Aawaz: voice and accountability programme

Aawaz: voice and accountability programme

Partner: DFID through DAI

Duration: 2012 to 2017

Locale: 45 districts in Punjab & Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Team Member: Dr. Abid Qiyum Suleri, Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Prof Dr Maleeha Aslam(Cantab, UN), Asif Saed Memon, Rabia Manzoor, Muhammad Zeeshan, Muhammad Sohaib

Status: Ongoing

Introdution:

AAWAZ is a five-year voice and accountability programme, which seeks to strengthen democratic processes in Pakistan to make them more open, inclusive and accountable to citizens.

AAWAZ aims to achieve this by reducing violence against women, and increasing the safe participation of women and other excluded groups in politics and governance structures and government. AAWAZ aims to enhance tolerance of diversity and strengthen the capacity of communities to resolve disputes peacefully without resorting to violence, and work constructively together to solve local problems and improve service delivery.

This is done through a mechanism of citizen's forums created at village, union council, tehsil and district levels in 45 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Punjab. These forums consist of local citizens who volunteer their efforts and time to help local communities engage with the political process, and the state in a more informed and rational way.

Objective

•  To help create a safer, stable and more inclusive democracy in Pakistan, through citizens’ mobilization leading to greater accountability of elected officials and public sector institutions.
•  SDPI's role within this programme is to provide research, knowledge generation on AAWAZ relevant themes, capacity building of local partners in evidence generation, policy analysis and advocacy. It is also engaged  in monitoring and evaluation of the programme activities.
• Moreover, SDPI is managing grants to local organizations for producing research and policy recommendations on programmatic themes. It also presents synthesis of research findings and recommendations into policy briefs.

Advocacy

• Collaborating with consortium partners to develop communications and advocacy strategies
• Advocating for women and minority-friendly legislation and policy

Capacity Building

•  Conducting training workshops for organizations in the development and civil society sectors on M&E, research skills, etc.