Skip to content

Forum on Realising Gender Equality and Women’s Rights

Major shifts in the field of international development over the past 15 years have posed both challenges and opportunities for the advancement of gender equality and women’s rights. This annual forum is designed to stimulate critical reflection on the state of gender knowledge. It focuses on how dominant trends in international development enable or constrain the realisation of women’s rights and gender equality. This process of reflection is intended to develop strategic focus in the field of gender and rights.

The 2014 forum

In collaboration with WO=MEN, KIT hosted a forum on 16 January 2014. The one-day event brought together over 60 practitioners, policymakers, researchers, activists, lobbyists and gender specialists. It aimed to stimulate discussion of transformative practices and approaches for gender equality and women’s rights.

The forum examined two central principles that have shaped gender policy in development. First, it examined empowerment through increased participation and integration in the economy. And second, it looked at the demand for measurable impacts and quantifiable results. Both have had a detrimental effect on the advancement of gender equality and undermined critical approaches to social change. So it is extremely important to analyse the manner in which knowledge on gender is shaped and to identify opportunities for critical engagement.

Results and keynote speeches

The forum sought to identify transformative approaches and practices that contribute to gender equality and women’s rights in this challenging landscape.

Keynote speeches were delivered by Wendy Harcourt and Maitrayee Mukhophadyay and six individuals or representatives of organisations shared the opportunities, challenges and dilemmas they experience in promoting women’s rights and gender equality in the neoliberal era.

View post

Services delivered

  • Applied Research & Knowledge Management

    As a knowledge institute, KIT compiles, analyses and develops new knowledge on health systems, sustainable economic development and gender, but also supports others in making active use of such knowledge. For example, KIT conducts significant frontrunner research on rising global issues such as youth employment, gender issues in the agricultural sector, and sexual reproductive health and rights. This enables KIT to broker grounded and actionable knowledge as advice to public and private sector organisations seeking to improve their development impact. It also allows for KIT’s convening role, bringing together different stakeholders and facilitating knowledge exchange and learning to support collaboration and innovation for impact. 

  • Project Implementation

    KIT has more than 80 experts specialising in public health systems, epidemiology, sexual and reproductive health and rights, agricultural innovation, food value-chains, gender relations, and inclusive finance. The combination of this content expertise and process-related skills not only leads to better projects, it also builds competencies in project design, implementation and management. We build on our clients’ own resources and knowledge, mission and values and ensure that our advice is aligned with existing initiatives, has policy relevance, and is adapted to the local context. With extensive experience and practical involvement in projects and programmes worldwide, we tailor our project support to your needs, the context you are working in and the partners with whom you are working. Our approach is practical and based on action learning. This allows you to yield the highest possible impact with your investments.