We believe that lasting change has to come from within. So we do not do top-down transformations. We work with people and partners at a local level both in the UK and Africa, building on their insights and sharing our expertise. So that when we’re gone, the change lives on. Across all our programmes, we build strategic partnerships with women-led or women-focused organisations and frontline professionals working in affected communities, in order to achieve our shared dream of ending all forms of violence against women and girls.
“We are honoured to have FORWARD’s technical support as we have quickly learnt what partnership means, to be trusted, accountable and confident in our actions. […] Now we are moving forward very fast, stable and prosperous” – Koshuma Mtengeti, Executive Director, Children’s Dignity Forum, Tanzania
To achieve sustainable change, we support our partners organisational needs through:
- Capacity Building: Providing advice, training and technical support to increase capacity in areas of governance, organisational structure and staffing, programming and financial management.
- Financial Support: Providing small grants and project funding.
- Advocacy and Campaigning: Providing guidance on mobilising community awareness-raising activities and campaigns to influence change at national policy levels. FORWARD supports these campaigns by advocating for women’s and girls’ rights at the international level.
- Research: Working with partners to conduct participatory, community-based research on the prevalence and socio-political and economic factors around FGM, child marriage, and other forms of violence, which provides us with the evidence base for effective programme planning.
- Network and Alliance Building: Facilitating the sharing of experiences and good practice between local partners, young women and other organisations at local, national and regional levels. We also facilitate links between local partners and African diaspora women in the UK.
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Providing and supporting training, enabling partners to monitor and evaluate their organisations and programmes against their objectives, thus improving and demonstrating their successes to donors, multilateral agencies and fundraisers.
