Browse by Theme: Women's Voice

Women’s marginalisation in public life and under-representation in decision-making and leadership perpetuates gender injustice. Supporting women to have a say in decisions that affect their lives is a strategy for achieving equitable and sustainable change in all of CARE’s work, including women’s economic justice, the right to health, food, water and nutrition, climate justice, and humanitarian action. This position paper provides guidance and resources for CARE leadership and staff to enable us to respond to women's aspirations for equal voice and social transformation.

The COVID-19 crisis is disproportionately affecting women and girls. This makes it all the more important that their voices are equally included in the decision-making spaces and processes where responses are formed. CARE’s research has found that where women do have higher levels of leadership, governments are more likely to be responding to the crisis in a way that supports gender equality. Women’s participation is necessary at every level and in every arena, from national crisis committees to the local communities on the frontlines of humanitarian responses.

This policy briefing from CARE International UK outlines why women must be a central part of the response to the climate crisis, and argues that the UK Government, as host of the COP26 UN climate talks in November 2020 in Glasgow, has an influential and critical role to play in accelerating global ambition to stop the climate crisis, and securing commitments that put women first.

When women are able to come together in safe spaces, they can use their collective power and voice to bring about change for a more equitable world. Women on the Move (WOM) is a CARE regional strategy launched in 2016 that mobilises savings groups in West Africa, so that women and girls can assert their basic rights. This report assesses CARE’s progress on this Impact Growth Strategy to date and shares success stories and challenges going forward.

CARE has been working with Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) since we first launched the model in Niger in 1991. Over the years, VSLAs have reached more 7.6 million members, 81% of them women. The economic impacts of the VSLA groups are well documented. Less formally documented is the impact that VSLAs have on women themselves and on the social fabric of their communities.

CARE is committed to tackling the underlying causes of poverty and social injustice to bring lasting change to the world’s most vulnerable. This requires supporting and engaging with change agents. Research shows that major social change only occurs when those who have been excluded from power organise collectively in the form of social movements to challenge existing systems and their impact. In addition, there is growing evidence globally that feminist social movements are driving gender justice.

This inter-agency position paper, signed by CARE and 40+ organisations worldwide, sets out a blueprint for governments, donors, UN agencies, civil society, and national and local actors to come together to uphold women’s and girls’ rights in crisis.