What is the Goal of the Project?
The long term goal of the Hum Qadam project is to enhance the participation of female members of Citizen Community Boards (CCBs), and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to help women become more active and effective “agents of change” in improving the quality of their lives within their communities. Relevant local government officials are also participating in the project.       

What is the duration of the Project?
January 2009 to December 2011      

In which districts of Pakistan the Hum Qadam project is working?  
  • Karachi and Badin in Sindh;Chitral in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa;
  • Gwadar in Balochistan;
  • Lahore and Rawalpindi in the Punjab; and
  • Ghanche in Gilgit-Baltistan. 

 

What are the key issues addressed by Hum Qadam? 
There are many obstacles in the way of Pakistani women’s equal participation in local governance and social development, barring their engagement in effective advocacy. This is due to a variety of reasons:   

  • Lack of opportunities in managing resources;
  • Ineffective negotiation and policy influencing skills;
  • Social constraints that discourage women from participating actively in public forums;
  • Lack of development planning skills; and
  • Lack of awareness of available opportunities to mobilize resources and improve their quality of life.

The project attempts to address these capacity gaps, enabling women to become equal and capable partners in the social development of the districts selected.       

What are the expected outcomes of Hum Qadam?   
At the end of the project, it is expected that:  

  • Women participants in selected districts will gain confidence and their effective and active membership of Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) will be facilitated, along with equal participation in development activities;
  • CCB representatives and other key stakeholders in selected districts will be more gender sensitive and work toward mainstreaming gender in their development activities;
  • There will be increased social acceptance of women, evidenced by CCBs and CSOs having an equitable distribution of  women and men members;
  • A local cadre of Resource Persons will be developed to ensure sustainability of project objectives;
  • Projects that improve the quality of life of women will be designed, implemented, and sustained;
  • Resources will be mobilized and managed more effectively by CCBs and other CSOs. 

 

Who are the target beneficiaries of Hum Qadam?    
The target beneficiaries of the Hum Qadam project are a group of selected representatives, both men and women, from 140 local level organizations, including CCBs, CBOs, NGOs, Local Support Organizations (LSOs), professional associations, as well as local government institutions in the aforementioned districts.     
 

What are the key activities of Hum Qadam? 

  • Training courses that enhance knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward the social development of women; 
  • A Capacity Needs Assessment exercise to identify specific course topics including Project Design and Management, Gender Mainstreaming, Leadership and Communication, Negotiation, and Orientation on Social Issues (e.g. socio-economic issues, poverty alleviation, gender, etc.);
  • Provision of technical assistance on project design, implementation and interventions that aim to improve the quality of life for women and their families; and
  • Orientation sessions for other CSOs and local government officials.

 

Who are the partners of Hum Qadam?    
Many local level citizen groups apart from CCBs have participated in the project. They include, but not limited to, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Local Support Organizations (LSOs), Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), School Management Committees (SMCs), Village Organizations (VOs), Women Organizations (WOs), Community Based Education Societies (CBESs), etc. 20 partner organizations per district were selected for the Hum Qadam project on the basis of the following criteria:       

  • Some experience of accessing various types of resources;
  • Have been working in the district for at least 2 years;
  • Have some systems in place to take forward the objectives of the project;
  • Have female representation in their management and preferably also in governance; and
  • Be a registered non-profit entity under a relevant Pakistani legislation.

 
Who are the selected participants of Hum Qadam?    
Individual participants in the Hum Qadam project were selected for enhanced capacity development and technical assistance, based on the following criteria:      

  • Good understanding of the purpose of the project;
  • Availability to undergo advanced training; and
  • Ability and willingness to devote time to the extra demands resulting from project activities.

 

How will the local human resource benefit from Hum Qadam?    
In order to ensure the sustainability of the project’s objectives, a cadre of local Resource Persons has been formed for training and technical assistance related activities. They were selected on the basis of the following criteria:       

  • Availability as trainers/resource persons at least during the course of the project;
  • Practical experience of training and facilitation;
  • Significant exposure to local level development initiatives; and
  • Being part of a facility that offers, or has the potential to offer capacity building activities in the districts.

 

What support will Hum Qadam provide to beneficiaries?    
The selection of smaller projects is made on the basis of the following criteria:      

  • Potential to attract different types of funding – i.e. from the Government, the private  sector, local philanthropy, donors, etc.;
  • Being gender sensitive and promoting equity based development; and
  • Targeted toward the improvement of the quality of life of women.

 

Who are the contact persons implementing the Hum Qadam?      

Hum Qadam project is a joint collaboration between Civil Society Resource Centre (CSRC) and the Civil Society Programme (CSP) of Aga Khan Foundation (Pakistan). The contact person is:       

Civil Society Resource Centre, Karachi       

Muhammad Anis Danish, Senior Officer Outreach
anis.danish@csrc.org.pk
Phone: (021) 35865501-2 Ext. 240