The ‘ACTION BRIEF’ series is for policy-makers and civil society organisations. It draws on the experiences and analyses of our partners, One World Action, academic research and current debates.
The ‘ACTION BRIEF’ series proposes a clear set of action points that can contribute to development policy-making, planning and financing.
Development cooperation and gender equality in the New Member States of the European Union
How well are New Member States doing in meeting commitments towards gender equality?This Action Brief highlights the main challenges and the progress made, and identifies opportunities for ensuring that the principle of gender equality is at the heart of the international development agenda of NMS. The brief not only finds that these five cases fall below target ODA volumes in absolute terms, but also demonstrates a trend of channeling aid in support of political interests and regional stability over and above their commitment to poverty reduction and meeting the MDGs.Moreover, despite that accession to the EU has brought gender inequalities within NMS into the public arena, NMS foreign and aid policies remain largely gender blind.
This brief concludes with several recommendations for moving toward a more gender equitable development.These include strengthening institutional capacity for improving the quality and quantity of aid, pursuing poverty reduction as the focus of development cooperation, prioritizing gender equality and women’s empowerment in development cooperation, and fostering civil society engagement in decision-making.
To download the full pdf report, please click here.
Interested in learning more about these issues? One World Action's Connect! project is a pioneering initiative aimed at supporting women’s organisations and NGOs in NMS.It aims to influence and hold governments accountable by demanding full implementation of EU policy on gender equality and women’s empowerment in their development assistance programmes.
Our latest Action Brief discusses the widespread problem of gender-based political violence in Bolivia, where elected and aspiring women politicians experience routine harassment, intimidation and assaults as they try to participate in local politics. Despite progressive laws and quota systems in place, Bolivian women continue to be underrepresented in all levels of political life. How do women's organisations and civil society approach the problem?
Please click here on the image to download this Action Brief.
Please click here to read the Spanish version of this Action Brief.
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In this Action Brief, women's rights advocates, politicians and academics reflect on British and Latin American experiences of women in politics and strategies for increasing women's political representation.
Based on a roundtable discussion organised by One World Action and the Institute for the Study of the Americas in November 2009, participants have distilled approaches and recommendations to further gender equality in formal and informal political spaces.
Featuring testimonies from British party activists and local politicians from Bolivia, and the latest research on patterns of political participation among women in Latin America.
You can read this Action Brief by clicking on the image above.
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The political context is volatile in Malawi with the debate raging on about the impeachment of the President. Local government elections are long overdue and the national political scenario only further complicates the situation.
In the meantime, existing local government structures need to be strengthened to implement and monitor the HIV/AIDS National ActionFramework, with the AIDS pandemic continuing to wreak havoc in Malawi. Due to various factors arising from donors and government decisions, the local government AIDS machinery which was developed over time, has been weakened and is in danger of completely unravelling.
You can view the Action Brief by clicking here .
You can view an accessible version of the Action Brief by clicking here.
One World Action supports a network of community based women’s organistions in Dhaka called Partnership of Women in Action (PaWA).
90% of the Bangladesh workforce are in the unregulated informal sector. There is a lack of reliable data, but current estimates put the number of women working in this sector at around 10 million. These women work in unregulated jobs such as farming, vending, shrimp cultivation, rag picking, brick breaking, sex work, tailoring or domestic services. The majority of these women are poor, excluded and vulnerable.
Poverty alleviation schemes, including livelihood projects and micro-credit, have to be supported by raising levels of social consciousness to be sustainable. PaWA therefore links personal empowerment to campaign and lobbying.
This Action Brief shares both the strategies PaWA have developed to improve the lives of women workers, and their policy recommendations that will ensure women workers become visible, valued and protected in future.
You can view the Action Brief by clicking here.
