The Journey Through Transition: Stories of Women-Led Change in the Middle East and North Africa
Oman
This project was funded, in part, through the Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) under Cooperative Agreement number S-NEAPI-10-CA-297. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the Author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of State. MEPI partners with local civil society organizations, community leaders, youth and women activists, and private sector groups to advance their reform efforts in 18 countries and territories. MEPI’s approach is bottom-up and grassroots, responding directly to local interests and needs. In the wake of the Arab Spring, MEPI has significantly increased support to countries undergoing democratic transitions – supporting free and fair elections, the expansion of civil society, and a greater voice for citizens in shaping their political, economic, and legal systems.
The Journey Through Transition: Stories of Women-Led Change in the Middle East and North Africa
Dea r Reader, It is with great pleasure that I introduce the Policy Advocates for Women’s Issues in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) case studies on behalf of Vital Voices Global Partnership. This set of case studies shows the impact of women’s leadership on their communities during a time of unprecedented transition. We know that a country cannot prosper if half its population is not enlisted in its development. These studies demonstrate women’s contributions and represent their ongoing commitment to jointly shape the future of their countries. The following five stories document advocacy campaigns that were part of the twoyear Policy Advocates program, which was supported by the U.S. Department of State Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). This program was launched just days after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, one of the many milestones of the Arab Spring, and continued throughout one of the most important transitional periods in the region, concluding in October 2012. Working with women leaders, and men, in MENA during this historic time of uncertainty has lent Vital Voices a distinct perspective on the nuances of the region’s social, political, and economic shifts and women’s role in navigating this new landscape to advance specific objectives for their communities. These case studies share the best practices and lessons that emerged from dynamic advocacy campaigns. We hope that they will provide insight into the contribution of women in the region and demonstrate the importance of empowering women leaders. With Vital Voices’ continued support, these women, and others like them all over the world, have a huge impact on their community, their country, and on future generations of women leaders. Empowering women as leaders is a fundamental and strategic value of Vital Voices. These five stories provide evidence of the real outcomes that come from investing in women leaders who improve their societies, and ultimately our world. Sincerely,
Alyse Nelson President & CEO Vital Voices Global Partnership
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The Journey Through Transition: Stories of Women-Led Change in the Middle East and North Africa
Introducing “A Journ ey Through Transition” When Vital Voices first began implementation of the Policy Advocates for Women’s Issues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region program in the fall of 2010, the umbrella program under which each of these country projects took place, the world was a very different place than it is today. In August of 2010, governments throughout the MENA region still stood strong. There was no such thing as the Arab Spring, and the advocacy project that was just being launched was formulated with that political environment in mind.
Little did anyone know that in December 2010 the region would embark on one of the most important journeys in history. At Vital Voices, the MENA team was glued to their computers, watching the news, talking to people on the ground, and trying to navigate this new world; the team knew these events would have a huge impact on their work forever. Eight days after the fall of President Mubarak in Egypt, on February 20, 2012, Vital Voices convened 40 women and men from ten countries across the MENA region in Amman, Jordan to launch the project. These participants, selected through an open application process and selected through a careful process to bring together civil society, business, and the government, came together to receive training on advocacy skills, leadership, and media. They learned from one another, and developed plans to implement advocacy projects in their own countries based on issues they identified as critical for women in their communities. Teams from Yemen were inspired by the stories of the Egyptian delegation, and everyone solemnly acknowledged the inability of the Bahraini delegation to leave their country. It was a time of great uncertainty and an opportunity to embrace a new future. Over the last two years, Vital Voices has worked closely with each of the country delegations to strategically plan and implement their advocacy campaigns. Each team targeted a critical issue affecting women in their countries, identified its solution, and collaborated to make that solution a reality. With the technical and financial support of Vital Voices and US Department of State Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), each of the country teams embarked on their own journey to make change in their communities. These case studies tell the stories of each of those teams, highlighting the unique political and social implications within the MENA region and showcasing the amazing achievements, as well as the real challenges, each team has faced. The stories contained within are the stories of women and the impact they can have.
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The Journey Through Transition: Stories of Women-Led Change in the Middle East and North Africa
About the Policy Advocates for Women’s Issues in the MENA Region program
The Policy Advocates for Women’s Issues in the MENA Region program convened representatives of the public and private sectors and civil society to embark on campaigns to improve the lives of women in their home countries. The program included teams from Tunisia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and the UAE, which received training on advocacy, teambuilding, social media and program management. This training empowered teams to develop action plans for advocacy on women’s issues. Each campaign was unique; teams independently created campaigns that affected policy, procedural or legislative decisions in their home countries, based on the issues they identified as crucial for women in their communities. Drawing on the present atmosphere of change in the Middle East and North Africa, the campaigns emphasized the critical roles that women play in the creation of a new future for the region.
About Vital Voices Global Partnership
Vital Voices Global Partnership (Vital Voices) is a preeminent international non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to improving the political, economic and social status of women. It began as the U.S. government’s successful Vital Voices Democracy Initiative, established in 1997 by then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to promote the advancement of women as a U.S. foreign policy goal. In 2000, Vital Voices became an independent organization. Vital Voices identifies, trains, and empowers emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe, enabling them to create a better world for us all. The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has local Vital Voices chapters in 15 countries around the world. Our international staff and team of over 1,000 partners, pro bono experts and leaders, including senior government, corporate, and NGO executives, have trained and mentored more than 100,000 emerging women leaders from over 144 countries in Asia, Africa, Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East since 1997. Our Global Leadership Network consists of 12,000 members who in turn impact additional women, men, and children in their communities. Vital Voices has worked in the MENA region for more than eleven years and has built extensive networks and partnerships with local business leaders, civil society organizations, judges, lawyers, educational institutions, and individual leaders. Vital Voices has worked to build the capacity, connections, and credibility of women in the region for political participation, economic development, public-private partnership, and business entrepreneurship.
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The Journey Through Transition: Stories of Women-Led Change in the Middle East and North Africa
Oman Initial work to recruit participants from Oman was difficult, with only a few individuals applying through the open application process. As a result, in late 2010 Vital Voices initiated a hands-on recruitment process, reaching out to local organizations, businesses and contacts of contacts to identify a number of women who were willing and able to attend the Vital Voices Advocacy Workshop in Amman, Jordan in February 2011. After about a month of extended outreach, Vital Voices selected five women, all scheduled to attend. However, last minute cancellations led to a group of only three women coming to Jordan.
Prior to the workshop, members of the team were introduced to each other. Since several of them worked for a bank in Oman, they decided to pursue a project with their employer to promote women as managers in the company. Their project would provide training and support for women’s promotion within the bank and as managers in general. The team noted that many women in the bank worked at entry-level positions and faced several other barriers to promotion, including lack of training, less confidence than men in promoting themselves as good candidates, and upper management overlooking women as potential managers. Back in Oman, the entire team, including the members that could not attend the workshop, put together a formal request to the bank outlining their project, the resources they would need from the bank and requesting permission to work within their office to promote women’s ability to progress into management positions. After submitting the letter, the team waited patiently for weeks for what they expected to be a positive reply. Instead, they received a verbal denial and were told that they could not pursue the project. They were not told why the project had been denied.
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Having put tremendous effort into their initial project, and feeling disappointed with the refusal they received, several of the participants decided not to pursue advocacy work and simply dropped out of the program. After months passed, only one team member was still interested in pursuing an advocacy project. She engaged with Vital Voices staff to think of possible program activities, but was unable to see another project come to fruition. To help work through the challenges faced by the local team, Vital Voices staff decided to travel to Oman to better understand the environment the team was encountering. Vital Voices met with a well-known figure in Oman, who was also running for the upcoming Majlis al-Shura elections in the fall of 2011 and was ebullient and spoke of the great possibilities of collaboration with government officials and the establishment of the country’s first think tank, Tawasul. Working with Vital Voices staff, he helped formulate a potential new project to work with government officials to provide training to government staff members on gender sensitivity while drafting legislation. With a new project in hand, and potential new partners, Vital Voices
The Journey Through Transition: Stories of Women-Led Change in the Middle East and North Africa
staff continued to meet with local civil society members to vet the new project idea and to get more perspective on the challenges being faced by local organizations. It was only after many meetings and post-meeting debriefs that Vital Voices was truly able to discern the reasons why participants faced such difficulty working in the country. One of the most important factors seemed to be the popularity of the government and a general belief that Oman does not face issues or problems where advocacy is needed. After leaving Oman, Vital Voices staff continued to reach out to the potential new partners on the project outlined while in Muscat. However, soon after staff returned to the US, the team in Oman became less and less responsive. Vital Voices engaged a consultant on the ground who tried to engage the team to no avail. It became clear within a few weeks that the project so rapidly and optimistically planned out would not come to fruition. In order to move forward and explore additional options for the project, Vital Voices took the lead in seeking out possible new partnerships, while continuing to engage and consult local contacts throughout the process. With a sizeable investment of money, time and effort already made, Vital Voices, in collaboration with MEPI, made the decision to continue efforts to implement a project in Oman. However, as time crept on, more barriers presented themselves. News emerged of a new procedure stating that in order for a local NGO to receive foreign funding, it was required to get the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Social Development. These approvals are difficult to obtain and rarely given, according to local sources. Despite these barriers, Vital Voices and the consultant pushed forward, trying to find a way to support the team to engage in some sort of
advocacy work. Several participants were interested in pursuing women’s economic empowerment work, and so the consultant began to explore related project options. When Vital Voices staff visited again in October 2011, several participants and the consultant discussed the possibility of establishing an online forum where women could sell their goods while also providing a platform to share real stories to advocate for women’s economic advancement. The team, along with the consultant, continued to develop a project for the women’s crafts online marketplace, but the project continued to drift further away from advocacy activities. In another attempt to revive an advocacy project, Vital Voices and the consultant contacted a local think tank to either jointly sponsor an event that would provide a venue for open discussion on issues facing Omanis, or alternatively sponsor basic advocacy training. After taking several weeks to consider the partnership, the think tank also declined the opportunity, leaving the project once again stranded. As various project ideas continued to be brainstormed and pitched, the online marketplace project continued forward, albeit sporadically. Participants began to lose interest, and the tendency to not follow through became more consistent. Vital Voices and the consultant tried to support the team in applying for a MEPI local grant, including garnering MEPIMuscat’s support for the project and overseeing the creation of a preliminary budget and proposal. However, the proposal was never submitted by the team, despite support for the idea. Given the barriers to advocacy in the country and the hesitance of many civil society members to undertake a project, Vital Voices was not able to implement an advocacy project in Oman. Funding otherwise set aside for Oman was reallocated to other countries in 5
The Journey Through Transition: Stories of Women-Led Change in the Middle East and North Africa
the region within the Policy Advocates program. Vital Voices continues to be supportive of the group seeking to establish an online marketplace for women’s goods and will continue to support women in civil society in Oman.
Lessons Learned: It is important to understand the local environment, and be prepared to change course when facing setbacks and obstacles. Flexibility is key; even if there isn’t success at the end of the project, the learning process is good preparation for a future venture in a different enabling environment.
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To learn more about Vital Voices and the women we work with in the Middle East and North Africa, visit www.vitalvoices.org or contact: mena@vitalvoices.org (email) 202.861.2625 (main) 202.296.4142 (fax)