WOMANKIND Worldwide currently hosts and co-ordinates the UK Gender and Development Network. The Gender and Development Network (GADN) is a diverse membership network of over 200 leading practitioners, academics and consultants working on gender and development issues in the U.K.
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The GADN has been active in advocacy and awareness-raising on gender and development issues since its founding in 1985. The network aims to strengthen members’ work by keeping them informed of gender and development issues through networking, information sharing and the commissioning of research. The GADN acts as an effective advocacy tool for gender and development concerns by working closely with government and other decision-making bodies.
GADN members meet every 3 months to discuss and share up-to-date information and learning on gender and development issues. Member’s meetings provide a space for vital networking and advocacy opportunities and enable members to share their own experiences and concerns.
The GADN also provides an informal, but important support structure for gender professionals working in an increasingly difficult development environment. The network shares information by e-mail, enabling regular information-sharing and up-dates about the latest advocacy, training and job opportunities, research and other relevant activities.
Publications and research
Publications and research commissioned by the network form the basis of GADN advocacy activities and in the long-term feed into government and institutional policy and practice around key gender issues.
Some recent examples of GADN’s activities include:
- The publication of research exploring the conceptual and practical linkages between the reviews of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals, which will both take place in 2005
- Production of a ‘gender & diversity’ tool-kit that explores how the concept of diversity is used by UK-based international development organisations and the practical approaches and methodologies being developed for working on diversity issues in rights-based programming
- Lobbying a range of policy-makers, including the UK Government and the Commission for Africa, to place women’s human rights and gender equality at the centre of initiatives to promote sustainable development, peace and security
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