CED implemented a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) project targeting 3,200 women and girls; 1,200 youth, 2,200 members of exclude groups, 20 local civil society actors in Beletweyne, Warsheikh, Jowhar and Mahaday districts in Hirshabelle state. The investment is working with four non-state actors (NSAs) and 12 women centers with the potential or capacity to effect positive change in gender practices. To ensure community buy-in, the implementing partner is also working female gender focal points and men with positions of power/influence at community and district levels. These men and women will play a vital role in championing the cause of gender equity and social inclusion in the targeted districts.  In addition, the investee supports the women centers and other project stakeholders to host sensitization and mobilization activities using different community entry points. These include, debating competitions in schools; intergenerational and intercommunity workshops and seminars; community drama; and NSA-led grassroots empowerment campaigns. The project aims for the following outputs: Output 1: Effective local state/non-state actors and women coalitions influence women’s participation in governance and political processes, plans and budgets by December 2019. Output 2: Women, excluded groups and communities in target areas have increased awareness on women and excluded groups’ rights in governance and political participation to influence decisions by December 2019. Output 3: Women and members of excluded groups have improved literacy and technology skills.

The baselines assessment of this investment was carried out with the following objectives: Provide a deeper contextual understanding of the status of gender equality and social inclusion, which can inform programming at both the investment and SSF output levels. Establish a quantitative baseline for indicators on GESI in the intervention districts to monitor and evaluate the impact of the investment and progress against the outputs above. Evaluate the investment against SSF’s Output 2.1 indicator – “Quality, Relevance and Effectiveness of SSF-delivered work to increase popular participation in formal and informal governance structures” – in order to inform SSF-level reporting, monitoring and evaluation. The evaluation was conducted in all the four districts of the intervention – Beletweyne, Mahaday, Jowhar and Warsheikh. To meet the above objectives, the evaluation was divided into two parts, conceptually and methodologically.