Gender, Power and Sexuality: Connecting local voices to global arenas for equality & rights

Funder: Institute of Development Studies, IDS.

Duration: Three years (2011-2013)

Project Site(s): The Global South.

This project central aim was to influence norms and institutions at global and local levels to more effectively tackle the challenge of achieving gender equality. It was aimed at addressing priority issues for development co-operation on gender equality, with a focus on sexual rights, health and gender-based violence, women’s economic empowerment and working conditions, as well as equal political participation. It was built on IDS’ track record in convening dialogues, influencing debates and connecting those representing marginalised groups in the global south with global policy spaces.

 The project was aimed at achieving results in relation to:

 Challenging stereotypes, values and structures that hinder gender equality

1. Understanding better the structures of constraint that limit the achievement of gender equality and what is needed to bring about and sustain change
2. Building alliances between actors, networks and movements in different policy arenas, to become more effective in influencing global and local policy processes.

The project was anchored on the premise that promoting gender equality must be targeted towards all groups and aimed at changing institutions and social structures, taking cognizance that such changes, do not happen through a linear process and that political and socio-economic realities change through multiple pathways and processes working through overlapping networks of actors. Many of these actors are contesting the status quo or forming networks and alliances for social justice to enable change, at programme and policy levels, iteratively between local and global arenas.