TRANSFORMATIONAL WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP PROJECT IN INDONESIA

Search for Common Ground Indonesia (September 2011)

The GOAL:

To empower elite and emerging women politicians in

Indonesia as agents of social change

OBJECTIVES: 1. Newly elected women legislators are better

equipped with leadership skills and advanced knowledge of issues affecting women to help them govern

2. Trainers/facilitators from local women’s organizations continue in their role as agents of reform and social change providing state-of-art leadership training to women at both the community and national levels

3. Aspiring and elected/appointed female politicians are empowered as decision-makers and leaders

4. The population’s awareness of women’s role as agents of social change through civic and political participation, representation and gender justice is increased

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE:

National & provincial training workshop:

1. West Java workshop first event which gathered parliamentarians from municipality and national level in cross political party spaces.

2. Skill levels of parliamentarians increased based on pre/post-test results

3. Topic of conflict management was very useful for parliamentarians at local level - helps with their tasks as parliamentarians; and to maintain relationships with voters.

4. Most parliamentarians do not have media skills, public speaking skills, or drafting legislation - SFCG training addressed these areas.

PARTICIPANT’S TESTIMONIAL:

“The workshop is really needed for the parliamentarian member, because I think there are many practical things that we did not receive when we entered this system. From this workshop we can optimize or improve the effectiveness of women leadership in the Parliament.” – Parliamentarian Theresia Pardede

“Through this workshop, I learned how leadership should be and the true functions of members of parliament, as community representatives. Over the past three days, we tried to map areas that we should focus on finding solutions on, and as leaders we must make decisions, with the mindset that we are truthful leaders who work for aspirations that are in favour of the people. My hope for the future is on how to motivate other colleagues to participate in this kind of workshop.” – Parliamentarian Sumintarsih Muntoro

CHALLENGES:Programme level:1. Absence of prior needs assessment with women parliamentarians2. Some difficulty working with a partner organisation implementing the

training – not aligned on vision and activities3. Parliamentarians have limited time and very busy, it was hard to arrange

schedules4. There are plenty of male politicians who do not support women5. Linkage between elements of the project were not maximised (training,

media, NGO capacity building)6. Communication with donor only with quaterly report

M&E1. ToC and associated assumptions led to partial approach to addressing

the problem2. Elaborate M&E Plan devised at outset, but has not been followed due to

limitations of budget – baseline not conducted as planned and some ongoing monitoring data not being collected due to tensions with one partner organisation

3. Too many indicators of dubious value were included in the log frame4. No approach built in to capture evidenced changes as they occurred

(other than through quarterly reporting to donors)

THE END