Attachments
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report evaluates safe spaces models, assessing their effectiveness and sustainability. It highlights the positive impact of safe spaces on women, girls, and other community members. It prioritizes the identification of sustainable and effective practices and their role in promoting the empowerment of women and girls. The report details assessment findings, including sustainability and effectiveness challenges. It focuses particularly on the community’s role in mitigating these obstacles.
The report’s main findings are organized by theme, following the structure outlined in the contents.
The document is divided into three primary sections:
Part 1: Introduction outlines the assessment’s rationale and background, as well as the sampling methodology.
It details how geopolitical factors have shaped its implementation across various levels and timelines.
Part 2: Assessment findings provides a comprehensive analysis of the collected data. The findings combine insights from qualitative and quantitative analysis, integrating information from various targeted stakeholders.
In some instances, specialists who co-authored the report identified additional practices or risks associated with specific findings, drawing on their direct experience to ensure a thorough and nuanced narrative. This is the most detailed section, organized into chapters that reflect specific areas of inquiry from the assessment.
The Safe spaces: service delivery models and approaches chapter analyses the diverse service delivery approaches and models, which include a variety of activities and services provided within or through safe spaces. It offers insights from informants regarding the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, as well as the benefits and risks associated with each model.
The Community acceptance of and engagement in safe space programming chapter presents how the community perceives safe spaces, the process for fostering community acceptance, and the strategies that support this process to be more sustainable and effective. It also addresses potential and existing measures to foster a positive perception and counter negative views.
The Women’s and girls’ empowerment and gender transformation chapter examines the influence of safe space programming on the lives of women, girls and community members, alongside the strategies and practices designed to create lasting effects. It emphasizes how users can improve the effectiveness and sustainability of these spaces by reflecting on their current role and making it central to achieving a longterm positive impact on themselves and the community as a whole.
The Formal and strategic partnerships and collaborations chapter examines the range of established and potential partnerships and collaborations, and the capabilities to maximize their benefits. It assesses the extent to which partnerships are prioritized, their added value, and their role in enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of the space. It provides special considerations for partnerships with women-led organizations.
The Funding and physical infrastructure chapter provides an overview of the safe spaces infrastructure and funding landscape. It analyses and reflects on the availability of sustainable funding and the importance of diversifying funding sources as part of the safe space strategy to enhance sustainability.
The Impact of WGSS closure chapter details the first-hand experiences of a community that faced the closure of a WGSS 10 months prior to the interviews. It also provides insights from informants regarding the potential short- and long-term impacts of the WGSS closure, as well as identifying the community groups that would be most adversely affected by the closure.
The Sustainability practices and exit strategies chapter summarizes all sustainable practices outlined in the discussions, analysing them in terms of community involvement, effectiveness and sustainability. A table of suggested practices for WGSS sustainability (Table 3) outlines the risks and barriers associated with each practice. It also proposes measures for safe space practitioners, community members and participants to overcome any challenges.
Part 3: Conclusions outlines recommendations to strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of safe space programming.