This year’s 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is yet another opportunity to focus on this urgent issue. The theme for 2016 is raising money to end violence against women and girls, and it’s critical. Recent years have seen some progress towards promoting and protecting the rights of girls – particularly in reducing maternal mortality and improving girls’ education – as well as significantly increasing awareness of gender-based violence. However, the low level of sustainable funding continues to be a huge obstacle to achieving further progress.
In a new report on funding to women’s rights organisations in the the global south, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that while $10bn (£7.8bn) had been provided to civil society organisations working to ensure gender equality in 2014, only 8% of such aid had gone to groups in developing countries.
Worse still, just $192m (£144m) of the billions of dollars allocated to promote gender equality in poorer countries in 2014 had been reported as going to women’s rights organisations. The international body argued that most aid is being used at international level and that resources risked being diverted towards “short-term projects that reflect donor priorities”, causing disempowered local groups “to act primarily as implementing agencies rather than to pursue their own agendas”.
Some donors seem to acknowledge this. A new commitment by the UK’s Department for International Development of £6m to support “innovative grassroots programmes in 17 countries, dealing with female genital mutilation, child marriage and domestic violence” sounds promising, but it is unclear if this resource will really reach those groups that have most impact at local level. It may indeed be yet another top-down initiative with set agendas to follow and lots of hoops for small, under-resourced women’s groups to jump through.
If we are really going to achieve the global goal of ending all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls by 2030, governments need to do a lot more to translate promises into policies that empower women and girls, alongside crucial financial support for the women’s rights movement – including direct funding to local groups. The argument for this has never been clearer, yet the majority of the 193 countries that committed to this agenda seem to be carrying on with business as usual. This is enormously harmful to women and girls themselves, but it also has negative ripple effects on the wellbeing of everyone in society.
Ending all forms of violence is a basic human rights obligation and critical to ensuring we can all live to our full potential, but we also need it to ensure that the world is safer and more prosperous. Gender equality makes economic sense. It is a firm basis on which to unleash a new wave of global growth. The OECD has stated that there “can be no robust growth economy without gender equality” and that it is “a critical ingredient of any strategy for durable, resilient and more inclusive growth”. Countries are simply more likely to prosper if they enable women to live and work on a level playing field.
Ending violence and discrimination in the home will also have a direct effect on defusing conflict around the world. There is a direct connection between peace and equality within families and peace and security on a global scale. According to the International Peace Institute, when women are included in peace talks, there is a 20% increase in the likelihood that any agreement will last two years. However, UN Women says most countries ignore this logic and that only 10% of peace negotiators are women.
Against this challenging backdrop, women’s groups are still making remarkable progress. The advances made in recent years on reducing violence and discrimination have been made largely by visionary individuals, who may not always be known publicly. While certain charities with large communications budgets have been able to publicise themselves quite successfully, we rarely hear about the many brilliant frontline organisations that are changing lives around on the world on a daily basis. These groups are at the roots of the burgeoning women’s movement, which is continuing to succeed, despite constant challenges and setbacks.
Donor Direct Action was set up to help promote the efforts of visionary feminist groups. These include the Forum for Women, Law and Development in Nepal, which has helped change legislation that previously legalised rape in marriage; the Marta Resource Centre in Latvia, a provider of critical services for sex trafficking victims; and Synergie des Femmes, which recently opened a shelter for victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
I stand with these frontline groups, which carry the future on their shoulders. Hopefully, we can help to ensure they get the sustainable funding they need to end violence against women in their localities. These brave activists do not seek the limelight, but it is more important than ever that it shines on them.
- Jessica Neuwirth is co-founder of Donor Direct Action, an organisation that partners with visionary frontline women’s rights groups around the world
