WEGO!2 - TIME TO TAKE STOCK AND PLAN THE WAY AHEAD

The second edition of the WEGO! project came to an end in March 2021 and ActionAid Italy and its partners are already planning the activities of the third edition financed by the Right Equality and Citizenship Programme of the DG Justice of the European Commission.

This is the time to take stock of the project results and to plan how to best achieve the objectives of WE GO! 3. But first, let’s go back to December 2018, when the first WEGO! ended after having involved 252 women and 140 professionals. The project aimed at strengthening the support services for women who survived IPV in Europe, with particular regard to training services offered to shelters/women’s centres, broadening the use and deepening the impact of promising practices to foster IPV survivors’ economic empowerment in the partner countries.

WE GO! 2 (December 2018 – March 2021) further strengthened the results achieved in the first edition of the project. For instance, a revised version of the toolkit for AVC operators to support the socio-economic empowerment of the assisted women was issued. More specifically, the toolkit refined the practical tools and tips to enhance the women’s social relationship, their career plan, and job matching, and it also included new content on how to build a strong AVC network, to sensitize and involve the private sector, and to establish a territorial multi-stakeholder protocol. Through its distinct activities, WEGO2 developed a model capable of achieving tailor-made empowerment schemes IPV survivors’ through the strengthening of networks involving AVC, companies, and institutions.

WE GO! 2 partners designed a further version of the project to specifically strengthen the multi-stakeholder mechanisms aimed at supporting women economic empowerment. Inter alia, the new project will run policy labs to gather recommendations aimed to improve and better integrate national and European policies targeting women empowerment.  WE GO! 3 will last from April 2021 to March 2023, making the most out of the results and lessons learnt from the previous editions of the project.

Main WEGO!2 project results per pillar:

The WEGO2 CAPACITY BUILDING activities aimed at increasing the knowledge and capacity of 150 professionals s well as at improving the quality of services provided by 8 AVC with increased support standards for IPV survivors. Training participants stated that the activities consistently increased their knowledge on the importance of social networks (83.3%) and skills and competences (78.6%) to empower IPV survivors. 8 AVCs were supported in developing their networks, with different results depending on the country and the emergency context due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Through the Social Relationship Plan (SRP), the Balance of Competencies, the Career Programme (CP), and the Job Matching (JM), WEGO2 aimed at empowering 100 IPV survivors with a focus on their economic independence. 73.5% of women using the SRP significantly improved their relational network. The objectives set by women in the CP have an achievement rate of 50% (60% when considering unplanned achievements). 13% of the women included in the JM got an interview, 7% was hired for a temporary job, 6.1% was hired (no information of contract typology).  

WEGO2 AWARENESS RAISING activities aimed at increasing the awareness of companies and their employees on GBV and the role they could play in supporting IPV survivors. When asked if the training on GBV and/or or sexual harassment at workplace increased their knowledge on these topics, 87% of training participants responded it did.

NETWORKING target outcomes: 4 territories better coordinated (supporting services, multi-agency cooperation); 4 local ecosystems enabled in sustaining solutions for IPV survivors’ economic empowerment; 4 EU countries impacted with viable solutions for IPV survivors’ economic empowerment. Networks were strengthened around project partners, with a major improvement in the private sector involvement (+276,9%); a territorial protocol model was developed and adapted in the 4 territories involved. In Bulgaria the protocol was signed, in Greece and Italy the process in ongoing, while in Spain it remained at an informal level. In terms of advocacy, several meetings with a wide range of actors were held during the project implementation and a report with key results and recommendations was delivered to hundreds of stakeholders in order to disseminate and possibly replicate the WEGO2 approach to support the socio-economic empowerment of IPV survivors.