MATCH International Programs
The work of MATCH draws on the highly developed knowledge, skills and experience of MATCH International Centre to support women's groups and networks in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and South America in their efforts to realize women's equal contribution to their communities and societies. Additionally, a Canada program comprises part of the initiative in order to increase public awareness in Canada about Match's work on international development and social justice as defined by women. Employing sustainable development principles and using the participatory development model, at the end of this initiative women will have increased access to knowledge, resources and tools of development to apply in their communities and societies increasing their attainment of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Themes
MATCH's work is organized under three themes: Women and Sustainable Human Development, Violence Against Women and Emerging Issues focusing primarily on HIV/AIDS. Activities under the theme of Women and Sustainable Human Development address inequalities in the legislative, economic, political, cultural and related social sectors of society to enable women to have equal opportunities to participate in the development and take leadership within their communities. MATCH's programming in the area of Eliminating Violence Against Women addresses gender-based violence based on cultural and historical biases, social, systemic and institutional mechanisms that perpetuate the domination of men over women and abuse of women's human rights. Under the theme Emerging Issues MATCH aims to help reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS infection through increased public awareness and to help mitigate the socio-economic impact of the disease through increased knowledge, better access to services, skills enhancement, sensitization and mobilization of communities.
Approaches to Gender & Development
Through these three themes, MATCH partners with women's groups to respond to the current needs that women face in the developing countries of the South within the broad social context of women and development. Many of the projects are cross-cutting and touch on critical issues of safeguarding women's rights throughout a range of societal institutions from the family, to community, to policy and law making bodies at all levels. Additionally, some issues involve meeting the challenges of sustainable development for women in closely linked regional and global economies and addressing global health concerns such as the growing feminization of HIV/AIDS and poverty.
Using a multi-prong approach with various actors in society from policy makers, to other NGOs, to service delivery sectors, MATCH's groups will employ the strength of civil society to mobilize the grassroots on social change, work through networks to strengthen responses to the urgent practical needs as well as systemic policy needs of women and to advance women in leadership positions throughout society. Within the next three years, MATCH's partners aim to empower women through these various activities to make informed decisions that will benefit them, their families and their communities.
Women exercise leadership in all aspects of this initiative. Men and youth will participate and be sensitized to gender inequality and its deleterious effects, at the same time witnessing women in leadership roles, highlighting women's leadership potential. As women are seen to gain access to resources and tools of economic development men can observe directly the benefits derived from women's enhanced participation and elevated position within communities.
Grassroots Programming in the Field
The work is carried out by local women's groups thereby building capacity for women to mobilize the grassroots on social change. Networks will be strengthened to respond to urgent practical needs as well as to policy needs of women. Women's leadership will be enhanced as MATCH's partners work to empower women in decision making to increase women's participation in all aspects of society with a direct benefit to over 170,000 women and girls and an indirect benefit to over 1,200,000 people many of them drawn from disadvantaged segments of society ranging from rural and indigenous groups to marginalized urban communities and minority groups.
Since MATCH programming is designed and delivered through small local community grassroots groups much of the labour is unpaid and countless hours by women volunteers contribute to the success of the programs. The programs are uniquely designed by women in their own communities according to their local needs so women are very motivated to achieve results and can more easily gain community participation. Many participants will expend much energy to achieve the desired changes therefore the probability of the community working to sustain the benefits derived from the projects is very high. Since the initiatives draw heavily upon knowledge and skills transfer, the changing of cultural practices and the building of resources and capacity, change is more sustainable.
Some of the work put forward concentrates on skills development to ready women for technical and vocational training or micro enterprise which combats women's poverty resulting in immediate, significant and enduring change. When women's economic positions are enhanced the standard of living of their families are elevated. This translates into increased education and employability of family members and often extends to the woman's extended network within her community. Strengthening a woman's economic position particularly helps ensure the education of children which makes lasting change. This means of developing human potential has proven effective in bringing about sustainable development.
The projects are developed to achieve positive environmental effects. First, women have considerable knowledge and experience in managing and conserving natural resources but as recognized by UN processes, (Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies, Rio Earth Summit Declaration, Beijing Platform for Action) women's role in community environmental planning has been limited by barriers such as discrimination, access to education, land and equal employment. These projects aim to help overcome such barriers and enhance women's leadership in all community endeavours including environmental planning and projects. Additionally, pre-employment and micro-enterprises within the MATCH programme draw on indigenous products, serve local markets and emphasize environmentally sound practices.
The work of MATCH brings Canadians into the overall goal of enhancing women's equality and women's participation in development. Our Canada program features an outreach and public education component to urge Canadians to become involved in global action to achieve social justice for women around the world. Volunteering for MATCH, placement opportunities for students in Canada and opportunities to contribute financially to this initiative will be key features of our Canada program.