Record Item Year: 2014; updated 2022

This toolkit includes all of the templates, samples, and related resources that were created as part of the Starting with Women approach, developed in Uganda. All templates should be adjusted to meet the particular context of your project. 24 tools in total.

Through the creation and sharing of dramatic performances, participants learn to identify priorities, issues, experiences, and methods for understanding and changing land tenure rights. During this training, they’ll learn to develop meaningful communications for their target audiences at different community levels.

These trainings focus on how to speak up, how to negotiate, and how to lobby. The end goal is that participants will be better able to advocate for themselves, both individually and as a group.

Plan for quarterly meetings to review the progress of the project. This sample agenda template is broken into four different quarterly agendas that will guide the review process during the project’s lifecycle.

The Starting With Women approach is based on the needs and aspirations of participants. Implementation activities must therefore be responsive and flexible. The following template includes suggestions for how to easily chart out a plan for implementation, including common methods for engagement. This implementation plan begins after the activities of identifying and hiring Community Based Facilitators, identifying project participants, and conducting the baseline and needs assessment.

Once Focus Groups and Women’s Needs Assessments are completed, it’s important to compile the input into a one-page document that can be reviewed by the participants. Here is a sample of the Key Messages for Capacity Building and Implementation from the project in Uganda.

Before the project begins, a needs assessment should be conducted with each group. This will form the basis for curriculum development and other ongoing engagement. These questions are illustrative; interviewers should be sure to probe answers. The discussion should be based around the goals for the project. In this example, the focus was on understanding the land and resource tenure situation in the area and women’s experiences of tenure.

This logic framework is linked to the baseline survey tool. The baseline survey should be developed after conducting initial qualitative research on land and resource security for women in the context of the project area. This framework, like the baseline survey tool, is illustrative and should be amended based on context.

As part of a Monitoring and Evaluation plan, ideal implementation of the Starting With Women approach will include conducting a baseline survey with both project participants and a control group. All project participants should be interviewed, and a robust sampling method should be used to ensure validity of the control group. Below is a sample survey, although questions should be tailored to the particular project context.

The purpose of this analysis is to identify the different stakeholders in the quest to improve the tenure security/land rights of women in the intervention area. The analysis is framed to show the value of engaging specific individuals and institutions that have influence and a role to play with regard to land rights matters at household and community levels.