Browse by Theme: Advocacy

On International Women’s Day, 8 March 2020, advocates for better labour rights, especially for women workers, have been celebrating a major achievement: there is now a new international labour standard that recognises everyone’s right to work free from violence and harassment. Yet nothing will change on the ground for working women and men until governments strengthen laws, and employers improve policies and practices.

By Tom Aston and Jay Goulden

Measuring the impact of advocacy may be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Yes advocacy is different, but it’s not necessarily more complex or ‘hard to measure’ than governance or market systems programming, let alone ‘blue marble’ change. We think we’ve made some real progress in this area across CARE, and this blog aims to share some of our insights – and contribute to recent lively discussions across the sector.

By Reshma Aziz Khan and Sébastien Fornerod

CARE seeks to tackle the underlying causes of poverty and social injustice to bring lasting change to the lives of poor and vulnerable people (CARE 2020 Program Strategy). But how many of us can say that tackling these underlying causes is what we focus on every day?

Advocacy and influencing is at the heart of CARE’s program strategy – otherwise we couldn’t achieve our aims of tackling the structural causes of poverty and inequality, and scaling up our impact far beyond the communities where CARE and our partners work directly. But what are the most effective tactics and strategies that CARE uses to influence change? Here’s what we have learned from a recent review of CARE’s most successful advocacy and influencing work.

Understanding of the extent to which sexual harassment affects industries across the globe has increased exponentially. Numerous studies emphasise the frequency with which women experience violence and harassment at work. The Australian Human Rights Commission’s recent report on sexual harassment in the Australian workplace found that 1 in 3 women have experienced sexual harassment in the past five years. Emerging evidence in South-East Asia suggests this figure is higher than 1 in 2 in some industries. Such studies, combined with the spotlight shone on this topic by the #metoo movement, mean the prevalence of sexual harassment globally is undeniable. 

Co-authored by Glen Tarman, CARE International’s Head of Global Advocacy, and Lisa Hadeed, CARE International’s Senior Communications Coordinator.

Movements like #MeToo, #YoTambién, #BalanceTonPorc, #NiUnaMenos and others have sparked widespread debate; violence and harassment against women is being exposed in more sectors, and the violence endured by women who are often less visible is gaining more attention. But there’s one debate taking place that more people should know about – here’s 5 reasons why...

When it comes to Yemen, we are stuck in a waiting game, and expecting the worst. Two weeks ago, the UN announced that the country is on the brink of the world’s worst famine in 100 years, with 14 million civilians at risk of starvation.