TDEA implemented a household survey project, Punjab Access to Justice Project Household Survey: Public Awareness and Attitude. The survey collected basic demographic information of the respondents from Bahawalpur, Multan, and Muzaffargarh. The survey provided insight into the people’s dispute resolution choices, knowledge, and opinions about courts and lawyers. The survey contributed towards guiding future policymakers to improve people’s access to the justice system in Pakistan. The objective of the survey was:

To identify the existing justice systems and people’s access to these systems

Duration: December 2014 – March 2015

Funding Agency: European Union (EU)

TDEA is implementing a Inclusivity Through Diversity: Promoting Minority Rights in Pakistan project in collaboration with six civil society organisations, across 13 districts in Sindh and Punjab with significant minority populations. This project addresses the pressing needs of religious minorities by leveraging local partnerships that are grounded in each (civil society) partner’s established relationships and trust within these communities. This approach enables immediate, responsive engagement with local stakeholders and fosters long-term collaboration, enhancing programmatic impact and community empowerment.

Recognizing the multifaceted challenges faced by minorities, the project engages a range of stakeholders including those advocating for rights and protections, such as religious minority communities, human rights defenders, religious and community leaders, and civil society organisations that are instrumental in advancing championing minority rights, raising awareness, advocacy for equal treatment, and highlighting the issues faced by minorities. The project also involves those tasked with addressing these needs and improving policies and their enforcement, including legislators, political parties, government authorities, and rights-based commissions.

Duration: January 2025 – December 2027

Funding Agency: European Union (EU)

TDEA is implementing a Rights and Advancement of Citizens (RAC) project across Pakistan. RAC is funded by the United States Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (U.S. DRL). The RAC project contributes to the goal of strengthening local civil society organizations working to ensure equal political participation and advance and protect the human rights of communities. The project provides small grants to enable innovative actions by local civil society organizations in the Coalition for Inclusive Pakistan. Grant projects focus on the participation and rights of women and communities. The RAC project offers small grants aimed at strengthening the participation of citizens. This includes support for religious, ethnic, and indigenous minorities, as well as women and persons with disabilities.

Duration: October 2021 – June 2025

Funding Agency: United States Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL)

TDEA is implementing the Safe, Free and Effective Media project with the support of the United States Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL). The project contributes to an informed citizenry in Pakistan, that enjoys the freedom of the press and the safety of journalists. The project employs a multi-pronged approach that addresses the challenges of safety and security of journalists through (1) improving professional capacity, (2) strengthening support mechanisms and enhancing collective advocacy for media freedoms and safety, and (3) media monitoring to identify and counter dis- and mis-information.

Duration:   October 2023 – June 2026

Funding Agency: United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL)

TDEA implemented an Enhancing Women’s Political and Electoral Participation (EWPEP) project. The EWPEP project successfully decreased the gender gap on electoral rolls in targeted districts, including Gujranwala, Kasur, and Bahawalnagar in Punjab, as well as Swabi, Nowshera, Battagram, and Swat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), by 9.6 percent.   The project utilized a unique two-pronged approach, focusing on both the supply side by strengthening citizens’ registration infrastructure, as well as mobilizing communities on the demand side. TDEA provided 38 gender desks across NADRA registration centers in the project districts, successfully facilitating 113,635 (around 9.6%) women and causing an additional facilitation of approximately 60,000 women during the project’s implementation who were previously identified as being out of the citizens’ registration loop.

Duration: January 2022 – December 2022

Funding Agency: Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany

TDEA implemented a Enhancing Women Workers’ Access to Market (EWAM) project, with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The EWAM project organized women workers into the first-ever, formal cross-sectoral trade unions and enhanced their capacities to negotiate and advocate for their collective priorities and demands with employers, policymakers, and legislators to improve their economic participation in the public and formal private sectors. EWAM project successfully organized women workers into cross-sectoral Women Workers Alliances with horizontal and vertical structures to ultimately register as the first-ever all-women trade unions with provincial labor departments.

Duration: April 2019 – September 2022

Funding Agency: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Pakistan

TDEA implemented a Women’s Enjoyment of Rights, Empowerment, and Leadership (WE’RE Leaders) project. WE’RE Leaders’ outcome was to increase political empowerment and enjoyment of rights by women, particularly young and marginalized women and those at risk, in Pakistan. The project was implemented in 20 districts in partnership with member organizations of the Free and Fair Election Network. The project employed a multi-pronged approach to enhance women’s civil and political participation by strengthening the democratic institutions and statutory commissions through technical support and enhancing demand for greater political participation of women through building capacities of political workers, civil society actors, media, and citizens. The project has contributed towards improved political empowerment and enjoyment of rights by women by bolstering their leadership capabilities, empowering them as political workers and leaders, and educating them as citizens conscientious of their rights. Through partnerships with (region and district-based) local chapters of political parties, the project effectively engaged and trained women political workers, polling agents, and candidates helping them to successfully claim leadership positions within their parties and become members of elected assemblies and local councils.

Duration: April 2019 – March 2023

Funding Agency: Global Affairs Canada (GAC)

TDEA implemented a Citizens’ Voice Project (CVP) funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Its primary aim was to enable civil society organizations (CSOs) in Pakistan to harness citizens’ potential for strengthening public accountability – a prerequisite for improved governance. CVP was unique in its design and approach towards a plethora of complex governance challenges related to accountability, transparency, and responsiveness. The eight-year CVP awarded 364 grants and distributed funds to 227 CSOs to work in 154 districts across Pakistan’s four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. CVP rolled out 16 grant cycles in 26 multidimensional thematic areas. The project’s messages related to strengthening citizens’ voice, establishing state-citizen linkages and enhancing transparency and accountability in the governance framework have reached more than 50 million Pakistani citizens. The project’s design also provided for equipping citizens and government officials to play their respective roles in strengthening the processes and institutions of democratic governance. Towards the end, 70,791 citizens and 10,981 government officials received training to make the state-citizen linkages sustainable and meaningful.

Duration: May 2011 – December 2019

Funding Agency: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

TDEA implemented a Women’s Action for Better Workplaces (WAction) with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Pakistan. The WAction project set out to intervene for the resolution of a core set of issues deterring and undermining women’s participation in economic life in Pakistan, primarily by addressing the lack of organization and capacity of women workers to negotiate with authorities to improve legal and regulatory frameworks governing various aspects of employment that disproportionately affect them, particularly concerning their rights and entitlements in the workplace. the project mobilized, organized, capacitated and facilitated as many as 140 women workers to form five Women Workers Alliances in the five project districts. These women workers, belonging to public, private, and industrial sectors in each project district, advocated for improved working environments through more stringent enforcement of policy and legislative frameworks governing labour relations in Pakistan.

Duration: December 2016 – November 2018

Funding Agency: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Pakistan

TDEA implemented a Community Leadership Development Programme for Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. CLDP was implemented in eight districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. The project emphasized to local body representatives on their role and responsibilities and the prevention of gender-based violence. The project successes include local body representatives are referring GBV cases to partner organizations, council members are doing written communication with respective councils, women council members requisitioning council meetings and ensuring their presence, councilors are conducting awareness raising sessions against GBV with community members, and LBRs are more aware of dispute resolution mechanisms and out of court settlements for minor issues.

Duration: April 2017 – May 2018

Funding Agency: Trócaire