Focus on Yemen | Project Overview & Respondent Demographics
Project Background
The Status of Women in the Middle East and North Africa (SWMENA) is a gender-focused research project that evaluates the status of women in three countries: Lebanon, Morocco, and Yemen. SWMENA is a project by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Project Goals
- Improve the status of women in the broader MENA region by strengthening local NGO capacity to effectively advocate on behalf of women
- Train local NGOs on using solid data in their advocacy efforts and employ better strategies in approaching members of parliament, other governing bodies and the press about policy recommendations
- Build local data collection and analysis capacity
Project Methodology
- Evaluate existing data on women, identify gaps, and design national surveys to capture needed data
- Before conducting the SWMENA survey, key NGOs in Yemen that work on several aspects of women’s issues completed a short survey to identify their data needs and advocacy priorities.
- Survey questionnaires include a core section that is standard across the three countries and a distinct country module that deals with country-specific gender issues
- After data collection in all three countries, a final report will be created with comparisons across regions, between countries, and between communities within each country.
Project Research Areas
- Political and civic participation; Economic participation and well-being
- Social attitudes towards women’s roles, violence, reforming laws
- Social autonomy (access to education, role in household decision-making, control over household resources)
- Health and education