On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we look back at the capacity-building initiatives for feminist civil society organization (CSO) partners organized by Geres as part of the FAME program in Morocco, Benin, and Togo.
Step One: Consulting with CSOs to Identify Their Priority Needs
An in-depth assessment of the CSOs’ needs identified four priority areas for capacity-building: resource mobilization, organizational communication, mainstreaming a gender perspective, and integrating environmental issues. In keeping with FAME’s feminist ethos, these training sessions—led by Geres or external facilitators—are first and foremost spaces for peer-to-peer exchange, providing opportunities not only for learning but also for sharing ideas, building connections, and supporting one another. Here is an overview of the activities carried out in recent months:
1. Communicating More Effectively for Greater Impact
Online Training: Communication for Moroccan Nonprofits, designed and led by Salma Wahbi, an expert in nonprofit communication (December 2025)
Feminist CSOs carry out essential work, but their visibility and ability to mobilize depend largely on the quality of their communication. To address this need identified during the assessment, an online training session was organized in collaboration with Salma Wahbi, an expert in nonprofit communication. Based on the StoryBrand model and a strategic approach to content pillars, the training enabled participants to clarify their messages, tailor them to their target audiences, and develop a concrete and measurable communication plan rooted in their organization’s mission and aligned with ethical communication standards.
What sets this training apart from a purely theoretical course is the two-week post-training follow-up that accompanied it: each participating CSO worked on its own communication strategy, receiving personalized feedback. This ensures that what was learned translates into practical tools that are grounded in the reality of each organization. At the end of the training, the eight participating organizations each have an action plan.
This training is now available online on the fameproject.org platform
2. Resource Mobilization
The economic empowerment of women also depends on the empowerment of the organizations that work on their behalf. However, many African CSOs report facing the same obstacles: a lack of awareness of available funding sources, difficulty in identifying relevant donors, and a lack of methodology for drafting strong proposals.
To address this, training sessions on resource mobilization were organized in the three GERES countries by three national external trainers, ensuring the sessions were best adapted to the national contexts. A similar methodology was proposed for all three countries: a hybrid format combining in-person and online training to address the challenges posed by participants’ geographic dispersion, along with tailored coaching to help each organization develop its own resource mobilization strategy.
In Morocco, a series of three training sessions was led by Manon Abadie, co-founder of kamlinlab.ma, between November and December 2025 in Casablanca, in a hybrid format. Several webinars were held, followed by a day of training at the Institut Français in Casablanca, and finally, small-group coaching sessions took place through February. Participants explored the landscape of available funding and strategies for diversification, learned to analyze different types of donors and identify relevant calls for proposals, and discovered the theory of change as a framework for structuring their proposals.
“Beyond individual learning outcomes, the results of the post-training questionnaire and the discussions during the coaching sessions highlight concrete impacts at the organizational level. Several CSOs reported that they had begun revising or formalizing their Theory of Change, drawing on the tools and frameworks developed during the training. Others have begun to identify new donors and funding sources beyond their traditional partners, demonstrating a greater openness to financial diversification. Furthermore, the support— —enabled several organizations to develop a project pitch and/or a short concept note…” Manon Abadie, co-founder of Kamline Lab
In Benin, the training on resource mobilization took place over several sessions from December 2025 through February 2026. It was led by a team of two consultants: Osé Ahosséyi S. Giscard GBAGUIDI, Senior Consultant and expert in governance, gender, and organizational development; and Antoine Osé COLIKO, Associate Consultant, lawyer, and expert in gender, communication, and advocacy. Using a hybrid format, three webinars and one in-person session were organized. The training enabled CSOs to explore the CSO funding ecosystem, as well as techniques for identifying funding opportunities and drafting effective proposals. The hands-on workshop allowed them to work concretely on analyzing calls for proposals, compiling administrative documentation, and drafting project proposals.
In Togo, capacity building for Togolese feminist CSOs in resource mobilization was led by a Togolese consultant, Mr. Komlan Benjamin TOKPA, an expert from the firm Result Services Sarl. This training took place in four sessions (two in-person and two online) between December 2025 and February 2026, benefiting 16 participating CSOs with a total of 32 participants. The training focused on broadening participants’ understanding of the concept of resources, encouraging them to move beyond an approach centered exclusively on funding. The goal was to help organizations identify and leverage all available resources—whether financial, human, material, or based on partnerships. This approach enabled CSOs, in particular, to consider building a network of potential partners capable of providing sustainable support for their initiatives. The training also focused on developing strategic documents dedicated to resource mobilization.
At the conclusion of the training, the 40 CSOs in Benin, Togo, and Morocco now have a customized resource mobilization plan that will serve as a roadmap for securing and expanding their initiatives.
3. Integrating a gender perspective: understanding to act more effectively
In Morocco, 10 short videos in Darija—produced by Hafsa El Mesbahi, a gender equality expert—are available on the FAME platform.
Working toward women’s economic empowerment requires a deep understanding of the mechanisms that create and perpetuate gender inequalities. With this in mind, Hafsa El Mesbahi, an expert in gender equality, has developed a series of 10 short videos specifically designed for Moroccan CSOs.
Broadcast in Darija (with French subtitles) to ensure maximum accessibility, this series covers, among other topics:
Fundamental concepts: gender vs. sex, intersectionality, masculinities, and femininities
Gender-based violence and the analysis of gendered institutions
Legal issues in Morocco, including the Moudawana and recent reforms
All videos and training content are freely available on the FAME platform; simply create an account: https://fameproject.org/fr/dashboard-apprenante/
4. Peer Learning: The Gender Community of Practice
On February 12, 2026, CSO partners of the FAME network in Morocco gathered to launch their Community of Practice, a recurring forum for exchange focused on feminist practices in their respective projects, facilitated by Geres. This format promotes peer-to-peer learning: organizations share their challenges and solutions on common themes. This first session focused on the effective inclusion of women in organizational activities, with concrete discussions on women’s access to activities, their free and active participation in activities, consulting women from the very outset of activity design, and finally, taking into account the social environmen to bring about a comprehensive transformation of gender relations. The Gender Community of Practice will be launched in Benin and Togo in the first half of 2026.
5. Committing to the Environment: The Development of a Charter by Each Organization
“Eco-Responsible Commitment Charter” workshop facilitated by Geres:
Working toward women’s economic empowerment and gender equality without taking environmental and climate issues into account is no longer possible: women are the first to be affected by climate change and are also key actors in the transition. However, feminist CSOs are not always equipped to address these issues and do not necessarily know how to align their work for women with actions for the environment. To enable CSOs without expertise in these areas to incorporate these issues into their work, the Geres team developed the “Eco-Responsible Commitment Charter” tool. This tool serves as a gateway to a wide range of issues while remaining accessible and adaptable to each organization’s needs. Each CSO receives support in developing its own charter, which facilitates the adaptation and adoption of the tool and its concepts. Developed for the FAME consortium, it was initially facilitated by Geres in Morocco, Benin, and Togo in the form of one-day workshops led by FAME project managers, who were themselves trained by a Geres expert: for Moroccan CSOs, on February 12, 2026, in Rabat; for Beninese CSOs, on December 12, 2025, in Cotonou; on February 17, 2026, in Zè; and on February 20, 2026, in Grand-Popo; and for Togolese CSOs, on December 17, 2025, and February 4–5, 2026, in Lomé.
After familiarizing themselves with the main challenges and levers for taking action on environmental issues as an organization—through a collection of online text, video, and audio content available prior to the training—participants were encouraged to reflect on the issues and actions that mattered most to them and that were most feasible and significant at their level. These reflections were complemented by a creative exercise to bring their aspirations to life by building models representing their vision of a sustainable future, as well as in-depth discussions on the solutions already implemented by the other organizations, inspiring the CSOs to draw up their list of commitments. At the end of the training, participants consulted their boards of directors to finalize an Eco-Responsible Commitment Charter signed by their respective organizations. Next step: monitoring the action plan to implement these commitments!
In total, 35 organizations from Benin, Togo, and Morocco have developed their eco-responsible commitment charters. In Benin and Togo, the cooperatives received oral training in local languages with the support of their community facilitators, as the women do not speak or read French.
By strengthening the capacities of feminist organizations, FAME helps empower them and provide them with the support they need to sustainably defend women’s rights and advance toward equality.
