INSTITUTIONNAL BUILDING
During the 2 past years, Femmes Africa Solidarité went through a restructuring phase. In 2017, FAS had focused its actions on strengthening its partnership and networking, and on the administration of the organisation. FAS also received the official recognition of the PanAfrican Centre for Gender, Peace and Development (PAC) to develop and establish a training curriculum in «Gender and Sustainable Development».
Partnership and Networking
Africa (UNECA) and the Ministry of Armed Forces of Senegal. In this regard, Memorandum of Understanding were signed with both
institutions to formalize the axes of collaboration. With UNECA, the partnership supports GIMAC by hosting the Secretariat and providing space for the GIMAC Meeting, in November 2017. The Ministry of Armed Forces for its part signed a partnership for the implementation the program ‘’Mainstreaming Gender in the Senegalese Armed Forces’’ in December 2017. Beyond that, FAS took part in meetings to strengthen its network and partnership. Consequently, the Administrator of the PAC, Madam Coumba Fall Venn personally represented the organization in meetings. Some of them had the positive results highlighted in this report. The High-Level Political Dialogue for Women’s Leadership and Contribution in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Peace and Security in the Sahel held in Bamako-Mali on 21-22 February 2017, showed FAS best practices in conflict resolution, practices which take into account the role and leadership of women in the peacebuilding process. Following this event and in regards to its contribution in the security issue in Africa, FAS with the financial supportof UNWOMEN FAS has implemented a project on G5 Sahel by organizing the G5 Sahel Regional Conference of Women Parliamentarians, on the theme: «Leadership of G5 Sahel Women Parliamentarians for the Prevention and Combating of Violent Extremism» in Chad on 19 and 20 June 2017. This, to involve women from the G5 Sahel space in the fight against violent extremism in this area
On EWA programme partnerships were also initiated and developed with different organizations involved in food security and agriculture. For instance, during the 3rd annual gathering and Mayors summit of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) in October 2017 in Valencia, Spain. FAS team participated and took the opportunity to present the EWA programme and initiate partnerships with FAO, Milan and Valencia Municipalities, and RUAF Foundation Resource Center on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF) foundation for future partnerships. As a result, the Director-General of FAO, Dr Jose Graziano da Silva made a commitment to support the EWA Initiative. He undertook a discussion with the FAO decentralized offices about the initiative and develop with them strategies to adapt the needs of the Initiative to FAO programmes in the nine pilot countries. Femmes Africa Solidarité will continue to present the
EWA Initiative within the Milan Urban Food
The Panel discussion on the occasion of the 09th Session of the UNITAR Peacekeeping
Training Program Advisory Board held on 20 October 2017 in Geneva, given rise to an
important partnership between UNITAR and the PanAfrican Centre in regard to training
and strengthen capacities of peacekeepers. UNITAR become a technical partner to FAS
and participated in the training programme in Dakar on preventing sexual abuse in
peacekeeping operations in 2017 FAS also contributed to the Consultative meeting on the Continental Results Framework for monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the women, peace, and security agenda held on 23-24 November 2017 in Abuja and built a technical partnership with the Office of Special Envoy on Women, Peace, and Security of the African Union Commissio
Administration and Finance
FAS Administration & Finance Department is responsible for defining and overseeing financial, accounting and budgeting aspects of the implementation of the Programme and the management of human resources. The team is composed of an Administration and Finance Officer in Dakar, Finance Officer in Geneva Office, an Accountant, and an Office manager in Dakar Office. The Administration and Finance Officer supervises the team in Geneva and Dakar. The objective of this department is to contribute to the smooth running and efficient implementation of FAS Programme by ensuring compliance with FAS administrative and financial procedures.
Indeed, the restructuration of the office in 2015 and 2016 impacted the year 2017. But FAS recruited an acting Administration and Finance Officer in Dakar to supervise the team in Dakar and in Geneva. FAS has opened its internship programme has been successfully running since 1996. The internships programme is highly rewarding, and Interns gain practical skills, a greater understanding of the daily running of an international NGO. Consequently,the organization has worked with professional Interns who conducted projects and programmes during the year. Secondly, the Administration and Finance department in collaboration with the programme team elaborated its investment program, which is the basic document of NGO interventions in Senegal, in accordance withthe new regulations which govern NGOs inSenegal. The investment program is sent to the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security and must be approved after its presentation It makes it possible to institutionalize, to give credibility to the organizations that are the PAC and FAS toward the government, and to appreciate the impact of these organizations on the Senegalese territory. The document highlights the description of the NGO FAS and PAC, their field and area of intervention and its reference instruments. The objectives as well as the beneficiaries of these actions have also been defined and identified.
The focus was on the activities, expected results, and the resulting figures (program investment i.e. field activities, training seminars, workshops, monitoring and evaluation in addition to the salaries and social charges of the affected staff on the program) as well as the material investments (office equipment, documentation, cars etc.) on the basis of which the budget was drawn up.
The presentation of the investment program to the Inter-Ministerial Consultative Commission was made on 05 September 2017 at the meeting room of the Cooperation and External Financing Department and comments were
Official recognition of the PAC / Develop a training curriculum in «Gender and Sustainable Development
The PAC intends to continue its vocation but wants to be a more independent institution to go beyond its usual target training to reach a much more diverse audience with a goal of an L3 training degree to Master. The PAC already has a Master 2 in cooperation with the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar and
is in the process of deepening its training offerings to the different areas of gender and sustainable development while maintaining its vocation as a center for excellence, contributing to the capacity building of African civil society actors and to investing previouslyclosed areas for women
Communication
During this year, FAS initiated a restructuring of its communications tools and information processes in order to positively impact its local, regional, and international visibility. FAS’ communications activities were thus kickstarted with the recruitment of a professional Assistant in communication to support the activities of the various departments including Programmes, Advocacy, Partnerships, the PanAfrican Centre for Gender and Peace and Development by essentially to increase FAS’ presence on social media, in particular Twitter and Facebook. The Communication Assistant is also supported by FAS’ IT officer, who uploads articles on FAS different websites
(FAS main website, the GIMAC and Dissoo) and manages social media accounts (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) and is responsible to archive pictures and videos. Thanks to a good coordination of the whole, a wide range of communications initiatives took place, including the production of communication materials such as media kits, press releases, brochures and reports, talking points, press conferences, posts on social media, and one newsletter. These materials were used to support events organized by FAS at regional and national levels, such as the Gender is my Agenda Campaign (GIMAC) and theIV. Communication 2016 Activity Report 25 Senegalese Women’s Platform for Peace and Security “ËTU JAMM” during the legislative elections in July 2017. The social media input
was to ensure consistent and systematic coverage of FAS activities and achievements, drawing attention to the website as much as possible and building audiences thr