Cablegate: Cote D'ivoire: S/Gwi Project Proposals

VZCZCXRO9868
OO RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAB #0182/01 0531522
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 221520Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0174
INFO ECOWAS COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 ABIDJAN 000182

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KWMN PHUM AID IV
SUBJECT: Cote d'Ivoire: S/GWI Project Proposals

1. (U) Embassy Abidjan is pleased to submit two funding requests
for consideration by the Secretary's Office of Global Women's
Issues' Small Grants Initiative. Post's first choice is a project
submitted by an Ivoirian NGO, the Feminine Center for Democracy and
Human Rights (CEFCI). CEFCI plans to implement a 12 month
education initiative for women and girls in 21 rural villages in
northern Cote d'Ivoire, where 78% of girls do not attend school.
Post's second choice project is a submission from Search for Common
Ground, an international NGO, which proposes combating GBV in four
cities particularly susceptible to human rights violations.

PROJECT #1 : EMPOWERING WOMEN AND GIRLS THROUGH EDUCATION IN
ODIENNE, TAFIRE, AND NIAKARA

IMPLEMENTING ORGANIZATION: Feminine Center for Democracy and Human
Rights (CEFCI)

CONTEXT

2. (U) A 2006 study showed that 49% of girls living in Cote
d'Ivoire had no formal schooling. Even fewer girls attended school
in rural areas of the country, particularly in the north, where 78%
of girls did not attend school. In these poor communities, the
education of girls is not only a low priority, but violence against
women is also widespread and commonplace: female genital mutilation
is widely practiced, and spousal abuse and polygamy are culturally
accepted.

3. (U) High poverty rates in the north ensure that even if
families have the means to send a child to school, boys are favored
over girls. Without any formal schooling, girls learn from an
early age that abusive treatment towards women is the norm.
Additionally, girls lacking an education are particularly
vulnerable to unwanted pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, trafficking,
violence, and abuse.

PROJECT PROPOSAL

4. (U) The CEFCI project would work in 21 rural villages in
northern Cote d'Ivoire for a period of one year and use a
three-pronged strategy. First, CEFCI will conduct awareness
campaigns in the 21 villages, which will include discussions with
community leaders and parents on the importance of education and
sending girls to school. CEFCI plans to follow up these
discussions and awareness campaigns with the distribution of school
kits to those parents who cannot afford them for their daughters.
The second part of the project involves teaching adult women in the
village to read and helping them to form cooperatives and women's
support networks. The third part of the project involves a general
education campaign for each village, which will focus on how
communities can combat violence against women and, through these
efforts, prevent HIV/AIDS. This will be done through training
women leaders in each community and through media programming,
which will reinforce anti-SGBV messages through local proximity
radios.

At the end of the project, CEFCI expects the following results:

???? 300 women learn how to read

???? 105 families send their daughters to school

???? 315 school kits are distributed to needy families

???? Female community leaders in each village are trained to
set up women's support networks

???? 5000 booklets on preventing sexual and gender-based
violence are distributed to communities

???? 44 radio programs are aired on local stations

???? 126 girls already in school are given material support

???? Creation of a community information center in the CEFCI
Niakara Office

ABIDJAN 00000182 002 OF 009

CEFCI plans to measure its results through:

???? increases in girls' attendance rate at schools

???? increases in women's literacy rate

???? decreases in incidents of violence against women and
girls

???? decreases in unwanted pregnancies by school age girls

???? decreases in incidence of HIV/AIDS

BUDGET

5. (U) CEFCI's proposed budget includes the following:

???? Awareness campaigns (materials, press, etc): $5,540

???? Adult literacy program (materials, teacher per diems,
transport, radio programming): $35,170

???? Community leadership training sessions, establishment of
women's networks: $7,960

???? Set-up of community information center (fax, computer,
video projector, printer, camera, etc): $7,480

???? Distribution of school kits (includes materials,
transport of kits - car rental, gas, etc): $15,200

???? Research on program set-up, production of documents (car
rental, printing of brochures, booklets): $11,700

???? Administrative costs: $ 11,198

???? Cushion for unforeseen costs: $1,000

Total Budget: $95,248

ABOUT CEFCI

6. (U) CEFCI was created by a group of young Ivoirian women in
2003 to respond to serious violations of women's rights committed
during the 2002 crisis in Cote d'Ivoire. The organization's
objective is to support women in their daily struggle for democracy
and human rights and against poverty through programs which build
capacity and empower women. CEFCI is headquartered in Abidjan,
with two sub offices in Odienne and Niakara (both cities are in
poor northern regions). A staff of ten people work at each of the
three offices.

7. (U) CEFCI has successfully conducted projects in the past with
the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED). In 2008-2009, NED supported a CEFCI program designed to
increase women's participation in the electoral process, including
educating women on how to vote and the importance of participating
in the nationwide identification and voter registration process.
CEFCI has also received NED funding to advocate for a more
reflective representation of women in government and politics. For
this project, CEFCI plans to partner with the United Nations
Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI). It has longstanding
relationships with the ONUCI Human Rights Office, as well as
ONUCI-FM and Search for Common Ground.

POST MANAGEMENT

8. (U) The CEFCI grant will be directly managed by post's
full-time Self-Help and DHRF Coordinator, with support from the
Political Officer, who has grants training and warrant authority at
post. The Coordinator will meet with CEFCI before the project is
launched and will continue to keep in close contact as the project
progresses over the year. To ensure proper management and
expenditure of U.S. funds, CEFCI will be required to submit
quarterly financial and progress reports, which will be verified by
the Coordinator through site visits. Officers from the
Political/Economic Section and/or the Ambassador or DCM will also
visit this project to help gain greater visibility and awareness
for CEFCI's efforts.

***********************
* Missing Section 003 *
***********************

***********************
* Missing Section 004 *
***********************

ABIDJAN 00000182 005 OF 009

looking at the practices in childhood that contribute to these
problems. Issues that will be explored include preferential
treatment of boys in terms of schooling and domestic labor, sexual
exploitation in schools, child rape, and early marriage. The 15
programs will be produced and aired on 35 stations for 225 minutes
of original content and 7,875 minutes of total airtime.

The project has three primary desired outcomes:

???? Key community members, including victims of rape, are
carrying out advocacy campaigns and other initiatives to address
SGBV and other violations against women;

???? Community capacity and networks to respond to SGBV and
other crimes against women are strengthened in the targeted
locations; and

???? Awareness of SGBV against women and girls as a crime and
a problem to be addressed in communities is increased at the
national level.

14. (U) Performance monitoring on these outcomes will be driven
by the group initially agreeing on the desired outcomes and
committing to their achievement at each location. Follow up with
the project participants and site visits will be taken by a team
that will include representatives of the Ministry of Gender and
Social Affairs based in the target areas. The project team will
track how many of the training and dialogue exchange session
participants carry out in subsequent advocacy actions, and meet
with community residents to assess the value and results of those
efforts. The project team will regularly meet with the
participants to discuss how successful they think they have been in
raising awareness and decreasing tolerance of SGBV within their
communities, as well as the challenges they have faced in their
work. The project team will help them strategize about addressing
these challenges, and support them as they develop new initiatives.
These assessments will be validated with interviews with
authorities, victims' representatives, and other stakeholders on
SGBV issues. On the radio programming side, SFCG will conduct
focus groups in the four target locations to gage whether listeners
have changes in knowledge, attitudes, or behavior after listening
to the programs. SFCG also periodically carries out listener
surveys, which will supplement the qualitative information gathered
with quantitative data.

Specific outcome indicators that will be used are:

???? Number of advocacy initiatives implemented by project
participants;

???? Qualitative assessment of the effectiveness of those
actions; and

???? Demonstration of increased knowledge and improved
attitudes around SGBV by radio program listeners.

BUDGET

Expenses category

Allocation

# of Units

Unit

Unit Cost

Total

Personnel

$ 22,741

Country Director

3%

18

months

***********************
* Missing Section 006 *
***********************

***********************
* Missing Section 007 *
***********************

ABIDJAN 00000182 008 OF 009

dialogues

$ 400

$ 3,200

Meeting and Conferences Costs - EEA production

20%

36

meetings

$ 360

$ 2,592

Other Direct Costs

$ 25,950

Project Logistics and Operational Costs

15%

18

months

$ 3,500

$ 9,450

Partner support

100%

4

partners

$ 3,000

$ 12,000

Distribution and Airtime Support for National Radio Programs

100%

1

Lump sum

$ 1,500

$ 1,500

Monitoring & Evaluation

100%

1

project

$ 3,000

$ 3,000

Subtotal Direct Expenses

$ 74,688

NICRA

28.63%

1

project

$ 74,688

ABIDJAN 00000182 009 OF 009

$ 21,383

Total cost

$ 96,072

ABOUT SFCG

15. (U) Founded in 1982, SFCG works in more than 20 countries
around the world to build sustainable peace. SFCG is operational in
nine countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, beginning in Burundi in 1995
and opening its office in Cote d'Ivoire in 2005 as part of its West
Africa regional strategy. Since the launch of the Cote d'Ivoire,
SFCG has been working with different stakeholders-including
community leaders, Liberian refugees, Ivoirian internally displaced
people, women, youth, radio stations, and national government
officials-to address a variety of issues related to the resolution
of the country's crisis and its return to sustainable peace.
Throughout its work, SFCG has identified women as a critical target
group, recognizing the role that they play as peace builders within
their families and communities, as well as understanding the
obstacles that stand in the way of their full participation as
citizens.

POST MANAGEMENT

16. (U) The SFCG grant will be directly managed by post's
full-time Self-Help and DHRF Coordinator, with support from the
Political Officer, who has grants training and warrant authority at
post. The Coordinator will meet with SFCG before the project is
launched and will continue to keep in close contact as the project
progresses over the year. To ensure proper management and
expenditure of U.S. funds, SFCG will be required to submit
quarterly financial and progress reports, which will be verified by
the Coordinator through site visits. American officers in the
political/economic section and/ or the Ambassador or DCM will also
visit this project to help gain greater visibility and awareness
for SFCG's efforts.
NESBITT

© Scoop Media