May 2014 - The second report in a new research series on resources for
women's rights organizing from the Association for Women's Rights in
Development, this piece analyzes the aggregate impact of women’s organizations
around the world that received grants from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign
Affairs’ MDG3 Fund. Including results from 78% of the grantees, this analysis
demonstrates the huge reach and transformation that is possible when
organizations working to build women’s collective power for change receive
serious resources for an extended period of time, with flexibility to refine
their strategies to adapt to shifting contexts.
Highlights of the extensive reach of MDG3-funded interventions
- Fund-supported initiatives reached 165 countries in
seven continents/ sub-continents and 15 regions of the world;
- In these diverse locations, 224,773,550 people gained a
new awareness of women’s rights, including new messages and analyses
about the roots of gender inequality and gender-based violence, and
an understanding that advancing gender equality is everyone’s
responsibility, as well as an essential component of creating more just
and equitable societies;
- The above figure includes 65,558,977 grassroots women
across the world who gained a new awareness of their rights, and
especially their right to freedom from violence, equality under law,
equal right to private and public resources, and equal voice
and participation in public and private decision-making;
- 230,266 women were empowered, trained and provided
with concrete tools, knowledge, skills, and support;
- 105,304 women’s organizations – most of them small
and grassroots-based – were strengthened and provided with new and
greater capacity and tools for their work;
- 3,662 women’s organizations – again, most were small,
community or grassroots-based and under-resourced – were provided
with more financial resources to strengthen or expand their work;
- Local governments in 38 cities/towns/provinces were
influenced and newly capacitated to re-assess, strengthen, and
improve their gender equality programs and outcomes;
- National governments of 46 countries were influenced
and enabled to strengthen their gender equality policies and
programs;
- 14 different international norms, policies, and
instruments were influenced to better advance women’s rights,
including some of the “last-mile” work for ensuring the signing of
the ILO Convention on Domestic Work adopted in 2011.