Outcome LKA_D_4.4

Women, including those in particularly vulnerable situations, will be empowered to strengthen the peacebuilding process, promote social cohesion and contribute towards lasting peace in Sri Lanka.

In 2022, UN Women was able to complete its project on furthering the WPS agenda in Sri Lanka. Despite significant challenges to the programme implementation and policy advocacy due to the economic crisis and political turmoil, UN Women has been able to produce results exceeding those initially envisioned, particularly at grassroot levels. Broadly, UN Women has produced results in its direct engagement with beneficiary groups, whereby women have been simultaneously capacitated and empowered to strengthen and expand the economic engagement as well as their leadership within communities and at local levels on peace and conflict prevention, and supplemented this by cementing the ground for national programming on the same, through the preparation of a draft NAP on WPS as the complementary strengthening of government institutions and officials to implement the same and to develop parallel localized work plans in their communities. On this policy front, UN Women completed the handover of the NAP on WPS to the Government of Sri Lanka, through the State Minister of Women and Child Affairs. This was preceded by bilateral consultations with the Development Division of the Ministry in finalizing the draft which incorporated input received during the validation process (end 2021 -February 2022), and the translation and copyediting of the draft in three languages by parliamentary professionals. While this work was significantly challenged by the political turmoil from April to September, UN Women was able to build a working relationship with the office of the new State Minister and share the draft NAP and accompanying Cabinet Memorandum. This is soon to be presented to the Cabinet for approval and adoption. In support of institutions towards strengthening their accessibility and sensitivity towards vulnerable and marginalized women, UN Women has produced guidelines on the implementation of the NAP on WPS in preparation for when it is adopted. It has also capacitated 124 government officials on formulating and implementing WPS-oriented policies, towards the protection and empowerment of marginalized women, across the national and field offices of the Ministries of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment (MWCASE) as well as Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government. Towards ensuring adequate infrastructure for the protection of women and the furtherance of women's economic empowerment in rural areas, UN Women has continued to work with the MWCASE to refurbish and 13 government buildings including safe houses and business centres. 5 of these were completed and handed over to the government in 2022, contributing to much needed state infrastructure. The coordination of government field officers with the National Women’s Bureau, and tracking of data and results around gender equality has also been strengthened through the completion of a digital coordination/ reporting system developed by UN Women on behalf of the MWCASE. Towards supporting the empowerment of women in leadership, UN Women continued to support the multi-stakeholder dialogue process between elected local councillor and authorities and civil society and community based organizations, through capacity building sessions, sessions for participants to jointly develop localized workplans on peace and conflict prevention to be collectively implemented, and follow up dialogues across 6 processes engaging communities from 9 districts, and a total of 171 individuals (exceeding the number of participants initially envisioned). Immediate evaluations show that in some of these processes, there has been significant progress on the implementation of the joint work plans, signalling shift towards more people-centric and consultative governance and solutions. Towards supporting the empowerment of women through economic engagement, UN Women worked completed the training of 735 women engaging in medium and small enterprises, and following a competitive assessment of participants business plans, facilitated the provision of in-kind assistance to 384 of these women. This work included the strengthening of networks and mentoring processes as well as beneficiaries’ access to markets through Diversity Markets conducted in the project locations. These beneficiaries have also been recipients of relief packages of basic necessities, to enable their continued economic engagement and investment in long term progress. Towards strengthening the role of women in peacebuilding, UN Women conducted a training of trainers for 60 participants from 44 CSOs, and a second training for 164 women community leaders on peacebuilding and social cohesion. The latter has resulted in 90 small scale projects being implemented by community leaders, engaging a further 5406 volunteers at community levels. Recognizing the role of young women and new modalities of peacebuilding, 90 young women peacebuilders have been trained to combat online hate speech through social media, reflecting significant traction in their interventions following the training. Towards supporting regional and national dialogue and advocacy on WPS, UN Women conducted a large scale media campaign across mainstream media channels and social media; convened the first workshop for District-level women development officers and Directors/ Deputy Directors of Planning, to facilitate cross-country engagement and sharing of strategies, as well as developing priorities and coordination pathways for the year ahead; convened a high level meeting of approximately 60 development partners, government, and civil society to discuss the WPS landscape and ways forward, positioning its relevance in Sri Lanka’s crisis; and produced 5 knowledge products towards advocating for targeted support to, protection and empowerment of marginalized women. UN Women has also successfully closed a project on empowering women's resettlement following experiences of conflict-related displacement. Within this, government institutions in the target locations (Poonakary and Pachchilapali) have concrete data on the safety of public spaces, which is now being used to develop stronger local policy and planning around the protection of women and improving accessibility. Women - predominantly women heads of households with direct experience of the conflict - have been provided with financial and business literacy, mentoring around economic engagement, and access to markets, with 71 being provided with in-kind assistance towards their livelihoods following a competitive assessment of their business proposals. 20 CSOs and CBOs in resettled communities have been capacitated and empowered to fully engage with government processes and to advocate for rights and reforms, through the provision of technical training on gender responsive approaches and peacebuilding, as well as soft skills including leadership and advocacy skills.

Women, including those in particularly vulnerable situations, will be empowered to strengthen the peacebuilding process, promote social cohesion and contribute towards lasting peace in Sri Lanka.

This Outcome has been partially achieved in 2021. Through our Resettlement work, 125 women returnees in Mullaitivu are better capacitated on developing feasible business ideas for income generation. 100 developed business plans and successfully applied for in-kind assistance to improve/expand their business. More than 75% have begun improving their businesses with the knowledge, skills and exposure gained through UN Women’s and partner’s efforts. Further, through capacity building interventions, 27 leaders of 18 CBOs have enhanced their knowledge on CBO management and are better capacitated to advocate with local government on community and GEWE issues. This has helped create a more conducive environment for women businesses to thrive. Improving women’s financial autonomy contributes to more inclusive and durable peace, by preventing/addressing economic drivers of conflict and inequality. It also provides a stronger impetus and space for women to be more involved in local governance, as they directly contribute to the economy. Moreover, there is increased understanding among local government and community stakeholders on gender-responsive urban planning to ensure safety for all. This is due to the women’s safety audit of public spaces completed by community members (women in the community, local councillors, local officials, police officers etc) who ‘audited’ such spaces for safety and accessibility both at day and night-time. UN Women and its IP provided guidance in introducing and facilitating this. Members of LAs, local officials and community leaders have agreed on the findings and committed to improving the safety of public spaces. The draft NAP WPS is now even stronger in representing the needs and voices of women across the country along with other key stakeholders, due to a validation process which included CSOs which are at the forefront of working towards women’s rights and empowerment with varying communities in varying regions. Implementing agencies – both government and non-governmental – are more informed, capable, and connected to implement the NAP WPS (once adopted) at local levels, through training and networks built by UN Women. These agencies include local councillors, local officials, CSOs, CBOs and activists. At a more individual level, women play a greater role in peacebuilding and economic activities, through technical training provided by UN Women on product development. This training was shaped by a capacity assessment and value chain analysis in relation to women entrepreneurs on the ground, ensuring that they are data and context-driven.