned by the Ministry is a direct result of advocacy efforts
of the Coalition, of which CESI is the convener.
The Coalition will now continue working on fulfilling its goal – implementation of the
standardized human sexuality education program based on scientifically proven facts and
in line with international conventions and treaties. Activities conducted by CESI towards
the fulfillment of this goal are described in the following section on EU level advocacy
activities.
An unexpected positive result of this project component is also the published article in
the European Journal of Women's Studies entitled “Sex Education in Croatia: Tension
between Secular and Religious Discourses” printed in Vol.15, Issue 4, in November
2008, by Sage Publications.
EU level advocacy activities
In October 2007, the Croatian government’s policy on sexual and reproductive rights
education was legally challenged by CESI and two prominent international HR organizations
– Interrights and Center for Reproductive Rights - before the European Committee of Social
Rights, as a violation of the European Social Charter and a direct threat to the
reproductive health of Croatian youth, among whom there is a worrying trend in the
prevalence of STDs as well as exposure to GBV.
The members of the Committee, who have received both the Croatian government’s
responses to the complaint as well as the responses to Government observations submitted
in July 2008 by Interrights, are currently reviewing the merits of the complaint. The
22
Committee has asked both the government and the complainants to provide additional
evidence by December 19, 2008. CESI has done additional research into the contents of
obligatory elementary and secondary school curricula and submitted the answer to the
Committee by the deadline. It is expected that the Committee will continue with
deliberation in early 2009, while the date of its final decision cannot yet be foreseen.
Other international advocacy activities include the regional CEE YES campaign (Youth
Educated Sexually), organized in cooperation with ASTRA youth, with the kick-off of the
campaign taking place in Zagreb in June 2007. The aim of this campaign was to raise
awareness on the importance of sexuality education among youth.
Impacts of Advocacy Activities
The lack of coherence in the national gender equality policy implementation is reflected in
diverse impacts of CESI’s advocacy activities. On one hand, CESI’s participation in relevant
working groups ensures a degree of influence on the working group’s final products,
although once the draft proposals leave the working groups and enter the legislative
procedure, their contents is outside the control of working group members. Therefore,
additional scrutiny and lobbying of MPs is required before the first readings in
parliament, followed, if necessary, by media events to focus the public’s attention on the
issue, if substantial changes are introduced by the government (main producer of
legislative proposals) or parliamentary committees. However, research on GBV in
adolescent relationships, on which all advocacy efforts are grounded, has been accepted
as a credible, expert-based source of data by the relevant professional and policy
institutions, including the representatives of the Ministry of Families, War Veterans and
Generational Solidarity and experts from universities who publicly spoke about the
problem of GBV in adolescent relationships. Similarly, the Ombudswoman for Children
publicly stated the gender-based violence in adolescent relationship represents a
serious issue that needs to be tackled by new legislation, thus placing the topic on the
national political agenda.
Impacts of advocacy efforts on the education policy in the first two years of project
implementation were evident in the media attention stirred and public’s recognition of the
issue, which instigated strong public debates with opposing views regarding sexuality
education program.
The publication of the official evaluation report of the
experimental sexuality education programs and the media reported Ministry’s decision
not to continue with the pilot programs are excellent result of CESI’s engagement.
Ultimately, the possible positive result of the complaint before the European Committee
for Social Rights will be the key indicator of the successfulness of CESI’s advocacy
activities.
Nonetheless, CESI should continue and even possibly strengthen its advocacy activities
since the current situation in Croatia does not provide enough evidence that systematic,
scientifically based sexuality education will be implemented throughout the education
system in the short- to medium-term and evidently only strong advocacy with sound
argumentation at both the national and probably more importantly international levels
(taken into account the EU accession process) will yield positive results in that respect.
2.1.7 Outputs and Effects of the Organizational Capacity Building Component
This project has contributed to CESI’s organizational capacity building, which the
leadership approaches strategically, combining donor support from different sources.
Due to the current institutional grant provided by the National Foundation for Civil Society
development, covering the costs of strategic and annual action planning, CESI identified
very specific needs that were addressed in the scope of this project.
23
CESI has also benefited from direct TA provided by CARE - tailored M/E consultations
provided by Aleš Inkret, CARE’s M/E and gender specialist and a three-day regional training
on communications’ strategy development, provided by Bosnian PR agency PUBLIKA.
CESI have used the capacity building components of the grant to hire a part-time project
assistant, who was in charge of delivering part of CESI's educational activities and
conducting the research on GBV among adolescents. The assistant’s engagement proved
very valuable in the timely execution of project activities, as well as in terms of reaching a
higher number of project beneficiaries in education activities.
Additionally, CESI have purchased an LCD projector that they use regularly in their
educational activities, an office desk-top computer and lap-top, and two office mobile
phones in order to reduce telephone costs of the organization. Through the project they
have also obtained one dictaphone, three memory sticks, one digital camera, a pair of
earphones with a microphone and a camera tripod. Furthermore, the Strategic Plan 20082011 has been translated into English, posted on the web site and distributed to
international donors and development agencies, thus contributing to CESI transparency as
well as long-term financial sustainability prospects.
Part of the capacity building grant was also used to develop promotional materials, in
order to ensure organizational visibility and promotion of its goals and values. The
materials produced include bags, pins and umbrellas with CESI's logo, which are distributed
as part of the organization's PR efforts.
In the final project year, the capacity building project component included consultations
with experts in EU funding programs on the development of two of CESI's project proposals
for the upcoming PHARE 2006 funding scheme, of which one was awarded to CESI for the
programmatic area of „Youth Engagement“. Additionally, CESI have held the 2-day
organizational planning meeting for 2009 in October 2008, ensuring smoothness in
transition of staff members from projects that were completed in 2008 to the ones
beginning in 2009.
Finally, with CARE's support CESI has in December 2008 started the process of developing
its own organizational communications strategy. Due to cuts in funding in the final project
year, CARE was not able to fully cover the costs of this intervention. However, given that
CESI are highly dedicated to this component of their organizational development, they
were able to secure matching funds from other sources. The process is expected to be
finished in the first quarter of 2009 in the form of self-developed document produced with
the assistance and feedback provided by the expert agency from Sarajevo, BosniaHerzegovina.
CARE’s flexibility and respect for each organizations’ development priorities has been
valuable in ensuring that the funding for organizational capacity building gets directed
towards those needs that cannot be covered by means of other grants, very few of
which actually enable organizations to care for their own progress, as they work on
positive social change.
2.2.
AWC – Preparing Future Professionals to Understand GBV
AWC has applied for direct activity support provided in the scope of this project for the
following groups of activities focused on GBV prevention and support to women victims of
violence : (1) training and ongoing support to the group of peer educators; (2) training and
supervision of a group of SOS telephone volunteers; (3) workshops and public presentations
for university students throughout Serbia; (4) analysis and modification of university
24
policies and curricula; (5) media outreach and public campaigns; and (6) small grants for
innovative students’ GBV prevention projects.
The strategic objective of the project “Start with Yourself” was timely sensitization and
education of future professionals in social care and public service institutions to act
competently in cases of GBV. For this reason, the peer education project has targeted
university programs – psychology, pedagogy, sociology, special education, social work, law,
medicine - primarily by means of peer education. Peer educators have also been provided
with the opportunity to attend the training for SOS volunteers, which was yet another way
of preparing them for their future professional responsibilities in the area of GBV. The
program also attempted to achieve changes in terms of university policy and curriculum
change, but these have not been achieved, partially due to problems related to poor
choice of partner for this project component and partially because of significantly
decreased amounts of awarded funds in the final project year, which has had a negative
impact on peer-educators engagement.
The activities have been organized into a comprehensive project named “Kreni od sebe”
(“Start with Yourself”), carried out within AWC’s long-standing program “Developing Good
Practices in the Area of Family Violence”. The program focused on enhancing the
professional capacities and coordinated community response of key institutions
responsible for combating GBV in numerous municipalities of Belgrade and other parts
of Serbia and Vojvodina. Furthermore, in addition to direct consultancy and training in
municipalities, the program included an education component targeting professionals in
the judiciary, centers for social work, and the police on how to deal with victims,
survivors and perpetrators of GBV.
Media outreach and the public campaign component is directly linked with AWC’s longstanding role of key feminist NGO responsible for the organization of the national
campaign “16 days of Activism against Violence against women” taking place every
November. Peer educators and students who have attended their workshops have been
included in the campaigns, both as volunteers and the target group, receiving information
and being invited to the campaign events. AWC’s web portal has been significantly
upgraded as part of this project, now offering specialized information for students,
including the on-line counseling option, guaranteeing full anonymity, which has so far been
used by 227 persons.
2.2.1 Effects of Peer Education
Based on the public call for application, distributed through activist and student mailing
list, 20 out of 45 applicants were selected to attend the four-day TOT for peer educators,
delivered in June 2006 by CESI, the training and supervision services of which were also
chosen on the basis of the public call for services. The students of relevant university
programs and members of marginalized groups were given priority. CESI assisted AWC in
the selection of 12 per educators to deliver public presentations and workshops to
students, either in the role of co-trainers, or, initially, as logistical assistants, invented to
engage those candidates who still needed to gain training experience.
Peer educators have stated that their engagement with AWC has reflected both on their
private interactions, as well as their community engagement. Most of them are viewed by
their colleagues and friends as a source of advice on relationship dynamics and gender
discrimination. Their training competencies have continuously increased, thanks to the
solid basis provided by CESI by means of initial TOT and the additional two-day supervision
workshop held in October 2006, where peer educators’ workshop plans were reviewed.
Multiple co-training experiences with different partners, with opportunities for mutual
feedback and workshop modifications, have been precious for the peer educators’ sense of
competence. The final evaluation interview revealed that only now, after having delivered
multiple workshops have the peer-educators grasped the complexities of GBV issues, and
25
that only now do they understand what was meant by the trainers when they claimed that
working on GBV prevention is a long-term process that needs to be internalized.
Each training team was responsible for conducting the final feedback with the participants,
processing the participants’ evaluation and preparing the workshop reports. In the final
project year, as recommended in the mid-term evaluation, the peer-educators were also
given responsibility to organize workshops themselves, which included negotiations with
the faculties regarding venues as well as sending invitations and motivating students to
take part in the workshops. According the evaluation interviews, this represents good
practice, as it gives the peer-educators an even stronger sense of ownership of and
responsibility for the whole project, while at the same time relieving the project
coordinator from logistical tasks and allowing her to focus on the contents related issues of
the project.
The review of the peer educators’ follow-up activities in the second project year indicated
the prevalent sense of connection with AWC and high motivation to take part and even
initiate different types of GBV prevention activities, which was also reflected in the
qualitative feedback collected during the mid-term evaluation.
At the time of the final evaluation, which focused on the project’s third year of
implementation, 9 out of 12 peer educators have stayed engaged with the project,
having delivered additional 12 GBV prevention workshops at four Belgrade universities –
medicine, law, social work, and rehabilitation. Thus in total, during the entire project
implementation period peer-educators in Serbia delivered 29 one- or two-day workshops
(with 3 modules each) for a total of 298 students from four cities (Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad
and Kragujevac), six different university programs (medicine, political science/social work,
law, special education, police academy and criminology and the faculty of philosophy) and
four different student residencies.
The great majority (over 75%) of workshops participants were, expectedly, women, both
due to the fact that the targeted university programs, with the exception of police
academy have a larger proportion of female students, as well as due to opposite reactions
of young women and men to feminist education. According to interviews with peereducators, motivating students to take part in the workshops was somewhat challenging,
resulting in some 60% of students who have applied to actually participate in them.
However, once they took the workshops, they wanted additional education and training,
which could not be delivered in the scope of the project due to the very short time-frame
for activities in the final project year as well as significant cuts in funding that took place.
The immediate workshop participants’ feedback demonstrates an outstanding level of
satisfaction and sense of relevance of the topics covered and training methodology used,
which were graded as excellent. The students’ self-assessments of the increase in their
own knowledge indicate that the workshops were very effective in significant improvement
in their understanding of GBV, recognition of gender based discrimination and gender
stereotypes, with slightly smaller improvements in understanding the difference between
sex and gender and knowledge of the legal framework on domestic violence. The
experiential learning method has put the participants in contact with their own values,
prejudices and fears, hence the changes may be expected at the level of attitudes and not
only information. However, for many students, this was the first substantial exposure to
feminist interpretation of gender relations and GBV that would hopefully increase their
interest in these issues and somewhat change their attitudes. For a more sustainable
impact, it was absolutely necessary to ensure the integration of gender issues into the
university curricula and expose the students to additional learning opportunities,
which unfortunately has not happened in the course of this project.
26
In addition to peer-educators, AWC staff has in the course of the project delivered 36
workshops on GBV prevention. Workshops and public presentations reached a total of 1021
students at 10 faculties, 4 student dormitories, and 4 high schools in 8 different towns,
including guests lectures held by the program coordinator for 190 students of family law in
Niš and students of political science and social work in Belgrade. In total, it can be
estimated that project has directly reached out to over 800 university students and 200
high school students.
Despite the impressive outreach, the final evaluation interviews revealed that AWC has
decided not to continue with the peer-education project, since according to the
project staff, the intended systemic changes to university policies and curricula did not
take part, despite significant attitudinal changes that were observed at the levels of
individual students. On the other hand, students studying or recently graduated from
social work have organized themselves into an association, which according to the
interview with one of the most involved peer-educators has the potential to take on GBV
prevention peer-education. Given her enthusiasm, it is recommended that AWC provide
the association with assistance in applying for grants to fund this activity, as well as
any other form of assistance they might need, so that the results achieved during this
project be upkept and further developed in the future, albeit not taking place within
AWC.
In the interview with the project coordinator, she stated that in retrospect attention
should have been placed on university policies from the very beginning, with the peereducation component serving as an entry point into universities and to animate interested
professors to lobby for changes in policies and curricula. It is her belief that such an
approach would have had better chances of yielding the desired and intended systemic
changes. This was corroborated in the interview with peer-educators, who feel that the
opportunity to include GBV prevention topics into the regular curricula by means of guest
lecturing and seminars was missed, despite the ongoing Bologna process reform. Similarly,
both project staff and peer educators were of the opinion that TOT for peer-education
should have been taking place on a regular basis, to widen the pool of peer-educators and
include new generations of students. Such an approach would have not only included a
higher number of students, but also ensured continuation of workshops, despite the older
generation of students leaving the university. These, in the evaluator’s opinion, should be
viewed as a lesson learned for all future AWC and CARE funded peer-education activities.
On the other hand, the peer-education component of the project has yielded several
unexpected results, including peer educator Milena Račeta, a psychologist, conducting her
own research project on sexual harassment in public transport, which was publicly
presented in November, 2007, together with CESI’s research on GBV in adolescent
relationships. Peer educator Ivana Vučković won the first prize for the best student paper
on legislative framework for domestic violence, while Predrag Popović, workshop
participant from the student organization ELSA, came second in the same competition,
organized by the Victimologist Society of Serbia. All three student papers were published
in the society’s journal TEMIDA (also available online at www.vds.org.yu/temida.htm). One
of the peer-educators chose as the topic of her graduation thesis the impact of awarenessraising activities about violence against women, which is the first such thesis to be written
at the social work faculty in Belgrade, while one of the workshop participants won the OSI
internship in the United States, and plans to continue working on issues related to gender
based violence, with the support of one of the peer-educators. Another workshop
participant from Belgrade had developed a project on partnership relationships, which
includes workshops for high-school students. The motivation for this project came directly
from participating in the workshop organized by AWC’s peer educators, while one of them
is providing further guidance and support.
27
Given such high levels of individual enthusiasm, we recommend that AWC rethinks its
decision not to continue with peer-education, since it was obviously a successful
project component, despite challenges encountered. The program could be adjusted
according to the lessons learned within this project, and could engage the 9 still active
peer-educators. Given AWC’s good reputation with relevant stakeholders as well as the
high levels of commitment and enthusiasm of staff to gender equality issues, we are
inclined to conclude that the peer-education modules for GBV prevention have good
potential of becoming accredited by the relevant government bodies. This conclusion is
corroborated by the fact that the authorities of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina
have in January 2009 decided to engage AWC and its peer educators to conduct GBV
prevention activities for the student population of Vojvodina. AWC will thus conduct
two basic two-day training sessions for 2 groups of students in April 2009, and a training of
trainers for peer-educators in Vojvodina region. This engagement is also viewed as relevant
to AWC’s expressed desire to monitor the work of other GBV prevention education
providers in Serbia.
It should also be mentioned that 7 out of 12 peer educators took part in the 10-day training
for SOS volunteers, organized in Spring/Summer 2007, and gained basic counseling skills
which are compatible with the training skills in GBV and gender equality, while one of
them is herself SOS instructor and long-term volunteer of the Therapeutic Team of AWC.
Finally, in the third project year, AWC designed a new project component in order to
motivate student engagement in GBV prevention. In September 2008, AWC held a
competition for innovative individual and group student projects in the area of gender
equality and GBV prevention. The 1000 USD grant was awarded after the selection process
to the project submitted by the Inclusion Movement, an organization representing the
interests of students with physical disabilities, for the Living Library Project, whereby
actual persons talk about their own experiences, answer the “readers” questions and ask
questions themselves. Given that the “living books” present their own identities and
obstacles they face on a daily basis, they have the authority and legitimacy to present
everyday life experiences of disabled people, including double discrimination issues based
on their handicap and their minority gender status.
During November 2008, five Living Libraries took place in three Belgrade faculties (2 at the
Faculty for Culture and Media, 2 at the Faculty of Philosophy and 1 at the Special
Education and Rehabilitation Faculty. In total 103 “readers” (60% women) learned about
consequences of GBV and discrimination on actual persons, were exposed to messages on
non-violence and became members of the Living library club, enabling them to take part in
similar events in the future. 20 of the “readers” expressed motivation to become active in
spreading non-violence in their surroundings. At the same time the project enabled 5
people to tell their experiences about GBV in a safe environment, contributing to their
healing process. During the entire process they were supported by two experienced
librarians and received education on the living library methodology.
Unexpected results of this activity are the highly increased capacities and prospects for
sustainability of this newly formed student’s association. As revealed in the evaluation
interview, this small grant was the first grant the association ever received, and it
provided them with experience in proposal development and budgeting, and left the
organization with tangible reusable outputs (the developed library catalogue and message
cards). As a result of this grant, the association was able to successfully negotiate longterm cooperation with the Center for Culture “Stari grad” in Belgrade, in terms of
developing joint activities and securing a regular meeting venue for association
members. The joint project is the development of the Forum Theater covering GBV and
disability issues. Since the grant approval, the student’s association has applied to 6 more
national and international grant schemes in youth engagement, inclusion and culture.
28
By supporting this very innovative project AWC has widened its outreach to the
targeted student population, which contributed to the objective of awareness-raising
among students as well as to motivating them to become actively engaged in GBV
prevention and advocacy for gender equality and non-discrimination. It should be
mentioned that the idea for this project came from one of the male peer-education TOT
participants who was not selected to become the peer-educator, but has nonetheless
decided to continue working on GBV, thus contributing to the conclusion that despite the
encountered challenges and AWC’s perception, the peer-education component of the
project was indeed a successful one.
2.2.2. Effects on University Policies and Curricula
This particular set of project activities was of strategic importance for the success of the
AWC’s broader program on GBV prevention, focused on initiating structural changes in
institutional practices of centers for social work, the police, the judiciary and local
governments. Namely, ensuring adequate competence and awareness of future
professionals who will deal with cases of GBV at the time of their university education
would mean that less investment would need to be made to break down already acquired
professional routines and stereotypes of middle-age professionals. For that reason, AWC
viewed peer education not only as a stand-alone objective, but as its entry point into
regular university programs.
At the time of mid-term evaluation, it was assumed that the positive students’ feedback
and established contacts with university staff would lead to collaboration between AWC
and particular course leaders, on integration of education content on gender equality and
GBV into regular courses and seminars. In addition, AWC had hoped that established
contacts with students’ organizations would enable cooperation on the introduction of
anti-discriminatory clauses of university statutes and by-laws, taking advantage of the
current reform of higher education in line with the EU standards.
Although at the time of the mid-term evaluation it seemed that there are potentials for
reaching this objective, the final evaluation showed that no significant breakthroughs
have taken place. Despite initial successes in terms of the university leadership openness
to adopt separate rules of procedure in cases of discrimination, these have not been
adopted, while AWC did not conduct activities for its further promotion among student
organizations with the assistance of peer educators, as recommended in the mid-term
evaluation. Namely, the findings of the analysis of university textbooks that started in June
2007 was supposed to act as a first step in lobbying for changes in the curricula. Although
AWC has negotiated successfully the presentation venue and received attendance
confirmations from relevant university professors, the engaged feminist researcher Biljana
Branković did not produce the analysis as agreed, despite numerous follow-up meetings
and phone calls. Without her help, the team of eight peer educators who analyzed the
curricula and required literature of undergraduate programs in social work, law,
psychology, police academy and special education could not complete the analysis and
produce the final research report. This, combined with frustrations of unanticipated cuts
in funding which resulted in the project coordinator’s part-time engagement on the
project, as well as delays in transferring funds for the third project year, which only
happened in March of 2008, resulted in the lack of time and enthusiasm on the part of AWC
project staff and well as declining motivation levels of engaged peer-educators.
Despite the obvious underachievement of this project component, the peer-educators
are commended for having finished the document collection, which relied on the
responsiveness of university staff and was complicated by the co-existence of parallel
university programs, due to the current education reform. The matrix that has identified
specific book chapters referring to gender issues, as well as themes and valueorientation covered in each chapter is considered a valuable first step and AWC is
encouraged to invest additional efforts into producing and presenting the final research
29
report, despite the problems encountered in the course of this project. Namely, the
evaluator is of the opinion that such research findings are a valuable advocacy tool for
AWC’s future advocacy projects, with strong potential to influence the desired
systemic changes in the education policy.
Finally, in the scope of the project AWC have translated into Serbian and printed in 700
copies the Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)13 of the Committee of Ministers to member
states on gender mainstreaming in education (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on
10 October 2007 at the 1006th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies). It will be used as an
advocacy tool for members of student organizations and teaching staff at Serbian
universities, in AWC’s further efforts to influence systemic changes to the Serbian higher
education policy. In addition, copies have been distributed to representatives of the
Ministry of Education during a meeting of the Civil Society Focal Points as well as meetings
of the Deputy Prime minister’s team for the Implementation of Serbia’s Poverty Reduction
Strategy.
2.2.3. Effects of Collaboration with Relevant State and Local Institutions
The evaluation interviews conducted in the scope of the mid-term evaluation with the
staff of the Police Academy in Belgrade, as well as with the education advisor at the
Ministry of Interior have indicated that AWC is highly respected as a leading expert NGO in
Serbia in issues of GBV, as well as competent provider of peer education for future police
officers. The Ministry official was particularly enthusiastic about future collaboration with
AWC on the review of education contents and introduction of more learning activities
related to GBV, in different formats, especially those that would not require additions of
new courses, which is procedurally difficult.
Our assessment of AWC’s good position to become the non-governmental partner of choice
to education programs for professionals in the judiciary, centers for social work, and the
police on how to deal with victims, survivors and perpetrators of GBV proved correct.
Namely, as a result of highly developed and recognized efforts, in late 2008, AWC has
received a license from the relevant Ministry of Social Policy to conduct accredited
trainings for these groups of professionals. AWC has delivered 5 trainings for
professionals in centers for social work and additional 4 trainings for other stakeholder
groups in local communities. In addition, AWC conducted a TOT for its accredited program,
and as a result 8 participants received their accreditations thus increasing the capacities of
AWC’s training team. Finally, AWC has already negotiated 45 trainings for representatives
of various municipalities in Vojvodina in 2009. These results contribute not only to AWC’s
long-term sustainability, but also indicate positive impacts of AWC’s activities on the
systemic approach to GBV and its prevention.
AWC was also active in the design of the Serbian Youth Policy, since AWC is the
government’s contact organization for women. As a direct result, the whole chapter on
zero-tolerance for family violence as well as concrete measures to prevent or sanction
it have been introduced to the policy that was adopted by the Serbian government in
May 2008. The implementation of the national youth policy started in June 2008,
however, AWC decided not to apply to grants for its implementation, which is a decision
they are currently rethinking. Namely, youth were not specifically mentioned as AWC’s
target group in their Statute, which has in the meantime been changed, thus enabling their
involvement in future youth policy implementation activities. In the meantime, AWC is
monitoring the implementation of the policy, whose results include informing the
interested public that a conservative youth organization has received funding from the
state.
In the final project year, with the support from this grant AWC has prepared a Protocol
on dealing with victims of violence, to be used in Serbian centers for social work.
30
Evidently, AWC’s membership in relevant state working groups is witness to its positive
reputation both among civil society actors and institutional representatives and we
have no doubt that AWC’s inputs will continue to be considered relevant in further
reform of Serbia’s social and education policies at the local and national levels alike.
2.2.4. Effects of Media Outreach and Public Campaigns
Media outreach and organization of public campaigns on GBV is a regular aspect of AWC’s
program on the promotion of good practices in GBV prevention. The final list of the media
coverage in the project implementation period shows that AWC has had media
appearances at 294 different occasions or media outlets, with the split of electronic vs.
printed vs. web presented in the graph that follows:
AWC's m edia appearances 2006-2008
27%
34%
electronic
print
w eb
39%
The monthly average of 8 media appearances is impressive, with peak periods during the
national campaigns held each November. The messages and information related to GBV
prevention and availability of psycho-social and legal assistance have been widely
distributed across the Serbian media space, demonstrating AWC’s intention to ensure the
outreach to different social groups, especially women with different lifestyles and
economic status - through local and national TVs and radio programs, national and local
dailies, political weeklies, women’s magazines, local government and professional
newsletters as well as commercial, activist and local government web portals.
In addition to the program and project coordinators, five peer educators participated in
radio presentations of the workshops with students. The significant increase in media
coverage since 2007 can be credited to the new team member responsible for public
relations for the entire center, including alliance-building meetings with select
journalists initiated in fall 2007.
AWC is particularly satisfied with the public outreach achieved through its redesigned and
regularly updated web portal, which has been enabled by this project. Since its uploading
in August 2006 until mid December 2008 it had 28.564 visitors who remained on the site
longer than 5 minutes, indicating review of posted articles. The rapid rise of web news
about AWC’s GBV prevention program is probably also related to the creation of the
new organizational website in summer 2006, with the support of this project, which is
regularly updated. In the course of the project the web-site was updated on 30 different
occasions, and currently acts as the most detailed data-base of feminist related
activities, research and publications in Serbia, as well as an on-line counseling service
that has been used by 227 different individuals.
31
According to the final evaluation interviews, this project has significantly influenced AWC’s
perception of the web-page as an important tool, both in terms of presenting its own work,
and providing counseling sessions to women who could not reach the SOS telephone line,
which is often occupied. These organizational improvements can be directly related to
the decision made at the strategic planning session that external communications need
to be approached in a more systematic manner.
The three national campaigns “16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women” held
in November each year were very dynamic, having increased the number of towns included
from 10 in 2006 to 47 in 2008. The 2007 campaign coincided with the 2006-08 PanEuropean campaign against violence against women, launched by the Council of Europe, to
which AWC acts as the national focal point. Hence, the 2007 campaign under the slogan
“React before It Is Too Late” focused on advocacy for policy changes that would ensure
more effective protection for women, in light of the gloomy national statistics of one
woman being killed by her partner every week. The central event of the campaign was the
feminist arts exhibition, which presented the work of 16 women artists from 10 different
countries (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Japan, China, UK, France, Russia, USA and Turkey).
During the campaigns, 163.870 leaflets on GBV and available help lines have been
distributed, as well as at public presentations, in student dormitories throughout the
project and at the musical festival Exit held in Novi Sad in summer 2007. In 2008 AWC’s
engagement in the organization of the campaign has been smaller in scope, in comparison
to the 2006 and 2007 campaigns. Nevertheless, AWC has again been active in distributing
70.000 informational leaflets.
2.2.5. Outputs and Effects of the Organizational Capacity Building Component
Through the organizational capacity building component of the grant, AWC has ensured
resources for the development of the five year strategic plan for its complex program
“Good Practice Development Program in the Area of Family Violence”, coverage of
external financial audit costs, training on EU funding possibilities, purchase of technical
equipment and preparation of the first anti-stress training for all program staff, that took
place in December 2007.
The strategic planning process that was completed in Summer 2006 proved to be of
central importance to the program development which has in the meantime been
driven by identified strategic directions and accompanying objectives, as reflected in
the project proposals submitted in the meantime, most of which have been successful.
The review of the implementation of the strategic plan, conducted as part of this
evaluation, confirms that AWC has carried out all of the planned activities, including
targeted professional development and creation of new activity clusters, such as media
and public outreach on GBV, which has resulted in the preparation of a guide on media
reporting on GBV, based on real-life examples, alliance-building with specific journalists,
redesign of the web portal and systematic preparation of the national campaign against
violence against women. This is considered to be an excellent result, proving the
dedication and serious approach of all staff members to the organization and its
mission, at the same time validating relevance of the choice of partners on the part of
CARE.
During the mid-term evaluation, it was concluded that the organization was ready for
advanced consultancy support in communications’ strategy development. Initial steps in
that direction have been taken, including preparatory meetings with ERSTE Bank’s
consultancy team. However, the preparatory meetings revealed that the organization has
failed to address the issues of inter-program relations and use of common resources within
the center. It was therefore concluded by both the consultants and Good Practices team
members that creating the communications strategy for just one program of the Center
would be a waste of resources. The Good Practices team has therefore, in agreement with
CARE NWB project manager, decided to reallocate resources into training on EU funding
32
opportunities that have become available to Serbia after signing the SAA agreement
with the EU. The training was provided by RAZBOR from Croatia, during two workshops
held in Belgrade and Zagreb in December 2008. In the opinion of the evaluator, this
decision is justified, given the changed political circumstances and lack of experience
among Serbian NGOs in EU grant application procedures.
The final evaluation interview with project staff revealed general satisfaction with CARE’s
insistence on building into each year’s project an organizational development component
which AWC recognizes as important to its sustainability both in terms of new skills acquired
and in terms of office equipment purchased, which is rarely present in grant schemes
available to NGOs. CARE is commended for its approach to organizational capacity building
of its partner organizations, letting them decide which area of organizational growth is
most needed at any given moment, as well as flexibility which enabled them to change
priorities in view of changed circumstances.
Within the technical assistance component of the project CARE has also provided AWC with
the technical equipment needed to enable smoother delivery of the training workshops and
office operations. Specifically, through this project component AWC has acquired one desk
top computer, two lap-tops, one color laser jet printer and a USB printer cable, one mobile
phone, one dictaphone machine, and four memory sticks.
2.3. MEDICA’s Integrated Approach to GBV
In the past three years MEDICA Zenica has focused on six areas of activity: (1) direct
support to women victims of abuse; (2) educational-prevention activities; (3) advocacy and
media analysis; (4) updating MEDICA’s web page; (5) development of MEDICA’s promotional
materials and (6) integrating MEDICA into the community. The project has hence provided
support to all of MEDICA’s key programs and its organizational strengthening.
2.3.1. MEDICA’s Direct Support to Women Victims of Abuse
As direct support to victims of abuse is MEDICA’s core business, CARE’s three-year grant
was very welcome by the MEDICA team, allowing them to continue providing shelter and
counseling to battered women.
In the project implementing period, MEDICA has provided shelter to a total of 112 victims
of abuse (women and children), and conducted 403 therapeutic sessions.
Additionally, the capacity building grant for 2006 enabled MEDICA to employ a lawyer who
has devoted a part of her working hours to the provision of legal assistance to women
seeking counseling and/or shelter within MEDICA, including a total of 79 clients in 2006.
It should be noted that after the strategic planning session held in late 2006, as part of
CARE’s capacity building grant, MEDICA established better contacts with local agencies and
authorities in contact with victims of abuse, having signed cooperation agreements with
key local and cantonal institutions, as follows:
- Protocol on cooperation and provision of adequate and safe accommodation and
sheltering of foreigners victims of trafficking in human beings in BiH was signed with
the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 10th, 2005 and renewed in
June 2008.
- Protocol on cooperation in the work of the Safe house and psychological counseling
office for women and children victims of domestic violence was signed with Zenica
Municipality in February 2007 and renewed in January 2008.
- Protocol on cooperation for upgrading and provision of more efficient psycho-social
care for victims of violence in the region of Zenica Municipality was signed with Public
Institution Centre for Social Welfare and Zenica Municipality on February 1st, 2007.
- Protocol on cooperation with the Association of Social Workers of Zenica Doboj Canton
was signed on December 31st, 2007.
33
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Protocol on cooperation in provision of health care was signed with Public Institution
Cantonal hospital in Zenica on June 12th, 2008.
The protocols were signed for the purpose of integration of Medica Zenica into psychosocial and health system of the community as well as for maximum efficiency in using the
existing resources of Medica Zenica the resources available in the community. The results
of these protocols include inter-agency referrals of abuse victims, indicating
significant improvements in networking and mutual support of local state and nonstate actors in providing assistance to victims of abuse. Additionally, since the final
project year, the Memorandum of Cooperation with the Cantonal Hospital in Zenica
enables free medical care for victims of violence accommodated at Medica’s Shelter.
They are also entitled to free legal aid through negotiated cooperation with cantonal
authorities.
Since 2007 MEDICA provides counseling services within the Center for Social Care
premises, adding on to organizational sustainability, as well as its visibility in the local
community. This is a direct result of MEDICA’s executive director establishing and
coordinating the cross-sectoral working group focused on integrating MEDICA Zenica into
existing social and health protection institutions, as was planned in MEDICA’s new strategic
plan. As of June 2008, MEDICA’s therapist Nurka Babović became the director of Zenica’s
Center for Social Work, whose appointment by the City authorities should be viewed as yet
another unexpected positive result of MEDICA’s engagement in the community.
Finally, in September 2008, within direct assistance to battered women MEDICA established
a 24 hour SOS free telephone line, which received 38 calls in the first three months of its
operation. As of late November 2008, the Federation of B&H has a single free of charge
SOS line, with MEDICA’s line having become part of the federal SOS line.
2.3.2. MEDICA’s Educational Activities on GBV
In the first two years of project implementation, MEDICA focused on delivering workshops
to elementary and high-school students and their teachers, as well as the university
student population. In the three years, through support of this project as well as other
donors, MEDICA team delivered a total of 117 training sessions for children and youth (each
lasting for 1,5 hours). The educational activities reached out to 420 elementary-, 240
high-school students, and 85 higher education students. In addition, MEDICA held 35
training sessions for relevant professionals, including 20 workshops for high-school
teachers, 6 workshops for elementary school teachers and 11 workshops for social workers,
with 131 participants in total. The workshops were held in 5 municipalities in the ZenicaDoboj Canton and all participants were given a copy of the Manual “Gender-based
Violence”.
In the second project year, MEDICA decided to put a stronger emphasis on first-, secondand third-year students of the two universities in Zenica, studying pedagogy, Islamic
religion and social pedagogy. Based on the example from Belgrade, where AWC decided to
start working with future professionals most likely to deal with gender-based violence,
MEDICA team decided to try a similar approach. Unfortunately, the plans for starting the
peer-education project component have not been realized in the final project year, due to
MEDICA’s decision to focus more intensely on strengthening ties with community
institutions in order to ensure long-term sustainability, the relatively short period for
activities’ implementation in the final project year due to late transfer of funds within this
project and an extremely strenuous period for MEDICA’s staff in general during 2008, who
have for the most part been working without pay until August 2008, due to late approval
and transfer of funds from the grant received from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.
34
In the final project year, the education activities focused on employees of centers for
social work, who have been identified as crucial for appropriate and timely assistance to
victims of violence. To that effect, with the support of the cross-sectoral working group
members, especially those belonging to the Association of social workers, MEDICA designed
and delivered two training sessions for 34 social workers coming from 10 different cantonal
social care centers. The workshop topics included awareness-raising and prevention of
GBV, implementation of the Law on Social Protection, the effects of addictions on
relationships and development of partnership relations and a mixed model of social care
service provision. However, in order for GBV education activities for professionals to
reach a sustainable impact, there is a need for continued and more in-depth education,
and MEDICA needs to reach a decision on whether it wants to deliver these trainings, in
light of many other activities they are involved in. Perhaps a more sustainable
approach would be for MEDICA to conduct TOT for members of the Association of Social
workers, who could then train their colleagues in various social care centers at the
cantonal level continuously.
It should be noticed however, that MEDICA continued providing GBV education activities
to elementary and high-school students through the project funded by Save the
Children Norway and the U.S. Embassy, and that since the mid-term evaluation the
certificates for teachers attending the training are co-signed by the Pedagogical
Institute and are, according to the interview with the project coordinator, considered
relevant in teachers’ professional skill building and promotions. Furthermore, in the
final project year, collaboration with higher-education institutions was maintained by
means of accredited internship of students studying social pedagogy and elementary
education. At the time of the final evaluation three university students were conducting
their obligatory internship within MEDICA’s shelter.
Generally speaking, regarding GBV prevention activities carried out within this project by
MEDICA, despite their immediate usefulness for participants in terms of awareness raising,
but of a limited number of people, it is the evaluator’s opinion that their long-term impact
is questionable. This conclusion is based on the shortness of training events, limited
numbers of participants and scattered target groups. A more strategic approach to
education in GBV prevention would have enabled a more focused approach in terms of
target groups and thus enabled focused continuous education beyond basic awarenessraising. It is a pity in that sense that the peer-education activities of young people did not
take place, as planned at the time of mid-term evaluation, especially considering the
amount of efforts invested into building institutional ties with the Cantonal Pedagogical
Institute and the relevant higher-education institutions in the second project year.
2.3.3. MEDICA’s Advocacy and Media Activities
Part of MEDICA’s new strategic plan is the integration of MEDICA’s services into existent
institutionalized social and health protection units. To this effect, in 2007 MEDICA’s
executive director formed a working group with representatives of the municipality of
Zenica and Zenica’s Centre for Social Care, and managed to secure official Protocols of
Cooperation with both institutions. The group was later widened to include a
representative of the Federal Gender Centre. One of the first results of this cooperation
was the placement of MEDICA’s counseling unit in the premises of the Centre for Social
Care in Zenica, while at the same time the municipality has granted MEDICA a symbolic,
yet important donation, as a symbol of recognition of MEDICA’s work in Zenica and the
canton.
In the second project year, the working group in collaboration with the Federal Gender
Equality Agency organized the first round-table with 30 participants on the issue of
financing shelters for women. The round table was a success in terms of putting the topic
on the agenda, and recognition of the need for shelters and organizations such as MEDICA,
with expertise in providing support to abused women and children.
35
In 2008, most of the project activities focused on strengthening this cross-sectoral working
group, which currently includes representatives of the municipal and cantonal authorities,
cantonal centers for social work, and NGOs active in the area of social protection including
the association of social workers. MEDICA’s executive director has been coordinating the
working group that meets regularly at least once a month. According to the evaluation
interview with a WG member, MEDICA has succeeded in gathering representatives of all
relevant institutions, who have become actively engaged in assisting and providing
services to victims of abuse as well as working together to introduce policy changes
and best practices in institutionalized settings.
To that effect, the working group jointly developed the training agenda for representatives
of social work centers in dealing with victims of abuse, prepared a successful advocacy
strategy for securing cantonal support to MEDICA’s shelter and developed minimal
standards for shelters, whose final version was discussed and adopted at the round
table that took place in December 2008, with representatives of all relevant
institutions. The draft standards developed by the members of the working group were
key for the intended and secured inclusion in the budget of the Municipality and the
Canton. They were presented in December 2008, and supported by centers for social work,
social services and the police department, who issued a recommendation to the local
council and the Ze-Do cantonal authorities to adopt these standards, thus enabling
continuous financial support from the cantonal and municipal budgets.
Furthermore, the working group members were very active in ensuring MEDICA’s first ever
inclusion in the strategic document “Plan for the development of social protection in
Zenica Municipality 2009-2013”, while MEDICA’s experiences were significant during the
process of drafting the “Strategic plan on prevention of violence in family 2009-2010 for
FBiH”. A member of MEDICA’s working group from the Gender Centre of FBiH successfully
lobbied to ensure mEDICA’s engagement in this policy development working group.
Next steps include active working group engagement in the current process of changing the
Social Protection Act, with the aim of securing that safe-houses for battered women
become social protection institutions recognized as such in the law, while victims of abuse
become recognized as a social category eligible for support. Both the cantonal and the
municipality representatives have committed themselves to lobbying for the introduction
of these changes.
Zenica’s mayor was instrumental in securing cantonal support to MEDICA’s work, whose
outputs include a visit to MEDICA on the part of the Cantonal prime-minister and the
Cantonal Minister for social policy. The visit resulted in the cantonal donation of 14.000
KM for MEDICA’s urgent needs that were spent of CCTV security and repairs to the doors
and windows of the shelter. Additionally, and more importantly MEDICA has become part
of the cantonal budget for 2009, with 10.000 KM a month that will be transferred to
MEDICA, so that it can provide shelter to abuse victims as well as other services that
represent a build-up on the services provided by institutional actors, such as occupational
therapy and women’s economic empowerment. Finally, in 2008 the Ministry of Labor,
Social Policy and Refugees of FBiH provided financial support amounting to 30 000 KM for
the activities of the Safe house i.e. psycho-social support and economic empowerment.
The abovementioned tangible and very important results indicate MEDICA’s successful
integration into social services financed by the cantonal and municipal level
authorities, which is a direct result of timely organizational strategic planning session,
supported through this project in Year 1 of implementation. The changes in
organizational leadership and the focus on building institutional ties have resulted in
significant improvements in MEDICA’s sustainability prospects in the final year of
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project implementation, when compared to sustainability prospects at the time of the
mid-term evaluation.
MEDICA’s exposure in the media in the project implementation period was quite successful
– there were a total of 42 media outlets covering project activities of which 13 TV
appearances, 18 radio, 8 in print media and 3 mentions on different web pages. In the final
project year, according to the evaluation interview with the project coordinator, the
media have continued reporting on events that MEDICA organized and have been
additionally sensitized for appropriate media coverage of abuse stories, thanks to the
brochure that was produced specifically for journalists in the second project year. The
brochure contained the analysis of systematic monitoring of 7 Bosnian media in regards to
their treatment of gender-based violence, for number of articles related to gender-based
violence in each, type of violence reported on, place where violence occurred, victims of
violence, violators, and legal procedure.
MEDICA was also involved in organizing public events within the 16 Days Campaign, that
was simultaneously organized in 13 towns at the cantonal level. In the campaigns, MEDICA
distributed a total of 2000 leaflets and other promotional and informative materials.
Specifically for the 3rd project year, MEDICA printed 500 leaflets and 200 posters and was
able to negotiate recording a radio jingle for a symbolic amount of 30 KM. The jingle was
aired for free twice a day during the 16 days of the campaign on 4 local and cantonal radio
stations. The kick-off of this years campaign was symbolically named 5 minutes to 12, and
started by MEDICA’s kindergarden children handing out promotional materials against GBV
at a street stall in Zenica. The campaign kick-off was reported on the local TV station and
in the national daily “Oslobođenje”. At the evaluation meeting of the 2008 campaign
representatives of 22 women’s NGOs decided to support the intentions of one organization
to joint the European Women’s Lobby, which is a direct result of the final regional
conference held within the project (see below).
Media exposure and the media research project, organization of 4 different public
campaigns as well as the presentation of the research results on monitoring the
implementation of the Law against Violence in the Family contributed both to MEDICA’s
visibility, and its advocacy efforts. The analysis of the latter has confirmed that the Law
cannot be implemented, and the research findings and argumentation are currently used
by MEDICA’s executive director in her role as the working group member for
amendments to the Law against violence in the family, which is yet another indicator
of MEDICA’s successful positioning in the community and broader.
2.3.4. Outputs and Effects of the capacity building component on MEDICA
The organizational development support provided in the scope of this project has had a
vital impact on MEDICA’s sustainability, which has been put in question due to high
operative costs paralleled by the withdrawal of its core donors and uncertainties
regarding prospective changes in organizational leadership. The strategic planning that
took place in November 2006 resulted in a set of very difficult decisions that were carried
out in February 2007 about the restructuring of the organization’s costs and logistics,
without jeopardizing the core activities in provision of shelter, legal and psycho-social
support to women and children victims of violence. The timely and thorough
implementation of key decisions made at the strategic planning is greatly due to the
persistence and responsibility of the new leader of the organization who also acts as
the new project coordinator. She has managed to mobilize the entire MEDICA’s team to
create preconditions for MEDICA’s sustainable growth.
Through the strategic planning process MEDICA clarified it mission and decided to focus on
the development of the partnership model with public institutions, which proved
37
instrumental in securing public funding for the shelter, trauma recovery and rehabilitation
support to women and children survivors of violence, including victims of trafficking in
human beings.
Additionally, the restructuring has resulted in 50% reduction of operative costs through
several relocations of the core programs, including the shelter, based on the projected
savings in rent and maintenance costs. The shelter is now located in the same building
with occupational workshops for MEDICA’s clients and the management team. The health
services have been outsourced to public health institutions and MEDICA has negotiated free
space at the center for social work for its counseling program.
A direct consequence of the strategic planning, MEDICA now has a consolidated budget,
where resources from all grants are pulled together, and rather than employing people
for projects, staff devote a percentage of their working hours to each project where
their expertise is required, which represents an significant improvement in
organizational management. At the time of the final project evaluation, MEDICA’s
executive director stated that in the upcoming period MEDICA will need to assess the
implementation of the Strategic Plan so far, and most probably introduce some revisions,
primarily in the area of organizational management structure.
The capacity building grant for 2006 has enabled MEDICA to employ a lawyer who provided
legal assistance to women seeking counseling and/or shelter within MEDICA, as well as
handled MEDICA’s various legal administrative assignments, including numerous rental
contracts, while in 2008 it proved to be of crucial importance at the time of financial crisis
when it was precisely due to this grant component that MEDICA’s counseling services could
continue uninterrupted, despite the lack of resources for other programmatic areas.
In 2007, and in line with the strategic objective of developing an integrated, community
model of support to women victims of GBV, MEDICA invested a part of the small grant for
organizational capacity building into the formation of the coordination group, consisting of
representatives of key local institutions. This initial investment has during 2008
developed into a full partnership of all relevant local and cantonal institutions.
Improving external communications has been identified as another priority for MEDICA’s
sustainable growth, through successful fundraising and institutional partnerships. A part of
the organizational capacity building grant has been used to redesign MEDICA’s web page,
produce promotional material and purchase a digital camera for future PR purposes.
MEDICA’s staff also attended the regional seminar on communications’ strategy
development, which they found useful.
In the final project year, CARE has enabled tailored consultancy to MEDICA, through which
MEDICA produced the draft External Communications Strategy and was able to use the
developed key messages in the 2008 16 Days Campaign. The process of drafting this
strategy was however strenuous, and the project coordinator expressed recognition of the
fact that it would have been more useful for the whole process had MEDICA decided to
take time at a team retreat to develop the strategy, rather than having it done
simultaneously with all other everyday obligations. This should be bared in mind for all
future strategic documents development within MEDICA, especially for the upcoming
development of the Fundraising Strategy planned for 2009.
Through this project MEDICA has also completely redesigned its web-page, and although a
staff member has been trained in updating it, the web-page is still not used proactively
to promote MEDICA, which is assessed as a missed opportunity in terms of MEDICA’s
visibility beyond the local/cantonal level and internationally.
38
Finally, although MEDICA employs a total of 30 people, most are engaged in providing
direct assistance to victims of abuse or regular functioning of the shelter. At the same time
most management responsibility, meetings with stakeholders and donors, fundraising and
production of advocacy material is done by the executive manager, with some assistance
of staff members not directly involved in supporting victims of abuse and with limited
experience in project management. This is in our view an unsustainable practice with
potentially dangerous consequences for the organization should the executive director
leave her position for any reason. In that respect it is of utmost importance that the
strategic plan revision process addresses the issue of organizational management and
human resources needs in order to balance the number of staff managing projects with
the number of staff working directly with MEDICA’s clients.
As with the other two project partners, the technical assistance project component
provided MEDICA with the necessary office equipment as follows: two desktop computers
and one monitor, two lap-top computers, one scanner, one laser jet printer and USB
printer cable, one fax machine, three memory sticks and one mobile phone.
3.
Relevance and Effects of the Regional Dimension of the Project
The uniqueness of this project is its regional dimension which has accelerated the
exchange of ideas, knowledge and experiences among the three local partners, by
means of providing logistical support, finances and frameworks for joint meetings and
learning events. The three local partner organizations had already been familiar with each
other’s work on GBV, as they all have been active throughout the 1990’s when the feminist
solidarity and communication despite and across the nationalist and war divisions was
particularly dynamic. It must be noted that such opportunities have decreased in the
recent years, as international donors have moved away from programs in support of postconflict stabilization of the post-Yugoslav region towards socio-economic development and
EU accession more specific to each country in the region. At the same time, EU funding for
cross-regional programs between the three countries, especially for civil society projects is
still not fully in place.
An important asset to the successfulness of the regional cooperation has been CARE’s
project manager, Ms. Jadranka Milicevic, an experienced and renowned feminist peace
activist who is very familiar with the political and feminist context in each country and has
also served as an interface between the managerial logic of CARE as an international NGO
and the local partners.
The three local partners have appreciated the majority of regional trainings, which were
designed in line with their common needs. Some challenges arose due to different levels of
knowledge among the participants in the first training on gender mainstreaming. The
project has also enabled partners to attend each others’ public events, as was the case
with the AWC conference, held in June 2007, on the Austrian model of coordinated
community response to GBV. The series of public presentations of CESI’s research on GBV
in adolescent relationships held in November, 2007 in Sarajevo, Zenica and Belgrade is yet
another clear proof of the value added by the regional dimension of the project. The
study visit to Ireland organized in 2008 was appreciated by the partners, due to their
exposure to organizations who are actively engaged in similar types of work and who
provided useful tips on what challenges can be expected and how to overcome them.
Regional meetings were also found useful, as they ensured greater team cohesion, yet
their scheduling was difficult due to the busy activity plans of each partner. The regional
conferences organized in 2006 and 2007 have been assessed by the partners as the least
useful activity of the regional dimension of the project, as their preparation generated
misunderstandings among the partners and was not viewed as cost-effective, particularly
regarding the amount of time it took away from other core activities. The third regional
conference was much more satisfying to the participating partner organizations, as they
felt that they had much better control over the agenda, as well as sufficient time to
39
discuss among themselves the desired contents and outcomes of the final regional
conference.
3.1. Regional trainings and exchanges of best practice
Gender Mainstreaming
On October 5-6, 2006, the first regional training for project partners was organized, on the
topic of gender mainstreaming. The workshop leader was the prominent feminist theorist
and activist from Kosovo, Vjollca Krasniqi, who prepared an inspiring combination of
presentations and group exercises, opening the provocative issues such as opportunities
and dangers of gender mainstreaming in the transnational policy and advocacy context and
institutional responses and dominant discursive practices on women and violence and
women in development. The seminar encouraged self-reflection and exploration of
internalized concepts of gender and social intervention underlying the activism of each
participant and their organizations. In that sense, the seminar is an outstanding example of
bringing contemporary feminist theory “back home”, to the realities of the partners’
education and advocacy against gender based violence.
As such, the seminar was particularly useful to the participants with substantial prior
exposure to feminist theory and discussions that transgress the division between academic
and activist discourses. Due to the fact that the expected level of discussion was not clear
to all project partners, the workshop had to be adjusted to the participants with basic
knowledge of feminist theory, so the other participants, especially core staff from CESI and
AWC found their personal expectations unmet. A more clear communication of the seminar
objectives and relevance would have probably resulted in a more adept selection of
participants from all three partner organizations, i.e. their members and staff with already
profiled interest in feminist theory.
Educating Boys and Young Men on GBV
On April 29, 2007, CARE organized a workshop in Banjo Luka, B-H, “Engaging Men and Boys
in Reducing GBV” delivered by dr. Gary Barker, a renowned Brazilian expert and executive
director of Institute Promundo, at the occasion of his visit to another CARE’s project
“Western Balkan GBV Prevention Initiative – Boys and Young Men Project“ to which he is a
mentor. The synergy between the projects enabled the youth educators from CESI, AWC
and MEDICA to learn first hand about Promundo’s education methodology and several case
studies showing how effective links can be made between pop culture, participatory
campaign development, counseling and education in order to engage boys and young men
around sensitive issues of reproductive health, gender stereotypes and GBV, even in
communities and cultures where gender norms are rigid. The partners have been impressed
with Promundo’s education materials and cartoon video clips (“Once upon a Boy” and
“Once Upon a Girl”, based on interviews with Mexican and Brazilian youth) and would
appreciate if CARE, as Promundo’s associate, could acquire the copyright permission from
that would enable the partners to use and, if needed, translate the video clips and
handbooks for the purpose of their own education and advocacy work.
Developing Communications’ Strategy
On June 17-19, 2007, CARE organized another highly successful seminar, delivered by the
PR consultancy PUBLIKA from Sarajevo, with rich training contents and materials, covering
the critical topics for advocacy oriented NGOs – PR relations and media planning;
communication strategy development; planning public campaigns, as well as specific media
skills, such as TV interview. All project partners who attended the seminar found it
exceptionally professional and useful. All three organizations have expressed the need for
follow-up consultancy provided by PUBLIKA’s experts that would help them structure and
upgrade their communication plans and strategies. As described above, all three partners
have been offered and two have started developing their communications strategy in the
final project year.
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Regional Exchange on Peer Education
The highlight of regional exchange enabled by this project has been the training of peereducators in Serbia, provided by CESI to AWC, during July 2006. 20 students took part in
the training in order to be able to hold workshops on gender-based violence. CESI
representatives held one follow-up meeting with these trainees, and assessed that the
peer-educators are highly motivated, engaged and capable of conducting the training,
evidenced even by the development of their own material based on the material provided
by CESI during the first training session.
At the time of mid-term evaluations it was recommended that another regional exchange
between Serbian peer-educators and Zenica’s prospective peer-educators be organized.
However, as already stated this exchange did not take place due to MEDICA’s refocusing on
institutional ties building, and the consequential lack of time to be devoted to organizing
this exchange and providing the necessary follow-up support to the peer-educators.
Similarly, the regional exchange suggested in the scope of the mid-term evaluation,
between AWC and MEDICA’s therapeutic teams did not take place due to lack of time and
interest on the part of both organizations, given the short time-span for activities and cuts
in funding in the final project year.
Training on Case Study Development
Following the mid-term evaluation which resulted in the preparation of two case-studies
by the evaluators, presenting the intervention logic and impacts of CESI’s and AWC’s work
in their respective fields, the project partners suggested that it would be useful for them
to receive training on case-study methodology. The one-day training was held in February
2008, by Suzana Kunac, research and activist of the Croatian feminist NGO B.a.B.e., during
which the participants were exposed to key methodological issues, received copies of
additional finished case-studies as well as guidelines for the preparation of protocols for
case study development.
All partner organizations were assigned homework to be assessed by the trainer, including
her detailed feedback in writing. However, CESI was the only partner organization that
completed the homework, while AWC and MEDICA reported that the one-day training event
was very interesting and inspiring, but insufficient for them to successfully complete the
task, and that they needed additional training. Given the invested time and effort, as well
as finances for this training, the evaluators assess this as a missed opportunity for
organizational capacity building, since neither of the two organizations attempted to
complete the task. Had they tried and sent their work, the feedback from the trainer
might have provided them with the information they felt was lacking after the initial
training. At the same time, more pressure from the project manager on the organizations
to complete the tasks would probably also have had positive impacts, in terms of
completing this TA. A lesson learned from this experience is to plan the trainings to be at
least two-days long, to ensure adequate transfer and skills, beyond basic information. At
the same time, the project partners should find the necessary time for the training, even
though they are involved in implementing a multitude of other activities.
Study visit to Ireland
In the period February 02-10, 2008 the project partners went on a study visit to Ireland –
Dublin and Belfast where they visited 12 organizations and institutions dealing with issues
related to GBV, sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality. Each
partner organization sent two representatives and they were accompanied by the project
manager. Depending on the partner organizations’ main area of activities, different
meetings were assessed differently by individual partner organization’s representatives,
but overall, the usefulness of the visits in assessed by the partners as very or extremely
beneficial. In the final project year, this study visit was assessed as the most valuable
41
regional event, both in terms of new information and ideas obtained as well as for creating
stronger cohesion between project partners.
Similarly, the organization of the trip is assessed as mostly satisfying, although there were
issues regarding language barriers. Namely, although it was agreed at the partner’s
meeting in December 2007 that people taking part in the trip should have active
knowledge of English, due to inadequate resources to hire a translator, MEDICA’s two
representatives only had passive knowledge of English language, which prevented them
from full active participation in the meetings and forced other partner representatives to
act as ad hoc interpreters, which they somewhat resented. In the future CARE should
either ensure a professional interpreter or insist that participants have active knowledge of
the working language to be able to take part in the study visits, in order to avoid these
situations.
Regional meeting with Dubravka Šimonović, CEDAW chairperson
This final regional event of the project was organized on December 18, 2008, in order for
the project partners to gain insight into international legislation, mechanisms and
advocacy and lobbying opportunities at the level of CEDAW, of which Ms. Šimonović is the
current president, and at the level of Council of Europe, where Ms. Šimonović is the task
force member for CoE Policy on Violence against Women and Family Violence.
The evaluator was present at this highly valuable meeting, where project partners were
given the opportunity to ask very concrete questions in an informal setting regarding their
opportunities to influence local policies based on the obligations the of the treaty
member-states. Ms Šimonović provided a significant amount of very concrete suggestions
on where to concentrate their efforts in terms of international advocacy, especially in
following CEDAW’s recommendations and designing and conducting research activities that
would provide the missing statistical data, which the committee members can use as
argumentation for their recommendations to each of the member-states.
Informal feedback provided by the project partners after the event proves that they found
this meeting very interesting and very relevant to their future work, and this project
activity is assessed as on of the most efficient ones among the regional learning
opportunities.
The project manager is commended for investing efforts into ensuring this meeting of
project partners with such a highly positioned official in the international gender equality
mechanisms, especially since it should be viewed as a value added on the third regional
conference that dealt with GE mechanisms and lobbying at the level of Council of Europe,
which is described in more detail in the following section of the report.
Regional cooperation on other projects
As a direct result of partnership within this project, two other regional activities took
place in the final project year, with funding from other donors.
In May 2008, CESI held a 3-day training for 19 participants within the project “PASS IT
ON: capacity building and regional cooperation in the prevention of GBV” in Novi Sad,
Serbia. The project is funded by the Croatian National Foundation for Civil Society
Development, and in planning and organizing this training, CESI was supported by AWC,
who assisted in finding training participants and attempted to secure its peer educators to
present their experiences. Unfortunately, none of AWC’s peer-educators was able to
participate, although as already stated, AWC has been engaged subsequently to also
provide peer-education to the student population of Vojvodina. However, this regional
project has to an extent suffered the consequence of lack of clear communication among
project partners, since immediately after the CESI held training, and without CESI’s
awareness, the Vojvodina authorities announced the possibility to use the training
42
participants as providers of peer-education. AWC’s non-attendance could have had a
negative impact on AWC’s engagement by the authorities, which fortunately did not
happen. However, we would recommend that any future regional trainings taking place in
the home-country of other project partners be done in full partnership, to avoid although
unintended, potential negative consequences for project partners.
During 2008, MEDICA was able to secure funding from the US Embassy for the design of
a regional comparative research on the implementation of national policies against
violence in the family in B&H, Croatia and Serbia. MEDICA included AWC in the project
proposal, but again due to lack of clear communication among project partners, AWC was
unaware of this fact, prior to grant approval. Despite the surprise, AWC team has decided
to support MEDICA and conduct the research in Serbia. However, in future project
proposals we would recommend that potential project partners be consulted prior to
proposal development to avoid misunderstandings. In Croatia, the partnering organization
for this research is Center for Women Rosa, whose area of work is much closer to the
research topic, than that of CESI’s primary area of expertise. The research has been
completed in December 2008, and according to the final evaluation interviews, CARE
project manager has decided to financially support printing of this research.
The Regional meeting of women’s organizations “Sexual Violence – Overcoming
Institutional, Social and Personal Pain” was held on June 12-14, 2008 with Liz Kelly, a
prominent feminist expert and professor from London, with the goal to introduce regional
women’s organizations to international documents, statistics and trends in victim
protection including experiences in developing institutional support to survivors of sexual
violence. Since this was a larger gathering of women’s organizations from the region, it
was also used as an opportunity to exchange experiences in preventing sexual violence and
to discuss joint strategies for combating sexual violence in the region. Apart from the
three project partners, the meeting was attended by 10 other women’s organizations from
the region as well as, in the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina, representatives of the ministry of
interior of the Zenica-Doboj Canton and Zenica’s Centre for Social Work. The main
organizer of this regional event was AWC, together with Women’s Room from Zagreb
Croatia and CARE NWB.
3.2. Regional conferences
The project has envisioned the organization of three regional conferences, one per year,
with the function of serving as learning events where project partners and their associate
institutions would exchange best practices and dilemmas related to a specific aspect of
GBV prevention. The actual organization of the conferences was the responsibility of CARE,
while local partners were vital in formulating the program and identifying conference
presenters and participants. The planning of each of the regional conferences started
some six months ahead of the planned dates, through regional meetings and email
discussions.
The first conference, held in Donja Stubica, Croatia on November 10-12, 2006, brought
together 35 participants to discuss the governmental-NGO relations in the combat and
prevention of GBV. The second conference, held in Zenica, B-H in November 13-16, 2007,
focusing on education strategies in GBV prevention, brought together around 150
participants, with prevalent attendance of cantonal institutions and university students.
The third conference took place in Belgrade on November 5-7, 2008 and focused on Council
of Europe’s (CoE) Policies regarding violence against women, and lobbying mechanisms
within CoE.
All conferences were assessed as very useful by the majority of participants, especially due
to the opportunities to learn first-hand about the innovative projects and approaches
undertaken in other countries and towns.
43
Despite positive feedback from the participants, the evaluation has indicated that this
project component has been assessed as least useful by all project partners, including
CARE project manager, mostly due to the lack of clarity in the division of responsibilities s
among the partners as well as due to the workload the conferences have created on top of
the regular activities undertaken by each project partner. These challenges have to a
certain extent been overcome in the organization of the final conference, following the
mid-term evaluation and meetings held thereafter.
First Regional Conference - Donja Stubica, Croatia, November 10-12, 2006
The topic of the conference was “Governmental institutions and NGO’s – present practices
and experiences in work towards combating gender based violence” and it targeted
activists from partner NGOs, centers for social work and social care institutions from Serbia
and B-H, teachers and pedagogues from several Croatian high schools, the Pedagogical
institute Zenica as well as the government office for gender quality in Croatia.
The key topic was the provision of social protection to victims of GBV and organization of
GBV prevention by means of cross-sectoral community partnerships. An example that
stirred the participants’ interest was education of teachers in organizing school mediation
projects. Representatives of social institutions were particularly eager to learn about the
“social care management model”, relying on timely assessments of clients’ needs and
individualization of services, which is being implemented in the Tuzla Canton in B-H, in
partnership with the respective cantonal ministry and Save the Children UK. The
qualitative feedback provided by the participants’ points out to the usefulness of
illustrative practices and in-depth discussions on the challenges and benefits of crosssectoral cooperation.
At the partners’ evaluation meeting in December 2006, where the first year of the project
implementation was discussed, the main challenges related to the regional conference
were the imbalanced representation of different sectors and professionals from each
country and the belated finalization of the conference agenda, due to delays of the
speakers’ confirmations. The main conclusion was the partners’ agreement to start the
planning for the next year’s conference earlier.
Second Regional Conference - Zenica, B-H, November 2007
The conference “Role of Education in Combating Gender-Based Violence” took place on
November 13-16, 2007, in Zenica, with some 150 participants of whom approximately two
thirds were representatives of public institutions from Zenica-Doboj Canton, especially
from local centers for social work and the cantonal Institute of Pedagogy.
Zenica was selected in order to produce more visibility to MEDICA Zenica, one of the
project partners, with a longer-term goal to assist MEDICA in renegotiating its position with
local authorities, especially the Center for Social Care and the municipality. The
conference was envisioned as space for presentation of different approaches to GBV
prevention undertaken in B-H, Croatia and Serbia, both within formal and informal
educational contexts. In addition, national policies on gender equality were presented by
government officials, in order to provide the institutional context for specific educational
initiatives on GBV and gender equality. The majority of participants that evaluated the
conference have praised the opportunity to exchange best practices and ideas for future
activities, establish new contacts, and identify opportunities for cross-sectoral and
regional cooperation. It is the evaluators’ impression that the conference was the most
useful for placing the issue of GBV prevention on the cantonal policy agenda, which in
retrospect had a positive effect on MEDICA's future.
The participants’ evaluation, filled out by approx. 40% of all participants, indicated that
the conference topic was highly relevant, while the quality of discussions and small group
work as well as usefulness of conclusions and recommendations were very satisfactory.
Some challenges were encountered with the conference logistics, but the organizers’
helpfulness in resolving logistical problems was appreciated, especially in light of an
unexpectedly high number of participants, especially students who arrived unannounced.
44
On the other hand, interviews with project partners concerning the contents and results of
the conference differ significantly from those expressed in the evaluation papers. The
main problem was the apparent prevalence of the mainstream, institutional discourse on
violence against women, espoused by the Pedagogical Institute as well as representatives
of other academic institutions, which tended to reproduce prevalent gender stereotypes
and even, in some cases, very traditional, faith-based, anti-feminist values. The partners
were particularly worried about the influence that the Pedagogical Institute had on the
formulation of conference conclusions, hence having the opportunity to reduce their own
responsibility for potential challenges that need to be addressed in the future. However,
the motives of the Pedagogical Institute to get involved, as revealed in the interview with
its director, were to present its openness to various alternative education programs and
their willingness to co-operate in order to include gender-based violence and other
problematic issues in Bosnian society into extra-curricular activities in the schools of
Zenica-Doboj Canton.
Despite their dissatisfaction, none of the project partners used the opportunity at the
panel discussions to react to the perpetuations of gender-based stereotypes. Croatian and
Serbian partners stated they did not want to undermine MEDICA's position with one of their
main project partners, while MEDICA's representative retreated from commenting, having
expected moderator’s reactions. Despite these dissatisfactions, MEDICA’s project
coordinator had a general positive opinion of the conference, in the sense that it
publicized gender-based violence in their immediate surroundings, and provided her with
realistic insight into the local situation, where gender-based violence was perpetuated
even in some of the presentations during the conference itself.
The frustrations and misunderstandings, as explored in the evaluation interviews with all
project partners, have indicated a broader problem of the lack of clear partners’ sense of
identification and responsibility for this project component. It has become evident that
the partners lacked clarity and consensus on specific objectives of the conference, i.e.
whether its primary goal was (1) the establishment of contacts between the project and
relevant institutions in the Zenica-Doboj canton and the institutions’ exposure to the issue
of GBV prevention, of particular use to MEDICA only or (2) exchange of best practices in
institutional and non-institutional education programs in GBV prevention, which would
then expectedly give prominence to feminist- based curricula and organizations.
At the same time, the project manager faced a serious logistical challenge, as she did not
receive adequate logistical support from other CARE staff due to an unexpected time
collision with another event hosted by CARE. That situation, in turn, meant that both CARE
project manager and several MEDICA staff were primarily concerned with logistical issues
and had limited time to pay close attention to the process and dynamics among the
partners and at the conference in general.
Third regional conference – Belgrade, Serbia, November 2008
The third regional conference entitled “Violence against Women – impacting public
policies” was organized with the goal of enhancing the knowledge and experiences of NGO
members regarding CoE policies against violence against women and getting insights into
opportunities to use CoE policies to advocate for changes in national policies. The key note
speakers and the conference topics were agreed upon by all project partners at the
suggestion of AWC who co-hosted the conference together with CARE. It gathered some 45
representatives of NGOs from the three countries, whose feedback on the conference
results is presented below:
45
Attendee evaluations of the 3rd regional conference (N=35)
good
very good
excellent
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Need for such a
conference
Relevance of
presented topics
Quality and
usefulness of
working materials
Quality of
discussions
Usefulness and
applicability of
conference
conculsions
Attendee evaluation of the 3rd regional conference (N=35)
Mostly disagree
I cannot assess
Mostly agree
Completely agree
25
22
20
20
20
20
18
16
14
15
12
9
10
9
4
5
1
1
2
1
4
2
0
I understand the
The conference
importance of the
provided good insight
topic violence against
into mechanisms
w omen in CoE
w ithin CoE to
policies
influence member
states' policies
The conference
The conference
The presented results
enabled contacts enabled positioning of of the CoE campaign
w ith NGOs lobbying local WNGOs to lobby
against violence
at the EU level.
w ithin CoE
against w omen are
useful in planning
local campaigns.
The attendees for the most part appreciated having an opportunity to exchange
experiences and learn directly from people engaged in the Gender Equality Grouping of the
CoE, the European Women's Lobby as well as the Brazilian Instituto PROMUNDO, which
helped them demystify the organizations/institutions and to start thinking about ways to
use their country’s membership in the CoE to their advantage, in terms of advocating for
the adoption and implementation of policies and measures relevant at the EU and
international level.
The project partner representatives were also for the most part satisfied both with the
conference itself, and with its planning process, that took into account problems
encountered with the first two conferences. It therefore entailed timely and more detailed
discussion of the content, speakers and desired outcomes, as well as a much clearer
division of responsibilities in terms of organizing the conference, which resulted in much
less stress and frustration for the partners and the project manager herself. Project
partners were also satisfied that within the project the CoE Recommendations were
46
officially translated into local languages, which will help their advocacy efforts in the
future. The translation of the Recommendations as well as the conclusions of the
conference were distributed widely in all three countries to policy-makers and activists.
4. Project Management and Coordination among Project Partners
The project partners have found this project very useful, as it enabled them to expand and
enrich their core projects, as opposed to inventing new ones for the sake of donor’s
interest. The project has also enabled regional cooperation, which would have been
minimal, had it not been for this project.
The project partners also highly appreciate CARE’s flexibility in allowing them to spend the
organizational capacity building component of the grants as they best see fit and as the
needs arise (equipment purchase, production of promotional materials, education,
strategic planning, hiring new staff, etc.). They also appreciated the project managers
efforts into ensuring that additional technical equipment be purchased from the funds
stemming from differences in exchange rates in the final project year.
On the other hand, both the project manager and the partner organizations were surprised
by the fact that funding for the final year has been halved when compared to the second
project year, which entailed serious regrouping and rethinking of planned project
activities, and ensuring matching funds for more expensive activities (i.e CESI’s
Communications’ Strategy development). Another source of frustrations was the very late
transfer of funds for the final project year, which left only 8 months for the execution of
all planned activities in the final year. Thanks to the PM’s resourcefulness, she was able to
secure bridging funds, which were very important for the project coordinators’ positions in
AWC and MEDICA, but entailed writing an extra project proposal and report, which was an
additional administrative burden for the partners.
Following the mid-term evaluation recommendations, the regional meetings were in the
final project year held according to the fixed schedule, thus reducing the stress over
ensuring all partners’ availability, although MEDICA’s project manager missed some
important regional events because of other activities she had to handle at the time. This
caused some frustrations with other partners, who felt that occasionally issues that were
already agreed upon were reopened, due to unfamiliarity with the decisions on the part of
MEDICA’s substitute representative. This seems to be connected to the already discussed
weakness in the number of MEDICA’s project management staff, and needs to be addressed
in future projects.
The evaluators’ review of the financial report for the third year of the project confirms the
general impression of strong project focus on the local partners’ programming and
organizational needs that have accounted for some 62% of all budget expenditures, the
project coordinator’s salary and travel costs excluded, even though a great part of her
work was the organization of TA and regional exchanges of direct benefit to the local
partners. Financial support and instructions provided by CARE have been assessed as
satisfactory by all project partners, and vice versa, CARE’s financial manager has found the
project partners to be responsible and competent in accounting for their project costs.
Prudent financial management including using opportunities to save funds enabled the
project manager to provide the project partners with all necessary training and equipment
as well as cover the extra costs accrued in the project management component related to
financial, administrative and IT support to the project, due to significant changes in the
exchange rates, and the depreciation of the US dollar during 2008. Thus, the overspending
in the first budget category (staff) was successfully covered by the savings in the activities
category, and the overall spending of 99% of allocated funds testifies to successful
financial project management.
47
Even though the initial problems with the collision of partners’ project activities and
project reporting deadlines have been partially resolved, the evaluators’ impression from
the mid-term evaluation regarding the inappropriateness of reporting deadlines remains.
The reporting deadline for the partners remained December 15, which in practice meant
that they had to finish with all project activities in November. Since the transfer of funds
only happened in March, and July and August are traditionally months when no
stakeholders can be reached, the partners had only 7 effective months for activity
execution, with unexpected significant cuts in funding.
5. Recommendations
Given the overall successfulness of this regional project and partners’ general satisfaction
with the regional component of the project, the evaluator recommends continued regional
cooperation on issues of joint interest, but with clear expectations and timely transfer of
all relevant information to avoid misunderstandings and ensure both regional and nationallevel impacts of regional cooperation. One possible area of continued regional cooperation
is coordinated research and development of methodology relevant to monitoring the
implementation of CEDAW and CoE Policies on gender mainstreaming and GBV prevention.
5.1.
Recommendations to CARE NWB
It is recommended that CARE continues supporting regional projects focusing on research
and advocacy for GBV prevention, with parallel further organizational strengthening of
individual partners. In the latter component, CARE should maintain its appreciated flexible
approach to organizational capacity building components of projects, but should at the
same time apply a more stringent approach to the fulfillment of agreed-upon activities,
deadlines, and participation in events.
When it comes to project management CARE should invest efforts to align reporting
deadlines of partner organizations to the project time-table and allow for the production
of partner’s final reports after the project end date. At the same time CARE is encouraged
to minimize the amount of administrative obligations of partner organizations and allow
for yearly project proposal development and consolidated budgets, rather than activity
based proposals, budgets and financial reports.
Finally, in developing new proposals, CARE should ensure that all partner organizations are
included in the entire process of proposal development and informed of the negotiation
process with the donor to avoid discrepancies between the accepted project proposals and
the suggestions and proposals submitted by partner organizations.
5.2.
Recommendations to CESI
CESI is encouraged to provide further support in the form encouragement, TA and soft
counselling to those teachers (and students) who have expressed a desire to get involved in
peer-education, as such involvement would further support CESI’s complementary projects
funded by other sources, and would pose little additional strain on the project team with
potentially very high impacts. The project team should carefully examine the expressed
needs for further support and take them into account in further programming. For those
activities that fall outside the areas of CESI’s regular support provision, we recommend
that the information be transferred and contacts exchanged among CESI’s wide range of
cooperating organizations and institutions and the teachers, to ensure their continued
involvement in GBV prevention among adolescents.
In terms of research, the evaluator recommends fundraising from Croatian national level
institutions for longitudinal research on teen dating violence in Croatia and international
fundraising in partnerships with research and academic institutions, such as the
48
departments of sociology in Croatian universities, for additional research design covering
other aspects of gender based violence and prevention in adolescent relationships.
When it comes to advocacy, CESI should continue with its advocacy activities since the
current situation in Croatia does not provide enough evidence that systematic,
scientifically based sexuality education will be implemented throughout the education
system in the short- to medium-term. Strong advocacy with sound argumentation at both
the national and probably more importantly international levels (taken into account the EU
accession process) could yield positive results in that respect.
5.3.
Recommendations to AWC
AWC is encouraged to continue supporting and mentoring peer-educators and other
interested youth/student organizations enthusiastic about continuing with GBV prevention
activities. In that respect the evaluator suggests rethinking the decision to drop peereducation component of the program. Given its results, it should be redesigned according
to lessons learned from this project and attempts should be made into getting the
accreditation for the peer-education program. In that sense, AWC should use the
possibilities offered by the Implementation plan of the Serbian National Youth Strategy.
AWC is also encouraged to invest additional efforts into producing and presenting the final
research report on obligatiry university literature in relation to gender issues, themes and
their value-orientation. The combined findings of the research and CoE Recommendation
on gender mainstreaming in education are in the evaluator’s opinion strong tools for
influencing the desired systemic changes in the Serbian higher education policy. These
efforts can further be strengthened by involving the trained peer-educators and the
supported association of student’s with disabilities.
In terms of organizational management, AWC should address issues of inter-program
relationships and the use of common resources within the Center to remove obstacles to
the development of an overall organizational communications strategy. Additionally, since
AWC has reported on the fulfillment of its Strategic plan, the evaluator suggests that AWC
holds another strategic planning session for the upcoming three years, in light of changed
political and organizational circumstances.
5.4.
Recommendations to MEDICA
Given MEDICA’s newly acquired strong position in relevant policy-making circles at the
level of the Zenica-Doboj canton, the evaluator recommends continued coordinating and
possible expansion of the local cross-sectoral working group to ensure MEDICA’s fullest
possible integration into social service providers at the cantonal level. Additionally,
MEDICA and the WG members should design a strategy to promote the working group
beyond the cantonal boundaries in an attempt to replicate the successful model in other
parts of B-H.
In the process of revising the strategic plan MEDICA should examine the issue of its
organizational and project management capacities and human resources needs in order for
a higher number of staff members to be able to respond to the increased advocacy and
lobbying needs, as a result of MEDICA’s much stronger position among the policy-making
actors.
Regarding MEDICA’s GBV prevention education activities, the evaluator recommends
rethinking this programmatic area, to ensure more longer-term impacts of education
activities on target groups, beyond basic awareness-raising. A starting point could be the
intended ex-post inquiry into attitudes and knowledge of students who took part in
MEDICA’s GBV prevention education activities in the past three years.
49