Browse by Theme: Advocacy

CARE’s advocacy team travelled to the party conferences this year with one goal: to build support for our #ThisIsNotWorking campaign. How many MPs could we get on board to push for a new global law to tackle workplace violence and harassment? Surely, we should only have bothered with TUC and Labour conferences if we wanted a workers’ rights issue to be met with open arms? But look a little closer and there was a decidedly receptive attitude in Birmingham to ending abuse in the world of work, as long as you knew where to look.

As previously noted, the House of Commons Select Committee on International Development (IDC) has just published its report on DFID’s economic development strategy. In my earlier blog, I characterised the report as “lacking punch, misunderstanding gender but with some positives”. I want to highlight here one positive (as I see it), yet many of you might see it as a strange positive: DFID appear to be rowing back on the centrality of the ‘Asia model’ to their economic development strategy.

The DFID-flagship Work and Opportunities for Women programme (WOW) has recently completed its inception phase and is now beginning implementation. The programme was originally conceived as a response to the UN High-Level panel report on women’s economic empowerment, which CARE broadly welcomed at the time. The programme is being run by an alliance of CARE, PwC, BSR, Social Development Direct and the University of Manchester, and aims to enhance the economic empowerment of 300,000 women by 2022.

This week, the British and Kenyan Governments, together with the International Disability Alliance, co-host a Global Disability Summit. Over 700 delegates from governments, donors, private sector organisations, charities and organisations of persons with disabilities come together to launch a Charter for Change outlining ten pledges to transform global efforts on disability. When governments convene high-level Summits like this the question on everyone’s lips is always, what difference will this make the day after?

The House of Commons Select Committee on International Development (the IDC) has just published its report on DFID’s Economic Development Strategy. But it seems to have only ONE new recommendation. This compares with, for instance, the IDC report on DFID and Education, which features 19 recommendations.

CARE is adamant that the #MeToo movement should not go down in history as a flash in the pan, but that we must harness the moment to make it a significant milestone on the path towards gender equality. The agreement at the International Labour Conference (ILC) to establish a new, legally binding convention to ensure that abuse and harassment isn’t part of anyone’s job description, anywhere in the world, is a big step forward. We now have one year to ensure that this draft agreement is as strong as possible before the final vote next June.

Will the parliamentary debate on refugee family reunion be a chance for the UK government to adopt a fairer approach? Right now in the UK, refugees who have been torn apart from their families by war and persecution continue to be separated from the people they love because of unfair and restrictive rules.