The Advancing Women’s Engagement: Strengthening Opportunities to Mobilise for Equality (AWESOME) programme funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now in its fourth year. In June 2023, the AWESOME consortium launched the campaign #SafeAtWork, #SafeinSociety to push for the implementation of International Labour Organisation’s Violence and Harassment Convention (C190). ILO 190 is a ground-breaking instrument on violence and harassment in the world of work. 

Localising the campaign in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, partners mobilised women’s rights organisations, disabled women’s rights organisations and young women-led organisations to influence their governments to not only ratify but implement C190.  

Developing and implementing this campaign was an opportunity for partners to work collaboratively to deepen both in-country and joint advocacy at international level. 

Key highlights from the campaign in 2023/24 include: 

• Publishing a handbook which unpacks ILO 190’s relevance in relation to violence experienced by women in politics, women with disabilities and women’s human rights defenders. With thanks to Marie-Simone Kadurira for her collaboration on this; 

• Engagement from the Office of the President’s Women’s Rights Advisor in Kenya; 

• The co-creation and hosting of a joint-advocacy event at CSW 68. This provided a platform to draw on individual and collective partner journeys to make the case for better work conditions.