Newsletter | October 31, 2023
Video documenting discussions at the East Africa Regional learning workshop on August 8-9, 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Highlights
Introducing the Women RISE Website
We are thrilled to announce that the Women RISE Initiative website is live. This is an online repository to share your work and provide easy access to the knowledge emanating from the Initiative’s research. The HPRO will also share knowledge translation tools and other resources on this platform. Click here for more information.
The Women RISE Regional Workshops
The HPRO, in partnership with research teams, successfully convened four regional learning workshops in Argentina, Ghana, Malaysia, and Nairobi in July and August 2023. The regional workshops enabled sharing of emerging knowledge from the projects, skill-building sessions on gender and knowledge translation, networking, peer learning, and identification of collaboration.
Women Delivered in Rwanda
IDRC held a Women RISE side event at the Women Deliver Conference on July 20, 2023, in Kigali, Rwanda. The Initiative was represented by Anis Farid (Malaysia), Lisa Avery (Kenya), and Melania Chiponda, HPRO. Also on the panel were Muriel Ametoglo, Gender Specialist at UN Women, and Kathryn Toure, IDRC’s East Africa Regional Director, who moderated the session. The panel focused on potential solutions to reduce the burden of care on women and the need for financing care infrastructures.
The Canadian ministers Harjit Sajjan (Emergency Preparedness) and Marci Ien (Women, Gender Equality, and Youth) visited the IDRC booth at the conference.
From Rhetoric to Action: Leaving No Woman Behind
The Women RISE Initiative showcased five projects from Bangladesh, Kenya and Uganda in a panel discussion titled: ‘Action-based research to ensure no woman is left behind in the COVID-19 recovery and future pandemics and epidemics’ at the 2023 Canadian Conference on Global Health in Ottawa, Canada on October 17, 2023. The panel was moderated by Montasser Kamal, IDRC’s Director of Global Health. Representatives of the Initiative’s co-funding agencies, Jennifer Gunning, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and Natalie Hunter, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), participated in the session. Tanya Trevors, the Director of Women, Children, Adolescent Health, and Rights at Global Affairs Canada (GAC), also provided brief remarks.
Women RISE Project updates
Finding Synergy Augmenting Regional Impact
Fundacion Huesped held its 20th Scientific Symposium on August 30 – September 1, 2023. During the forum, the four Latin American research teams supported by the Women RISE Initiative shared preliminary findings and learnings from their projects.
Some of the commonalities identified were that there are profound inequities. However, all four projects have involved and integrated working women and communities in the project design, implementation, and evaluation. All the projects have also adopted a transdisciplinary approach.
Digital Storytelling Workshop
The ARISE & WIN team held a three-week Digital Storytelling Workshop for self-employed women on September 11, 18 and 25, 2023. The training enabled the participants to share their stories of resilience, inspire other self-employed women in Nigeria, and advocate for change and policy interventions that will benefit self-employed women.
Sharing the Emerging Evidence while Strengthening Capacities
The Ukuvula Isango Women Rise team participated in the 2023 Anthropology Southern Africa Conference in Grabouw, South Africa, presenting nine papers across two panels. The panel titles were “Medical Matters: The Pains and Impacts of the Pandemic” and “Rural Assemblies and Possibility.” Six of the nine papers were presented by graduate student research trainees who are members of the Ukuvula Isango research team, and all the papers were developed directly from Ukuvula Isango study data. The findings and analysis received great comments, with two presenters garnering the “Best Paper Awards!”
Reactivation of Cantonal Board of Cuenca’s Inclusive Recycling
After a long break due to the pandemic, the Cuenca Cantonal Board of Recycling resumed on July 11, 2023, due to the support of ‘The Work and Health of Women Waste Pickers in the Context of COVID-19 in Ecuador (RUMBOS)’ project, supported by Women RISE. The board convened in 2013, comprises recycling community organizations, public institutions, civil society organizations, and academia that promote inclusive recycling in the city. The long-term goal is to advocate for the construction of a more sustainable and inclusive city and generate public policies that recognize and support the work of the recycling population.
Media Coverage
- Signature of the Interinstitutional Cooperation Agreement between the University of Cueca, the National Network of Recyclers of Ecuador and the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion
- Women Bushmeat Traders Losing Livelihood
Notable Achievements
The Women RISE Initiative celebrates the election of Prof. Isaac Nyamongo , Project Investigator of the WINRACK project, as president of the International UNION of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) and Prof. Salome Bukachi, a researcher and anthropologist in the same project, who joins the World Health Organization team to prevent the next pandemic.
Reading Resources
Below we share resources and tools that provide different considerations to ensure gender is considered and included in the research process.
- Gender Analysis as a Development Research Tool
- Women’s equality at a tipping point
- Sex and Gender in Health Research
Upcoming Women RISE Event
- Women RISE Initiative virtual mid-term meeting – For all research team members and it will be held on 14-16 November 2023from 4.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. EAT.
Important Calendar Days
Connect with us
We want to feature your work. Share with us any news and updates such as published papers, policy briefs, and community engagement activities, about an upcoming conference you are participating in. Share before February 15, 2024 to be included in the next Women RISE News Roundup.
Also, tag the Twitter page in your activities: @WomenRISE6
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