Funder: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
The goal of the GEARI project is to assist CIDA’s key African partner institutions to integrate gender equality into the planning, implementation, monitoring and analysis of their policies and programs
In March 2007 FIT, in partnership with the Centre d’étude et de coopération internationale (CECI) in Montréal, signed a contract with CIDA to conduct gender mainstreaming work with four regional institutions in Africa: the Forum for Agricultural Research (FARA) in Accra, Ghana; the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) in Entebbe, Uganda; L’Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel (OSS) in Tunis, Tunisia; and the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
During the course of the Project, a team of Canadian and African gender specialists have provided technical support and training to guide these institutions in a gendered analysis of their structures and systems and identify pertinent issues to be addressed through detailed gender audits. These gender audits led to the development of institution-specific action plans and a program of capacity building through which each targeted institution will gain knowledge and skills that enable them to implement their own action plans.
This Project, which has encouraged local ownership from the outset in order to institutionalize gender-based analysis and gender equality results in these major African regional organizations, represents an exciting opportunity to contribute to the empowerment of women at national and societal levels.