All Blog Posts (144)

On the top of her election agenda is to end bonded slavery everywhere – a cause close to her heart considering her past. Veeru lived in a small hut in the Hoosri neighbourhood of Hyderabad, along with her family of agricultural workers. Wearing a traditional ghaghra and an armful of bangles like every other Kohli woman, the 47-year-old has come a long way, she explains.

Veero Kolhi Is First Hindu Woman To Contest Elections In Pakistan. She is an active member of Raising Her Voice…

An%20Everest%20of%20Courage_Nepal_Final%20%28Eng%29%20.pdf 

An Everest of Courage

A saga of rural women struggling for change and empowerment.

The success story of Raising Her Voice in Nepal.

 International Women’s Day and Aurat Foundation

                       …

There was some great material, celebratory and thought provoking, added to the Oxfam Policy and Practice website on International Women's Day on Friday. They can be found at http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/blog

One article, written by Jenny Enarsson, Gender Justice Capacity Building Adviser, and Shawna Wakefield, Gender Justice Lead, with Oxfam reminds us of the advances that have been made in women's rights, and the…

From Poverty to Power's Duncan Green has a new post at http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=13856 looking at new research from World Bank on global gender norms.

"I've been thinking a bit about norms recently – how do the unwritten rules

that guide so much of our behaviour and understanding of what is

acceptable/right/normal etc evolve over time? Because they undoubtedly do –

look at…

Check it out: http://eepurl.com/vmCpD

Following the success of our first round of grantmaking, we are looking forward to supporting up to 16 more  young feminist groups from around the world. We believe that supporting young feminist organising is key to the expansion, rejuvenation, and sustainability of women’s movements and organizations,…

http://ning.it/Xj604d

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday passed legislation against forced marriage of women under which the violators would face up to seven years imprisonment and Rs500,000 fine or both.

The bill aimed at the elimination of the tradition of ‘Ghag’ was moved by the Provincial Minister for Social Welfare and Women Development, Sitara Ayaz.

When the mover presented the bill containing a punishment of 14 years…

Thank you Asim for the great Blog about Thursday's moot trial in Pakistan.  I could ask for no better introduction to RHV's paper drawing together examples from the RHV community on innovative strategies, just like the moot trial, to bring about changes in attitudes, behaviour and the institutional frameworks that condone or perpetuate violence against women.

We've added a link to the Paper and both the Honduras and Nigeria Case Studies to our Key Documents on the…

By News Desk

Published: December 7, 2012

In a moot trial on Thursday, a jury of women affected by violence called on parliamentarians to legislate for greater protection for women and better accountability for perpetrators of violence, said a press release.

The moot court, conducted at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts, was convened in a bid to collectively mark 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Girls and Women, an annual campaign that lasts between…

The RHV community is committed to ending violence against women and girls (VAWG), and all forms of gender based violence. 

We are signposting you as practitioners and policy makers to two funding opportunities for work on VAWG:

1.  The first is by the Department for International Development (DFID) in Britain.  For details go to their website…

On Sunday the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women will help to focus the world's attention on women's right to live a life free from violence. RHV partners in Honduras paint a picture in words of the rising levels of femicide, and the lack of political will on the part of the judiciary, law makers and enforcers to deal with it. 

To find out more go to the Oxfam Policy and Practice website…

On the 12th October four Botswana sisters won the legal right to inherit their father's estate, that's good news for them and for women across Africa.  In a groundbreaking case, Judge Key Dingake ruled that customary rule law (which would have forced the sisters to leave the home in favour of a male relative) was anti-constitutional violating their right to equality under section 3(a) of the Constitution.

Whilst remaining mindful of the need to be vigilant as we hear of the possible…

Depressing news from a DRC study by the Sonke Gender Justice Network that found more than one in three of the 708 men surveyed in the war-torn east admits committing sexual assault, and that three in four believe that a woman who "does not dress decently is asking to be raped." Read more from this excellent, nuanced report here:…

30 October 2012:

The global effort to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM) has taken a critical step forward with the official presentation of a draft resolution by the Group of African States at the United Nations. The draft resolution, “Intensifying Global Efforts for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilations,” was advanced by African leadership at multiple levels, including the Inter African Committee on Harmful Traditional Practices and the First Ladies of Benin and…

"I started getting involved in community politics and working in organizations. There, with the women's groups, is where I learnt what it really means to organize. (They teach you about organization at university, but it's not the same.) I learnt about politics from the elders, the ancestral authorities.

 "In the meetings, it was all men and then…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ... 

enough money within her control to move out 

and rent a place of her own, 

even if she never wants to or needs to... 

something perfect to wear if the employer, 

or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour... 



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ... 

a youth she's content to leave behind.... 

a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to 

retelling it in her old age.... 

a set of screwdrivers, a cordless…

Women in Nepal experience discrimination in all areas of their lives. The goal of Oxfam’s Raising Her Voice programme is to ensure that public policy making reflects the interests of poor and marginalized women in the country, especially by increasing their participation and influence in community decision-making bodies that have a particular impact on their lives. This case study – one of a series of Programme Insights on Local Governance and Community Action – shows the remarkable success…

See the powerpoints attached for illustrated examples of different types of power and some of the interations between them. The first is a series of fun cartoons while the second outlines the Power Cube approach.

Both are great resources - they can be used to help communicate contrasting forms of power, or as a tool to identify power structures and plan actions accordingly.

You can also find other useful tools and guides on the new Raising Her Voice Resources…

Article link http://www.ethiopiainvestor.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3242&Itemid=88

WOGE: A Unique Women and Girls Empowerment Initiative

As the world approaches 2015, a critical time to measure the success in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), two…

RHV presentation delivered May 17th 1-2pm as part of the Governance and Transparency Fund public meeting series: ‘Demanding accountability from the bottom up’: examining what works, what does not work, and why.’

View here: …