Background

The Regional Working Group on Gender (RWGG) was created during the 1999 Regional Partners’ Meeting held in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The RWGG is then mandated to spearhead the following:

�� Increase gender awareness among tdh partners in SEA
� Find ways to mainstream gender in tdh supported projects and partner networks
�Monitor developments on gender issues and disseminate these to partners;
�Plan common projects promoting gender sensitivity and gender equity.

After its creation, several milestones were achieved at different levels in each country. Since the inception of the gender working group in 1997, it considered the following as its achievements:

• Gender Sensitivity Training Workshops were conducted for tdh partners in several countries: Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Detailed documentations of these training workshops are available in English.
• Regional Training Workshop on Gender Planning and Monitoring Indicators was done for country focal points, selected partners, and regional coordination staff on 26-30 May 2003 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Project evaluations from a gender perspective were conducted by woman evaluators in 6 countries, namely, Santi Sena in Cambodia; Community Development Support in Don Duong District, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam; Hilltribes Area Development Foundation in Thailand; Taman Kebajikan/KKSP in Indonesia; Fahwiang project in the Thai-Burma border; and the Bathaluman Crisis Center Foundation in the Philippines.

The evaluations were able to identify the different initiatives of the different tdh partners in mainstreaming gender in their specific work as developmental organizations. Specific recommendations were carried out in the following meetings of the gender working group. These are as follows:

1) further gender integration in projects;
2) systematic data-gathering on women's health, diversity and development;
3) increase capacity of women to implement livelihood projects; and
4) take part in the campaign on Globalization, Children’s Rights and
biodiversity, and ensure that it takes on a gender perspective

It was at the Regional Working Group on Gender (RWGG) Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 18-19 November 2005 that the body came up with a regional plan taking into consideration the highlight and gaps presented in each country report. To make the plans achievable, the body came up with the following objectives and action plans for another period of 2 years.

At the country level, tdh partners implemented trainings, information and education and advocacy activities that are gender-related. However, while these efforts on gender-related activities are on going there is still a need to continue the work of the RWG on Gender to further enhance the gender perspective and mainstreaming of tdh partners in Southeast Asia. There are valuable experiences of the partners in their work on gender mainstreaming that are worth sharing with other partners, which the proposed project would like to do. Another important aspect of the proposed project is to elevate gender concepts and perspectives into the policies of tdh from the regional down to the country level. In concrete, gender policy papers of tdh will be translated into concrete actions at the project level.

OBJECTIVES

Long-term objective:

Gender policies and guidelines are mainstreamed in all tdh-supported projects in SEA by 2009.
At the end of the 2-year project, the following results will be realized:

�Culturally appropriate gender indicators identified, adopted by National Partners Meeting and applied.
�Gender Training/Workshops with children oriented conducted in the region and in each country in SEA by local resource persons/trainers
�Good/best practices on gender mainstreaming in each country published
�Gender training modules are made available to partners and networks
�� Gender mainstreaming process monitored and assessed

ACTIVITIES

1. Draft Project Proposal
The task to draft the proposal is given to the regional convener and circulates it to the GWGG for comments and suggestions before submission to tdh-g. Bases for drafting the proposal will be the proceedings of the RWGG meeting in Cambodia held on November 18-19, 2005. The drafting and finalization of the proposal is expected to finish in early 2007 considering that communication with other members of the gender working group and country focal persons takes time.

2. Establish e-group
This concept surfaced given the fact that there are many worthwhile activities done in each country related to gender mainstreaming and good practices on gender that stack in their files. The e-group will also serves as online information center on gender among Southeast Asia partners of tdh. Rene Budiongan of NETSCO in the Philippines agreed to lead in the construction and supervision of the e-group. This project will start in June 2007.

3. Organize regional workshop
The regional workshop on gender aims to come up with a culturally appropriate guidelines and indicators on gender among partners in South East Asia. It is expected that the results of this workshop will be presented in each country’s Partners Meeting for discussion and hopefully it will be accepted and get a mandate for implementation.

Gender focal persons from Burma, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam and Philippines will participate in the workshop which will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in the second quarter of 2007. Two resource persons with a wide range of experiences on gender, long-standing experience working with various groups on gender and a grasp of the diverse cultures in the region will be invited. The focal persons from Thailand and Burma accepted the task to organize this workshop. Their tasks include organizing venue, contacting resource persons, facilitating travel arrangements of participants within Thailand. Administrative aspects of the training like disbursements and reimbursements are also among their tasks.

4. Gather & circulate gender modules
The main concern of this component is to make use of the existing gender modules of the partners from the region. Each country has its own pace on gender mainstreaming based in its own context. However, experiences of other partners can be a good reference.

5. Document good/best practices
This activity aims to document, package and make available the strategies, methods and mechanism of the partners in pursuing their works with gender perspective. The RWGG has identified partners whose good practices on gender be documented. For the first year, LESSAN
agreed to document their work on gender. By the second year of the project, the Philippine partners specifically Bathaluman, METSA and WATCH agreed to start the process of documenting their best or good practices in their work on gender mainstreaming. During the meeting of the regional working group on gender scheduled in November 2006, it is expected that other countries – Burma, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam could submit names of NGOs or organizations whose experiences on gender are worth documenting.

Each country is tasked to hire a competent person who has a comprehensive understanding of gender issues and concerns of the country and who will put together the experiences of the identified NGOs or organizations. Documentation of good practices in each country will be printed individually. Copies will be placed at all tdh country offices and be made available to partners and networks who are interested.

6. Organize and conduct country trainings
Within two years, each country has defined specific training for the country partners. These are the following:

1. TOT on Mainstreaming Gender in Women and Children’s Work (Cambodia) – Qrt 3 of 2007
2. Training on M&E of Projects with Gender Perspective (Indonesia) – Qrt 3 of 2007
3. Skills training on counseling for abused women (Burma) Qrt 3 of 2007
4. Gender and Globalization – Philippines –Qrt 4 of 2007
5. Training on guidelines and skills in gender integration (Vietnam) Qrt 4 of 2007
6. Training on policy advocacy of gender on national level (Thailand) – Qrt 1 of 2008