The series is inspired by Phoebe’s upcoming short film, ‘I Did Everything Right’: a story based on her own experience of being followed home. Rather than focussing on the act itself, the project explores the aftermath, and the ways that a single encounter can send ripples through years of a woman’s life.

On launching the interview series with Womankind, she explains; “Hearing other women’s survivor stories has been integral to my own healing journey. Through my short film, and now these conversations, I’d love to have the same effect for other women: to show them they’re not alone in the struggles they’re silently facing, and that the measures they take to feel safe are nothing to be ashamed of.”

Kavinya Makau, Director of Policy and Communications at Womankind Worldwide, adds, “1 in 3 women experience violence in their lifetime. This is not just another statistic, but real harm continuously meted out on women, girls and people of all genders. As Womankind Worldwide – alongside filmmakers like Phoebe Cleghorn and Coralie Ayala – we believe violence against women and girls is a human rights issue and we continue to challenge social norms such as patriarchy that abet this.”

These numbers equate to 840 million women and girls globally (WHO). According to UN Women, those who experience violence are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety disorders and other long-lasting psychological consequences. 

Together, Phoebe, Coralie and Womankind Worldwide aim to amplify women’s voices, explore the toll that these conditions have on women’ s mental health and call for a safer, more equitable world. 

‘I Did Everything Right: In Conversation’ will launch on Instagram via @idideverythingrightfilm and @womankindworldwide on 20th February throughout the day, with a trailer launching on 16th February at 7pm UK time.

ENDS  

For further information, please contact phoebecleghorn@gmail.com.

About the team behind ‘I Did Everything Right: In Conversation’

‘I Did Everything Right: In Conversation’ brings together a team of rising filmmakers. 

Actor, writer and executive producer Phoebe Cleghorn featured on BBC Maestro’s ‘Acting Masterclass’ with Succession’s Brian Cox and Emmy-nominated director James Buchanan, starred in ‘The Government Inspector’ at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, and has been recognised as promising emerging talent with a nomination for Shooting People’s New Shoots: Actors Award 2024.

Campaign content director Coralie Ayala is an award-winning filmmaker and digital creator known for pushing creative boundaries and using storytelling to spark debate and social change. Most notably, she directed ‘The New Normal’, a documentary by food charity City Harvest on the reality of food poverty in London. 

About Womankind Worldwide

Womankind Worldwide is an international women’s rights organisation and funder, working with women’s rights groups and feminist movements across the world to end gender inequality. They take collective action alongside women’s rights organisations, feminist movements and activists in Eastern and Southern Africa and South Asia, supporting them to challenge inequality at home, in communities and the workplace. Womankind fund and strengthen these movements, and advocate for change alongside them. 

About the short film ‘I Did Everything Right’
‘Tamsin is pursued by a stranger. Though she escapes, fear follows her home.’

After escaping an attempted attack by a stranger, Tamsin’s welcome solitude is transformed to fearful confinement as she tries and fails to reclaim her sense of safety. Three years later, the measures she takes to feel safe remain part of her daily routine. To learn more about the project, shooting in spring 2026, visit the crowdfunder or follow the project on Instagram at @idideverythingrightfilm. 

The post Womankind Worldwide team up with rising filmmakers for World Day of Social Justice appeared first on Womankind Worldwide.

As the programme ends, we are carrying forward five key lessons shaped through collective feminist practice that show what it truly takes to build and sustain a multi-country feminist consortium rooted in trust, shared power, and collective leadership. What held the consortium together was not a single intervention, but a set of intentional practices that centred relationships, learning, and shared responsibility. 

The post What we learned from five years of feminist consortium work: five reflections from the AWESOME programme appeared first on Womankind Worldwide.

From online harassment and cyberstalking to deepfakes and digital surveillance, technology has become a weapon of control and intimidation. Womankind’s B+30 Review Report emphasises that in many instances, the violence all women and girls face online is rooted in the same societal norms that drive violence against women more broadly, including patriarchal structures, misogyny, and discriminatory beliefs. 

Thirty years ago, when the BPfA laid the groundwork for progress in legal protections, social awareness, and support services, it could not have foreseen the digital revolution, a transformation that has created new avenues for harm. Today, technology amplifies old forms of abuse and introduces novel threats that remain largely unregulated, leaving women and girls vulnerable in spaces increasingly central to their social, economic, and political lives.  

Tech is moving fast as BPfA is slowly catching up

Womankind Worldwide’s policy brief: Disrupting the Continuum of TFGBV highlights that digital platforms are typically developed under patriarchal structures, with the implicit assumption that users will be passive recipients rather than active participants. This oversight not only limits the functionality and accessibility of technology for marginalized groups but also embeds gender biases within the very systems meant to empower them. 

”BPfA set out a bold international plan to eradicate violence against all women and girls, urging governments, civil society, and global institutions to take firm action. It acknowledged that violence is a major obstacle to equality and development and, for the first time, provided a framework for accountability. While many legal protections, awareness campaigns, and support services have improved, the rise of digital technologies has opened new, largely unregulated frontiers for abuse.”

A UNFPA study on TFGBV found that 85 per cent of women globally have experienced or witnessed online violence. Beijing+30 is therefore not only a moment to celebrate progress but a critical opportunity to expand the agenda, placing the digital dimension at the centre of the global fight for gender equality. 

TFGBV takes many forms with sexual minorities, women journalists, activists, and public figures often bearing the brunt of coordinated online attacks. These abuses are not only psychologically damaging but can also limit women’s participation in public life, erode confidence, and silence voices that are essential for social change.  

Women’s experience online is being reduced to pervasive violence

In Kenya, reports indicate that the rise of online gender-based violence has pushed some women out of politics and leadership roles as they face extreme harassment, including threats and derogatory comments, especially when they challenge traditional roles. In contrast, in Ethiopia, cases of TFGBV, are often overlooked, minimized, or politically manipulated, distorting the narratives around these issues and impeding progress towards ending TFGBV.  

Similar trends are observed in Afghanistan, where women activists, journalists, and public figures who speak out online face online harassment that sometimes escalates to physical attacks and, in extreme cases, murder. These examples drawn from Womankind’s policy brief on TFGBV, illustrate how TFGBV operates across different contexts, undermining women’s participation and agency in both public and private spheres. When it comes to intersectionality, Amnesty International underscores that in Uganda, for instance, LGBTQIA+ people avoid reporting TFGBV or seeking assistance from the police as they fear being blackmailed, outed, or even arrested under laws that criminalizes their existence. Womankind’s B+30 Review Report asserts that addressing digital inequalities and protecting women in online spaces are necessary steps for advancing BPfA goals in an increasingly digital world. 

An intersectional feminist approach to tackle TfGBV

Addressing TFGBV requires urgent, coordinated action at multiple levels. The urgent need for international governance frameworks and enforcement mechanisms to reflect the realities of digital abuse. 

Civil society and feminist organizations play a critical role in documenting abuses, supporting survivors, and advocating for inclusive, rights-based approaches including advocating for sustained funding for digital safety initiatives.  

Building community-driven technologies that significantly enhance safety and accessibility for marginalized populations cannot be overemphasised enough, especially in addressing the challenges posed by TFGBV.  

There’s need to implement comprehensive digital Literacy Programmes aimed at empowering women and girls, and finally, embedding safety by design in technology platforms that adopt gender-sensitive policies that prioritize user safety and accountability and challenge gender biases.  

”During this 16 Days of Activism, it is especially important to raise awareness of TFGBV and its growing impact on women and girls globally. In this year that marks 30 years since the adoption of the BPfA, we are presented with a vital opportunity to explicitly integrate TFGBV into the global agenda for gender equality, ensuring that progress in the digital sphere keeps pace with gains made offline.”

As we reflect on three decades of commitment, we must ensure that women and girls, in all their diversities are safe in every space.  

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Wangari Maathai alongside mothers of political prisoners camped in the Uhuru (Freedom) Park demanding and petitioning the release of their sons by the then authoritarian Moi Regime (Mothers Hunger Strike 1992, Kenya). When police attempted to disperse and beat them for exercising their right to protest and ask for the release of their children, they stripped naked and asked what kind of government beats women and more so their mothers. The officers, shamed and uncomfortable, left and the mother’s cause garnered much wider and nationwide support. 

This example by the Late Maathai and other legendary feminists, whether they refer to themselves as such – epitomizes what feminist leadership looks like and what it can achieve, actual social and political change. Wangari went on to win a Nobel peace prize and through her activism added onto the blueprint on why feminists should lead in all spheres of life – public and private. 

The case for advancing feminist leadership

From the local to the global level, women’s leadership and political participation remains restrictive and gains made are persistently under threat of regression with the growing anti-gender rhetoric amongst other systemic barriers rooted in patriarchy. This is why we must make the case for feminist leadership as key towards advancing leadership and participation by women and girls in all their diversity. 

Women and gender diverse persons often face compounded biases in decision making spaces. Theyare frequently excluded from participating in decision making and consultation processes due to systemic perceptions that marginalize them. This is because of their gender, economic class, education, employment status, sexual orientation and as such enhance their vulnerability to harm, violence, harassment and abuse.  

Even with key policy and legal frameworks such as affirmative action that create space for women to occupy decision making seats in government, deep seated patriarchal norms and practices still create a hostile environment for women political leaders to thrive and drive change here.  

In Afghanistan, with the Taliban coming back into power, any form of participation of women let alone leadership in government, business, institutions and even the home is now surely non-existent. Anchored on harmful anti-gender and extremist religious ideology, women and girls in Afghanistan are being erased from private and public life as we know it. However, in the feminist spirit of revolt women and girls are still organising and adapting mechanisms to secure their lives and livelihoods, and we must all stand in solidarity to ensure we hold our ground, promote and protect the human rights of all.  

A key approach is to lead from the margins. In the Ethiopian context Womankind partners Ethiopian Women with Disability National Association (EWDNA) and Ssiqqee Women’s Development Association (SWDA) have consistently led work advocating for and supporting the participation of women including women living with disability, in the labour force and at workplace. Under the AWESOME programme they have worked with women in factories providing feminist mentorship, facilitating skills development in personal development, economic and financial literacy. This work has resulted in women leading unions and participating in bargaining for better workplace conditions and even enumeration.   

Collective power in solidarity

Another is feminist solidarity by coming together and through collective power agitating for expediency in advancing women’s leadership and participation. Additionally, we must leverage collective power to support the women and feminists already in positions of leadership and advancing the feminist agenda for all women and girls in all their diversity. Our collective strategy must straddle the spectrum of dialogue and dissent as needed.  

A few months ago, in a country now blatantly influencing nationally and globally under a clear anti-gender and anti-rights agenda – Texas House Representative Nicole Collier spent two nights on the Texas House Floor, quite literally. Even in her elective leadership she found the space to protest when procedure and policy failed. Nicole, a democrat, refused to sign a ‘permission slip’ that essentially forced her to attend a session engineered to amend geographical boundaries.

The Redistricting Law will add more house seats to a predominantly Republican favoured area. Her protest encouraged other female legislators to retract and tear their signed permission slips and join her in the protest. Though it passed, the galvanising of support that resulted was impactful both in the state and in the USA. Very soon after this redistricting law passed. The state of California and the majority democrat led House of Representatives passed a similar law aimed at countering the unfair redistribution by republicans in Texas. ‘Aura for aura’ as Kenyan Gen Z revolutionaries would say, and a perfect example of protest, collective solidarity and allyship. 

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It should not be that women are the exception (Ruth Bader Ginsburg). The world is changing across all spheres, and we seem to be in the eye of the hurricane with no room for reprieve. As such, in the feminist spirit we must stand ground with gains we have made and advance expediently to claim and reclaim our rights. Occupying and leveraging on feminist leadership and participation in public and private life is a befitting and integral response to the regression being envisaged all over the globe.  

Wanjiru Linda Kroeger is a human rights lawyer and pan-African feminist passionate about women’s rights and gender equality. She’s the Policy and Advocacy Manager, Women’s Participation in Leadership at Womankind Worldwide

The post The right to be difficult: Why feminists should lead appeared first on Womankind Worldwide.

This book is a mirror of the struggles, victories, and ongoing journey of women and girls who refuse to be silenced. It is also a reflection of the solidarity of partners, communities, and donors who believe that real change happens when power is shared, voices are amplified, and justice is pursued with persistence and determination. By gathering these stories, we are reminded that narratives are powerful tools for change. They help us see the human face behind statistics, they connect us to lived realities, and they inspire us to act.

Over the past five years, Womankind Worldwide has partnered with five women’s rights organisations in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda to confront two of the most persistent barriers to gender justice: sexual and gender-based violence, and the exclusion of women from leadership and decision-making spaces.

We extend heartfelt gratitude to our consortium partners, FIDA-Kenya, Women Challenged to Challenge (WCC), Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) in Uganda, and Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National Association (EWDNA) and Siiqqee Women’s Development Association (SWDA) in Ethiopia whose dedication and leadership have been the backbone of this Programme. We also acknowledge the women and girls who shared their stories with such honesty and bravery, often reliving painful experiences so that others might learn, grow, and be inspired. To our donors and allies, thank you for believing in the power of feminist partnerships and for investing in movement-led change.

As you turn these pages, we invite you to pause, to listen deeply, and to carry forward the lessons of courage and hope they embody. May these stories challenge us to ask hard questions, but also remind us of the possibilities that emerge when women claim their space and lead. May they inspire us to continue walking together partners, communities, and allies until every woman and girl can live free from violence and fully realise her leadership and potential.

The post The AWESOME Programme launches new book of stories: ‘Seeds of Change’ appeared first on Womankind Worldwide.

Women’s economic rights are under siege. We’re seeing devastating cuts to aid, a growing backlash to gender equality, and the continuing rise of neoliberal systems that prioritise profit over all else. We’ve never needed the collective power and resistance of feminist movements more. 

The challenges faced are interlinked, and actions at the top have a knock-on effect. For example, when the World Bank encourages states to privatise public services to raise funds to pay back their debts, these services become profit- rather than people-driven. Then, as we highlight in our Beijing +30 report, because women shoulder a much larger care burden, the lack of quality services can force them to take work flexible enough to fit around their care needs—but without proper workplace protections. This leaves them vulnerable to abuse and harassment. 

Those invested in keeping the status quo—like international finance institutions and multinational corporations—are powerful, and fighting back can feel fruitless and fatiguing. But theirs is not the only way. At a time when gender-inclusive economies are more important than ever, feminist economics reimagines systems and societies in ways that promote equality between women, men, and people of all genders.  

”Mainstream economic perspectives generally focus on market value, recognising only work that is done for money. They also tend to be based around the realities of men’s lives and criticised as ‘gender blind’. In contrast, feminist economics sees gender relations as vital to how economies work, for example, calling for women’s unpaid care burden to be recognised and valued.”

Solidarity at IAFFE 

Last month, Womankind attended the International Association of Feminist Economics (IAFFE) annual conference. Our aims were to boost our knowledge of the latest developments in women’s economic rights and feed our partners’ priorities into collective strategies for combatting injustice. Progressive, anti-racist and—as the name suggests—feminist, IAFFE (which took place in Amherst, Massachusetts and online) is an important space. A mix of academics and activists delved into the key issues of the day, including valuing care, promoting tax justice, and reform of the international finance system. United by the conference theme of solidarity, there was also room for uncomfortable but needed conversations—like how allies to groups facing inequality can speak up and show up without centring ourselves. 

Care—it’s not all about the money 

Those advocating for women’s economic rights often argue about the financial value of care work—and with good reason. Economies are built on women’s unpaid labour and the World Economic Forum estimates that—if it was compensated—it would amount to 9 per cent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Annually, that’s around 11 trillion dollars! But care is so much more—a human right that everyone deserves which adds hugely to our wellbeing. We all may need care at some point—whether because of age, disability, or illness. As panellists highlighted throughout the conference, we need care systems that consider individuals’ varied and intersecting needs, and which allow those doing the care to have full lives and sufficient rest outside it.  

Collective solutions for interconnected problems 

”Economic injustice does not exist in a vacuum. And so, we need a feminist, collective response which recognises its inextricable ties to other threats to gender equality, like gender-based violence and climate crisis. Crucially, this response must share lessons across movements and centre the voices of those most affected in solutions. Consequently, Womankind had much to contribute at IAFFE, including our partner-informed calls, and details of partners’ cross-movement collaborations. For example, Mitini Nepal contributed LBTQIA+ women’s experiences to the corporate justice movement at the AWID forum.”

For those of us based in the  Global North, solidarity could mean using our platform and positionality to call for change from our governments. For example, IAFFE participants working on the care agenda criticised the resistance from Global North nations to systems centring care at the recent International Financing for Development conference. At Womankind, we’ll continue to speak up and speak out against decisions—like the UK aid cut—which jeapordise gender equality, and call for advances in how the UK and others promote women’s economic rights globally, including supporting:   

• Debt relief and cancellation—to redress enduring inequalities rooted in colonialism. 

• Reform of the International Finance Institutions—until the debt is cancelled, we call for reformed loan conditionalities which don’t encourage states to rely on privatisation. 

• Progressive taxation to fund publicly owned and run services. 

• The recognition, reward and redistribution of care work.  

• States’ ratification and implementation of International Labor Organization Convention 190—to stop abuse and harassment at work. 

• A UN Binding Treaty to stop corporations harming people and the planet. 

Underpinning all of this, we continue to champion the strengthening of feminist movements across the Global South, including through flexible funding and authentic sharing of power. We must stand together to challenge unjust systems so that women and people of all genders can claim their economic rights. 

Alexandra Webber is Policy and Advocacy Manager, Women’s Economic Rights and UK Advocacy at Womankind Worldwide. She recently attended the IAFFE conference sharing views and perspectives on just economic systems that value women’s rights. 

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FARUG’s contribution has been transformative. “LBQ women are often left out of women’s rights and also LGBT spaces. Because of the space that we are holding for LBQ organising in Uganda and East Africa as a whole, I feel that we have maintained and grown how LBQ women are perceived and recognised within the feminist movement,” she says. 

For Gloria, the most pressing threat to feminism is “how feminist movements have been co-opted and depoliticised. And how technology is making feminist language become more of a trend or a fashion.” 

“It has its advantages and its disadvantages, because we see more widespread feminism within young people, which is now the biggest population in Africa, but it also scares me about how now feminism is being diluted, like something to make money off.” 

This dilution has manifested through recent funding cuts. “As an LGBT community, I feel like we were affected the most by these funding cuts, especially in Uganda, because one of our biggest entry points in our organising had always been health. And health being one of our biggest entry points also meant that a lot of funding that was sustaining movement work and organising was coming from health.” 

The impact has been devastating. “Mental health support, legal aid, emergency response – most of those things were being supported by that money. We had a drop-in centre, which was shut down, and it’s not only our drop-in centre that has been shut down, a number of drop-in centres have shut down,” she explains. 

“It’s not even just about the building and the safe space. It’s safety for communities, it’s care for communities, it’s dignity. Because these were spaces which were safe and affirming for our communities and when such spaces do not exist anymore, the community is suffering.” 

Some organisations have collapsed entirely, with “organisations whose entire funding was just coming from health-related programming. These organisations have actually collapsed on the ground because their entire existence was around health-related programming.” 

The funding crisis has created impossible choices. “With the funding cuts in the U.S., part of the sections that were affected the most is sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and abortion. It’s very painful when you’re having conversations with some of your funders who are coming out and telling you, you know what? Either you let go of your work around abortion, or we cannot fund you anymore.” 

“This threatens the very core or heart of feminism, which is about collective liberation. It’s not about branding, it’s not about charity, it’s not about complying with systems that oppress us.” 

Despite challenges, FARUG continues adapting. “We also recognise that resilience does not have to be formal to be powerful. So, we are continuing to adapt by not just reacting, but also protecting our vision.” 

Gloria sees a clear path forward. “We need to stay grounded in feminism itself, but also in movement accountability. At FARUG, for instance, we constantly return to the demands and needs of our community.” 

She emphasises that “funding must come with trust. Because most of the funding we get comes with control.  Feminist solidarity means resourcing feminist work in a way that honours feminists, local knowledge, that centres care, and that refuses to trade safety for visibility.” 

In her call to courage, Gloria urges that “courage looks like consistency and consistency looks like supporting queer and feminist movements, even when it’s politically inconvenient or risky.” 

“Speak up – don’t be silent. Your silence gives power to the oppressor. Use your voice to protect ours,” she says. 

Gloria ends with a direct challenge: “Be intentional, go beyond statements and into solidarity. Don’t just recognise us. Resource us.” 

The post Gloria Mutyaba – a story of creativity and grounding in feminism   appeared first on Womankind Worldwide.

In a time when support is vital,  instead there have been devastating funding cuts.  With the ending of USAID and significant reductions from European development aid partners, the world has taken steps back in fulfilling commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals. Amongst the worst ramifications of these events at a time of war, food insecurity, the immigration crisis and health crises – is deepening gender inequality, with  women and girls disproportionately affected.  

A recent report by UN Women highlighted that women’s rights organisations are at a breaking point from the funding cuts, with many being forced to suspend programmes threatening crucial lifesaving services such as ending gender-based violence and health care amongst others. 

As a funder and ally in the feminist movement, Womankind Worldwide stands in solidarity with partners by lending unwavering support through flexible funding and continuing to advocate for millions of women and girls whose rights are under dire threat. 

Here, we highlight a series of stories spotlighting the work of our partners and how at such a time like this they remain committed in sustaining the momentum towards women’s rights. We echo and amplify the call for sustained funding. 

The post Six months into the global funding cuts: disrupting gains made in women’s rights  appeared first on Womankind Worldwide.

”Across regions around the world, the use of violence against women and girls in all their diversities, is increasing. It has been used as a tool to silence their voices and stifle their agency, particularly during times of political instability, economic crisis, conflict, displacement and rising authoritarianism. And, in response to feminist organising and resistance.”

The Global Struggle for Gendered Justice and Safety 

In Womankind’s partner countries (Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda and Zimbabwe), feminist movements are resisting violence that is both state-sanctioned and socially normalised, even as the risks grow. In Kenya for instance, the recent ‘Gen-Z’ protests have been met with escalating police violence, with women protesters facing increased assaults and harassment. These brutal acts not only violate their right to protest but also serve to suppress collective action for justice, silencing the very voices demanding change. According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), reports from the June 2025 protests indicate eight fatalities, and over four hundred casualties, underscoring the deadly toll of state-sanctioned violence on peaceful demonstrations.  

Similarly, in Zimbabwe, feminist movements are also confronting violence and repression from both state forces and societal structures, with crackdowns on women-led civic groups, widespread arrests, and increased surveillance. These actions are part of a broader strategy to suppress women’s voices and movements advocating for gender justice and equality. Womankind partner, Women and Land in Zimbabwe further highlights that these repressive tactics are particularly threatened by patriarchal, gender-blind institutions and policies, compounded by politically controlled spaces that restrict freedom of expression and hinder activism against corruption.  

The Global Pattern of Silencing 

In Nepal and Uganda, feminist activists and women journalists face increasing cyber harassment, digital repression, and surveillance, particularly under restrictive laws. In both countries, online spaces have become battlegrounds where women’s voices are silenced, with state authorities using technology to monitor, intimidate, and threaten those advocating for gender equality and justice. These digital tactics not only curb free expression but also contribute to a wider environment of fear and self-censorship, severely hindering the ability of women to mobilize and speak out.  

Womankind’s policy brief, Disrupting the Continuum of Violence: Combatting Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence, emphasizes that Technology-Facilitated Gender Based Violence (TFGBV) is not only used to attack the character and legitimacy of women. It also perpetuates harmful gendered stereotypes and undermines their participation in public and political life. Further, it highlights how the digital sphere often acts as a precursor, escalating violent behaviours that can lead to fatal outcomes for women. As a result, some women have resorted to avoiding digital platforms entirely for their safety, while others have been forced to abandon their activism and careers due to the relentless abuse they face online.  

Additionally, in Afghanistan and Ethiopia, gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict settings continues to escalate, with women human rights defenders being specifically targeted for their activism. These systemic acts of violence not only violate fundamental human rights but also aim to silence women’s voices and prevent their active participation in shaping the future of their societies. Maryam Rahmani, Womankind Worldwide Advisor, Afghanistan, affirms that “Since the Taliban’s return to power, Afghan women have faced increasing violence and harsh restrictions, with little or no access to justice or protection. Women human rights defenders are being targeted and silenced simply for raising their voices and demanding the most basic of rights.’’  

These recurring scenarios reflect a global trend in the increasing use of violence, both physical and digital, used to silence women and girls who challenge power and demand justice. 

A Feminist Collective Resistance and Action 

Through a feminist lens, the continued forms of violence against women and girls whether physical, digital, or systemic, are not isolated incidents but part of a continuum that stretches across both private and public spaces. They reflect deeper structural inequalities shaped by patriarchal systems, that are sustained through silencing the voices and agency of women and girls in all their diversities across the world. In light of this, Womankind, together with partners in its focus countries, continues to centre feminist and decolonial principles, supporting women’s rights organisations to challenge unequal power structures, and advocating for long-term, transformative change. We continue to strengthen and facilitate the feminist collective action and cross movement solidarity, in line with Womankind’s 2030 strategy while amplifying their representation, visibility and leadership power. In doing so, we call on all actors committed to gender justice to prioritise feminist, locally led approaches that are grounded in the lived realities and centre the leadership of women and girls. 

”The patterns of violence we see today, from Nairobi to Kabul are not new. Yet women and girls around the world continue to resist, organise, and reimagine a more just future. As Womankind, we recognise that dismantling systemic violence requires collective action, bold leadership, and unwavering solidarity. This is working towards a world where all women and girls in all their diversities can live free from all forms of violence.” 

The post From Nairobi to Kabul: No safe space for women everywhere! appeared first on Womankind Worldwide.

Womankind Worldwide is delighted to announce Katie Ghose as a new Co-Chair of our board. Katie is a proud feminist and charity chief executive with nearly three decades experience of leadership of organisations supporting the rights of women refugees, survivors of domestic abuse and disabled women. She’s currently the chief executive of Kids – a UK charity that supports and empowers disabled children, young people and their families. Katie has also served as Chief Executive of the Women’s Aid Federation of England, the Electoral Reform Society and the British Institute of Human Rights.    

Katie will be joining Lusungu Kalanga as a fellow Co-Chair of Womankind’s board of trustees. We look forward to having two bold feminist leaders who will steer Womankind to greater heights in creating an equal world for women, girls and people of all genders.   

What motivates you?  

Katie Ghose: Injustice and inequality of every kind. I’m hugely motivated by my 16-year-old daughter and the new battles her generation faces in combatting everyday sexism and misogyny. I am fired up by their determination, empathy and inclusivity. I want to stand with young women and people of all genders and ages who are fighting for their rights to be safe, free and able to shape their own futures.  

What motivated you to join Womankind as our Co-Chair of the board?  

Katie Ghose: I love Womankind Worldwide’s ethos and the practical ways it brings its values to life. That includes its work in Afghanistan to support girls and women experiencing wholesale denial of their human rights and its commitment to flexible funding as a way to start to decolonise historic donor relationships. I am a huge admirer of the charity’s openness to trying different ways to share power, and excited to play my part in this as a Co-Chair working closely with the Co-CEOs and the amazing team. At a time when government cuts, rising misogyny and on-line harms are threatening girls and women’s freedoms, Womankind’s partnership and support is needed more than ever. I am eager to play my part.   

What are some of the core feminist values and convictions that you share with Womankind/align with? And how have you promoted these at a personal level?  

Katie Ghose: Feminism for me is the unrelenting pursuit of gender equality at every stage of life, from the equal value of a baby girl to dignity, agency and economic equality for older women. It means looking at everything through a gender lens, from how governments spend their money to how we observe and advance human rights.  It is the combatting of violence towards women and girls and its root causes and the fight for the right to education in Afghanistan. On a personal level it is my mentorship and encouragement of younger women to take their place in politics and public life. Inclusivity and intersectionality are key for me. My mixed heritage as an English and Indian woman and the prejudice I have faced, especially as a girl, has formed a personal conviction that feminism is about enlivening and empowering every woman in all her diversity. To be feminists together we cannot leave any woman behind.   

Any history you have in the feminist movement and key milestones that you’d like to share with us?  

Katie Ghose: I have a lifelong passion for women’s and girls’ rights. In my 20s, I was a barrister representing asylum seekers and I helped to found a specialist resource centre for refugee women. At Age Concern England, I led high profile campaigns on women’s pension right and age discrimination in the workplace.  Since then, I have led several non-profit organisations including Women’s Aid, where I mobilized a 180 strong federation of local groups to successfully campaign to safeguard life-saving services for women and girls at risk of violence and abuse. Womankind’s commitment to learn from all women connects with the ethos at Kids, the disabled children’s charity that I currently lead. I have been privileged to support disabled young women to give testimony to MPs in Parliament and to create their own peer support and advocacy networks.  

What are your ambitions and aspirations with this new leadership role?  

Katie Ghose: I want to be the best and most effective Co-Chair I can. I want to embody those principles of inclusivity and intersectionality and this incredible energy that Womankind has to keep moving forward, working with women in the most challenging situations in the Global South. I am ambitious for the charity’s next phase and I aspire to support its partnerships and collaborations so that it can continue to support women’s organisations to strengthen and grow.

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As WAVE II came to a close, partners reflected on their collective journey, exploring both the challenges they faced and the successes they achieved in advancing inclusive and effective feminist movements in Uganda. If you would like to learn more about WAVE II,  please watch the final project documentary and hear directly from partners.

The reality for feminist movements in Uganda

Over the past two years, mounting pressure has significantly curtailed spaces for activism and dissent. Women’s rights activists have been targeted, threatened online, followed in public, and silenced through fear. For women in politics, even expressing certain views has become risky, forcing many into self-censorship to protect their safety and careers. Despite this, WAVE II partners stood by them, creating spaces of solidarity and support to ensure they could keep fighting for change. To support activists under threat, WAVE II partners established networks of solidarity and resilience, offering emotional and practical support to enable continued activism.  

The Government of Uganda also passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in March 2023, intensifying the risks faced by LGBTQ+ communities and expanding legal prohibitions to include severe new consequences. Merely identifying as gay became illegal, with friends, family, and members of the community required to report individuals in same-sex relationships to the authorities. This legislation not only criminalised same-sex relationships but also introduced mandatory reporting requirements, endangering individuals’ safety. The increased restrictions have deepened isolation and insecurity, making daily life increasingly fraught for LGBTQ+ individuals. 

The Bill presented significant challenges for WAVE II member Freedom and Roam (FARUG) Uganda who exist to support lesbian, bi-sexual and trans people. FARUG were evicted from their office in the midst of the project and forced to provide sensitive personal information to authorities, increasing the risk of harassment and arrest. Members of the FARUG community also had to self-censor their behaviour and dress to avoid being targeted.  

To overcome these challenges, the consortia created protective spaces, provided constant welfare checks, and prioritised wellness and self-care strategies to support FARUG staff and community members through this hostile environment. WAVE II also had a strong component focused on the development of individual and organisational wellness plans, helping activists to care for themselves and others through these times of extreme backlash and violence.   

How has WAVE II contributed to effective movement strengthening in Uganda?

Working within an intentional intersectional framework1, WAVE II partners deepened their understanding of the diverse realities faced by women across Uganda. Now partners champion inclusivity by consistently raising critical questions like ‘where are the women with disabilities in this space? Is there sign language interpretation or visual aids available?’ Are young, queer women safe, welcome and heard in this space?’  

WAVE II has created a deliberate focus on self-care and wellness for individuals and feminist organisations to tackle high levels of burnout and trauma caused by consistently dealing with backlash, violence and intimidation. Through The Peace Centre’s leadership, partners have embedded wellness practices and policies into their organisational cultures. For example, NAWOU shared that they are now mindful of proposing community meetings at times to suit those with caring responsibilities. These practices are beginning to influence the wider feminist movement in Uganda, encouraging a culture of sustainability and care.    

WAVE II demonstrated the power of collaboration among diverse organisations working toward a shared goal, grounded in clear feminist partnership principles. For example, partners supported each other through “Happy Hours” (weekly sessions focused on wellness) and celebrated collective victories, sharing lessons learned openly and honestly. 

‘There is life beyond the laptop! The whole experience felt like a family – like you have a representative in another organisation’ (Elinah from The Peace Centre) 

Partners also celebrated collective wins together and asked each other for help during implementation recognising mutual strengths. They took time out to reflect together on what was working well andwhat they might drop and what could be done differently.  

By embodying these feminist principles, WAVE II showed that collaboration, rather than competition for resources, can strengthen movements and increase collective impact. 

Setting the example through flexible funding 

A critical factor in WAVE II’s success was the flexible support provided by the Ing Foundation. Trusting Womankind and the six partner organisations, the foundation imposed minimal compliance demands, allowing the consortia to create their own reporting templates focused on qualitative impact, rather than just numbers. This meant that work could also be adapted easily to respond to the realities of the implementation context. Additionally, the approval of funding for self and collective care was unique and something no partner had ever experienced before from a donor (or something few donors have ever permitted).  

This flexibility enabled partners to adapt swiftly to changing contexts and to prioritise self and collective care. It freed activists to concentrate on the work itself, rather than on bureaucratic processes, allowing activists to focus on the work and not the paperwork! This demonstrates the transformative power of trust-based funding for feminist movement building. 

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At the time, we wrote to the Foreign Secretary saying: ”Based on our extensive collective experience, we know these cuts will disproportionately impact on gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights. We therefore urge you to protect spending in this vital area. Moreover, a cut in aid spending adds further imperative for the UK to champion the rights of women and girls on the international stage.”

We are therefore dismayed by the suggestion that spending on gender equality will be disproportionately hit. Appearing before the International Development Parliamentary Select Committee on May 13th, Baroness Chapman said of the aid cuts:

“Inevitably, this means that in some areas and countries, there’ll be less to spend, and I think there’s no point being anything other than completely open about this, and I think that’s likely to be on education and gender. But in those areas, we can’t turn away from them. We’ve got to make even more of our technical expertise in the FCDO and across the UK more widely, and our diplomatic influence to lead. We also need to use our voice at the big multilateral funds to leverage more money, reform the system and make sure that they continue to deliver.”

In response to questions, Baroness Chapman added:

“I think we’re going to have to find a better, smarter way of working to make sure that we don’t walk away from this agenda” and that there was a need to: “integrate and mainstream our work”.

This confirms what had already been rumoured, that standalone programmes, such as those on gender-based violence support for women’s rights organisations, may be disproportionately cut when already only 10 per cent of all UK aid has gender equality as its ‘principal’ objective.

Why gender equality spending must be protected from cuts

Past ODA cuts have already had a disproportionate and devastating impact on gender equality and women’s rights. The disproportionate impact arises both as a result of cuts in programmes targeting women and girls and due to the greater gendered impacts of broader cuts in areas such as public services and social protection. Recent evidence confirms that while the ODA budget was cut by a third between 2021 and 2022, spending that includes a focus on gender equality nearly halved between 2019 and 2022, falling from £6.3 to £3.4 billion.

Funding for gender equality is vital. Gender inequality remains one of the most pervasive forms of injustice globally, with women more likely to live in poverty. Achieving gender equality and the full realisation of women’s and girls’ rights is not only a moral imperative but also a critical prerequisite for addressing development challenges, reducing poverty and securing progress across the Sustainable Development Goals.

At the same time, misogyny is a central plank of the far-right agenda that is sweeping across the world, further increasing the need for the UK to defend women’s and girls’ rights. Gender mainstreaming is vital, but we know from past experience that it works best in conjunction with, not as an alternative to, funding for standalone gender equality programming. Moreover, effective mainstreaming is not a cheap option. It requires dedicated resources and capacity alongside clear leadership, prioritisation and accountability.

ODA that tackles gender inequality is a highly effective use of scarce ODA resources. In a time of cuts, improving effectiveness becomes all the more important and protecting targeted ODA is vital. The FCDO has received praise for its innovative initiatives, such as funding for women’s rights organisations and programmes on violence against women and girls. Other successes include the Women’s Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) programme, which has transformed access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services for the poorest women and girls across 27 countries in Africa and Asia. Reaching over 6 million women and girls since 2018, it has averted nearly 37,000 maternal deaths, prevented 3.85 million unsafe abortions, and helped 300,000 girls and young women stay in school.

The Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education (SAGE) programme in Zimbabwe is another successful example, which has brought gender-transformative change to 13,200 highly marginalised, out-of-school adolescent girls, many of whom were already married or mothers. Mainstreaming the lessons learnt from gender equality programming will also be an important factor in improving the overall effectiveness of all aid.

The experience and lessons learnt through aid programming are crucial to the UK’s wider contribution on gender equality internationally. Programmes like ‘What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls’ have a strong international reputation and are a key element of the sharing of technical expertise that Minister Chapman has promised as the UK’s new contribution in the face of aid cuts.

Having a reputation for, and learning the lessons of, programming experience is also essential if the UK is to be taken seriously when using its soft power in multilateral spaces. With the G7 Summit on the horizon, this will be a crucial opportunity for the government to demonstrate their continuing commitment to gender equality.

Why action is urgent

Decisions on how cuts should be allocated are happening now, with key allocations made by June 11th. Ultimately, Foreign Secretary Lammy will have the final decision, but we understand that senior civil servants Melinda Bohannon and Nick Dyer will be very influential.GADN and our members will continue to put pressure on the government to protect and promote the rights of women and girls.

Further reactions from our members to Baroness Chapman’s May 13th announcement can be found at:

• CARE International UK
• Oxfam
• Plan International UK
• Save the Children
• Bond

About The Gender and Development Network (GADN)

GADN brings together expert NGOs, consultants, academics and individuals committed to working on gender, development and women’s rights issues. Our vision is of a world where social justice and gender equality prevail and where all women and girls are able to realise their rights free from discrimination. Our goal is to ensure that international development policy and practice promotes gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights.

For more information: erika.yap@gadnetwork.org

*This statement has been copied from GADN in solidarity

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