This program promotes gender equality by ensuring equal participation of men and women/ boys and girls including those who are differently abled, based on the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) principle of engagement that IWD subscribes to.  It encourages women to take leadership roles and provide them with opportunities to voice their opinions, by challenging discriminative social norms, attitudes and practices that justify, maintain and perpetuate GBV and prevent women and girls form actively engaging and participating in development processes.

Collaboration with local women’s groups, organizations, and leaders who are already working towards gender equality is an essential component of this program as it creates an opportunity to leverage each other’s strengths and amplify impact when it comes to programming. IWD helps community members understand the importance of inclusivity and diversity in decision-making, working with other like-minded partners to create safe spaces and establish safe environments where all community members feel comfortable expressing their views without fear of judgment or retribution. This can enable women and marginalized groups to participate more freely.

Through the community outreach activities and campaigns to raise awareness and sensitize members of the public, inter-gender and inter-generational dialogue forums, this program provides a platform through which to listen to the perspectives and concerns of all community members, especially women and marginalized groups and genuinely demonstrate that their voices really matter. In addition, this project enables IWD to coordinate and promote efforts to engage men and boys as agents of change for social transformative roles that support gender equality.

The schools’ outreach activities present an opportunity to reach out to boys and girls of school-going age and enlighten them on core life skills as well as on gender and other related issues among them Adolescents’ Sexual, Reproductive Health, and Rights (ASRH&R), drugs and substance abuse (DSA), and HIV/AIDS. These sessions are used to highlight the challenges that young people face and provide solutions on how they can be overcome. They also presents a platform on which teen boys and teen girls can comfortably air their views in a friendly and non-threatening environment, and where they can share experiences and learn from one another under the guidance of the trainers and instructors from our team.