The focus of our Governance and Peace Initiatives is on improving food and nutrition security, building capacities of civil society organisations, strengthening local government institutions, empowering people to access entitlements, promoting good governance and including women in peace-building processes.

With our partners, we support local government institutions, village functionaries and committees, and empower people to access entitlements and social safety nets. To ensure better access to food and nutrition and to promote mother and child health, we undertake behaviour change interventions by working with the community through Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) tools. Quality of public services are improved through capacity building programmes of village level functionaries and the use of Community Score Cards (CSC).

We have also undertaken initiatives to build capacities of civil society and grass root-level organisations to better equip them to protect the rights of the vulnerable sections of society.

By strengthening women-led peace building initiatives for sustainable peace in South Asia, we are striving to mainstream women’s participation in peace processes, thus breaking the vicious cycle of women’s marginalization and subordination at all levels and bringing significant gains in women’s socio-economic status.

We focus on supporting civil society organisations that engage with communities, raise their awareness about their rights and entitlements and thereby help them improve their lives.

We seek to achieve the following goals:

• Greater access to government’s welfare schemes
• Greater knowledge about rights and entitlements related to food and nutrition security as well as rural employment
• Better awareness about health, nutrition, hygiene and sanitation
• Active role of women in decision-making processes in local governance and in peacebuilding efforts, particularly in conflict areas