New Tactics NED-Sponsored Grant Recipients 2008-2009
Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionSend to friendSend to friend

In December of 2008, New Tactics was very excited to have received 189 proposals from 59 countries for the 2008-09 New Tactics – NED Sponsored Partnership Grant Initiative. There were many excellent proposals and we were very proud to announce the recipients of these grants:

For eight months, these seven organizations carried out their proposed projects for adapting, implementing and sharing the New Tactics resources that they found most relevant to their own campaign and context.  Please find more information about these organizations and the outcomes of their New Tactics-NED grant projects below.

Organization: Liberia Association of Psychosocial Services (LAPS), Liberia

LAPS provides direct client services as well as community outreach and awareness raising in order to: Heal the wounds of survivors of torture, gender based violence and war trauma, enabling them to effectively function in their communities.

Issue and/or target audience:
“We have identified several emerging issues in our communities that can be effectively reduced or managed through the practical application of the New Tactics tactical mapping and other project tools. And for this proposal, we wish to address the issues of early marriage and the high rate of school drop-outs among young girls.”

Goal: LAPS wishes to address early marriage and school drop-out amongst girls in the communities they serve. They intend to organize groups of 25-30 girls and use a number of New Tactics process tools: the “village selection and vision gallery,” “tactical mapping process,” and “spectrum of allies” to engage the groups in identifying and solving the problems facing them. In addition, they want to utilize New Tactics notebooks “Western Psychology and traditional healing” and “Powerful Persuasion” to build community allies and collaborations with their partners and sharing the information gathered during this time.

Outcome: LAPS conducted tactical mapping workshops with more than 180 girls, reaching out to educators, counselors, judges and community elders.  LAPS also created a number of partnerships with agencies in their target communities to provide school scholarships to the young girls participating in the New Tactics workshops.

LAPS found that their goal of reducing rates of school drop-outs, pregnancies and early/forced marriage of girls attending school has achieved some success.  Tracking the girls during and after the New Tactics-NED project, out of 1,585 girls from three schools – 201 girls dropped out of school (a decrease of 3%), but a significant 35% decreased in pregnancy and early/forced marriage - 22 became pregnant and 24 married early and/or were forced into marriage

LAPS says:
“The project was an ‘eye opener.’ It brought to the attention and made the teenage girls discover some community resources that were right at their door steps that with or, without external assistance, can now be utilized for personal growth and development. Our advocacy also resulted to some of the girls acquiring scholarships in which 100% of their school related costs will be taken care in the coming academic year—2009/2010.“

Additionally, LAPS was able to adapt strategies from the “Powerful Persuasion” notebook to address the issue of female genital mutiliation (FGM) and has joined a nation-wide campaign in Liberia against FGM.

Organization: Swat Youth Front, Pakistan

Swat Youth Front works on povery reduction, literacy, employment, women empowerment, peace and disaster management.

Issue area or target audience:
“District Swat has been under the spell of Talibanization and militancy for the last two and a half years…The same militancy and Talibanization tendencies are also manifesting itself in the adjoining districts [Buner, Shangla, Dir lower, Dir Upper and Malakand Agency]…The human rights situation in District Swat is on alarming level while in other districts the same tendencies are exhibiting its negative impulses. The New Tactics resources and tools would enable us to advance human rights in District Swat [and adjoining districts] by enhancing the capacity of human rights activists and defenders, civil society organizations and institutions in these districts to minimize violation of human rights, extremism/ Talibanization and enabling the people to be aware of their basic human rights, which are inherent in their nature to develop a just, peaceful and prosperous society.”

Goal: Their project aims to:

  • translate “New Tactics in Human Rights, A Resource for Practitioners” book into Urdu and distribute 500 copies to other organizations in the area;
  • organize three orientation workshops; and
  • conduct focal groups for interviews in communities to identify changes in behavior, capacity and impact prior to and after the project.

Outcome:  SYF faced many challenges throughout this grant period because of the unstable situation in the Swat Valley.  However, despite these challenges, SYF was able to translate the “New Tactics in Human Rights, A Resource for Practitioners” book into Urdu and distribute copies to practitioners and organizations in the area. SYF also held seven orientation workshops with target audiences.

Furthermore, through its joint project with the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and New Tactics, SYF was able to broaden its original audience to receive the Urdu translation of “New Tactics in Human Rights, A Resource for Practitioners” to include students. The students that received these books were more confident in carrying out dialogues on human rights issues with teachers and other students.  Furthermore, these students plan to participate in New Tactics online dialogues and publishing reports in their local and national news.

SYF shares one story from a participant in the project: “One of the students, Malali, after discussion sessions [on the New Tactics book] has been able to share her story about the violation of human rights in the Swat District to the BBC service, and she has been regularly sharing her diaries with BBC and other international agencies regarding the situation in Swat.”

Organization: Regional Center for Minorities, Serbia
(NOTE: RCM operates in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro as well as Serbia)

RCM aims to foster cross-border cooperation and build capacity in Western Balkan countries to promote minority and human rights through lobbying, advocacy and legislatives activities; combat racism and discrimination; and build capacity of minority NGOs in the region to more actively participate in public affairs.

Issue area and/or target audience:
“Anti-discrimination laws, their adoption and implementation is the burning issue in all Western Balkan countries. In Kosovo, for example, where anti-0discrimination law was adopted in 2004, not a single case of discrimination was officially reported…Other countries in the region face the similar problem.”

Goal: To translate, adapt and use as an advocacy tool the New Tactics Tactical Notebook, “Testing for Discrimination” into Serb-Croatian, Albanian and Macedonian, print 500 copies of each translation and distribute to organization in the region and make them accessible for download from their website (and New Tactics website). They plan to organize a cross-boarder, multi-country round-table with the aim of introducing this “testing” tactic and resulting in concrete ideas for incorporating the tactic into national legal frameworks and in activities of human rights and minority rights organizations.

Outcome: RCM translated the New Tactics tactical notebook, “Testing for Discrimination” into three regional languages (Serb-Croatian, Albanian and Macedonian) and introduced the “testing” tactic at cross-border, multi-country round-tables and conferences. Due to the recent public debate on discrimination in Serbia, the translated notebook was very positively received by a wider audience than initially sought– including the general public.

RCM identified several immediate results.  Organizations and anti-discrimination activists in and around Serbia have stated that this publication in all three languages will be a useful tool in conducting anti-discrimination activities. RCM has created partnerships with local human rights organizations such as Labris, Queerian, and Dae  Additionally, UNDP’s anti-discrimination unit has made a commitment to include this ‘testing’ method in their training curriculum for state institutions and OSCE has shown interest to further work with RCM on the development of the project.  Several of the workshop participants are willing to participate in further development of the project to include training for ‘testers.’ 

In June 2009, RCM hosted a conference titled, ‘Role of testers in implementing and anti-discrimination law.’ They plan to continue working with groups from Western Balkan states to work towards incorporating the tactic into national legal frameworks to combat discrimination.

Organization: Fahamu, Kenya

Fahamu aims to support and nurture the pan-African movement for social justice by building a culture of respect for human rights by stimulating debate, discussion and analysis, building a culture of respect of human rights, supporting social justice advocacy, and publishing and disseminating information using both new and conventional media.

Issue area and/or target audience:
They stated: “Notably, the post-election violence in Kenya exposed the need and hunger within the social justice movement in the country for tools, strategies and resources to address the underlying social, economic and political ills that created the environment for the crisis. As Kenya suffers a democratic recession in regard to the political elite’s willingness to cede power and the violation of the right of citizen’s to participate in the choosing of their leadership through free, fair and peaceful elections, the country has also seen unprecedented citizen participation and action to reclaim their rights through peaceful protest, advocacy and direct action. One such movement (in existence before the election violence) of citizens that has emerged as a strong force and voice of the people is Bunge la Mwananchi (Kiswahili for People’s Parliament).” Target audience for the project: Bunge la Mwananchi

Goal: Fahamu aims to pilot a series of six (6) workshops to enhance the skills, tools and knowledge of Bunge la Mwananchi (Kiswahili for People’s Parliament) members using New Tactics materials (using the prevention, restorative and building human rights cultures and institutions tactics most specifically) as a base for these workshops. Fahamu intends to work with Bunge la Mwananchi members to contribute to the New Tactics database on innovations in social justice activism (e.g., their success in preventing the proposed rise in food prices through peaceful street demonstrations).

Outcome: Fahamu organized four workshops – two with the Bunge members and two others with new audiences.  As they continue to build their network, and respond to the still-volatile situation in Kenya, Fahamu believes that the new advocacy approaches sparked by New Tactics will help Bunge and other activist groups achieve their goals with tactics that are less likely to provoke arrests.

Specifically, Fahamu highlighted three ‘success stories’ from the tactical workhshops:

  • “Freedom from Hunger Train.”  Bunge members engaged the train passengers in dialogue on human rights issues in order to mobilize and organize Kenyans around the responsibility of government to ensure food for its own people.
  • A video documentary was created that chronicles the ongoing peace efforts. Fahamu believes that the New Tactics workshops provided impetus and strategy to plan for more concrete action.
  • During two different workshops, peer to peer exchanges took place. Firstly, between participants from Rwanda and Burundi who shared their experiences working in countries struggling with ethnic differences and second, between two government administration officers and local officials concerning best practices that have been used in other neighborhoods.

Organization: Fundación de Educación Popular (CIAZO), El Salvador

CIAZO Network is composed of eight (8) grassroots partner organizations which have the common purpose of contributing to community development through the construction of political awareness of human, social, cultural and productive capital in rural communities identified as severe poverty communities. They apply the approaches and methods of Popular Education with gender equity and environmental sustainability. Since last year, the CIAZO Network has developed a capacity building process with the boards of directors of each organization in order to strengthen their actions.

Issue focus and/or target population:
“In recent months the organizations that make up the CIAZO network have analyzed the socio-political situation in the country, as well as the role that the popular organizations are playing. They concluded that it is necessary to resume the struggle by communities for their rights, with specific actions of political advocacy, because after the signing of the Peace Accords in El Salvador, some communities have been falling into a state of conformism that has generated the disrespect for the basic rights of individuals. This requires the use of tools adapted to the new time in the country, such as those developed by New Tactics. It is in this context that arises the need for such tools, to reproduce the work of advocacy.”

Goal:  Two representatives of the CIAZO Network technical team participated in the New Tactics workshop held in Guatemala in July 2008 sponsored by the American Jewish World Service for an association of Mayan bi-lingual and bi-cultural educators. This project aims to train a broader “technical team” within CIAZO in the New Tactics tools and methodology; and, to subsequently utilize that technical team to train the board of directors of CIAZO, and the eight member organizations’ board of directors in the CIAZO Network in the New Tactics tools and methodology.

Outcome: CIAZO successfully implemented seven workshops during the grant period. In total, seven organizations’ boards of directors and supervisory boards were trained on New Tactics methodology and tools – 104 participants – 64 men and 40 women.  These trainings have positioned the CIAZO network for stronger impact in the rural communities in which it works.  They are also striving to articulate advocacy efforts nationally. For this to happen, each partner organization that has been trained has to achieve the objectives specified in its action plan and to define joint actions as a network in the face of public policy change needed to improve the living conditions of the population. This will especially be the case in education and will improve the output of the population that they work with. The anticipated impact will be revisited in the actions that are defined in the Annual Operating Plan of CIAZO network and its technical team.

Organization: BAOBAB  for Women's Human Rights, and the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Nigeria

BAOBAB works to promote women’s human rights principally via improving knowledge, exercise and development of rights under religious, customary and statutory laws while its vision is women’s human rights become an integral part of everyday life. NAWOJ is a consortium of all practicing females journalists in Nigeria. It is a forum for collective action to enhance the overall growth and development of Nigeria especially by strategically making public the contribution of women to the development process.

Issue focus and/or target population:
In March 2007, NAWOJ launched the Journalists Against Violence Against Women (JAVAW) network in one of the 36 states of Nigeria that had emerged from a workshop provided by BAOBAB for journalists in 2004 through a New Tactics microgrant. This began the early formation of the JAVAW network. This proposal aims to focus on a target group of 1,000 journalists from the 10,000 strong NAWOJ to serve as pilots to the project to expand the network into the six geo-political zones of the country.

Goal: This partnership between BAOBAB and NAWOJ will provide identified and selected New Tactics resource materials (five tactical notebooks) to a selected and targeted group of 370 women journalists in six geo-political zones in Nigeria. The JAVAW network will be used as a base to implement the project by working with different representatives of journalists to return to different locations and steer the process. Monitoring will take place via site visits, phone calls, e-mail and the use of questionnaires. BAOBAB and NAWOJ will follow up with reports in newspapers and electronic media to analyze how issues of violence against women are being reported as well as the JAVAW listserve discussion.

Outcome: BAOBAB and NAWOJ printed and distributed 500 copies of four New Tactics tactical notebooks and used these with to a targeted group of 370 female journalists in Nigeria’s six geo-political zones to build a stronger, broader, more informed journalist network for reporting on issues related to violence against women. Most of these workbooks were distributed at three major media workshops organized by BAOBAB. BAOBAB also received requests from journalists outside of their initial target audience, and decided to include these participants in order to broaden their reach. An added bonus of their efforts has been an increase in the number of journalists contacting BAOBAB for their expertise regarding violence against women’s issues.

Journalists that participated in this pilot project now better understand the complexity of domestic violence and are expressing this new knowledge in their stories.  BAOBAB writes, “For us it is an indication that they now understand better issues of violence against women and have the interest in being a partner and also an advocate in fighting the cause for the promotion and protection of the rights of women in Nigeria.”

Additionally, BAOBAB reports that the journalists that participated in this project have begun to report cases of violence from the perspective of the survivors and the law prohibiting such violence.  This has been a welcomed change in the reporting of violence against women in Nigeria, one that BAOBAB and NAWOJ will continue to encourage with the network of journalists that will continue to meet and share experiences in person and over email.

Organization: Solidaridade Buka Hatene (FORSANE), Timor Leste

FORSANE’s mission is to create a more self-reliant and peaceful society in Timor Leste through the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights. FORSANE facilitates community education on income generating activities as well as conflict transformation activities, such as conflict mediation, negotiation and arbitration.

Issue focus and/or target population:
“To create a local mediation council to reduce community conflict through training and Action Theatre.”

Goal:  To translate four (4) New Tactics notebooks into Tetum (Society as a Mediator for Conflict, Rebuilding Community, Recipe for Dialogue, and Action Theatre) for the purpose of carrying out other activities of proposed project, use for training and dissemination, and resources for developing a theatre show. FORSANE will disseminate New Tactics material through their monthly bulletin, and train 30 participants on ‘Conflict Transformation’ using the translated New Tactics material. They will carry out two (2) training workshops, organized by two selected local partner organization (Denore and Hakada/HDI). Additionally, five (5) theatre performances will be implemented in five (5) communities by a local theatre group.

Outcome: FORSANE published several New Tactics Journals called “Journal Tatika Foun.”  The publications were distributed to 32 selected organizations.  

FORSANE’s partner organization, ‘Monkey Marriage Group,’ performed three Action Theatre Shows in three different communities to over 110 people regarding non-violent tactics for dealing with land issues.