Counterpart helps our partners push for truly transformative changes to their countries, their communities, their families, and themselves, taking on entrenched power structures that foster privilege and inequality. We work with our partners to explore new mechanisms for engaging people in public life, particularly those that are most marginalized. By promoting openness and the right to participate, including through technology and innovative forms of citizen deliberation, our local partners are empowering citizens and transforming societies.

We have created a suite of innovative integration tools to make sure vulnerable groups are integrated into the civic space. Our tools include Rapid Gender Analysis Integration Planning for Fragile and Conflict-Affected Environments, Missing Voice Analysis, and an Inclusive Social Accountability Framework, amongst others. By enhancing meaningful inclusivity at every step of the process, our activities increase the likelihood for transformative, community-owned solutions.

Counterpart’s innovative Village Support for Girls Education program, which was established in 2021 in Mauritania through our USDA-funded McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition program and is being introduced in Mozambique under McGovern-Dole, facilitates women’s empowerment groups to address a wide range of issues through confidence building and group cohesion. These women’s groups have come together to address pressing issues in their villages: girls drop-out rates, early and forced childhood marriage, and women’s participation in the local economy.