Building Women's Collective Power

The project aims to enhance gender equality and empower young and adult women activists and their grassroots organizations. It supports women human rights defenders working on the frontline. It focuses on marginalized women. The majority of which are young rural women LGBTQI activists and Indigenous women along with their grassroots women organizations. It helps them enhance their capacity to influence policies and norms for the advancement of gender equality in their communities. The project emphasizes the importance of feminist activism as a driving force in influencing and changing policies and legislations. The approach combines activist leadership and capacity development with alliance building across social movement groups community organizing activist safety and strategic advocacy. Project activities include: (1) providing evidence for advocacy on sexual and gender-based violence issues and demands at various levels. These can range from women human rights defenders to stakeholders at national regional and global level; (2) training women human rights defenders and activists on alliance building collective and advocacy strategies; (3) organizing exchanges between Mesoamerican and Canadian women human rights defenders and activists; (4) developing toolkits and resources on innovative media strategies and communication tools; (5) providing learning materials on extractivism and economic justice in Central America; (6) organizing cross-regional encounters of women human rights defenders and researchers on extractive industries and their impact on women communities territories and the environment; and (7) providing and coordinating the Alquimia Feminist Strategic Leadership courses a training program for Indigenous and rural women leaders in Mexico Honduras and Guatemala. The project is being implemented by Just Associates and the Nobel Women’s Initiative.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) strengthened prevention and responses to sexual and gender-based violence. This is done through regional bodies development donors human rights and protection organizations and women human rights defenders and their organizations in Central America and Mexico; and (2) improved fair access and control over resources including financial and natural resources by grassroots rural and Indigenous women and their communities in Central America and Mexico.