Latest podcast on women’s empowerment includes why men have a critical role to play

Background to podcast

Back in the summer, we shared a podcast with Technical Specialist for MannionDaniels on Gender and Social Development, Alethea Osborne, talking about the Jo Cox Memorial Grants and specifically those working to support women’s empowerment overseas. We discussed how the grant holders had come together as a Community of Practice (CoP) to share their learnings on defining empowerment.

In our latest episode – now available to download – we spoke with Julia Rosell Jackson, Performance and Risk Manager at UK Aid Direct, to find out more about the UK Aid Direct Community of Practice, set up for the women’s empowerment projects working with the support of a Jo Cox Memorial Grant. We also explored the critical role men and boys must play in women’s empowerment projects.

Extract from podcast on why it is essential men are involved in empowerment projects, if women’s empowerment is to be achieved:

“Our conviction is that women here live in patriarchal communities, and if we want them to reach empowerment with their money, they cannot do it alone – they have to do it with the men because it is the men who decide more than them.” 

Aloys Mateba, Senior Programme Manager for Women for Women International, who have a Jo Cox Memorial (Network) grant to deliver a women’s empowerment project in DRC.

Background to The Jo Cox Memorial Grants

In March 2018, the former Department for International Development, now the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, paid tribute to murdered MP Jo Cox and launched the Jo Cox Memorial Grants in her name.

These grants were to come from a one-off, £10 million pot within UK Aid Direct, for projects working on two themes close to Jo’s heart: preventing identity-based violence and conflict prevention, as well as women’s empowerment.

Find out more about Jo Cox Memorial Grant holders

• In the new framework on women’s empowerment
• In our impact and reflections article, five years on from Jo’s murder
• Case study: Community engagement is reducing gender-based violence in Uganda through the work of rights agency, MIFUMI
• Case study: Minority Rights Group networks for peace in Northern Kenya
• Case study: Economic empowerment for women is key for meaningful leadership and participation in politics – Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE)
• Case study: The role of women in peace processes leads to efficient and sustainable results – Internews Europe
• Case study: Teaching vulnerable young women to believe in themselves gives them the confidence to succeed – Zimbabwe Educational Trust.