Looking back on 2024 at IWDA

For gender equality activists around the world, 2024 was a year of resistance in the face of emboldened anti-rights movements. While the increasing threat to women’s rights is real, we want to take this opportunity to remind our supporters that this year our partner organisations in Asia and Pacific had some significant wins.  

Here’s a roundup of this year’s highlights, which shows that the feminist movement is alive and well in our region, with our partners rising to the challenges before them.   

Major milestone for women’s rights in Solomon Islands 

Solomon Islands had an election this year, where only 6% of candidates were women. Women’s rights campaigners in the country took a significant step towards changing this in April, when the National Parliament approved the inclusion of Temporary Special Measures in a bill amendment to improve women’s political representation. The bill represented a huge win for IWDA partner, Women’s Rights Action Movement, who have been advocating for over six years to see more women enter parliament. Learn more here. 

Speaking up for girls and young people in the Pacific

Shruti Singh was just 10 years old when she joined IWDA partner, FWRM’s GIRLs program. This year, at 17 she was selected as the youngest fellow to join NGO CSW Global Youth Fellows, part of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women. Shruti spoke to us about her advocacy, what working with FWRM has meant to her, and her hopes for the future in October for the International Day of the Girl Child. Find out what one of Fiji’s young leaders had to say here.

Cambodia’s Worker’s Information Centre equips garment workers to fight for better conditions 

You may have heard that working in a garment factory means working under tough conditions. But did you know that there are unions working to change that? We spoke to one of the organisers from the Workers Information Centre in Cambodia. WIC is a member of the United Sisterhood Alliance, one of IWDA’s partners. Read the full story here.  

Cambodia continues the journey towards legal marriage equality 

Marriage equality advocates in Cambodia made inroads this year, with the development of the Declaration of Family Relationship (DoFR), colloquially known as a Private Love Contract form.  This is a huge victory for Cambodian LGBTQ+ activists, including IWDA partner Rainbow Community Kampuchea. Meet one of the couples who have taken the step to declare their relationship for better protection under the law. Read here. 

‘The Blank Bilum’: The WEAVERS research team continuing the national conversation for the women’s rights movement in PNG 

For almost two years, the WEAVERS research team, led by Dr Orovu Sepoe and consisting of 16 women’s rights actors from across PNG, has worked together to design and implement a ground-breaking new research project about the women’s rights movement in Papua New Guinea.  They launched their research in May across six regional events. You can learn more about the research here.  

Meet the men taking on gender-based violence in Bougainville 

Preventing gender-based violence before it happens is just as important as caring for survivors. This is why our partners in Bougainville at the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation (NCfR) have a men’s hub, where they work to engage men and boys to build non-violent communities. We had the pleasure of catching up with Paul, one of the Men’s Hub Project Officers back in June. Read the full story here to learn more about NCfR’s work.