Open Call: Knowlympics 2024

The Knowlympics serve as a vital tool within our Learning & Sharing activities, fostering the capturing of experiences and their exchange within our network. We believe that by sharing both successes and challenges, we can collectively deepen our understanding, inspire others, and pave the way for meaningful change.

Click here to see the winners of the Knowlympics 2023.

For the first time ever, this year's winners will not be chosen completely at random, but on the basis of quality.
After receiving a lot of feedback in this regard, we have decided that this year we will try to introduce specific qualifying criteria on the basis of which we will evaluate the submissions. We hope that this will increase motivation! You can take a look at the criteria here. Submissions will be ranked based on clarity, compelling nature, and implementation, as well as potential for replicability and adaptability.

The three first places will receive prizes between 750 and 1000 Euros.

Prizes can be used for learning & sharing purposes according to the needs of the winning organisations. This can be an exchange visit to another organisation, training for your staff, equipment for the office or any other material prize that can be used in the organisation’s daily or project-based work.

As always: participating in the Knowlympics not only gives you the chance to win a PRIZE for your organisation but: “…those who share always win something – because sharing benefits us all” - Caritas Kaolack, Senegal

Everybody can get something out of these knowledge sharing games, as all submitted experiences will be published on the horizont3000 website, uploaded to Knowledge Hub, and shared within our knowledge network.

In order to participate:

• Fill out the “Learning from Experience” questionnaire. We have adapted and simplified this year’ questionnaire once more, in an attempt to make contributions easier. We now have only one type that covers both positive and negative experiences (“learning from good practice” and “learning from failure”).
• Send the questionnaire to the Knowlympics coordinator within the deadline.

When selecting your experience, please consider the following criteria:

• You are a current project partner of horizont3000 or of our Member Organisations.
• The experience must refer to a specific practice, method, strategy or approach your organisation has applied in its projects and programmes. Get inspired: by clicking on the links in the list below you can see partner experiences related to women’s rights that have already been shared.
• While your experience should reflect this year's theme, it does not need to be the main objective or focus of your entire project or programme. It may just be an aspect during your work that has resulted in a valuable experience.
• The experience must be considered potentially relevant for other organisations. The most important thing is the possibility to learn from it! Negative experiences and failures can also be part of successful project work and can teach us a lot! Therefore, we especially encourage the submission of relevant negative experiences.

Access to land and resources is a cornerstone of women’s empowerment. Without secure land rights or access to essential resources such as water, women are often left at an economic disadvantage, limiting their ability to sustain livelihoods, lead their communities, and adapt to climate change.

Our current framework programme 2023-2026 focuses on gender equality and women's rights. While last year’s Knowlympics covered a broad spectrum of topics, this year we narrow the focus to highlight contributions in this sometimes easily overlooked field. Within it there are, of course, a variety of possible topics:

• Securing women’s land rights through advocacy and awareness raising
  Advocacy for equal land rights is an important lever in the fight against legal injustices. It goes together with awareness-raising of laws and policies and improved access to affordable legal aid services, as women often lack knowledge of their rights and the laws relating to land and rarely have the means to enforce them.
• Capacity enhancement and training for women
  Empowering women with knowledge and skills about land and resources management fosters agricultural productivity, strengthens food security and propels sustainable development. This can amplify women's decision-making power within their households and communities and strengthen their positions in society.
• Strengthening women’s participation in community-driven land and resource management and in climate adaptation planning
  Women play a central but often unrecognised role in managing land and natural resources within their communities. In addition to building capacities and agency, understanding and addressing other barriers to women's participation remains key.
• Addressing social and cultural norms
  Socio-cultural barriers and discriminatory practices often undermine women's rights, limiting their access to land and resources. While securing land rights is crucial to reducing women's vulnerability to gender-based violence, the realisation of same rights can trigger backlash and increased violence against women.
• Improving access to safe and sustainable water and sanitation
  Women are primarily responsible for water collection. This is an exhausting task which poses many physical and health risks to women, a situation that is exacerbated by the climate crisis. The extensive hours spent fetching water entail long-term disadvantages. Limited access to safe sanitation facilities also disproportionally affects women, exposing them to the risk of sexual and gender-based violence and impeding menstrual hygiene management.
• Highlighting why projects can fail when the unequal access to land and resources is not taken into account
  Why are most participants in agricultural trainings so often men? Unfair land tenure might be one of the underlying reasons. Addressing this issue goes hand in hand with recognising the burden of unpaid domestic care work in order to tackle the time poverty that affects women's participation in project activities.

• IFAD and CIFOR-ICRAF’s toolbox for securing land rights through co-created gender transformative approaches
• IFAD and CIFOR-ICRAF’s booklet on gender transformative approaches to strengthen women’s land and resource rights
• UN Women’s study on realizing women’s rights to land and other productive resources
• FAO’s brief on the gender gap in land rights
• WaterAids’ stories about the importance of safe and sustainable access to water for women
• International Land Coalition’s database of good practices from partner organisations
• Rights and Resources Initiative’s ten factors contributing to successful initiatives for indigenous and rural women’s rights to govern community lands
• Landesa’s study on how women’s and girls’ relationship to land across different life stages can lead to transformation or discrimination
• IFAD’s interview on why rural women need land rights