Women For Change

Women for Change was a biennal project (2011-2012) funded by the EuropeAid Cooperation Office, which managed the external cooperation programs of the EU.

The network MEDITER – Euro-Mediterranean cooperation Network, AISBL MEDITER-Women for Change (2011-2012) was funded by the EuropeAid Cooperation Office, which managed the external cooperation programs of the EU.

MEDITER – Women for Change was a cooperation project between Local Authorities (IRIS Provincia di Pescara) and Non-State Actors (Safadi Foundation, CAWTAR and Graif), to support working women in local authorities and NGOs of the Euro-Mediterranean zone. 

Through their fieldwork experience, the partners have seen the necessity to strengthen women’s skills and their access to leadership roles within the LA and NGOs of the region, in order to improve the active participation of local actors in the field of regional development.

The overall objective of the project MEDITER – Women for Change aimed to strengthen women’s leadership within local authorities and NGOs and, through them, to provide an appropriate response to the economic, political and cultural risks of marginalism in the Mediterranean region, one of the strategic areas of European gravity.

Indirectly, the project aimed to reduce the risk of crises (economic, political and social) in the Mediterranean, through the strengthening of women’s representation in the areas of administrative hierarchy and decision-making positions within the local authorities and NGOs.

To achieve these objectives, the project aimed in particular to achieve the following two specific objectives:

1.Increasing the preparation level and the access to decision-making positions of women by developing an ongoing program of higher education for women-manager of local authorities and NGOs.

2.Encouraging a permanent exchange between women-manager of public and nonprofit sectors on subjects of common interest, through the creation of a thematic network dedicated to the development of cultural policies.

Under the second goal, in January 2011 the network MEDITER – Euro-Mediterranean Network for cooperation has been created.

The creation of a such network ensured the sustainability of obtained results and replication of the training model and transnational cooperation proposed by the project by encouraging “spontaneous” exchanges dynamics able to self-sustain on the long run. The network also connected local entities and organizations supporting women’s leadership in the Mediterranean and allowed the information dissemination and exchange of good practices.