Introduction of gender aspects in municipality planning in Equador

The aim of the project is to strengthening local capacity for ion of gender in planning, budgeting and management of the municipal and sectional governments and the technical staff of CONAMU. The project is supposed to reach four different results. The activities implemented have been adapted in accordance to those expected results.

Result 1 Advice and diffusion of methodologies and experiences regarding processes of gender planning and gender budgeting in the municipal and sectional governments

The activities of Result 1, have contributed to the strengthening of the technical team of CONAMU through training workshops in gender budgeting and gender planning. Workshops were organised for professionals from different government agencies, local governments and women's organisations that are collaborating with CONAMU. In addition, two workshops on emotional intelligence were organised. The aim of these was to strengthen the capabilities of the CONAMU team. This work has also included conflict management. The participants of the workshops were introduced to tools for coaching, teamwork and personal empowerment through self-knowledge and self-awareness techniques. An international seminar was conducted in Quito with the purpose of giving feed back to the Ecuadorian experiences and compare it with the international and regional experiences regarding the advances in the topic of gender budgeting. It should be noted that the target group for the training processes of the project both included personnel at CONAMU, but also employees of government institutions, local governments, municipalities and women's organisations. Therefore, the project also developed the material used in the workshops and presented it in printed booklets.

Result 2: Formation programme for capacity builders

In order to reach this result, a workshop with female leaders and capacity builders was organised in December 2008. The workshop included a need assessment of training for this target group as well as training of trainer methodology. All the tools and material used and developed during this workshop, as well as information of the methodological tools of the workshop were saved on a CD. This CD was then given to all of the participants (free of charge).

Result 3: Strengthening the capacities of the women facilitators that are beneficiaries of PROMUJERES

In order to reach this result, CONAMU and SIPU have implemented two activities, of which one took place in December of 2008, and the second one in January of 2009. One of the activities consisted of the identification of the elements of the ProMujeres project, and to develop the Grameen methodology used in the microcredit system for women's organisations. The second activity had the aim to identify mechanisms for using the Grameen methodology and to incorporate a module on leadership in it, in order to strengthen the training on this methodology. A written document with the methodological tools for the module on leadership was developed.

Result 4 To strengthen the aces to legal aid for the female victims of sexual violence and femicide: including debate, information and strengthening the capacities of the litigants working in local NGOs

Three panels and three-table discussions was arranged, focusing on legal and political framework of femicide in Latin America and Ecuador. In order to get an international perspective, specialists from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru, and Spain were invited to participate. A training programmed for women working with femicide was developed and carried out with the contribution from different women’s organisations. This material was printed and distributed.

To conclude the activities of the project “Strengthening local capacity for ion of gender in planning, budgeting and management of the municipal and sectional governments of Sucumbios, Esmeraldas and Imbabura” has contributed to the fulfilment of the overall objective. There have been some variation