MAURITANIA: S/GWI PROJECT PROPOSALS

UNCLAS NOUAKCHOTT 000099

SIPDIS

FOR S/GWI

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KWMN PREL KPAO PHUM AID MR
SUBJECT: MAURITANIA: S/GWI PROJECT PROPOSALS

REF: SECSTATE 132094


1. (U) Per reftel's instructions, please find below two
project proposals. Post prefers the proposal "Mauritania
Women Speak" by Nedwa because the second proposal, presented
by the National Democratic Institute and the Reseau pour la
Promotion de la Citoyennete (RPC),has high consultant,
indirect, and administrative costs.



2. (U) Proposal #1: Mauritanian Women Speak by NGO Nedwa:

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THE PROBLEM
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3. (U) Mauritania today is confronted with major challenges
due to its vast territory, undeveloped human resources and
struggling leadership. According to the 2009 UNDP Human
Development Report, Mauritania is 154th in its Human
Development Index (HDI). Women represent nearly 60 percent
of the population of which most are semi-illiterate and
economically dependent. Girls who have completed a secondary
education represent only 26 percent of the total students.
Culture, tradition, and certain interpretations of the
religion have profoundly contributed to these realities,
limiting women to mostly domestic responsibilities. In
addition, the alarming divorce rates in Mauritania have
contributed to a significant breakdown in family values,
unity, accountability, and rearing responsibilities.


4. (U) During the past few years, however, Mauritania has
made some mild advancement towards the promotion of women,
such as:

- Initiation of gender based programs in FGM, violence
against women, and HIV/AIDS.
- Recognizing international conventions relative to human
rights and discrimination against women
- Signing a law that guarantees a minimum of 20 percent women
among electoral candidates


5. (U) Nevertheless, despite these initiatives, the overall
impact remains limited and perceived as good intentions at
best. While discussing the challenges of this program, it
was agreed that the empowerment of women is not only
dependent on the government's political will, but also on the
worldview and commitment of its citizens, educators and
religious leaders. What is needed to jump-start this
exchange of thoughts is to develop an educational media
program with an innovative approach to inspire new dreams
without rejecting one's religion, traditions, or culture. A
successful media campaign based on contextualized models of
behavior change will have a very significant impact in
creating the crucial momentum needed for Mauritanian women to
make significant advances against poverty, ignorance, and
become models of success.

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PROGRAM OVERVIEW
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6. (U) This program is a high-profile nationwide media
campaign aimed to use both mass and popular media to inspire
and arouse a positive perspective and perception of women,
their strengths, potential, and opportunities.


7. (U) At the program's core, it will highlight 20 of the
most successful Mauritanian women from all four ethnic groups
and bring them forth as role models to younger girls and
women. In addition, the program will also produce radio
programs to inform women of their rights and encourage and
show them how to best participate in civil society. These
materials will be written by reliable women journalists from
around the country who will gather stories, interviews, and
record songs. Print materials, radio and TV programs will
highlight the challenges and victories of each woman.
Trainin workshops will be organized regionally and
educational materials will be used at these workshops as well
as distributed to schools, women NGOs and throught the
Ministry of Women. Activities include:

- Production of 20 radio spots in four languages
- Production of eight longer radio magazines in four
languages with interviews, testimonies, theater, music, and
debate.
- Production and broadcast of four TV programs in four
languages
- Production and printing of a training handbook in Arabic
and French
- Production and printing of a booklet with the life stories
of each of the profiled women in Arabic and French


8. (U) Mauritania Women Speak is a program conceived as an
awareness campaign to promote women's empowerment and active
participation in the social development of Mauritania. It
builds on the experiences and lessons of the Program "Arab
Women Speak Out" designed by the Johns Hopkins Center for
Communication with primary financial support from USAID, as
well as the successful BBC program in Afghanistan to promote
women's rights. Lessons learnt from these programs were
contextualized to the Mauritanian environment and building on
the experience of NGO Nedwa, who has produced educational
materials in Mauritania for over 22 years.

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OBJECTIVES
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9. (U) The project will highlight activities and messages
that will primarily support the following objectives:

- Offer access to new ideas, information, and resources that
can help women expand their life options, including those
affecting their economic, social, legal, and health status.
- Promote diverse economic opportunities that move beyond
women's traditional income-generating activities.
- Facilitate the process of obtaining credit and loans.
- Foster social support for women's education, personal
development, and active participation in public life.
- Help project compelling, realistic depiction of proactive
women that offer inspiring examples and counter inaccurate
stereotypes.
- Help women better understand their legal rights and how to
obtain them.
- Build on the strengths of social networks to provide
outreach and support to women.
- Help women safeguard their health by becoming informed
about their needs and their rights to appropriate and
adequate services.
- Seek women's active participation in decision-making about
project design and approach.

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APPROACH AND MESSAGE STRATEGY
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10. (U) Role models: Role models assist us in the process
of formulating our notions of who we are and how we should
act. These women have the potential to stand as powerful
role models for thousands of women because these stories
reflect the concerns, conditions, obstacles, and
opportunities facing the average woman. These examples may
well inspire the belief that, "if she can do it, so can I."


11. (U) Empowerment: Empowerment education is mostly
initiated at the grassroots level. Women identify the
central issues of their lives in group dialogue and, in so
doing, allow other women to consider a wider range of
options. Empowerment is integral to development, which we
define as a process that increases choices, improves access
to services and goods, and enhances the capacity of
individuals. It is not just about having more but also about
being more. Although women already function as teachers,
passing down important traditions and knowledge to the next
generation, they may not recognize the significance of their
roles or see them as a path to empowerment. Often women
think, "It's nothing. I do it all the time," or "It's just
part of being a woman." Empowerment education helps them
recognize their own strengths and skills as well as their
contributions to the family's welfare. Equally important,
empowerment education helps women become aware of all the
options open to them and their potential consequences, on the
assumption that informed and self-confident women can make
their own decisions.

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THE SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT
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12. (U) The women profiled in this project view their
achievements within the context of their families and their
communities. In Mauritanian culture, the individual is more
deeply embedded in a closely connected social network than in
most Western contexts, and becomes reaffirmed by being part
of and working for the well-being of that group. Rather than
being measured by Western standards of personal success and
individual gratification, achievement is recognized chiefly
through contributions made within this familial and social
context. As noted by Jacobson, "Western notions of autonomy
based on the concepts of privacy and individual rights, for
example, may be less relevant to Muslim women who value the
interdependence of individuals, families and communities."
Except under extreme conditions, these women do not want to
jeopardize their marriages or compromise their roles as
wives, mothers, daughters, and daughters-in-law. They are
constantly engaged in resolving the tensions between their
personal needs and domestic responsibilities, individual
aspirations and social obligations, and household duties and
participation in public life. The result is a complex
blending of respect for and resistance to established
traditions. On the whole, these women do not perceive
themselves as revolutionaries who seek to challenge social
norms. Most of them comply as much as possible with
prevailing customs in order to fulfill the traditional roles
and deflect unwanted social judgement.

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THE LEGAL AND RELIGIOUS DIMENSIONS
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13. (U) Reactionary movements, which have gained
considerable momentum in recent years, seek to limit women to
a few home-based activities, the most important of which are
child-bearing; taking care of infants, children and elderly
family members; managing the household; and attending to
husbands' needs. Women are allowed to participate in other
activities only to the extent that such undertakings do not
detract from their primary duties, thus perceived. Such
gender constructions contradict Qur'anic texts, in which no
distinction is made between men and women with respect to
belief and practice and therefore with respect to the
determination of the individual's worth from the perspective
of the Almighty.


14. (U) Lessons and conclusions from other programs greatly
reflect and confirm the inseparable nature of women's
multiple roles as producers and entrepreneurs, teachers and
trainers, home managers and health workers, community
organizers and political activists, wives and mothers.

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TARGET AUDIENCES
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15. (U) All women: All women between the ages of 13 and 65
can benefit from these messages of inspiration and positive
change. These include literate/ illiterate,
rural/urban,married/single, employed or not.


16. (U) Family members: Research shows that people are
more likely to adopt a new behavior when they believe that
other people will approve, especially those whose opinions
they value. Immediate family members, such as parents,
grandparents, siblings, and spouses, can be especially
important sources of inspiration, persuasion, motivation, and
support. If they oppose a behavior, they can be equally
important sources of discouragement, disagreement, and
resistance.


17. (U) Parents and grandparents: Parents and grandparents
impart basic values, beliefs, and attitudes to their
daughters and grand-daughters during childhood. They also
control girls' access to education, work and marriage.
Fathers exercise a strong influence on their daughters and
are key sources of their social awareness and desire to help
the community.


18. (U) Decision makers and advocacy: Popular
participation in social change is just one goal of
empowerment education. It also aims to influence and shape
policy, because social and economic policies can either
inhibit or promote women's empowerment. For this reason, the
materials and findings of this project will be shared with
the policy-makers who influence social development and family
welfare policies. The information will also be shared with
the individuals and organizations who shape project planning,
including donor agencies, to encourage them to actively
promote and support projects that reflect the diversity of
women's capabilities.

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WOMEN TO BE PROFILED
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19. (U) A variety of grassroots organizations, including
NGOs, reproductive health centers, and social development
agencies, will help to identify women who have expanded their
roles beyond the hearth, are admired within their
communities, and act as agents of change. The women will be
predominantly married of reproductive age who already have
children and who come from modest backgrounds. The diverse
mix of women will be rural as well as urban, community
activists as well as entrepreneurs, teachers as well as
farmers.
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PARTNERS
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20. (U) In order for this program to succeed, full
participation from the government and civil society groups
must be engaged. Meetings to discuss this program have
already taken place with:

- Ministry of Women
- Ministry of Communications and Relations with Parliament
- UNFPA
- UNICEF
- International NGOs
- Local NGOs working for the promotion of women
- Women cooperatives
- Syndicate of Journalists in Mauritania
- Sociologists
- Teachers
- Media producers

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SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES
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21. (U) Radio spots: Twenty radio spots will be produced in
all four languages. These will be inspired from interviews
and testimonies taken from the field and edited into short
spots of 45-60 seconds each. These testimonials are very
powerful peer-to-peer tools for positive change. These 20
spots will be broadcast at least 200 times during prime time
on national radio.


22. (U) Radio programs: In radio magazine format, these 30
minute programs in all four languages will include highlight
messages from the field, testimonials, interviews, music,
theater, and host educators. Constructive debate will frame
the style of the shows, and using the enter-educate models,
the program will both be entertaining and educational.


23. (U) TV Programs: Four TV programs in all four
languages will be broadcast for 50 minutes each. As in the
radio programs, these shows will also include field,
testimonials, interviews, music, theater, and host educators.
These will be broadcast at high audience hours.


24. (U) Training handbook: A twenty page training handbook
will be published and distributed in both Arabic and French
on ways to lead discussion groups in a positive and
constructive manner. Included in the handbook is a powerful
introduction and context, a copy of the video and women
profiled, pre and post questionnaires, role play suggestions
and illustrations.


25. (U) Booklet including all profiled stories: The
stories of all 20 profiled women will be compiled in a book
in a simple story telling fashion. Lessons learnt and
personal insights will be highlighted throughout the stories.
The booklet will be used in regional workshops, in
classrooms and to NGOs.


26. (U) Training module: The project includes a training
module to be used as a tool for groups to discuss the key
factors that have contributed to the success of the women
profiled in the project. The module includes
process-oriented learning exercises designed to help women
strengthen their self-confidence, develop their negotiating
skills and network-building skills, and identify sources of
information and support. It also includes a viewer's
discussion guide to promote the critical review of the way
women are depicted in other media. Workshops will be
organized regionally using the training module.


27. (U) Poster: a full color and large poster will be
conceived and printed aimed to initiate discussion and serve
as reminder of the issues. Posters will be distributed to
schools, NGOs, and government offices.

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NGO NEDWA
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28. (U) Nedwa, an Arabic word meaning meeting place for
dialogue, is a Mauritanian NGO founded in 2004 and working in
the field of communications for educationl development. It
is officially recognized by the Mauritanian Ministry of the
Interior. The staff of Nedwa has almost 20 years of
experience in the field of information, education, and
communication activities and health campaigns in Mauritania.
It gained this experience under World Vision's Social
Mobilization for Health program between 1987-2004. The Nedwa
team comprises 15 Mauritanians and one US citizen. NEDWA has
worked in partnership with the US Embassy and USAID in
Counterterrorism projects. It has also partnered with
prestigious organizations like World Vision, UNICEF, UNDP,
FAO, UNFPA, WHO and WFP.

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BUDGET
--------------


29. (U) The total budget for the program is as follows:

Program, media products and materials: USD $67,000
Consultants and Program Director USD $20,000
Administrative fees USD $13,000

Total: USD $100,000


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GRANT MANAGEMENT

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30. (U) This grant would be managed by the Public Affairs
Officer at US Embassy Nouakchott.




31. (U) Proposal #2: Supporting Women's Advocacy
Initiatives by the National democratic Institute for
International Affairs (ND)

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PROBLEM STATEMENT
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32. (U) In the decade since Mauritania formally adopted the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW),the treaty has yet to translate into
concrete improvements in the lives of Mauritania's women.
The government still maintains a reservation precluding the
adoption of CEDAW principles deemed contrary to Islamic
sharia and has failed to implement or even address the more
controversial elements of the convention, frequently bowing
to pressure from influential clerics. Mauritanian women
continue to face profound discrimination in law and in access
to the meaningful political participation which CEDAW is
meant to support.


33. (U) Prior to the 2008 coup, Mauritanian women were
making significant strides in promoting women's leadership
and political participation. In 2006, for example, the
National democratic Institute (NDI) supported the efforts of
a group of women from civil society organizations, political
parties, and government who coalesced to successfully
advocate for the adoption of a 20 percent quota for women for
legislative elections. As a result of the campaigns and
advocacy surrounding the quota, Mauritanian women achieved 16
percent representation in the National Assembly and 34
percent in municipal councils. Some of these women's groups
went on to draft "watchdog"-style reports, monitoring the
extent to which government implemented CEDAW provisions
following Mauritania's signing in 2007.


34. (U) Many of these hard-won victories were eroded by the
most recent coup. Currently, there are no women hakems or
walys, the Ministry of Women and the Family was
decommissioned, the few women who are elected receive little
party support, and the recent nomination of a woman for
Minister of Foreign Affairs was initially blocked by an
influential imam. Mauritanian society, particularly in the
country's rural areas, is organized according to strict
tribal hierarchy that is dominated by men and in which women
continue to grapple with the persistence of deep-seeded
cultural norms and customary traditions, including forced
early marriage and school abandonment, which hinder women's
ability to actively participate in public life.


35. (U) The overarching challenge of effectively engaging
women in politics in Mauritania crystallizes into three main
themes: access to opportunities; information; education;
awareness of women about their rights and responsibilities;
and transcending restrictions to women's full participation
in political, civic, and social life.


36. (U) The women of Mauritania are far from passive - the
country's vibrant civil society and plethora of women's
rights NGOs demonstrate that Mauritanian women want to raise
awareness of women's issues and work together to create
opportunities for political leadership and favorable policy
change. Although there are few female mayors, in many
communities women are the leaders and managers because most
male representatives do not even reside in the constituency
they are supposed to represent. Recent activism on the issue
of female genital mutilation (FGM),for example, demonstrates
that there is urgency and interest in the women's rights
agenda in Mauritania by political, civic, and government
actors.


37. (U) These efforts constitute a promising step forward,
but require the support and coordination of women in
politics, government, and civil society. Due to the
country's size and scattered population, women's groups face
difficulty in connecting with one another and fostering vital
linkages, with women in political parties and government
administration. The relative political stabilization since
election in July, 2009, provides an opportunity for women to
aggregate their voices.

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SUMMARY OF PROPOSED PROGRAM
--------------


38. (U) NDI proposes a 12-month program with the following
objectives:

- Strengthen the ability of a diverse group of women to
cooperate on the development of advocacy initiatives on
issues of concern to Mauritanian women;
- Assist a coalition of women party and civic activists to
organize and engage Mauritanian women to better understand
their political rights; and
- Enhance the public perception of women as leaders capable
of developing policy recommendations and advocating at the
national level for reform.


39. (U) NDI would work with an informal, but established
group of women MPs, political party members and civil society
organizations to build a flexible coalition structure aimed
at increasing women's political participation in Mauritania.
The Institute would also seek to draw on Mauritanian
resources and experience, by partnering with the Reseau pour
la Promotion Citoyennete (RPC),a national network of civic
organizations with demonstrated experience in convening
community dialogues on citizen rights and responsibilities.
NDI would engage the RPC to both share their experience with
this nascent women's coalition, and also leverage their
contacts to raise the profile of the coalition and its aims.

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PROPOSED ACTIVITIES
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40. (U) A core group of Mauritanian women would take part
in t a pilot program to create the tentatively named,
"Mauritanian Women's Coalition" comprising women leaders
representing the spectrum of political parties and civil
society organizations across the country. many of these
women have worked with NDI on previous initiatives to support
women's political participation - including oversight of
governmental implementation of CEDAW - and represent a wide
range of political perspectives. NDI staff and the
Institute's partner, the Reseau pour la Promotion Citoyennete
(RPC),would develop training modules designed to build the
capacity of women's leadership skills.


41. (U) NDI has already proposed the women's coalition
concept with an established network of women activists,
politicians and journalists in Mauritania. Based upon those
discussions, inaugural members of the women's coalition might
include the following women:

- Aminetou Mint Maouloud, ADIL Party, Aleg district MP
- Kadiata Malick Diallo, Union des Forces du Progres (UFP),
national list MP
- Mariem Mint Bilal, Rassemblement des Forces Democratiques
(RFD),national list MP
- Aminetou Mint Moctar, Association des Femmes Chefs de
Famille (AFCF)
- Sy Lalla Aicha, Comite de Solidarite avec les Victimes de
la Repression (CSVR)
- Mariem Mint Haimoud, l'Union Pour la Republique (UPR),Atar
district MP
- Fatimetou Min Mohamed Yarba, l'Union Pour la Republique
(UPR),Nema district MP
- Mintata Mint H'Deid, le Parti Republicain pour le Renouveau
Democratique (PRDR),Nouakchott district MP
- Aichetou Mint M'Haiham, Public Administration staff
- Maalouma Mint Bilal, ADIL Party, national list MP


42. (U) Coalition Establishment and National Launch: NDI
would organize three sessions where the women within the
proposed coalition would gain the skills necessary to
identify obstacles to women's participation in Mauritania and
to develop strategies to overcome these challenges. Examples
of other successful collective approaches to be studied would
include the Moroccan moudawana reform process, Jordan's Women
Helping Women organization and NDI's "Win with Women"
initiative.


43. (U) Session One - Coalition Structure: This session
would facilitate the development of the coalition structure
through the formation of a steering committee for the
coalition which would serve as the focal point for organizing
and outreach. Other topics for the session would include:
examples of coalition structure and decision-making;
strategic planning; internal and external communications;
consensus building and conflict resolution; and managing
resources and fundraising. At the end of this session, the
coalition should have: coalition bylaws; communications
strategies; and membership recruitment criteria. Coalition
members would also design an action plan that will provide
the basis for informing women about the coalition and
recruiting action teams across the country.


44. (U) Session Two - Strategies for Sustainability: NDI
staff and RPC leadership would work closely with the
coalition leadership throughout the duration of the program,
providing guidance for further developing the organizational
structure, including fundraising to encourage sustainability.
This assistance would be outlined in a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) between NDI and the coalition leadership.
As part of its support to the coalition,, the NDI would
provide access to its resource facility, opened in 2006 to
create a space for political parties and CSOs to share
information, network, find resources and participate in
NDI-sponsored workshops. The center provides NDI's partners
with access to computers equipped with high-speed Internet,
printers and photocopying services. A French and Arabic
library houses manuals on political party management,
organizational development, conflict-resoulution and advocacy
along with other related reference and news materials. NDI
would also provide support through two online tools - the
Aswat portal for activists and reformers in the Middle East;
and iKNOW politics, an online workspace designed to serve the
needs of elected officials, candidates, political party
leaders and members, researchers students and other
practitioners interested in advancing women in politics.


45. (U) Session Three - Roadmap for Action: The coalition
would officially launch following a third strategy session
which would provide practical training in leadership skills,
strategic communications, advocacy, message development and
delivery and media relations. At the end of the session,
coalition members would have a draft action plan that would
provide the basis for dialogue with government officials, and
acts as a road map for project implementation.


46. (U) Raising Awareness and Identifying Concerns:
Following launch, the women's coalition would conduct visits
to key districts throughout Mauritania. During these
outreach visits, coalition members would engage community
leaders to build support for coalition priorities and women's
participation generally. Women from the coalition would also
conduct roundtables with women from each community to: 1)
present principles of CEDAW and Mauritanian laws pertaining
to the rights of women; 2) consider practical application of
key legislation and other factors influencing women's
political participation, and 3) discuss the main priorities
of women and key challenges they face in participating in
public discourse. Participants would be limited to 30 per
rountable and would include women MPs and municipal council
members, women political party activists, as well as heads of
local branches of women's organizations. The roundtables
would occur every other week and would take place in a
different district or area each time. Exact venues would be
determined based on the community's interest level as well as
availability of local centers and meeting places. RPC
members would work with the women's coalition to identify
local civil society partners who could co-sponsor
roundtables, help recruit participants, and share successful
techniques for facilitating community dialogue. In addition
to directly addressing the lack of information available to
Mauritanian women in rural areas, these roundtables would
allow women to voice their opinions about their roles in
communities - an important step to building confidence and a
key building block for building women's leadership potential.


47. (U) Following each roundtable, the women's coalition
leadership would compile information gathered in the session
to build a centralized collection of information which would
provide a snapshot of women's concerns throughout Mauritania.
Over the three months during which the roundtables would be
held, the coalition leadership would gain the skills needed
to advocate and advance women's interests in issues in their
local communities collectively, strategically, and
effectively. The emergence of common ground and shared
intentions among the participants of these events will build
confidence and creative energy within the coalition
leadership.


48. (U) Setting priorities and Advocating for Reform:
Taking into consideration the legislative timetable, NDI
would aid the coalition to conduct a public outreach campaign
and national conference in Nouakchott. This conference,
which would be scheduled to overlap with the fall
parliamentary session, would convene parliamentarians, senior
government officials, political party heads and national
civic leaders to provide a venue for the coalition to present
a report detailing outcomes from the national roundtable
series. In this two-day conference, plenary sessions on key
challenges facing women would be followed by presentations by
international experts on tested policy remedies for these
challenges, with closing remarks from coalition leadership
with their recommendations for reform. This conference will
be held in cooperation with RPC and the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP),which are currently working on
an advocacy initiative to raise the quota for women on
national lists to 30 percent. Following the conference, RPC
would disseminate the report to its network of civic
associations throughout the country and encourage local
support for advocacy efforts undertaken by the coalition in
Nouakchott.


49. (U) Coalition members would also engage in a series of
meetings and presentations to parliamentary groups and
relevant commissions to share recommendations for policy
reform. Such interaction would not only raise the profile of
women's issues within the parliament, but would also increase
women's access to the parliamentary elite who dominate the
debate on issues such as the economy and finance, defense and
security and international relations. At the same time,
coalition leadership would hold meetings with political
parties to allow members to demonstrate their ability to
contribute to the party and provide a vehicle to not only
promote the inclusion of women but also build their
structures/platforms on broader issues that the coalition is
addressing. At the end of the parliamentary session in
February 2011, NDI will assist the coalition in organizing a
national information day, coinciding with International
Women's Day on March 8. The event will include women from
throughout the country who took part in the outreach
roundtables. They will share progress made during the three
previous months of advocacy efforts in the capitol and NDI
and RPC will work with the coalition leadership to garner
national and local media for broad coverage, with a focus on
radio and television given their national reach.

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EVALUATION
--------------


50. (U) Objective 1: Strengthen the ability of a diverse
group of women to cooperate on the development of advocacy
initiatives on issues of concern to Mauritanian women

- Women from political parties, civil society organizations,
and government form a coalition to create political space for
women, engage them in constructive policy dialogue, and
ensure their input in political decision-making. NDI would
sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the coalition
and evaluate through on-site observation, training and
workshop reports, and media monitoring.

- The coalition develops into a self-sustaining structure
that can continue to advocate for women and raise awareness
of key women's issues beyond the grant period. NDI would
evaluate this based on ongoing communication with
participants and media monitoring of coalition activities.


51. (U) Objective 2: Assist a coalition of women party and
civic activists to organize and engage Mauritanian women to
better understand their political rights.

- Coalition leadership work across sectors to raise awareness
of the CEDAW principles, application in Mauritania, and
methods for enhancing its enforcement in the country.
- Program participants identify priority issues on which
women want to advocate for change, through regional
roundtables on CEDAW and women's issues.
- Information gathered at regional roundtables is used to
inform action plans and strategies for outreach.


52. (U) Objective 3: Enhance the public perception of
women as leaders capable of developing policy recommendations
and advocating at the national level for reform.

- Coalition leadership organize campaigns through public
outreach including media and direct contact employing such
tactics as letter-writing campaigns, letters to the editor,
interviews and roundtable dialogue events.
- National media outlets cover the Coalition launch and
national events convened to highlight the priorities of women
and key reform points.

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NDI TECHNICAL AND MANAGEMENT CAPACITY
--------------


53. (U) The National democratic Institute for International
Affairs (NDI) is a nonprofit organization established in 1983
working to strengthen and expand democracy worldwide.
Calling on a global network of volunteer experts, NDI
provides practical assistance to civic and political leaders
advancing democratic values, practices and institutions. NDI
works with democrats in every region of the world to build
political and civic organizatins, safeguard elections, and
to promote citizen participation, openness and accountability
in government.


54. (U) The Reseau pour la Promotion de la Citoyennete
(RPC) is a national network consisting of 16 Mauritanian
civic organizations representing human rights groups,
syndicates, press associations, professional associations and
service provision organizations. The RPC's goals are to
provide civic education through a community dialogue format
throughout the country and to raise awareness on the part of
Mauritanian citizens about their rights and responsibilities
as citizens.


55. (U) This twelve-month program would build on the
foundation of NDI's previous support of women's initiatives,
civil society an political parties in Mauritania. Thought
its work, the Institute has established relationships with
and identified women politicians, activists and journalists
from whom the Institute would be able to select a core group
that NDI will work closely to develop the Mauritanian Womn's
Coalition and carry-out its activities.


56. (U) Program Management: NDI's Country Director and
existing staff in Nouakchott would have primary
responsibility for managing the program, coordinating
communications between NDI and Coalition leadership,
conducting outreach and creating an action plan. In
addition, NDI would engage RPC leadership as well as other
NDI experts in the region with expertise in promoting women's
political participation who would support the establishment
of the Women's Coalition. The Institute's headquarters in
Washington DC< would provide additional administrative
support.

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GRANT MANAGEMENT
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57. (U) This grant would be managed by Embassy Nouakchott's
Political Officer.

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BUDGET
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58. (U) The budget proposed for the following program is as
follows:

Administrative $14,864
Contractual $27,597
Programming $37,603
NDI Indirect rate $19,936
Total : $100,000

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CONTACT
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59. (U) For any questions regarding these proposals, please
contact Nitza Sola-Rotger, Political Officer, at
sola-rotgern@state.gov.
BOULWAR