Womankind Worldwide responds to release of UK government’s International Women and Girls Strategy

The UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) released its new Women and Girls Strategy yesterday (Wednesday, 8th March), outlining its priorities and commitments until 2030. It covers vital areas such as funding and support for women’s rights organisations. The strategy also recognises the disproportionate impact of crises including conflict, climate change and COVID-19 on women and girls and emphasises the need to address the rollback of their rights across the globe. 

As a UK-based global organisation advocating for the rights of women and girls through the strengthening of women’s rights organisations (WROs) and feminist movements, Womankind Worldwide wholeheartedly welcomes the strategy’s inclusion (first reflected in the UK’s International Development Strategy) of funding, supporting and amplifying the work of such organisations, and its recognition of their expertise in their contexts.  

Caroline Haworth, Womankind CEO, said: ‘WROs have the skills, experience, vision, leadership and passion to transform our world through local, national and international solidarity and collaboration. With limited access to decision-making spaces and funding, they have often been operating in survival mode rather than having space to follow their own agendas based on the needs and interests of the communities they serve.’ 

Womankind particularly welcomes funding for WROs that is flexible, unrestricted and available for core organisational activities.  

Caroline Haworth added: ‘This is the best way to allow groups to pursue transformative, sustainable change for women, girls and people of all genders. We’re pleased to see that the strategy recognises the overlapping forms of oppression and discrimination that women and girls and people of all genders with multiple and intersecting identities face and hope to see this funding and support delivered via an intersectional approach that seeks to address these.’ 

The funds should be accessed especially by WROs and feminist movements representing the most marginalised groups who find it more difficult to access quality funding. Womankind also wants to see funding extended to informal groups, who face extra barriers in accessing funds, despite playing a crucial role in mobilising and organising for transformational change.  

Regarding the separate Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights programme, we welcome this and would hope to see WROs taking leadership on this work and the resources connected with it, as they often address the issues affecting women and girls in a transformational way, including access to reproductive health care, services and rights. 

In addition, Womankind Worldwide calls for an emphasis on protecting and championing the rights of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) and human security at the centre of work to deliver the strategy. 

Marginalised women and girls with multiple, intersecting identities face many forms of oppression and discrimination, something we’re pleased to see recognised in the strategy. Womankind Worldwide calls for an intersectional approach through the lifetime of the strategy addressing the overlapping challenges facing different groups. We draw particular attention to recent anti-LGBTQI+ rights attacks by both state and non-state actors in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and elsewhere.  

Sufficient funds must be made available to make the strategy a reality. We hope to see a restoration of the development budget for women and girls. To give this strategy the best chance of success, we continue to call for a reinstatement of funding to levels before the aid cut.  

There are challenges with the shift in language from ‘gender equality’ to ‘women and girls’. 

Dinah Musindarwezo, Womankind’s director, policy and communications, said: ‘This language takes the focus away from dealing with patriarchy and other related systems of oppression that cause gender inequalities, placing the burden on women and girls, implying they are inadequate, rather than agents of change.’ 

The structural causes of gender inequalities affecting the lives of women and girls must be considered in the delivery of this strategy.  

Dinah Musindarwezo added: ‘We are pleased to see some of the links between these inequalities highlighted, but we call for the root causes as well as the symptoms of gender inequality to be consistently tackled. We recommend a human rights-based approach to delivering the 3 E’s – without this, the focus will inevitably be narrow, making it difficult to achieve transformational change.’ 

As the strategy is delivered, Womankind hopes for a continual focus on anti-racism and decolonising both language and practice, ensuring work with WROs is undertaken in a spirit of sharing knowledge and expertise, rather than programmes with preconceived assumptions that ‘capacity-building’ is needed. It is important to avoid reproducing existing power imbalances and be mindful of existing hierarchies when Global North donor institutions and governments enter funding relationships with organisations in the Global South. It would also be positive to move away from the language of ‘empowering’ women or groups, choosing instead to work ‘with them’ to claim their rights in a safe and favourable environment.  

The strategy does mention Afghanistan. But in view of the severity of the situation – the loss of rights, freedoms and security for women, girls, WROs, WHRDs and others – it would be positive to understand how the delivery of the strategy will more specifically address challenges facing Afghan women and girls, particularly through its work with WROs. 

Caroline Haworth concluded: ‘To truly tackle gender inequality and for all women and girls to fully enjoy their human rights, the UK government must ensure policy coherence throughout its work as a whole. Principles of gender equality and human rights must inform all policy decisions and interventions. This includes how the UK responds to and welcomes those fleeing conflict and seeking refuge in the UK, a great number of whom are women and girls navigating the precise issues covered in the strategy.’ To that end, Womankind also calls for a gender, human rights and environmental impact analysis of the UK’s trade, investments and tax policies to ensure no harm is done to women, girls and the environment.   

For more information on this statement or for media enquiries, please contact Chris McWilliams on chrism@womankind.org.uk