Micro-grants funding round 1

This youth-led research examined whether Indonesia’s Youth Friendly Health Services, which are meant to be implemented in health sector community clinics, are truly youth friendly. It explored whether providers do not express negative gender bias toward young people with specific gender related questions or searching information on sexual and reproductive health.

Through a meta-evaluation of Global Education Challenge evaluations and project data on girls’ education projects, Coffey International explored what can be learned about norm change in girls’ education in developing contexts.

This action research intervened through training, mentoring, and implementing gender-equitable schools and teaching practices. The beneficiaries were 15 Islamic secondary schools (middle and high schools) in rural South Malang, Indonesia, an area where government intervention to improve education quality is minimal.

The research explored shifts in harmful gender norms in adolescents through a process evaluation examining the link between comprehensive sexuality education and intimate partner violence prevention in Mexico City.

This study examines norms that govern the access of young women to education and higher education in Somalia and what can be done to support them. It explores women’s experiences of gender bias and stereotyping in their academic careers. The women communicate online in a Community of Practice forum and through their stories, SIDRA identifies patterns and common issues that illuminate the challenges women face in academia and in research.

Visionaria (Peru) trains and supports teachers in exploring and facilitating concepts of gender equity and norms, providing an agency-based empowerment curriculum that gives students the opportunity to practice leadership in their communities. Their research uses a community-based and participatory approach, employing photovoice, which promotes the ethical use of photography for social change. It also draws on pre- and post- surveys and focus group discussions to collect data and analyse gender norms held by teachers and students who are part of the programme.

The Gender Development Association (GDA) brought together experts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam to share lessons learned and best practices on the promotion of positive gender norm change and the reduction of gender-based violence in the Greater Mekong sub-region. The convening in Vientiane, Laos, incorporated and amplified the voices of youth leaders. It also increased the capacity of participants to develop media campaigns and work specifically with ethnic minority communities to shift gender norms and combat violence against women and girls.

Little attention has been paid to the gendered nature of health systems and how these systems can reinforce harmful norms, strengthen patriarchy and work against gender equity. Harnessing the power of the health systems that have contact with most citizens throughout their lives – could generate powerful dividends in terms of social change. KWTRP brought together academics who use gender and intersectional approaches in their studies of the health system and policymakers, practitioners and researchers in Kenya to explore the potential of these approaches.

The ‘Getting Men to Care’ convening assembled key researchers and activists from around the world in Kigali, Rwanda to review existing research, programme and policy experiences on gender norms, workplace, policy environments and community norms that discourage or encourage men’s and boys’ participation in unpaid work. Such work includes domestic tasks and caring for children, elderly and disabled relatives. Given that women’s unpaid work burden remains a key driver of both inequality in leadership and the gender pay gap, understanding how to encourage men’s unpaid work is key to women’s empowerment.  

Organised by Point of View and the Internet Democracy Project, ‘Imagine A Feminist Internet: South Asia’ was a two-day regional conference of researchers, practitioners and policymakers working on gender, sexuality and technology in South Asia. This conference, which took place in Sri Lanka, challenged gendered norms online, including those related to online violence, sexuality, and privacy and surveillance. It also discussed the concept of a ‘feminist internet’ as a way to challenge and change the daily cycle of gendered norms created and contested online. In doing so, it built on the Feminist Principles for the Internet, developed by the Association for Progressive Communications and its network.