81308703-Strengthening Civil Society in the Localisation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Great Lakes Region

Since 2011, German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) has supported regional initiatives in the Great Lakes Region in peace, security, and mineral resource governance, mainly through the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), a platform for cooperation and conflict prevention among 12 countries in the Great Lakes Region. In 2021, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) announced the launch of a feminist development policy that pursues a gender-transformative approach that questions gender roles and power structures and works toward changing unjust social norms and behaviours. Strengthening the rights of women and girls and dismantling discriminatory power structures and social norms are key elements of the feminist development policy. In the context of this new feminist development policy, GIZ with funding of BMZ, is implementing a regional project "Incorporating local perspectives into the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda in the Great Lakes Region" to support women"s rights for peace and security in the Great Lakes Region". The regional project will run for three years - 2024-2026. Evidence shows that feminist and female-led grassroots organizations have limited access to funding and platforms to have their voices heard. The project aims to address these key impairments to positive peace in the region at 3 levels: at the micro level, the project will work with 12 grassroots organizations in four ICGLR member states (Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda). At the macro level, the project will support women"s networks from at least 50 percent of ICGLR"s 12 member states to effectively build common messages to influence and contribute to regional agenda-setting. At the meso level, the project will strengthen coordination on WPS monitoring and reporting and the sharing of good practices of the integration of local and national perspectives in the implementation of the WPS agenda by the ICGLR.