Photo credit: Andrew Esiebo / Saferworld / Fairpicutre

Resourcing change for women’s rights organisations

When women’s rights organisations are given the flexibility to decide their own priorities and develop their own projects, there are clear positive impacts for women and girls – who are often at the forefront of peacebuilding. To mark the 24th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, we share some of the incredible work that women’s rights organisations are doing in Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen, through the Resourcing Change project.

Resourcing Change in Nigeria | Supporting women's inclusion and preventing GBV

In this video we hear from Bridget, Amina, and Ochyna who share their stories and perspectives on how the flexible funding from Resourcing Change is helping their organisations to teach women how to make reusable menstrual hygiene products so that they can generate incomes and attain economic independence. We hear from Ngozi, Esther, Vincent and Sule who share their stories and perspectives on how the flexible funding from Resourcing Change is helping them to increase women's participation in community security initiatives.

Resourcing Change in South Sudan | Women take a seat at the table

In this video, we hear from Suzan, Anna and Grace who share their stories and perspectives on how the flexible funding from Resourcing Change is helping them to promote inclusion, build peace, and improve the lives of the women that they work with.

Resourcing Change in Yemen | Supporting women-led hubs in Aden and Taiz

In this video we hear from members of the women-led hubs bringing together community leaders, women's rights organisations and civil society into networks that are building sustainable peace. We hear from organisations providing psychological and legal support for women who have experienced abuse, and who are providing small grants to women who have been released from prison so that they can work to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

This project – led by Saferworld in a consortium with Women for Women International and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – provides women’s rights organisations with flexible funding. The organisations decide how to use these funds, enabling them to set their own agendas, design their own activities and pursue their own goals. This model challenges the prevailing donor-led model of development, shifting power towards women's rights organisations working to address problems at their roots and prevent conflict.

Advancing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda requires prioritising and sustaining the essential work led by WROs, women-led organisations and feminist groups. The Resourcing Change project re-affirms that this approach is both feasible and transformative. It has supported 23 WROs and two women’s hubs to lead change in conflict-affected areas. The series of videos are a testimony of how women activists, women peace builders and WROs in South Sudan, Yemen and Nigeria are, and should continue to be, at the centre of advancing a localised WPS agenda.

Resourcing Change is a flagship project in line with Saferworld’s ten-year strategic framework and gender equality strategy, which commit us to continue to raise our level of ambition as we work with others to challenge the gender norms that drive violent conflict and gender-based violence, and to support the leadership of women and girls in peacebuilding.