ISF staff took part in a regional learning forum in Bangkok during March to mark the mid-point of the three-year project ‘I’m Prepared’: Equality for Refugee Women in return and reintegration contexts’, which is implemented in Thailand, Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka.
ISF is working in partnership with Act for Peace, the Organisation for Eelam Refugee’s Rehabilitation (OfERR) and The Border Consortium (TBC) on this project, which is funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade under the Gender Action Platform.
I’m Prepared pioneers a refugee-led approach, using protection preparedness methods to strengthen women’s empowerment and gender equality in the return and reintegration process for Tamil and Karenni refugees.
The research component which ISF leads explores what and how women’s empowerment changes are taking place, providing opportunities for learning and reflection for project partners and participants to improve project implementation, and growing an evidence base that can be used to inform broader sector programming.
The learning forum was organised to promote understanding about how the community-based protection approach (CBP) utilised by the I’m Prepared project empowers refugees to make informed decisions about their future, and then prepare for safe, dignified return. 17 participants from NGOs, government and academic researchers in the refugee protection sector joined the Learning Forum.
A representative from the Australian embassy in Thailand, Genevieve Clune, opened the Learning Forum, noting the importance of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in Asia and the value of shared learning on good gender equality practice in development programming.
A four-person panel comprised of representatives of each of the project partners shared key learnings from the I’m Prepared project so far. ISF’s Dr Keren Winterford shared that gender relations are complex and contextual and that there is a need to have a depth of enquiry to learn about gender equality and women’s empowerment processes in order to improve effectiveness of programs. Four work groups comprised of both external participants and project partners discussed their own experiences of programming and learning on themes of gender, advocacy, protection and livelihoods.
The learning forum was an important moment for reflection on the project so far and provided opportunities to share learning with the broader refugee protection sector. In coming months, ISF will undertake research with refugee women and men to measure their experience of gender equality as a result of their participation in the I’m Prepared project.