Building strong societies

Blackboard with text: How to build a strong Civil Society.

Employing a rights-based approach, we work to ensure that the voices of the poor are heard, and that their rights are realised. To achieve this, we work to strengthen civil society and the public sector.

We build capacities of local partners, duty bearers and relevant stakeholders. We do this through facilitating inclusive engagement between Strømme Foundation, partners, public sectors and beneficiaries to address the root causes of poverty or economic deprivation, rights to education, and sustainable economic inclusion.

Communities are empowered to hold duty bearers accountable for better delivery of services.

The focus is to empower individuals and communities to claim their rights and promote partnerships and accountability of duty bearers. Civil Society Organisation strengthening will mainly employ community led accountability.

Our Approach

Empowering people

Strømme Foundation maximises impact through programmes that empower people, especially women and girls, to be agents of change in their communities.

Soit's story: Empowering women into change agents

2019 Tanzania Project trip Tangen High School

Mobilising communities

Organising rights holders at the community level through structures such as Community Based Organisations (CBOs), Self-Help groups and savings groups is central for impact and sustainability.

Government staff at gender office i Juba

Advocacy

We work closely with local and national authorities. This ensures local ownership of our programmes and promotes justice and democratic participation. It also enables rights holders to gain access to the services they are entitled to.

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Gender equality is a human right.

The UN's Sustainable Development Goal 5 is a priority in our work to strengthen the position of girls and women in society. Gender equality is about giving men and women, opportunities to decide over their own lives and abolishing gender-based discrimination.

We fight against discrimination.

Everywhere in the world, people experience oppression, and in many societies disability-based and gender-based discrimination are prevalent. Without addressing discrimination and oppression, we will be unable to fight poverty in a sustainable way.

Expected Results

Strengthened ability of rights holders, including people with disabilities, to hold duty bearers to account.
Independent and democratic rights-based community structures.
Increased transparency, accountability and use of participatory planning processes by the Government.
Community-based organisations and NGOs are engaged in peace building and conflict transformation.
Improved governance and institutional capacity of partner NGOs (strong civil society actors) and government officials and institutions.

Why we need community led accountability forums?

Lack of ownership of Strømme Foundation interventions by program participants and understanding their power as rights holders.
Creating interacting spaces for engagement to hold partners / Strømme Foundation accountable.

Some of the accountability levels include: district level, sub-county level, parish level and village level. Each village nominates about 10 members selected from different projects.