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Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop
FEBRUARY 18-21, 2014
BALI, INDONESIA
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 1 of 11.
I. Executive Summary
The Asia Foundation’s (TAF) Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop was held from
February 17-20, 2014 in Bali, Indonesia. The workshop brought together 39 participants from across the
Foundation’s field offices and theme-based teams and included an engaging series of presentations and
break-out discussion groups. The highly interactive format of the workshop was an important opportunity
for participants to network, discuss the Foundation’s work in women’s empowerment programming, and
deepen understanding of innovative and effective programming strategies. Further, the workshop was a
chance for staff to build skills necessary to ensure all programs can effectively take gender into account
through learning to use the Six Domains Gender Analysis tool. A workshop evaluation showed that
participants valued the chance to learn this tool as well as to learn about gender-sensitive monitoring and
evaluation and to exchange information and ideas with colleagues from other offices.
An important outcome of the workshop were the numerous suggestions for concrete steps that the WEP
team, field offices, and other teams can take to advance gender integration within TAF. These include:
facilitating cross-country learning and sharing best practices across offices, training all staff on gender
integration, developing a handbook to guide gender analysis in different sectors, and sharing new
approaches and discourse on gender and development, among others.
In the months following the workshop, participants have utilized the experience to increase connectivity
and information-sharing based on workshop learnings. For example, as a result of discussions during the
education session at the workshop, TAF staff involved with the Merali Scholars Program started an email
chain to link all of the people managing the program so they can share ideas. In addition, echo-sessions
to share information learned at the workshop, including the gender analysis tool, were held in TAF’s
Vietnam, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines and Bangladesh field offices and a gender training to share
similar information was held with the Philippines marines. Gender integration strategies discussed at the
workshop continue to be utilized to inform program design. Further, staff from the Women’s
Empowerment Program conducted a gender integration training in TAF’s Timor-Leste office immediately
following the workshop and plan to conduct similar trainings in the Sri Lanka and Philippines offices later
this year as efforts to continue to build TAF’s strength as a “Gender Smart” organization.
II. Introduction to the Workshop
The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, organized by TAF’s Women’s
Empowerment Program (WEP), was held from February 17-20, 2014 in Ubud, Bali. This ‘Gender Smart’
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 2 of 11.
workshop, which was one step among many to implement TAF’s new Gender Equality Policy, brought
together 42 participants (Annex 1) from across TAF including program staff from 15 field offices, and from
six San Francisco- and Washington-based teams. The overarching workshop objectives were: (1) to
strengthen TAF’s programming on women’s empowerment issues, and (2) to enhance gender integration
and mainstreaming across a broad range of TAF programs. These objectives were developed based on
input from 26 program staff from across TAF offices, and several consultations with colleagues from other
thematic teams. The workshop was, in part, enabled through the generous support of TAF trustee, Gina
Lin Chu, and her investment in professional staff development for gender integration at TAF. Through
contributions like this, TAF is able to deepen its support of innovative and effective programming, and
ensure that all programs address the particular needs and experiences of women and girls throughout the
Asia-Pacific region.
The 3.5-day workshop was an interactive series of
presentations and breakout discussion groups in
which staff had an opportunity to connect with each
other, learn a variety of new tools, and discuss TAF’s
on-going work in women’s empowerment. Field office
presentations covered priority issues for TAF’s work in
women’s empowerment, including economic
empowerment, political participation, and violence against women. Many of the participants had never
had a chance to meet their colleagues from other offices and were eager to have the opportunity to
connect with one another and to learn about TAF’s range of complex and strategic programming in
women’s empowerment and successes and failures in integrating gender in other programs. Participants
also had the opportunity to practice gender analysis tools throughout the workshop and think critically
about how to apply these tools to their own work.
In his introductory remarks to the workshop, Gordon Hein, Vice President of Programs, emphasized the
importance of this workshop to “advance our shared understanding of issues and approaches, and how
The Asia Foundation can make its maximum possible contribution to advancing women’s empowerment
and gender equality in all their dimensions throughout the region”. Gordon noted the “wonderful history”
of TAF’s women’s empowerment work, highlighting TAF as “a pioneer in promoting women’s rights and
opportunities in Asia going back decades.” TAF did this, in large part, through recognition that in order
“for women to truly advance their role in society, it wouldn’t be enough for them to be the designated
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 3 of 11.
beneficiaries of particular interventions. Rather, women would need to confront and overcome existing
power relationships in their societies, including increasing women’s participation in positions of decision-
making authority at all levels.” TAF’s current strengths in this area, he noted, are, in part, attributable to
a comprehensive approach to women’s empowerment, a dedicated ‘theme team’ of experts across the
Foundation, a long-term commitment to innovation in this field, and an organizational commitment to
achieving a just and thriving Asia.
In a session on the State of WEP and Gender
Integration at TAF, Senior Director of the
Women’s Empowerment Program Carol Yost
explained how WEP takes a coordinated, two-
pronged approach that aims to both address
women’s and girls’ distinct needs through
targeted programs, and mainstream gender into
all programmatic areas. Carol Yost noted that
while TAF has done a good job in designing and
implementing programs that address women’s
and girls’ immediate and longer term strategic
needs, we have lagged behind some other
organizations, including many of our largest
donors, in ensuring that gender is integrated into
our programs overall. In dollar terms, WEP has
grown steadily and there is almost $20 million in
programming projected for 2014. The extremely
large WEP portfolios in a few countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia
account for a significant portion of that total funding.
During a session on Assessing the Evidence, Kate Bollinger presented a comparative understanding of the
status and trajectory of gender equality measures in the Asia Pacific region as a whole, particularly in
relation to WEP's three core areas, and identifying priority actions. She noted that the Asia-Pacific region
continues to lag behind other regions, and is ahead only of the Middle East on gender equality measures
related to women’s economic participation. Overall, the region occupies 4th place out of six regions
During the workshop, Carol presented on the Lotus
Circle, a private fundraising initiative that WEP
launched six years ago. The vision of the Lotus Circle is
to create a community of individuals and corporations
that are committed to improving opportunities for
women and girls in Asia, and who contribute to WEP
programming for innovative and timely interventions.
The LC’s center of gravity is New York City, where we
organize regular events to engage with LC supporters
and new friends. The LC started with a few trustees
and committed advisors, and now includes a group of
15 Lotus Circle Advisors, primarily based in NY, who
helped launch TAF’s first ever fundraising event—the
Lotus Leadership Awards in 2011. The Lotus Circle
holds an annual event that raises flexible funds that
field offices can access to pilot test ideas, scale up
successful models, and enhance existing programs in
innovative new ways. This year, we are holding our
first gala dinner that will honor Dr. Muhammed Yunus,
the founder of the Grameen Bank and Ms. Nani
Sulminarni, a TAF partner in Indonesia.
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 4 of 11.
according to the 2013 World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, which measures the degree to which
countries have closed the gender gap in areas of politics, economics, health, and education. Kate noted
that the East Asia-Pacific now has the highest primary school ratio of female-to-male enrollments among
all developing regions and second highest at the secondary level. In South Asia, girls still lag behind boys
in both literacy and primary completion, although the World Bank notes that gender parity at the primary
school level has been achieved in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and India. The share of
female parliamentarians in East Asian and Pacific countries is just below the global average of
approximately 18%, and the prevalence of violence against women in the Pacific is among the highest in
the world with about 60% of women having experienced some form of gender-based violence.
Meloney Lindberg, Country Representative in Mongolia, commented on how the situation for women has
evolved in Mongolia, where there is a ‘reverse gender-gap’ in education, with women outnumbering men
in higher education. This session was followed by a series of engaging small group discussions, where
participants split up into groups to discuss how the status of women has changed in relation to economic
opportunities; rights, security, and justice; and political participation; and identify programmatic
opportunities given TAF’s strengths.
III. Building a Gender Smart Organization
TAF's recent adoption of a new gender policy provided an excellent opportunity for participants to
collectively take stock of TAF’s current practices and begin to think about what is being done well and
what could be improved, as well as identify good
practices internally that can be adopted more
widely. Throughout the workshop, as well as
during a plenary session on Building a Gender Smart
Organization, participants discussed how TAF staff can
work more collaboratively and effectively within and
across field offices and themes, to become more
"gender smart". Carol Yost launched this session with a
summary of TAF’s institutional commitment to gender
equality, as demonstrated by the new policy. Carol also
Gender Smart Practices from Field Offices
Improving gender balance among staff
Gender expertise across all teams
Gender mainstreaming in projects and gender integration in program review process
Clear policy on gender mainstreaming in call for proposals from partner organizations
Gender consideration in Letter of Agreement
Compulsory gender training for program and finance & grants staff
Gender training and program development assistance for partner organizations
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 5 of 11.
highlighted the value of trustee support, such as Gina Lin Chu’s support for the workshop. She then
moderated a discussion with Kerry Brogan, Meloney Lindberg, and Hana Satriyo who shared some
lessons learned and good practices from the Timor-Leste, Mongolia, and Indonesia perspectives.
Gender Analysis
The workshop was also an opportunity to practice
using the Six Domains Gender Analysis Framework, a
tool for systematically considering the gender
dimensions of program contexts. Barbi Rodriguez and
Kate Bollinger led several sessions in which they
introduced the concept and utility of gender analysis,
and demonstrated how to use this particular gender
analysis tool, which considers factors such as who has leadership, power, and access and control of
resources. Discussions of the framework aimed to facilitate deeper thinking on how our program activities
across the Asia-Pacific region can be adapted to encourage more meaningful participation by women and
men. Through case studies and group work, participants had numerous opportunities over the course of
the workshop to practice applying the framework to hypothetical contexts as well as to specific programs
in their countries.
Gender-Sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
Senior M&E Advisor, Ana Coghlan, from Program Strategy,
Innovation and Learning (PSIL), led an interactive and engaging
session on Gender-Sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation that
prepared participants to identify critical components of the M&E
cycle and highlighted key considerations for integrating gender into
M&E processes. Ana noted that gender-sensitive M&E captures
different program processes and effects on men and women and is critical to all TAF programs because it
(1) provides accountability to both male and female participants, donors and TAF internally; and (2) can
improve the program’s implementation, outputs, outcomes and impact.
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 6 of 11.
Donor Approaches to Gender Integration
Tracey Tuyen and Tamara Failor, from Public Support Development Services (PSDS), presented on how
the donor landscape has evolved with respect to gender integration and women's empowerment, looking
at both USG and non-USG donors, and how in some instances – though not all – higher donor expectations
on gender have emerged. Following their presentations, they moderated presentations by Ana Coghlan
of PSIL, Pauline Tweedie of TAF/Thailand and PSIL, and Hana Satriyo of TAF/Indonesia, who reflected on
their interactions with and impressions of bilateral donors from Australia, the United Kingdom, and
Canada respectively.
IV. Innovative Women’s Empowerment Programs
The workshop was also intended as an opportunity for staff to learn from the range of programs TAF is
implementing in three mutually reinforcing areas: increasing women’s rights and security, advancing
women’s political participation, and expanding women’s economic opportunities.
Women’s Rights and Security
The workshop included several sessions which addressed different aspects of TAF’s programs that
promote women’s rights and security. Barbi Rodriguez moderated a session that focused on different
office’s experiences Conducting Research on Violence against Women (VAW). The discussion highlighted
findings and strategies to leverage international best practice. Samneang Moul from TAF/Cambodia gave
a comprehensive overview of the lessons learned from conducting a political economy analysis of VAW
and access to justice in Cambodia. Antonieta Maia from TAF/Timor-Leste discussed the ongoing research
on VAW that is funded by DFID under the Programme Partnership Agreement (PPA), as well as her
involvement in the first household survey on VAW conducted in Timor-Leste. Rukhsana Shama of
TAF/Pakistan, talked about the USAID-funded Gender Equality Program’s survey work on gender-based
violence.
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 7 of 11.
Ellen Boccuzzi, from TAF’s Governance and Law
theme, moderated a panel on the Gender
Dimensions of Access to Justice, which featured
Prasith from TAF/Laos, and both Kerry Brogan and
Carmenesa Soares of TAF/Timor-Leste. This panel
discussed gender dimensions of access to justice
including property and inheritance, family law, and
traditional justice.
Meloney Lindberg moderated a roundtable discussion on Educating Women and Girls, to examine TAF’s
recent scholarship support to young women and girls to continue their education. Shamim Sarabi from
TAF/Afghanistan, Hong Siv Lim from TAF/Cambodia, Sunita Anandarajah from TAF/Malaysia, and Nguyen
Thi Ngoc Anh from TAF/Vietnam presented on their country’s efforts under the Merali Scholars Program,
and lessons learned on helping young women successfully complete university. Following this session,
participants launched an ongoing email listserv to link all of the TAF staff managing a Merali scholars
program and facilitate information sharing.
Women’s Political Participation
A session on enhancing inclusive participation examined gender-specific barriers to participation and
qualitative distinctions of participation. Natalia Warat from TAF/Indonesia discussed (1) women’s
representation in Indonesia’s parliament and executive offices; (2) legal reforms and changes in elections
and political party laws to encourage women’s participation; (3) effective strategies for working on
different levels of advocacy and capacity building for engaging with political parties and male politicians;
and measuring impacts and achievements; and (4) the 2014 elections context. Kerry Brogan and
Carmenesa Soares from TAF/Timor-Leste discussed the Support for Good Public Policy Program, funded
by DFAT, that is engaging district-based NGOs that work in the area of advocacy, gender, and monitoring
of government programs to actively engage in the policy making process. They also addressed the Local
Governance program, funded by the Government of Norway, which supports female suku (village) council
members to actively engage in council meetings, and suku planning and decision making process. Shahid
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 8 of 11.
Fiaz from TAF/Pakistan described TAF’s innovative work on voter education which targets women in the
tribal areas.
Hana Satriyo and Novi Anggriani led a session on
Gender Responsive Budgeting as a Local Governance
and Gender Integration Tool. Gender Responsive
Budgeting (GRB) is a dynamic approach to empower
stakeholders to identify and then track whether/to
what degree public sector budgets reinforce gender
equality goals. Participants were introduced to
international best practice in employing the tool, and
how TAF utilizes GRB to enhance local participation,
promote government accountability, and promote
gender-sensitive budget priorities.
Women’s Economic Empowerment
A plenary session on the Economic Empowerment of Women, moderated by Pauline Tweedie from PSIL,
delved into recent TAF-supported research around
the region to identify constraints to women-owned
small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), as well as
innovative TAF programs to promote women
entrepreneurs and advance gender-equitable
economic policies. Kate Bollinger summarized the
key findings from the APEC-funded study on barriers
to women’s entrepreneurship in Malaysia, Thailand,
Indonesia, and the Philippines, highlighting the need for more networking opportunities and access to ICT
for business women. Nayef Ahmed, from TAF/Bangladesh, discussed how women’s economic
engagement has evolved in Bangladesh, including through TAF’s innovative efforts to cultivate Women’s
Business Forums. Reecha Upadhyay, from TAF/India, described the achievements of the recently-
launched South Asia regional project, SAWES, which is engaging and supporting South Asian women
Building Better Budgets for Women and the Poor (funded by DFATD)
This program aims to improve the capacity of women's groups and NGOs to work together and advocate for local plans and budgets which integrate the needs of women and the poor, improved local regulations and policies which ensure transparent and accountable gender-responsive and pro-poor programs, and improved national and provincial policies and capacities to support lower-level government in implementing gender-responsive and pro-poor programs. The program has succeeded in increasing budget allocations for programs targeting women and the poor and also established centers of excellence (local NGOs in program areas) which have high-level knowledge and skills in gender budgeting.
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 9 of 11.
entrepreneurs from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Maldives,
and Sri Lanka. Lastly, Chen Tingting presented on
TAF/China’ longstanding efforts to protect the rights of
migrant women workers.
Cross-Cutting Issues
A set of small-group breakout sessions provided the
opportunity for colleagues to exchange information and
ideas about cross-cutting issues that inform WEP
programs across sub-regions. Lisa Hook and Kourtnii Brown from the Environment Theme and Kate
Bollinger led a discussion on Gender and the Environment, in which Anujin “Anu” Baatarkhuu from
TAF/Mongolia remarked on some of the underlying gender dynamics in TAF/Mongolia’s Environment
programs. In a session on the Nexus of Gender and Conflict, Noraida Chio and Nadine Ragonjan from
TAF/Philippines, and Khun Jieb from TAF/Thailand discussed the gender dimensions of the peace
dialogues in Philippines and the extent to which women in the various factions in the conflict have been
able to articulate their concerns; and the critical role played by some women’s rights organizations, like
WePeace, in Southern Thailand to address the constraints gender places on female participants, such as
where discussions can be convened. During a session on Engaging Men for Gender Equality, Barbi
Rodriguez facilitated a discussion in which Rozana Majumdar from TAF/Bangladesh and Maryam Raufi
from TAF/Afghanistan reflected on how their respective programs work with male religious leaders to
promote social justice for women within an Islamic framework. Noraida Chio and Nadine Ragonjan from
TAF/Philippines also shared their experiences and lessons learned from their efforts to engage religious
and military actors in advancing gender equality in the Philippines.
V. Workshop Results and Next Steps
Melanie Weniger from WEP led a session on Analyzing and Sharing our Impact, in which participants
discussed how TAF could improve its efforts to assess and articulate the impact of its work on a program-
wide basis, and made concrete recommendations for moving forward.
South Asia Regional Project (SAWES) Impact
Over 30,000 people on the SAWES Facebook
Innovative regional collaborations facilitated through the exposure tour
Launch of Business to Business (B2B) portal for women entrepreneurs across the region
Strengthened networks of women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka
SAWES One Year Anniversary Newsletter
Expanding SAWES reach to Afghanistan, Myanmar and Pakistan through the next exposure tour in Bangladesh
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 10 of 11.
A closing plenary discussion resulted in individual actions plans for all participants, as well as numerous
suggestions for concrete steps that the WEP team, field offices and other TAF teams can take to advance
gender integration within TAF. These
included: using OneTAF to facilitate cross-
country learning and sharing best practices
across offices, training all staff on gender
integration, developing a handbook to guide
gender analysis in difference sectors, sharing
new approaches and discourse on gender and
development, stronger internal policies and
practices for a ‘gender-friendly’ organization, and establishing a gender-sensitivity ranking system or
gender audit for field offices.
A workshop evaluation showed that participants appreciated the chance to apply a gender analysis tool
to their programs, learn about gender-sensitive M&E, and share information/ideas with their colleagues
from other offices. One month after the workshop, participants from Vietnam, Mongolia, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh had already conducted follow up echo-sessions with their colleagues and partner
organizations on the gender analysis tools we used during the workshop. An echo session was planned
for the TAF/PH office in April, as well as a gender training with the Philippines marines that would utilize
content from the workshop. The Environment team had also used the Six-Domains Gender Analysis
Framework to inform a proposal to the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) for a program on
disaster risk management and small and medium enterprises in Vietnam. Lastly, participants welcomed
and were grateful for the opportunity to network and learn from each other, many of them meeting at
the workshop for the very first time.
The WEP team also made progress on several of the recommendations and requests made by workshop
participants. Immediately following the workshop, Kate Bollinger and Barbi Rodriguez traveled to Timor-
Leste to conduct a gender training with program staff in Dili, and plan to conduct similar trainings in Sri
Lanka and the Philippines later this year. A handbook on gender analysis in various governance-related
sectors is currently being drafted, and will be shared in the coming weeks. The WEP team also looks
forward to having a Junior Associate join the team in June, who will further enhance opportunities for
cross-country learning and resource-sharing through OneTAF.
Final Report: The Women’s Empowerment and Gender Integration Workshop, February 17-20, 2014. Page 11 of 11.
Annex 1: Workshop Participants
1 Afghanistan Maryam Raufi
2 Shamim Sarabi
3 Bangladesh Rozana Majumdar
4 Nayef Ahmad
5 Cambodia Hong Siv Lim
6 Samneang Moul
7 China Chen Tingting
8 India Reecha Upadhyay
9 Indonesia Novi Anggriani
10 Natalia Warat
11 Hana Satriyo
12 Laos
Phoutsavanh Souk-
Onsy
13
Viengprasith Thiphasouda (Prasith)
14 Malaysia Sunita Anandarajah
15 Mongolia Anu Bataarkhuu
16 Meloney Lindberg
17 Myanmar Mi Ki Kyaw Myint
18 Pakistan Shahid Fiaz
19 Rukhsana Shama
20 Philippines Noraida Chio
21 Nadine Ragonjan
22 Thailand Pauline Tweedie
23
Ruengrawee Pichaikul (Jieb)
24 Timor-Leste Kerry Brogan
25 Antonieta Maia (Neta)
26 Carmenesa Soares
27 Vietnam Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh
28 GL (US) Ellen Boccuzzi
29 PSDS (US) Tracey Tuyen
30 Tamara Failor
31 WEP (US) Carol Yost
32 Eileen Pennington
33 Barbara Rodriguez
34 Kate Bollinger
35 Melanie Weniger
36 PGM (US) Gordon Hein
37 PSIL Ana Coghlan
38 ENV (US) Lisa Hook
39 Kourtnii Brown