Why do localized indicators matter for women’s empowerment & peace? Emerging findings from analysis across six countries in Asia

If you work in the peacebuilding, international development, or humanitarian sectors, you have undoubtedly grappled with the challenge of aligning the impact that you measure in your programming with the lived, daily experiences of the communities you serve. With support through the Women & Girls Empowered (WAGE) consortium, this brief aims to shed light on how locally-generated indicators on people’s everyday experiences of concepts like “women’s empowerment” and “peace” can contribute to a more grounded understanding of impact and greater accountability to communities.

The Grounded Accountability Model, or GAM, is one of the research approaches that practitioners can use in co-developing localized indicators with the people directly affected by conflict. GAM is the first pillar of the Peace Impact Framework (PIF), which provides a structure to capture and evaluate outcomes of interventions in conflict contexts on peace by accounting for the experiences of affected communities and practitioners. It empowers international and local practitioners to analyze the impact of their work and contribute evidence on what matters for peace, drawing on three pillars: lived experiences, aligned measures, and expert observations. 

Search for Common Ground (Search) has committed to co-creating localized indicators of peace with people living in conflict around the world through GAM-aligned processes. As a member of the Women and Girls Empowered (WAGE) consortium, several Search country teams implemented WAGE initiatives and were among the first to hold workshops to co-create localized indicators with project participants. This brief draws from these indicators as well as data from similar workshops Search conducted in other locations in Asia, to provide analysis, key findings and trends related to gender inequality and discrimination as a contribution to the WAGE Learning Agenda. The practical insights and examples of localized indicators are valuable for program designers, implementers and evaluators working on Women, Peace & Security (WPS), Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV).