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Sustaining Power: Women's struggles against contemporary backlash in South Asia
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Women in South Asia have struggled for many decades to improve their lives within their families, in their communities, for securing their livelihoods, and in getting their voices heard as citizens by the state, with women's movements being critical in advancing their rights. However, contemporary social, economic and political changes have created new and multiple forms of backlash and contestations. How do women defend their rights, and secure their gains against these regressive forces and backlash? This question leads our research on the strategies and mechanisms that women use to retain power and sustain gains in women's rights. This research is particularly interested in how different groups of women understanding power and struggle, and how these change over time. We aim to assess what works to defend women's rights, and explain why some struggles are more successful than others in sustaining gains. We think that success of women's struggles depends on a) the types of strategies they use to counter different types of backlash; b) the ways in which struggles include voices and perspectives of different groups of women; and c) the ways in which struggles connect to other movements and groups across local, regional and national levels. The central research question therefore is: When, how, and why do women's power struggles succeed in retaining power and sustaining their gains against backlash? South Asia provides a valuable opportunity to investigate women's struggles. The region has witnessed rapid and large changes over the last decade, including urbanization, rising employment precarity, new electoral laws and regime changes, shifts in social norms, and the spread of digital technology. We aim to examine how these changes create new and multiple forms of backlash; and how women's struggles for power are variously challenged, opened up or are closed down by these changes. We are interested in unraveling the similarities and differences in processes and strategies used by different women's movements to retain power in the face of backlash; and in women's own experiences and interpretations of their struggles as these evolve and adapt over time. We will select 16 cases of women's struggles in four countries that represent the largest populations of South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Within each country, we will select on-going and contentious cases of struggle in one of four arenas within which gains in women's rights are being sought: family, community, market and the state. This research will use a variety of methods including: a) identifying and analyzing the types of backlash created by processes of contemporary change; b) mapping critical players and what shapes their motivations for action; c) tracing the struggles, nature and trajectory of each movement to counter backlash - through oral history methods, reflective and participatory techniques, qualitative interviews and archival research; d) undertaking comparative analysis to compare how different movements may have triggered, galvanized or been strengthened by power struggles across different arenas; and e) identifying and systematizing which combinations of mechanisms and strategies work to defend women's rights in South Asia and beyond. This is a collaborative research project that draws together a multi-disciplinary research team with deep in-country and conceptual expertise on women's rights and contemporary power struggles in South Asia. This project includes strong capacity building initiatives and opportunities for learning through reflective processes with women's movements and research partners. This research is ambitious in its scope and we hope that our findings that will be grounded in real life experiences of women, will be relevant and useful for feminist scholars, activists and policy actors to set their future course of action to defend women's rights across the world.
The Evidence Fund - 300708
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
The Evidence Fund procures and manages research and evaluations that primarily benefit ODA eligible countries. Most research and evaluations paid for by the Evidence Fund are country-specific, and all respond to requests for evidence to inform programme or policy decisions. Primarily serving research requests from HMG’s Embassies and High Commissions in ODA eligible countries, and from HMG policy and strategy teams, the Evidence Fund strengthens the evidence behind the UK’s priority international development investments and development diplomacy. The Evidence Fund also invests modest amounts of non-ODA, to strengthen the evidence behind wider UK foreign policy.
MECS - Modern Energy Cooking Services
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
MECS is the FCDO research and innovation programme that accelerates the uptake of clean and modern energy cooking practices in Africa, South Asia, and the Indo-Pacific, in alignment with the objectives of Sustainable Development Goal 7. Targeting the 2.1 billion people who still lack access to clean cooking solutions in developing countries (especially women), MECS develops research around modern energy cooking, funds pilots to scale up new clean cooking technologies and business models in developing countries, and conducts policy research to inform and influence national strategies and planning. MECS is delivered via two lead organisations - Loughborough University and the World Bank ESMAP – in collaboration with hundreds of regional and local downstream partner organisations (including 16 other universities). It contributes to International Climate Finance (ICF) objectives and is one of the main FCDO programmes contributing to the £1b Ayrton Fund for clean energy innovation.
ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility (ACGF)
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
This Programme supports ODA-eligible Association of South East Asia Nations members grow sustainably and meet the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals by financing infrastructure investments linked to clear, measurable green targets. The Programme helps the UK meet is International Climate Fund targets and is consistent with HMG’s Indo-Pacific Tilt and FCDO’s climate objectives in Asia.
Climate Action for a Resilient Asia
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
A Technical Assistance facility will build capacity of national and subnational governments and vulnerable communities to integrate climate resilience into government-wide policy and planning and also work with the private sector, banks and financial regulators to support the integration of climate-related risks into investment decisions. A portion of the programme budget will be earmarked for coordinated policy work and regional cooperation in specific sectors or themes which require a regional approach where we have existing successful regional partnerships which can be scaled up, and or there is demand from country offices for a multi-country approach. Enable management of the programme including monitoring and evaluation, research, knowledge dissemination, communication, advisory support to country offices if required.
Global Innovation Fund
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To identify and support innovative solutions to development challenges which show proven, cost effective impacts that vastly exceed current practice.
UK-India Global Innovation Programme
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
This programme will accelerate delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals in South Asia and Africa by supporting transfer of inclusive Indian innovations, benefitting poor people, with a special focus on women and the disabled. The new programme will operate in specific countries in Africa - Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and South Asia - Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Afghanistan. It will increase agricultural productivity and food security; address pressing health needs; provide potable water; clean energy; and technology for financial services; by prioritising these sectors. It will do this by deploying a more ambitious and comprehensive range of financial instruments compared to our existing programme, including investment and lending, to fund the development, transfer and scale up of innovations by Indian public, private sector and civil society organisations.
ASEAN-UK Health Security Partnership
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
The UK-ASEAN Health Security Partnership is a five-year programme that will improve capacity for the prevention, detection and response to health threats in Southeast Asia, contributing to improved regional and global health security. The programme will build cooperation between UK and ASEAN public health actors, support mobilisation of a One Health approach and advance equitable access to health in countries of focus, including by strengthening health systems. The programme will offer demand-driven grant funding and technical support to improve preparedness for health emergencies at country and regional level, including through support to relevant ASEAN institutions in line with UK-ASEAN priorities.
ASEAN-UK Economic Integration Programme
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
The programme will leverage expertise in UK institutions to support the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states implement ASEAN initiatives that will reduce poverty in the region and in particular support women’s economic empowerment and small businesses. It aims to reduce barriers to development in ASEAN Member States (AMS) and the overall ASEAN Economic Community, to increase prosperity and provide the foundation for more inclusive economic development that benefits the poorest. The programme will support reforms covering regulatory reform, financial services, and trade through technical assistance, capacity building and knowledge-transfer partnerships. It will look to harness the potential of digitalisation in ASEAN.
ASEAN-UK Supporting the Advancement of Girls’ Education (SAGE) Programme
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
This programme will help to improve the learning outcomes, agency and freedoms of women and girls and other left-behind groups across the full range of countries in ASEAN, in line with the commitments to ASEAN as a Dialogue Partner. It will deploy technical advice to support regional partnerships and reform initiatives that can influence and multiply domestic and multilateral education finance. In Low- and Lower Middle-Income Countries, activity will focus on basic education. We will provide technical assistance, capacity building and evidence assessments to help ASEAN Member States (AMS) design and implement more cost-effective measures to address the foundational learning crisis, including post-COVID-19 recovery. It will also help to expand access to high quality digital skills, technical and vocational education with a focus on enabling marginalised adolescent girls ty digital skills, technical and vocational education with a focus on enabling marginalised adolescent girls.
Southeast Asia: Strengthening Research and Innovation for Development (SEA-StRAID)
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
SEA-StRAID will help to build an equitable research ecosystem in Southeast Asia that promotes lower middle-income country (LMIC)-led research agendas for developing and implementing solutions to local, regional and global challenges. The programme will deploy technical advice, capacity building support, and funding for regional R&D partnerships. It will aim to improve access to global research, build respectful partnerships, enable countries to recruit and retain quality researchers, and build a stronger, more stable research system that will help the region to achieve sustainable economic growth.
ASEAN-UK Women Peace and Security Programme
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
The ASEAN-UK Women Peace and Security (WPS) Programme works with ASEAN to advance and strengthen the WPS agenda, including promoting women’s participation in conflict prevention, resolution and recovery, preventing violence against women and promoting social cohesion in the region.