Participatory Approach to Measure the Impact of Women Organizing and Political Participation Across Conflict Lines in Syria

Abstract The United Nations (UN) secretary general submitted a report to the UN Security Council in 2010 in response to the adopted Resolution 1889 the previous year, entailing an interagency technical exercise and a consultation process between member states and civil society organizations (CSOs) to develop a set of indicators to measure progress on the implementation of Resolution 1325 on the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. A set of 26 global indicators was developed to be reported on by UN agencies and member states. Yet many women-led organizations in Syria tend to follow more complex and nonlinear methods to ensure participation and deliver change, which makes presentation of their impact a complex task. As a result, their ability to reflect the actual progress they achieve on the ground, and in turn solicit support and funding and ensure the sustainability of their operations, is limited. This chapter presents efforts with five women-led organizations in Syria to review, adapt, and develop a local set of indicators based on the global WPS list, allowing them to bridge and communicate their impact and efforts to better track processes. The final list contains 29 context-specific indicators and offers guidance to groups working on gender equality and women’s political participation on how to (a) develop results frameworks in line with the WPS agenda without infringing on their programming and operations and (b) communicate their impact more effectively.