Browse by Theme: Advocacy

Violence and harassment in the world of work is not just a labour issue but a societal issue, particularly given the ‘shadow pandemic’ of gender-based violence resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. How are national and regional organisations taking action to ensure workers are protected from violence—and what has been learnt about what works?

Co-authored by Hester Le Roux and Siddikur Rahman

As the Generation Equality Forum kicks off in Mexico City this week, we pause to reflect on all the challenges women still face on the road to equality and equity – especially given wide recognition that the global COVID-19 pandemic has impacted women disproportionately, threatening to set back the gender equality agenda by years, if not decades.

By Dina Hanania, Katherine Mercer, and Andrew Wells-Dang

CARE’s impact data over the last five years has shown that nearly half of our total impact comes from advocacy and influencing that stretches beyond the direct implementation of programs. This striking number points to a clear conclusion: advocacy to influence policies and programs is a powerful pathway to scale and is key to multiplying impact. But what types of advocacy work? What combination of advocacy tools and tactics yields initiatives that bring impactful wins to fruition?

By Huong Hoang and Céline Mias

The global fashion industry is one of the most female-dominated industries in the world. It is a goliath of an industry which includes the textile, clothing, and footwear sectors, which is estimated to employ about 60 million to 75 million people, 80% of which are women. Although countless women are behind this US$2.4 trillion industry which, if it were a country, would be the world’s seventh-largest economy, women workers are disproportionately represented. They are, in fact, found heavily concentrated in the most vulnerable and marginalized positions in the industry where they work for poverty wages and under harsh conditions. These women workers often face gender discrimination, exploitation and suffer from the impact of violence and harassment not just in the workplace but in their homes and on their way to and from work.

The UK Government has a crucial opportunity to ensure women and girls are put at the heart of climate action as it hosts COP26 next year, the annual global climate change summit. But their recent decision to appoint an all-male hosting team for their Presidency puts their credibility into question. We are outlining four steps the UK government needs to take to ensure gender justice is central to their COP Presidency, and to drive implementation of bold climate action.

Fifteen years ago today was the last day of the Gleneagles G8 Summit. I was there as the adviser for Africa and International Development for Number 10. This was the culmination of a campaign that saw 9 million brits demonstrate their support for aid to the worlds’ poorest people and 225,000 people joined the Make Poverty History march. It felt like a momentous day as the G8 made some huge commitments in response to the campaign.