This thematic portal examines how women engage with policy change, and the building of alliances and coalitions, to bring about accountability. It also contains information on how to create demand for, and dismantle obstacles to, women’s empowerment; and how to institutionalise and legitimise women’s empowerment in the policies, actions and populations of these institutions.
The following five research projects are featured:
- Legal reform and feminist activism: regards reforms that have been taking place in Egyptian personal status laws since 2000. The study aims to examine the unfolding reform story and what it entailed in terms of successes and challenges for women's rights activists in their pursuit of justice and equality in marriage and divorce rights, and family courts.
- Domestic violence legislation: this project investigated women's struggles and pathways for the implementation and monitoring of public policies addressing violence against women in Brazil.
- Women and local governance in Sierra Leone: this study aimed to illuminate the pathways of women's political empowerment, the relationship between political participation and change, and interrogate the effectiveness of the decentralisation commission in empowering women.
- Mobilising for women’s rights and the role of resources: this project concerned the significance and impact of official external financing for women’s organising at global, regional and national levels. It used participatory methods of critical reflection involving both donor staff and representatives of women’s rights organisations and networks in Bangladesh and Ghana as well as at regional and global levels.