Movement Building: Issues Affecting Women Programme

Strong women’s movements are central to creating and sustaining social, cultural, and political change. Movement building is central to the Issues Affecting Women Programme’s strategy, because it helps build capacities, resources and strengthen women’s leadership.

Oak supports programmes that empower women, both individually and collectively, to challenge patriarchal norms, tackle the root causes of inequality, and prevent and respond to violence. For Imkaan, a network of 34 organisations working to end violence against black and minority women in the UK, movement building has facilitated the spread of shared knowledge and increased support for evidence-based advocacy. By bringing organisations together, Imkaan has been able to take steps towards undoing the power imbalance between genders and re-envisioning this power dynamic.

“We believe that, together, the two arms of our strategy – supporting women's movement building and ending violence – reflect the changes we seek to influence around the world,” says Katharina Samara-Wickrama, director of Oak’s Issues Affecting Women Programme, which aims to strengthen connections, cooperation and collaboration within the women’s rights sector and with other movements. Read more here: oakfnd.org/issues-affecting-women.html