Collective Action to Support Women's Rights Quarterly Progress Report (Q1_Y3)

The project is implemented by Gender and Development for Cambodia (GADC) with three co-implementing partners: AMARA Cambodian Women's Network for Development, Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT), and Women Peace Makers (WPM). The project focuses on six provinces, including Battambang, Pursat, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu, Kampot, and Mondulkiri, with a total of 33 communes. The main objective of the project is to empower women and youth to positively transform societal and political institutions to further gender equality and end gender-based violence. The project's capacity-building dimension focuses on training Community Capacity Development Teams (CCBTs) and Community Core Groups (CCGs) on gender concepts and GBV responsiveness. CCBTs provided training to CCGs and youth core groups on "Gender Concept Basic and GBV Responsive" with a total of 40 trainees, including 36 women. The training focused on gender concepts, including sex and gender, gender norms, and effective gender norms to women and men, gender roles, and gender equality. Participants showed a change in their mindset on gender equality and started to realize the influence of gender norms on their daily lives and negative ideas about women. Instead of pessimistic opinions, participants reflected on the reality in their lives, recognizing that violence happens due to inequality of power and negative gender norms. Community Facilitators (CFs) conducted 5 mentoring and coaching sessions with a total of 58 participants, including 50 women. The mentoring and coaching sessions focused on reflection on previous lessons, identifying new topics for further courses, and selecting CCBTs to attend commune council monthly meetings. The objective of the meetings was to build capacity and confidence of the Core Group so that they can organize meetings and share knowledge with the communities by themselves. CCBTs and CCGs conducted three reflection meetings, participated by 74 attendees, including 59 female participants. The purposes of the reflection were to build closer connections, planning, sharing challenges and lessons learned from the project implementation, and discussing further improvement plans. Youth groups from CCBT facilitated 29 meetings, participated by 426 attendees, including 224 female participants. Those meetings created good opportunities for all participants to share their experiences in practicing social norms and discuss domestic violence during the pandemic, gender concepts, gender stereotypes, challenges, women's rights, and social norms. CCGs facilitated 59 meetings, participated by 1,022 people, including 688 women, from their respective communities. The meetings were conducted to identify and address current issues within the communities, especially domestic violence, as well as anger management, improve knowledge on sex and gender, citizen rights and role, problem-solving, and communication, especially with the local authority. All attendees were actively participated and learned a lot from those particular meetings. A refresher training on "Leadership for Gender Equality" was organized with a total of 22 attendees, including 22 women. The purpose of the training was to share knowledge on facilitation skills, GBV mechanism in preventing domestic violence against women, and action plan for further training of CCBT to core group. A ToT on Gender Café was organized for CFs and CCBTs with 13 female participants to learn about the situation of women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as challenges and their actual needs during the uncertainty. The meetings provided a suitable space for women to support each other in some areas like mental health, motivation, and encourage positive thinking. A ToT for Men's Dialogue was organized for CFs and CCBTs with 20 men participants. The man-dialogue is a tool of facilitation for men to challenge gender bias ideology and gender stereotype and explore ways to engage men and boys in the purpose of promoting gender equality. The project has been working hard to improve the capacity of project staff through various approaches, including online training, to ensure operational continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project has made significant progress in empowering women and youth to positively transform societal and political institutions to further gender equality and end gender-based violence. The project has trained a total of 40 trainees, including 36 women, on gender concepts and GBV responsiveness. The project has also conducted 59 meetings, participated by 1,022 people, including 688 women, to identify and address current issues within the communities, especially domestic violence. The project has also organized a refresher training on "Leadership for Gender Equality" with a total of 22 attendees, including 22 women. The project has also organized a ToT on Gender Café for CFs and CCBTs with 13 female participants to learn about the situation of women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project has also organized a ToT for Men's Dialogue for CFs and CCBTs with 20 men participants to challenge gender bias ideology and