Advocacy is one of the segments during the prevention of violence, this is the theme of the newsletter of the Fund "Sukhumi" in August.
The word "advocacy" comes from the word "advocare" and means "call for change, their support."
As the publication states, advocacy is: to activity protect one's own and others' interests, actions in order to achieve change, influence public opinion, unite, support for implementation of changes
There are cases of successful and unsuccessful advocacy in the publication. There are also tips on what you should know before the start of the campaign.
The bulletin is published in the framework of the project "Strengthening of Women's Rights in Western Georgia".
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt – Evangelischer Entwicklunsdienst (Germany)
When fund "Sukhumi” started to work on the stories of women peacemakers within the framework of Georgian-Abkhaz women’s joint peacemaking project, we were not fully aware how to form it. One thing we knew for sure – they would not be dry and impersonal stories about women and women’s organizations fighting for peace. Our main target was not only the provision of information, but also the motivation of new women groups to increase the rows of peacemakers.
As it turned out, there are numerous examples of confrontations, bloodshed and destruction. We see split-up societies, millions of refugee families. It is rather hard to find true life stories of women behind the dry reports of historians, Human Rights’ Defenders, and International Institution.
Gradually, we started collecting the stories.
The first one was the story of Malala Yusufzai- a girl from Pakistan, whom Thalibs tried to kill because of her thirst to freedom.
Then there was Sharm Thong from Burma – a sixteen year-old girl, whose evaluations were heard from the high UN tribune by the world authorities.
Mother Hawa from Galkayo was an ardent defender of refugee women.
Visaka Dharmadasa, whose story might be Familiar to mother, who lost their kids.
. . . And other names, who were defined by the one of the authors as "women, fighting until their last breath”.
This collection consists of only eight stories, different eight problems, faced by women of different age, social status, and race.
Our beneficiaries, groups of refugee women, had the possibility of getting acquainted with the collected stories. At one of our meetings, the oldest participant lady expressed the common idea, "Today I made sure that women all over the world are united by the similar problems. I have seen myself in these stories many times-I recognized my pain, my dreams. Honestly I felt envious toward the women who are brave, so true to their own nation.”
We hope that this spirit will be shared by those, who will read our collection of stories. It is only the first collection of women-peacemakers stories that will be enriched with new names and experiences.
In April-May 2016 together with Gender Advisory Councils of Kutaisi, Senaki and Ozurgeti, fund “Sukhumi” conducted a research of gender needs of local civil groups. The research revealed vivid needs of IDPs, socially unprotected people, single mothers and mothers of many children, women entrepreneurs, youth and representatives of ethnical minorities.
Suggestions, elaborated as a result of work with target groups by the specialists of the field and the experts, will be envisaged by the GACs, in order to submit package of recommendations to the local government. Experience of the previous years shows, that this process will promote to formation of local budget with gender parameters.
The first stage of the multicomponent research conducted within the framework of the project “Learning from Visegrad 4 Experience to Advocate for Equal, Inclusive and Democratic Local Governance” has been completed. Four experts from Georgia were involved in the research (the project is aimed at advocating for equal, inclusive and democratic local governance based on the best practices of the Europe countries).
Experts have submitted drafts of their themes. These are four independent themes relating different aspects of gender policy. After the completion of the research, there will be developed a policy strategy focused on the implementation of local governance reform and gender mainstreaming, which will be published and offered to society.
The project is implemented with the support of the Visegrad Fund
The aim of gender aspect analysis of the municipal budget, is the definition and presentation of the existing social problems and how social justice and gender equality are satisfied at the local level, how is ensured the availability of existing resources for all groups of society.
In the presented reports there is given the investigation / analysis of the municipal budget and local gender policies of Kutaisi, Senaki and Ozurgeti municipalities, envisaging gender parameters.