Environment

Progress Report July 2005- December 2009
Project Title: Environmental Awareness Program for Women in the Marshlands of Iraq

Executive Summary

Women and the Environment Organization in Iraq (WATEO) has been working successfully on empowering rural women in the Iraqi Marshlands to participate in the environmental decision-making process. 

WATEO provides capacity building programs and educational programs to rural women in their villages.  Over the three phases of the project, WATEO trained 1462 women, 2557 children and covered 43 villages.

With the support from United Nations Environment Program and the Canada-Iraq Marshlands Initiative (CIMI), WATEO conducted Environmental Awareness Program (EAP) for Women in the Marshlands of Iraq. Most of those communities lack basic services such as access to safe drinking water, sanitation, health services, schools and electricity and women are responsible for providing these services to their families.

WATEO initiated a program of training the trainers, where local experts will train rural women to provide these services for their families.  WATEO recruited seven people including female instructors, tribal/religious leaders and female volunteers in Basrah, Thi-Qar and Missan participated in the training. Those trained instructors visited Marshlands communities and held the EAP workshops.

During the workshops, instructors conducted practical demonstrations and lectures, including collecting water from areas that are less likely to be polluted, how to treat water for safe drinking, sustainable reed harvesting practices, and basic health and hygiene measures.
The participants have expressed great interest and enthusiasm, and have received the practical information materials, small goods and equipment to enable them to improve basic environmental and health practices in their daily lives.

Follow-up visits were conducted one month after the workshops to assess the impacts of the program and it was recognized that the EAP has helped changing attitudes of women in the Marshlands communities, who have gained knowledge and information related to the environment and the Marshlands.

Phase II
WATEO provided training to 712 women, in addition to 897 children from 15 villages in the Governorates of Thi-Qar, Missan and Basrah participated in the awareness-raising workshops. In each village, WATEO held workshops including lectures, demonstrations and the provision of health kits over four to five days.  WATEO’s experts conducted a second visit to the villages one month after the workshops to assess how the women had applied the skills and the knowledge they earned during the training.

Phase III
A total 400 women; 133 in Basrah, 134 Thi-Qar and 133 in Missan, some of them with their children, have participated in the workshops. WATEO covered the 18 villages were covered. Women brought their children with them. WATEO provided training to 763 children.

WATEO’s work resulted in bridging the gender gap in the tribal communities of the Marshlands. Women are participating effectively and actively in the process of environmental decision- making. Women’s participation in the environmental decision-making resulted in improving the quality of the decision-making process. Moreover, building the capacity of women led to building the capacity of children.

Part One: Background on Implementing the Project

Background
The project addressed implementation of an Environmental Awareness Program (EAP) for women in the Iraqi Marshlands. The Marsh Arabs, represented by tribal leaders from the "Marsh Arab Forum", in 2005 had approached the Executive Director of the Women and Environment Organization (Dr. Mishkat Moumin, then Minister of Environment) requesting such a program for women in their communities.

The percentage of illiteracy among marsh women is over 90%. They mainly work in the fields and raise children. The Mesopotamian Marshlands once constituted the largest wetland ecosystem in the Middle East and in Western Eurasia and covered an area about 20,000 square kilometers within the Governorates of Basrah, Maysan (Amara) and Thi Quar (Nassiryia) with 500,000 inhabitants. In 1993, Saddam’s regime drained the Iraqi Marshlands and lunched an attack on the Marsh Arabs.  Saddam’s regime crushed the Marsh Arabs and those who survived the attack either became refugees in neighboring countries or internally displaced people.

After the fall of the regime in April of 2003, international organizations, donor countries, Iraqi governmental agencies, and local NGOs came together to work on rehabilitating the Mesopotamian marshlands. While the Marsh Arabs are returning to their villages, they are facing the dangers of contaminated drinking water, absence of hygiene, and disease-carrying insects such as mosquitoes, etc.

The former regime in Iraq made no serious effort to establish any kind of environmental awareness program. Thus, unsafe environmental behavior has and continues to claims a large number of victims including women and children each year.

Project Duration
WATEO conducted the project from July 2005 to December 2009 over three phases.  WATEO conducted follow up visits after the conclusion of the last training workshop. Each phase lasted for a year with follow up visits for five months to measure progress.

Phase I
 July 2005-July 2006;

• First six-month: preparation, organizing the team, designing materials, and initial communications with the tribal leaders.
• Second six- months; implementation conducting train workshops in 10 villages 

Follow up visits
August 2006- end of September 2006:

Evaluation and data processing
October 2006- December 2006:

Phase II
January 2007- January 2008

• First six months, preparation, organizing the team, incorporates feedback from the Marsh Arab leaders, designing materials including materials for children, consulting with the Marsh Arabs.
• Second six months, implementation and conducting training workshops for 15 villages   

February 2008- end of April 2008.
Follow-up visits  

May 2008- end of June
Evaluation and data processing

Phase III
July 2008- July 2009

• First six months, preparation, organizing the team, incorporates feedback from the Marsh Arab leaders, and designing materials.
• Second six months, implementation including conducting training workshops in 18 villages

August-end September of 2009
Follow-up visit

October 2009-Decmber 2009
Evaluation and data processing

The Project Budget
The budget provided for this project was US$15000¹.

Project Objectives
The objectives of this initiative were three-fold:

• Empower women to provide basic environmental needs to their families.
• Empower women to participate in the environmental decision making process
• Empower women through resources management

Project Components
WATEO conducting the following activities:

1. WATEO’s experts conducted a 14-days workshop to train the local experts as a form of “training the trainers.”  WATEO’s experts conducted interviews to recruit these trainers from community leaders, tribal leaders, and local NGOs in Basrah, Mayssan, and Thi’Qar . The workshop provided the trainers with the needed knowledge to conduct EPA and equipped the trainers with the pedagogic skills to build a team for EAP deployment and facilitate EAP capacity building.  WATEO hold its training workshop at the Marshlands Research Centre, Thi Qar University, Nassiryia, Basrah University, and the Centre for Maritime Science. WATEO trained 21 trainers including 15 women and 8 men.

The trainers conducted a series of workshops to train Marsh women² on providing basic environmental services to their families. The trainers spent seven days in each village. Each workshop included a number of women ranging from 20-30 with their children³ who accompanied their mothers all the time.  The training takes place at tribal leaders⁴’ reception halls locally known as Mudiefs, or at the house of the most senior individual in the village.

There are multiple benefits of holding the workshops in the Marshlands:

• WATEO conducts the training at the natural environment of the Marsh Arabs, where women feel safe and comfortable.
• Holding the training at the tribal leaders’ reception hall reflects that environmental issues are important, since the tribal leaders are offering their reception halls to discuss these issues. 
• Reducing the financial cost of the project, most of the capacity building projects are conducted in Baghdad or Erbil in Iraq, or in Amman-Jordan outside Iraq, where the sponsors have to pay the cost of traveling and accommodations.  Utilizing an efficient budget, WATEO trained women at the Marshlands villages and was able to reach-out to 1462 women at a very low cost⁵. Thus, rather than allocating funds for traveling and accommodations for 1462 women and their children in Baghdad-Iraq or Amman Jordan, which is highly expensive. WATEO experts and trainer travel to these villages using local transportation⁶.    

3- Methodology used,  the trainers used an engaging approach such as initiating discussion, distributing materials and posters followed by discussions with the audience. The trainers avoid the lecturing approach.

4- To maximize its message, WATEO launched environmental awareness television and radio campaigns by producing TV spots and radio messages.  WATEO broadcast a two-minute long TV spot and radio messages daily at peak hours for 30 days from local TV and radio stations. The TV spot includes 12 slides from the marshland preferred to have women trainers.

• The importance of protecting the environment resources of the Marshlands and manage them.
• Building the capacity of the new generation to participate in the environmental decision making process. 
•  Recognizing women as primary users of water resources and involving them in the decision-making process.

Before the training (June 2004)

• 95% of the surveyed children did not know, what the term “environment” means. 
•  97% of the surveyed children believed that environmental resources are infinite resources⁷.  

After the training, (September 2009)

• 97% of the surveyed children refer to the environment as water, air, and soil.
•  98% of the surveyed children believe that environmental resources are finite resources and they can play a role in protecting them.
•  70% of the surveyed boys asked their sisters if they need help carrying water to back to the village.  

For example, responses collected from the 291 male children out of 689 children who participated in the training workshop of July 2005 (Phase I) indicates that 90% of the male children surveyed, think it is not required to include girls or women in the environmental decision-making process⁸. However, in 2009, 60% of 579 male children surveyed out 894 children, said it is important to include women and girls in the environmental decision- making process, because they are the ones who are responsible for collecting the water. 30% said it is important to include women, because they are the provide for water for their families.  10% said including women is important, however they did not know why.

Furthermore, the discussions and the materials used by WATEO’s experts portrayed women as equal partners in managing the environmental resources⁹.

Part Three: Recognizing Women as Primary Users of Water Resources Improved the quality of the Decision-Making Process
WATEO’s programs focused on the role of women as primary users of environmental resources such as water and the role of women in providing basic environmental needs for their families. These programs provided a platform for women to participate in the environmental decision- making process. For example, since women walked 8-10 miles a day back and forth to collect water, their input on allocating water resources is of a great importance. The tribal leaders began to realize the need to include women in the process of decision- making. In the follow-up visits, WATEO’s experts noticed the increase in women participation in the decision-making process. Before the project, women’s participation in the environmental decision-making was as low as 2%. However, women’s participation increased as follows:

The Increase of Women’s Participation in the Environmental Decision-Making after implementing the program.

WATEO’s experts measured women’s participation in different functions such as informal allocation of water resources or formal negotiation with the local authorities such as the Governorates Councils¹⁰ . Involving women in the environmental decision-making process resulted in improving it. 

Reasons behind Success

• WATEO’s experts utilized the local language that is known and acceptable by local communities.
• WATEO’s experts utilized examples from the Islamic history were women played a crucial role in managing water resources.
• The local ownership, since WATEO implemented the project among local communities with the support of local tribal leaders, the communities have a scene of ownership.

Responses collected from the 250 male children who participated in the training workshop of July 2005 indicates that 90% of the male children surveyed, think it is not required to include  girls or women in the environmental decision-making process. However, in 2009, 60% of male children surveyed, said it is important to include women and girls in the environmental decision- making process, because they are the ones who are responsible for collecting the water. Furthermore, the discussions and the materials used by WATEO’s experts portrayed women as equal partners in managing the environmental resources¹¹ .     

Findings

• WATEO successfully bridged the gender gap on the local level using the environmental theme. WATEO’s experts did not face any resentment for local tribal leaders while working on empowering women in the villages. While, the general perception those tribal communities resent women’s involvement in all decision-making aspects, the tribal community supported women’s participation in the environmental decision-making. However, WATEO noticed that the tribal communities of the Marshlands were and still are keen on involving women in the environmental decision-making process.  Environmental issues the domain of women in rural areas thus empowering women within their domain is acceptable and welcomed. Furthermore, WATEO’s experts found that it is more feasible and more effective to bridge the gender gap on the local level rather than the national level. Thus, bridging the gender gap at the level of a village is more feasible and successful than bridging the gender gap on national level. At the village level women come together to advocate for their interest as they are more connected with their communities, than women on the national level. Moreover, senior women within the community enjoy an influence over man in public affairs. WATEO noticed that the mother of tribal leaders enjoy a great influence on the tribal leaders.  WATEO’s experts noticed that the younger trainees seek support from senior women to influence change or mitigate difficult situations. 

Part Four: Recommendations
Based on its work, WATEO recommends:

• Conducting a higher level of training to establish community-based decision-making bodies that are gender sensitive.
• Conduct a training program for women and men who are members of the provisional councils where the Marshlands exist to manage the Marshlands successfully.  
• Reach out to other provinces, WATEO received requests from other provinces to conducting training programs for women.  WATEO has received requests from tribal communities to work on Anbar province west of Iraq.

Notes 

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WATEO's Arabic Language and Arabic Culture Program

• Arabic Language and Arabic Culture Program

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• UNEP referencing WATEO's Work in the Marshlands
• UNEP referencing WATEO's Work Empowering Women
• Empowering Women in the Marshlands Communities
• UNEP's Report References WATEO on Community Level Initiatives Targeting Women (Page 50)
  

The First Progress Report

• Progress Report 2005-2009

The Second Progress Report

• Progress Report June 15th - August 12th 2010

Success Stories