Discussion on the roadmap for implementing the Women’s School in Timor Tengah Selatan

As of March 2025, the development of the Women’s School (Sekolah Perempuan) in Timor Tengah Selatan (TTS) District had reached 39 groups across 30 villages. Support from all parties — the District Government, sub-district heads, village governments, churches and other relevant institutions — is greatly needed in running the Women’s School. The allocation of village funds is one of the funding sources for the Women’s School, as set out in the joint commitment signed by TTS District agencies (Bappeda, DPMD, the Inspectorate, DP3A), 9 sub-district heads, 31 villages, the P3MD-TAPM coordinator and village facilitators, and ICRAF Indonesia on 24 September 2024.

Following the facilitator training, the steps taken by each Women’s School group are to hold outreach about the Women’s School among villagers, recruit Women’s School participants (around 20–30 people per group), and run Women’s School sessions in line with the guidelines. To measure the achievements of each Women’s School group that has been formed, a space is needed for groups to share their experiences with one another.

To facilitate such a space, this activity was carried out by ICRAF Indonesia together with DP3A TTS, with the aims of drawing up a post-training roadmap, discussing the obstacles and challenges faced in running the Women’s School in each village/group, and discussing the learning data-recording system through the Kobo toolbox. The activity was attended by 40 representatives (coordinators) of Women’s School groups, 5 people from TTS District Government agencies, 1 district facilitator, and 12 people from ICRAF Indonesia. Participants totalled 58 people (41 women, 17 men).

The obstacles and challenges identified were: Women’s School participants being absent or changing from session to session; partners/husbands not being supportive; a shortage of stationery and supporting facilities; time constraints (being busy); the long distance to the Women’s School venue; low facilitator commitment; limited facilitator capacity; too few facilitators; the absence of a funding allocation; and the lack of collaboration with other parties (for example, to serve as resource persons). The lessons captured from the 40 Women’s School groups are that the keys to running a Women’s School include facilitator commitment and capacity, internal support (partners/husbands), and external support (other groups, churches, the government, and relevant institutions).

Through this activity, participants learned to apply the Kobo toolbox and Kobo Collect as a means of storing data and information in running the Women’s School. This application is used because it is easy to access, easy to use, adaptable to needs, usable both online (with internet) and offline (without internet), and free of charge. To ensure the use of this application, regular coordination is needed among all Women’s School groups.

The agreements reached in this activity were that each Women’s School group would aim to complete the outreach and member-recruitment stage in March 2025, run Women’s School sessions from April to June 2025 (drawing up the learning contract and the Gender and Public Health themes), and schedule a phase-1 learning evaluation in July 2025. A virtual coordination space was agreed through the TTS Skolbife Facilitator Coordination WhatsApp Group.

Event Documentation