EFI-Support political transition in Syria with gender-sensitive social reconstru

The program Supporting political transition in Syria through gender-sensitive social reconstruction continued to target Syrian activists in 2023, especially those residing inside Syria. EFI provided platforms and spaces for Syrian partners aiming at enhancing their discourse and advocacy initiatives, their internal organizational operations and strategies, as well as widening their networking and maintaining channels of communication with relevant decision makers and international stakeholders. EFI actively supported the strengthening of partnerships, collaborations, and alliances and facilitated the inclusion of multiple actors and young activists in the promotion of gender equality and womens rights in Syria. The objective that violence against women and girls (WAVG) and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) are better addressed and womens participation in decision making, peace and national reconciliation processes is promoted, will according to EFIs Theory of Change (ToC) be achieved by (1) ensuring Womens Rights CSOs and Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) have knowledge and skills to combat VAWG as a major barrier to womens participation at all levels of decision making, peace, and constitution building, and by (2) enhancing networking and synergies among Womens Rights and Human Rights CSOs, and by ensuring civil society is unified behind VAW common agenda and Women, Peace, and Security. During 2023, the knowledge and skills of 60 Syrian activists (45 women/16 men) from 39 WROs or CBOs representing different geographies have been trained on VAWG and SRHR, and the knowledge gained or enhanced has been used to hold 50 awareness raising sessions on reproductive health in two regions in Northern Aleppo, reaching 1021 women. The sessions were also accompanied with a distribution of brochures on SRHR which discussed topics such as birth control and breastfeeding. The Common Agenda for Combating Violence Against Women and Girls as a Major Barries to Womens Participation, developed by EFI together with 250 Syrian activists, gender, and legal experts from over 100 organizations and initiative during 2021, is used as the basis for unifying and connecting the Syrian civil society. During 2023, EFI engaged 83 activists (69 women/14 men), increasing their knowledge about the Common Agenda and its content, having them endorse it and using it as a basis for their future work. The recommendations from the Common Agenda have been used as a basis for advocacy work during the year and presented at the Ministerial Meeting at the Brussels conference. The objective of strengthening institutional capacities of CSOs and that provision of thematic knowledge is structured, is supposed to be reached by (1) strengthening the internal structures of WR and HR organizations and contributing to their sustainability and wider outreach, and by (2) contributing to increasing the access for activists, including youth, to comprehensive, structured knowledge in womens and gender issues. In 2023, 68 activists (52 women/16 men) from 34 organizations were trained on governance and MEAL, of which 17 of the participants then trained CBOs within their networks. Through sub-grants, EFIs partners have actively worked on enhancing their internal governance structure and internal capacity, focusing on developing skills related to sexual and reproductive rights and violence against women. Furthermore, they have implemented 33 projects, focusing on prevention of VAWG, promoting womens political participation, addressing gender sensitive legislation, offering psycho-social sessions and legal consultations, creating advocacy actions combating VAWG etc. The partners worked towards building the capacity of Syrian CBOs as well as supporting individual women and girls. They fostered sustainable partnerships and published research material to serve as resource for young activists interested in womens rights and gender equality. Throughout 2023, the partners developed and shared 39 advocacy tools, such as the research report The Impact of Economic Empowerment Projects on Womens Economic Independence. During 2023, EFI has continued to coach all program partners through 148 sessions, to improve their internal financial procedure and reporting. During 2023, 88 women activists from 52 organizations graduated from the Feminist School and EFI offered internship opportunities for 3 young activists. During the year, the EFI founded digital platform Syrian Feminist Platform (sfplatform.org) increased its resources available with 692 publications, articles and posts, attracting a robust online community with 16 150 unique visitors. The aim of the platform is to foster collaboration within the Syrian feminist and womens rights community, and comprises 28 Syrian womens rights and feminist organizations, using it as a hub for knowledge exchange and support. The objective to promote inclusive democratic change through fostering sensitive legal and policy changes and womens rights advancements, is to be achieved by (1) civil society addressing gender based discrimination in the personal status law, and preparing a comprehensive legal framework curbing VAWG, and by (2) developing advocacy actions and follow up tools. In 2023, EFI and their partner drafted the policy paper The Urgent Need for a Comprehensive Legal Framework to Combat Violence in Syria and launched a media campaign on it, mobilizing a wide network or WR and HR activists, media and academics. The campaign reached 11 466 734 individuals (75% men) all over social media. The campaign successfully shed light on discrimination against women and girls in Syrias legal system, and contributed to ongoing advocacy for legislative changes, showcasing collaborative efforts with partner organizations in implementing local initiative. The policy paper was used in advocacy efforts to local decision makers that are currently drafting the Syrian family protection law, and disseminated the paper to more than 400 people at a launching event, including to international stakeholders, activists and lawyers inside and outside of Syria. During the previous year, 4 of EFIs partners focused their activities on gender sensitive legislation and the need for legal amendments to combat VAWG and 57 activists (31 women/26 men) from 18 other organizations endorsed legal amendments and supported the issuing of a law to protect women and girls from violence. In 2023, EFI and partners disseminated 4791 copies of 15 advocacy tools that have been previously produced and 2 new tools that have been produced in 2023. Furthermore, 5 of EFIs partners have used the advocacy tools to create their own training material and train other activists on these tools. For example, 25 activists (15 women/10 men) from 12 organizations were trained on the handbook ABC for Gender Sensitive Legislation.

The overall objective of the intervention is to contribute to inclusive gender-sensitive peace-building and social reconstruction process in Syria. The specific objectives of the intervention that are intended to be achieved at the end of the intervention are the following: - Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Conflict Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) are better addressed and women’s participation in decision making, peace and national reconciliation processes is promoted; -Institutional capacities of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are strengthened and provision of thematic knowledge is structured; -Inclusive democratic change is promoted through fostering gender sensitive legal and policy changes and WR advancement.