USAID PROMOTE MUSHARIKAT PROJECT MONTHLY REPORT MAY 2017

The project aims to promote women's equality and empowerment by building constituencies and strengthening advocacy among national, provincial, and local activists and civil society organizations. The project focuses on promoting women's participation in politics, access to justice, and protection from harassment. Coalition building is a key component of the project, with the goal of forming inclusive, transparent, and competitive coalitions among civil society organizations. The project provides capacity building training to the coalitions on organizational development, public policy processes, and advocacy campaign development. In May 2017, a consultative workshop was conducted with 24 coalition members and civil society organizations to discuss priority issues and select top issues for the next three Musharikat Coalitions. The selected issues were Women's Political Participation, Access to Justice, and Harassment. The project also focuses on strengthening coalition advocacy campaigns. Final Regional Coalition Advocacy Campaign Plans Launch Sessions were held in Nangarhar and Kandahar, where coalition members and directors of civil society organizations presented their advocacy campaign plans and upcoming activities. The plans included raising awareness through media campaigns, engaging communities through public awareness gatherings and workshops, engaging government stakeholders through advocacy work, and conducting research to support policy design and implementation. In addition to coalition building and advocacy campaigns, the project also provides grants to support the work of civil society organizations. In May 2017, a Grants Orientation and Award Session was held for 31 approved grants, where grantees were briefed on their grant obligations and introduced to the project team. The initial wave of grantee work is focused on preventing Violence Against Women efforts, but the project plans to expand to Access to Economy and Education Coalition work in the future. The project has made significant progress in May 2017, with the launch of new coalitions, the strengthening of coalition advocacy campaigns, and the provision of grants to support civil society organizations. The project continues to work towards its goal of promoting women's equality and empowerment in Afghanistan.