ARROW’s latest Work Programme and Budget (WPB) is the fifth Work Programme and Budget since ARROW was established in 1993. This WPB will guide the strategy and direction of ARROW’s programmes and projects from October 2006 to September 2011. It was constructed upon a strategic planning process undertaken with ARROW’s partners and based upon the findings from strategic planning meetings, meetings with ARROW’s Board of Directors and the Programme Advisory Committee, as well as input from ARROW staff.

Work Programme and Budget (2008-2012) Objectives

The objectives of the Work Programme and Budget for the next strategic planning period (January 2008 - December 2012) are as follows:

Objective 1 - To create and implement a comprehensive information and communications strategy for ARROW, providing a strategic framework for the sharing of conceptual, practical and innovative information materials and tools; a system for the participatory monitoring and evaluating of the impact of this Strategy; the increased utilization of new technologies towards enhancing outreach; and the collection, production, dissemination, translation and promotion of such information materials and tools such that key NGOs, governments, the UN and other stakeholders are influenced towards improving health and population policies and programmes, specifically on critical women's health and rights issues. 

Objective 2 -To create a systematic evidence-based research and monitoring system which charts national and regional progress towards Cairo, Beijing and other international commitments pertaining to women's health and rights; that the data from this monitoring system is periodically uploaded onto an internet database for ready access by NGO's, governments, United Nations agencies as well as other stakeholders; that the analysis of this data critiques and creates a pressure on existing indicator and monitoring systems presently used by governments and the UN, towards compliance with the higher standards set by Cairo and Beijing; and that new indicator tools are developed to account for the impact of emerging and as yet unquantified threats and obstacles to women's health and rights. To prepare for the penultimate year of ICPD, Beijing and MDG monitoring of targets achieved, being 2015.

Objective 3 - To carry out national, regional and international capacity building for strategic policy advocacy that strengthens feminist, rights-based, gender-sensitive and women-centred approaches of national and regional NGOs, as well as other related agencies; that effectively identifies gaps in the implementation of government policies and programmes in four ways:

• i. Through the monitoring of budgets;
• ii. By evaluating the extent of women's participation in policy and decision-making;
• iii. By assessing the existence or lack of policy frameworks that address critical issues of women's health and rights;
• iv. By monitoring performance and government accountability concerning the commitments made at Cairo, Beijing, and other international development agreements involving women's health and rights.

All this will be done in order that marginalized women increasingly obtain accessible, affordable, comprehensive, gender-sensitive and rights-based sexual and reproductive healthcare services.

Objective 4 -To expand the Women's Health and Rights Advocacy Partnership (WHRAP) to all thirteen priority countries of ARROW and convene WHRAP Asia Pacific as a regional forum of capacity building for evidence-based policy advocacy at local, national and regional levels; that the WHRAP advocacy strategy generates grassroots demand for government accountability on international commitments; that WHRAP creates an enabling regional environment for improved policies and programmes at all levels; and that the WHRAP partnership strategy opens up new opportunities for advocacy on women's health and rights and expands the space for NGO's to engage with, participate in and influence policy-making processes of governments and other international agencies with increasing effectiveness.

Objective 5 - To strengthen the documentation of good organisational practices of both ARROW and partner organisations with the aim of enhancing feminist leadership within the women's health and rights movement, as well as the women's movement in general.