Meet Hawa Coulibaly Kone, capacity building advisor and the representative on gender for the USAID-funded Keneya Jemu Kan (KJK) Project in Mali. Most recently, Hawa helped conduct a situational gender analysis of the KJK project and its partner organizations to assess the level of gender integration in the project design, implementation, and monitoring framework. The analysis found that KJK’s work with local partners across the country enabled the project to strengthen its institutional capacity in gender at the policy and programmatic levels and to respond to gender-related challenges.

We caught up with Hawa to learn more about how she and her team are working to break down barriers for women and build mutual trust among the project’s local partner organizations in Mali.

Tell us about your role and daily work on the KJK project in Mali

I joined the KJK project in August 2015. At first, it was a small team of two, myself and Hammouda, the senior technical advisor. I assisted in all activities, from developing plans and budgets to supporting activities for partners.