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. 

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But disabled women in Lucy’s community continue to face challenges and stigma. While the Kenyan Constitution expressly provides the national legal framework for an inclusive society, in reality, there has been limited progress in promoting and protecting the rights of women with disabilities. They continue to face significant barriers in accessing education, healthcare, employment, and political representation. Their lived experiences are further compounded by gender-based violence, discrimination, and exclusion from decision-making processes. 

Every day, Women Challenged to Challenge (WCC), a feminist organisation, are working towards creating a better society for disabled women and girls through bringing them together across 35 counties in Kenya.   

Their work is anchored in four pillars: the elimination of all form of violence, sexual and reproductive health, governance and leadership and economic empowerment 

In 2024, WCC became one of 24 Womankind partners across Africa and South Asia to be part of our Strategic Partner Support Grant pilot. Grants through the pilot provide completely flexible funding to historically excluded and marginalised groups so that they can work flexibly and strategically according to their needs and local contexts.  

How WCC is using their strategic grant

With their grant, WCC funded a range of crucial areas of their work, from policy work to core infrastructure, from events to international advocacy spaces. 

Firstly, WCC developed and submitted a parallel report to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which contributed to the regional review process. The report was shared with UN Women and also presented at the Global Disability Summit held in Germany in April 2025. 

They also held two awareness-raising events:  

• Wheelchair Day, focused on promoting physical accessibility, organized by the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK) 

• a fashion show organised by young women featuring models using prostheses, aimed at promoting inclusion and self-expression. 

The strategic grant also funded two WCC staff members to participate in the Beijing +30 Africa Regional Meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This ensured that the voices and concerns of women with disabilities were represented in the forum. WCC also hosted their Annual General Meeting, where their grant covered accommodation costs for members traveling from outside Nairobi. 

Finally, WCC constructed essential infrastructure using the funds, including a boardroom, kitchen, and storage facility, significantly enhancing WCC’s operational capacity and member engagement.  

Why flexible funding matters for disabled women’s rights 

WCC told us that due to limited funding, they’re “unable to fully meet its commitment to empowering women with disabilities.” 

Womankind created Strategic Partner Support Grants to provide flexible and sustainable support for our partner’s work and make room for opportunities for exchange, learning and influencing. These grants enable partners to work flexibly and strategically according to the needs of their local context and the individuals and communities they serve, without project-based restrictions or the burden of onerous application or reporting requirements. 

“A flexible grant like this makes a significant difference to our organisation and the communities we serve. Unlike restricted funding, which limits how funds can be used, flexible funding allows us to respond to emerging needs, seize unexpected opportunities, and invest in areas that strengthen our long-term impact. It empowers us to prioritise what matters most—whether that’s capacity building, community outreach, advocacy, or addressing urgent issues as they arise.” – WCC 

A year into their Strategic Grant, the flexibility of the funding has made space for WCC to respond to what women need and continue making their crucial impact in their community. 

“For the women and communities, we work with, this flexibility translates into more inclusive, timely, and relevant support. It enables us to adapt our programmes to their real-life circumstances and needs, rather than trying to fit those needs into pre-set funding boxes. Ultimately, it helps us build trust, deepen engagement, and drive meaningful change.” 

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Over the recent decades around the world, much progress has been made to advance women’s rights and gender equality. However, various gaps remain a barrier in realising women’s rights with new manifestations of discrimination emerging across different geo-political contexts. For example, decent work for women is still not a reality particularly for women with disabilities where they continue to face harassment, violence and discrimination at the workplace.  

Championing advocacy in campaigning

 In Kenya, WCC through the #SafeAtWork, #SafeInSociety campaign has been championing the ratification and implementation of ILO 190 in order to advance a future of decent work based on dignity and trust. As a convener of women with disabilities protecting and promoting their rights, WCC has leveraged on this campaign bringing together various industry stakeholders to advance conversations on decent work.  

Moving the needle, WCC has championed advocacy and awareness creation to sensitise stakeholders on ILO 190 and the urgency needed – ever so now – to create dignified workspaces for women with disabilities in Kenya. Engaging government institutions such as the Ministry of Labour, Organisations of Persons with Disabilities, law enforcement agencies such as the Kenya Police and Kenya’s umbrella trade union, the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU)- WCC is actively mobilising a social movement dedicated to #SafeAtWork, #SafeinSociety.

‘’This was the first time we engaged labour unions in Kenya as an organisation through the #SafeAtWork, #SafeInSociety campaign. Sitting in a room together with unions such as the Federation of Kenya Employers, Kenya National Union of Teachers and COTU was an immense opportunity to seed the ground for movement building. We wanted to have a concerted effort from all directions to bring to light issues such as inaccessible buildings for women with disabilities but also continued violations that have relegated them to silence,’’

Media advocacy as a tactic has also been quite effective in WCC’s approach. Mobilising traditional media such as TV, radio and print to provide coverage for the launch of their local campaign yielded in more interest from journalists to spotlight more balanced stories of women with disabilities. In this forum, journalists also engaged with various stakeholders such as the parliamentary committee of labor, civil society organisations, persons with disabilities and unions from the labour movement. They also got the full picture of how the experiences of women with disabilities at the workplace are intersectional in nature.  

Lacking political goodwill 

However, the execution of the #SafeAtWork, #SafeInSociety campaign has not been an easy fete. Collaborating with stakeholders also revealed the tip of the iceberg in understanding how workplaces are struggling with inclusion, and the lacking political goodwill needed to ratify and implement ILO 190. ‘’The process is still quite slow in Kenya. While we had quite progressive meetings with institutions such as the Office of the Labour Commissioner and MPs from the Parliamentary Commission on Labour-  most gave a commitment to fast track the ratification of ILO 190 but to date the efforts are not visible ,’’ she decries.

Kenya’s pro-active discourse in the ratification of ILO 190 has been relatively slow, lagging behind countries such as Namibia, Carbo Verde and Ghana where legal frameworks have been established to implement and enforce ILO 190.  

‘’Accessibility and inclusion have always been a thorny issue. We also anticipate some resistance from employers should we get to the ratification of ILO 190 because this will also need resources that not many are willing to put in- from trainings on safety to whistle blowing tools and mechanisms. ’’ 

WCC’s experience in advancing this campaign shows some of the repercussions of going against the tide of assigned societal gender roles and patriarchy that continue to normalise violence and harassment in the workplace. 

A multi-stakeholder and multi-sector approach wins 

Speaking to WCC’s unique approach in this campaign through a multi-sectoral collaboration, Alice shares that amongst some of WCC’s key learnings have been on the power of convening different sectors and balancing different mindsets. ‘’We were keen on having an inclusive and comprehensive strategy that blends diverse perspectives and unique lived experiences while also bringing together unique stakeholders who’d ordinarily not be in the same room such as the Gender Commission and the Kenya Police,’’ she says.  

They also derived a lesson on the importance of engaging local leaders at the grassroots level so that the community can embrace the campaign and take ownership of the initiatives proposed. ‘’Our only disadvantage was not upscaling the campaign to rural and grassroot areas far and beyond Nairobi due to stringent resources. This could have gone a long way in reach and adding the voice of local leaders from grassroots’ women with disabilities organisations- but we plan on interesting other donors to carry on with the work,’’ she adds. 

Looking at the future and results they expect to harness from the campaign, Alice is excited at the prospect of legal frameworks that will fast-track implementation of ILO 190 upon ratification. ‘’I look at how well organised forums such as the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development are. If we could only adapt a similar approach for regular reporting on the progress of ILO 190 ratification in Kenya tasking relevant bodies and regulators to push accountability,’’ she says. 

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The collective voices of feminist organisations, movements and activists are more powerful and influential in demanding positive, irreversible change. Therefore, our second strategic goal focuses on Womankind influencing a transformative, feminist agenda for change, in collaboration and solidarity with feminist movement partners and allies. This is why we continue to influence for change locally, nationally and internationally through our support to partners and our own direct advocacy work.  

Here’s just a few examples of how we did that in 2022/23.  

16 Days of Activism – from awareness to accountability for femicide 

For the 16 Days of Activism in 2022, Womankind drew attention to and voiced a call for action on the most extreme form of gender-based violence against women and girls: femicide.   

We produced a global factsheet on femicide with statistics and calls to action for individuals, civil society organisations, funders and governments. We successfully raised awareness on femicide globally and in our focus countries, in terms of how it manifests, how patriarchal structures, systems and intersecting forms of discrimination contribute to its existence, how countries document and address cases of femicide. We called for strengthened accountability by governments to address impunity for femicide. We also engaged in cross movement strengthening regionally and internationally through sharing information on the work of our partners on the issue. 

Though all of this, our engagement contributed to global solidarity on addressing femicide from an intersectional feminist perspective through raising awareness on the issue. 

Advocating for meaningful participation of women in the 2022 elections with Sankalpa 

In the run-up to the 2022 elections in Nepal, Womankind funded Sankalpa to increase women’s participation in the elections, document obstacles to women’s electoral participation, ensure women candidates were informed about the roles and responsibilities of elected leadership and push for policies that would enable women’s participation in political life. Diverse women from each of the 7 provinces of Nepal participated.     

Following participation in Sankalpa’s capacity development programme, several elected women leaders launched policies in their constituencies to support women and enable their political participation. These policies included:  

• ending the use of temples as election polling places, which previously excluded women who were menstruating from participating;   
• establishing a feeding room for women working within the local municipal government to ensure nursing mothers could take up these roles;   
• allocating a social protection allowance for single women and sexual minorities, especially those who were the mothers of girls, which helped to reduce the number of female feticides.   

These policies broke down barriers and supported women to fully participate in political life.  Furthermore, this highlights how supporting women in leadership positions results in feminist action and in turn creates local change. This influences norms of leadership roles within communities and opens space for women’s political participation more broadly.  

“We support the next generation of feminist leaders – existing feminist leaders and emerging feminist leaders, so they can have a sharing approach and unite in a place and learn together. Every day there is learning in feminism here.” - Srijana Bastola, Programme Coordinator, Sankalpa 

Creating spaces for diverse women and grassroots movements to influence international decision-making spaces 

At Womankind, we believe that in order for change to happen, voices from grassroots movements must be heard and listened to. Therefore, ensuring that the voices of diverse women are present and centred in international decision making and agenda setting spaces is a vital part of our influencing work. The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) Forum are two of these key spaces.  

In March 2023, Womankind joined the other six organisations in the AWESOME consortium –EWDNA, FIDA Kenya, FOWODE, NUWODU, SWDA, WCC – to carry out joint advocacy at CSW67. Together, we held an event: Rural Girls’ and Women’s Feminist Movement Strengthening. Our partners shared their experiences of working with rural women from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, from an intersectional feminist movement strengthening perspective with a global audience in the room.  

The SVRI Forum provides a unique opportunity for collective learning on tackling violence against women and children. Through Womankind’s Her Voice Fund, five AWESOME consortium partners attended the forum in September 2022. Together, they advocated for disability centered inclusion in feminist movements that are working to end violence against women. Partners held events, chaired panels, met with survivors, practitioners, and activists from around the world and shared their vast expertise.   

Additionally, we awarded a strategic out of cycle Her Voice Fund grant to SVRI for Womankind to co-sponsor the Forum. This sponsorship contributed towards the attendance of 86 delegates working on violence against women and violence against children, including emerging scholars, practitioners, and activists who would not otherwise be able to attend. This added to the programme, by including issues such as disability access, LGBTQI+ rights, indigenous rights, and others.     

Holding the UK government to account  

Over the last year, Womankind has worked to influence international development policies related to gender equality and women’s rights. We encouraged key state and policy actors to influence change through our inputs into the development of and our response to the UK Government’s Women and Girls Strategy. We are part of key UK coalitions including The Gender and Development Network (GADN), Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS) and Bond, where we work together to influence UK government and the feminist narrative in UK international development work. Through this work, we have called for quality funding for and meaningful engagement with women’s rights organisations, centring a gender and human rights approach in the UK’s investment, trade, debt, and tax policies.   

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Our first strategic goal is about Womankind’s partnerships and sharing power and resources with diverse feminist organisations and movements. Through this, we continue to build on our existing partnership approach to deepen and strengthen how:  

• we share power and resources; 
• we become more transparent and accountable to our partners through meaningful engagement in our development and decision-making; 
• we create opportunities for shared learning and collaboration between Womankind and our partners.  

Here’s how we did that in 2022/23.  

Building an inclusive movement across the Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda

Advancing Women’s Engagement: Strengthening Opportunities to Mobilise for Equality – (AWESOME) is a 5-year advocacy programme to support women’s movements in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to work in partnership, be strengthened and more representative of diverse groups of women, with a focus on women with disabilities. In 2022, the programme moved into its second year.  

Since the first learning event for AWESOME held August 2022 in Uganda, partners have been collaborating to strengthen their collective work. This is all with the aim to support the realisation of gender equality, advance women’s participation and leadership and to end to sexual and gender-based violence.    

Kenya   

Women Challenged to Challenge (WCC) and Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (FIDA) had never worked together before AWESOME. Now the organisations work together and continue to strengthen each other’s capacities. For instance, WCC has supported FIDA to improve its accessibility practices and as a result FIDA translated materials for their events into braille for the first time in 2022. Meanwhile, FIDA held legals clinics for WCC’s constituents to improve their knowledge on their rights.   

Ethiopia  

In Ethiopia, Siqqee Women’s Development Association (SWDA) and Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National Association (EWDNA) now hold annual regional policy dialogues together, conducted an online panel discussion on Oromia television and are working together in their advocacy efforts to lobby policy makers. EWDNA are also providing support to SWDA for their accessibility and inclusion practices.  

“Networking with EWDNA became very supportive in influencing the policy makers and federal bodies of the Oromia region. From working in collaboration with EWDNA, we were able to mobilise the voices of women in the region and the region elected women leaders are very willing to work with us.” – SWDA  

Uganda  

In 2022, National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda (NUWODU) and Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) worked together to conduct an annual policy forum at national level with over 100 participants.   

“Along with hosting the learning event in Uganda, we worked jointly with FOWODE in an Annual Sisterhood Forum in November 2022. The two events ignited the flames of partnership and provided an opportunity for the consortium members to meet, socialise, build relationships, learn from each other.” – NUWODU  

The cross-movement building work over the past year through AWESOME shows the strengthening of bonds between partner organisations. Diverse women’s organisations are sharing resources with each other to collaborate on advocacy initiatives, improve their accessibility and inclusion practices and this highlights the impact and power of this type of cross-movement strengthening. Womankind continues to lead the programme management but funds were used to ensure partners take the lead on the in-country collaborative initiatives, communication, and activities working together.   

AWESOME is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. 

Collective action for change in Zimbabwe   

In 2022/23, Womankind’s partners Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) and Women in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU) continued to work collaboratively on the Collective Action to Realise Equality (CARE) project.  

With funding from the CARE project, the women’s movement (through WCoZ) in Zimbabwe has expanded to three new rural areas over the last year – Seke, Zvishavane and Mount Darwin. In these areas, women are now coming forward to be active members of the coalition, driving narratives on economic equality and setting up savings circles to strengthen women’s economic rights.   

As a result of women’s training through their chapters, WCoZ have also seen women wanting to form their own groups and run for political office in Wange & Zvishavane. In addition, 20 women in Binga are now organising to address wildlife conflict in their area. 

Advocacy initiatives and consensus building as part of CARE led to WCoZ successfully petitioning parliament to implement the recommendation of the CEDAW* committee on Act 8 on trafficked persons. WCoZ demanded that the government provide an update on whether there is a new action plan on combatting trafficking since the last one expired in 2019. As a result, parliament summoned the ministries to respond. Following this, the Ministry of Home affairs launched a new action plan. This achievement shows the power, effectiveness and strength of the coalition’s work.  

Funding for this project under Comic Relief’s POWER UP portfolio is also enabling Womankind to shift resources to and share power with CARE partners and the Zimbabwe women’s movement spaces they are part of more proactively and flexibly. In addition, CARE has influenced the women’s rights agenda through the successful advocacy work of the coalition. Because of this, the CARE project is also contributing to our second strategic goal, Influence the Agenda. This demonstrates the interconnectedness of our work at Womankind in relation to our new strategy.  

*The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international legal instrument that requires countries to eliminate discrimination against women and girls and promotes women’s and girls’ equal rights. 

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Let’s not forget women with disabilities

Ethiopian Women with Disabilities Association (EWDNA), in Ethiopia, is whetting the appetite of women with disabilities for politics, as well as campaigning for practical changes such as accessibility and supporting those who want to participate. Their work is focused on trying to shift cultural norms, because while some laws have changed for the better, culture has yet to catch up. 

Also in Ethiopia, our partner Siqqee Women’s Development Association (SWDA) have been organising self-help groups, creating safe spaces for women to exercise leadership. SWDA calls for the election board to make the representation of women in political parties and leadership positions mandatory, adding that the government must provide legal protection to all citizens and enforce the law in this regard.

“Creating a conducive environment for political participation is the mandate of the government and each citizen.” (SWDA)

Our Kenyan partner Women Challenged to Challenge (WCC) has been engaging women with disabilities to increase their knowledge on political processes during elections, as well as creating a platform for them to meet and learn from women with leadership experience. They’ve also connected women with disabilities with the media so they can talk about the challenges they face and call upon stakeholders to be inclusive. “It is important to ensure women with disabilities have been appointed leadership offices as well as being deliberate to be aware of disability needs, inclusion, and disability mainstreaming,” they say.  

Raising awareness across various fronts

Ahead of the 2022 elections, Federation of Women Lawyers – Kenya (FIDA Kenya) launched their ‘Vote a Dada’ campaign, which aimed to change the perceptions of women candidates among Kenyans. They also established a monitoring centre to document and report cases of ESGBV. Through its Women Leadership Academy, FIDA-Kenya supported women candidates (including women with disabilities) to engage in the political process, subsequently impacting the number of women elected in the 2022 general elections. 

Meanwhile in Uganda, AWESOME partner National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda (NUWODU) holds community dialogues and training sessions to raise awareness around disability rights. They advocate for inclusion and mainstreaming of disability issues, and engage and train key stakeholders on disability, SGBV response and reporting mechanisms. Just as importantly, they also offer psychological support to women with disabilities and have seen an increased confidence among them, which has in turn increased representation of disability issues in the political space. 

As a consequence of the high level of VAWG in Uganda’s 2016 elections, Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) commissioned a study that provided evidence on VAWE but also made recommendations for an environment that protects and upholds women’s rights to political and electoral participation – from urging the government to conduct a comprehensive nationwide research on VAWG in times of elections (VAWE), to mass awareness sessions on VAWG (see the report here).

It’s also worth noting that all AWESOME partners are committed to advocating for the ratification of the ILO Convention 190 in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda – the first international treaty to recognise the right of everyone to work free from violence and harassment. When ratified, these labour standards will go a long way in protecting women in their workplace, including those entering the political sphere.  

Read more about the AWESOME project here. 

For further context on the link between VAWG and WPL, please see here.

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It’s clear that women want and need to participate in decisions that affect their lives, yet there’s a distinct lack of women in political leadership positions. Globally, women make up only 5.9 percent of heads of state; just 23.6 percent of national parliamentarians and 18.3 percent of ministers are women. A disparity that is unsurprising when taking into account the challenges women face under the patriarchal systems in which society currently operates. But while there are several reasons for the stark imbalance (all stemming from gender inequality), one major component is the violence perpetrated against women who enter the political sphere. 

But how – and why – does VAWG manifest in the political sphere?

Firstly, it’s important to understand that violence against women in politics (VAWP) comes in various forms – from cyberbullying and physical or psychological intimidation to sexual violence. And that all manifestations of violence essentially have the same aim: to deter women from participating in the political sphere. Indeed, it’s often a form of ‘punishment’ for women who (dare to) challenge the status quo.

Worryingly, violence against women happens in digital spaces too: online intimidation, death and rape threats have proved to be successful tactics in keeping women out of politics – not just women candidates, but voters, too. 

Who are the perpetrators?

In times of election, cases of VAWP increase significantly. A recent Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) study showed that male parliamentary colleagues were the primary perpetrators of all forms of violence affecting women parliamentarians. Crucially, incidents of violence were more prevalent among women parliamentarians who were unmarried, under 40, have a disability, or members of minority groups. 

What’s worse, most cases go unreported and/or unpunished. But there are severe consequences to impunity: “When the state fails to hold criminals accountable, impunity exacerbates the victims’ subordination and powerlessness and conveys to society that male violence against women is both expected and unavoidable,” says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

VAWP is worse for women with disabilities

According to the UN, there is no official data on the representation of women with disabilities in political decision-making. 

Women with disabilities are at heightened risk of all types of violence, from cyberbullying to sexual abuse, but even more so when vying for political leadership. And home is not always a safe space: Women Challenged to Challenge (WCC) explains that many women with disabilities are subjected to domestic violence from spouses who feel intimidated by women with disabilities taking up a leadership position. 

Other unique challenges for women with disabilities are the lack of inclusive processes like Braille material, sign language interpreters and disability-friendly infrastructure. All things that AWESOME partners are working to improve. 

What is being done to end violence against women in the political sphere – and what more can be done? 

“Creating a conducive environment for political participation is the mandate of the government and each citizen.” (SWDA)

AWESOME partners are determined to change the narrative when it comes to women’s participation and leadership (FIDA Kenya’s “Vote A Dada” campaign, for example, was focused on changing perceptions of women candidates among Kenyans before the 2022 elections). Through training and leadership programmes, AWESOME partners are supporting all women to enter the political sphere, and with positive results. Together they demand an end to discriminatory laws and push for mass awareness raising when it comes to VAWG, too. While some are offering data-driven solutions (through monitoring centres recording incidents of VAWG around election time, for example) others focus on campaigning for better accessibility, inclusion and mainstreaming of disability issues. A major AWESOME win has been an increased confidence among women with disabilities wanting to enter the political sphere. 

Hopes and wins 

Stamping out VAWG and supporting women to enter the political sphere has a benefit for society at large because women’s participation in politics is socially transformative. The contribution of women in political processes is not only of prime importance in ensuring a balanced representation of the needs and concerns of democratic societies, but it also increases the credibility of political infrastructure. 

“Research shows that women in politics raise issues that others overlook, pass bills that others oppose, invest in projects others dismiss and seek to end abuses that others ignore.” (FOWODE – Deterred not Barred)

There are of course other obstacles that women face when it comes to entering political leadership – for example, many don’t have the financial resources to pay for the high costs of campaigning, nor do they have enough time due to the disproportionate burden of unpaid care responsibilities placed on women’s shoulders. In many cases, family and societal pressures remain stacked against women. Too often, the media is part of the problem, rehashing harmful gender stereotypes (including trivialising or sexually objectifying women) and giving women candidates less air time than their male counterparts. 

But, as AWESOME partners reveal, times are changing. And if one thing is certain, there’s more will than ever before for women to enter politics. As FIDA Kenya’s Executive Director Ann Ireri says, “The time is NOW. Women have waited for too long in Kenya. The women are ready. The women are available. The women are coming for the seats.” 

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We are delighted to announce that in January 2021 we began the inception phase of a 5 year, €10 million advocacy programme to support women’s movements in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to be strengthened, less fragmented and more representative of diverse groups of women, including women with disabilities.

Despite the challenges of co-creating this innovative programme in the midst of a global pandemic, together with our partners we devised and designed the programme called Advancing Women’s Engagement: Strengthening Opportunities to Mobilise for Equality (AWESOME).

AWESOME brings together seven women’s rights organisations sharing the same values and vision for women’s rights, equality and feminist principles yet with diverse approaches and constituencies:

1. Ethiopia: Siiqqee Women’s Development Association (SWDA)
2. Ethiopia: Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National Association (EWDNA)
3. Kenya: Federation of Women Lawyers, Kenya (FIDA-Kenya)
4. Kenya: Women Challenged to Challenge (WCC)
5. Uganda: Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE)
6. Uganda: National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda (NUWODU)
7. United Kingdom: Womankind Worldwide

The AWESOME Consortium purposefully includes a mainstream women’s rights organisation (WRO) in each country (each with a different area of expertise relating to policy and advocacy and position within the women’s movement covering access to justice, finance and budgeting, and women’s economic rights respectively) combined with a disabled women’s rights organisation (DWRO).

The core objective of AWESOME is to strengthen the capacity and solidarity among WROs and DWROs to collectively challenge the unequal power relations that exist and perpetuate the cycle of poverty and gender inequality. AWESOME focuses on two themes including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and women’s participation and leadership (WPL) including political leadership and works at three levels:

• Self – to provide safe spaces for women’s rights organisations (WROs) including those led by women with disabilities, activists and young women to come together to increase collaboration and solidarity:

This includes safe and inclusive spaces for different groups of women to come together, address existing power imbalances within the women’s movement itself and to develop and agree a common agenda for advocacy and influencing that is informed by issues affecting different diverse women and their constituencies. In addition to national and local level spaces in different countries, multi-country online and offline spaces will be created that will bring together project partners from the three countries to meet, exchange ideas, learn together and from each other and build solidarity.

• Society – to ensure greater willingness and support to challenge harmful gender norms and attitudes:

Working with societal actors and key influencers at community level including religious and traditional leaders, elders, law enforcement officials, the formal and informal justice sectors, and the media in each country, we aim to change the conversation around how women and girls are perceived. We will challenge stigma and discrimination against women, in particular women with disabilities seeking access to justice and access to leadership positions. We will engage men and boys to promote positive masculinities and transformative change at community level, creating a critical mass of change agents to shift the narrative around women’s rights and disabled women’s rights.

• Formal institutions – to improve the policy and legal framework for the realisation of women’s rights:

Our focus is on state actors to seek change at numerous levels including agenda setting, framing of the issues, procedural change as well as law and policy change, recognising the different contexts in which we are working. We will advocate for gender transformative and inclusive amendments that specifically address and accommodate the needs of women with disabilities. As part of the process of advocating for law reforms at the country levels, we will use international instruments as a standard especially where the three countries have ratified/endorsed them by lobbying for effective changes to a number of different laws and policies to align with key international conventions and agreements.

We are busy with the inception phase at present including the creation of a communications plan with AWESOME partners. We will provide updates and share more insights soon.

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In this series we speak to our partners about the challenges COVID-19 have presented to them and women in their communities and the difference the Womankind COVID-19 Resilience Grants will make. In this piece Jane from Women Challenged to Challenge (WCC) speaks about the realities for women with disabilities in Kenya.

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