- In 2019, we worked in 30 schools in the Malawi's Phalombe district and also with the wider community, reaching almost 62,000 people to address the root causes of school-related gender-based violence and encourage behaviour change.
Read our 2019 annual report
Concern's objectives, activities and achievements in 2019 can be found in our new annual report.
Read the report
Gender equality
Latest achievements
Achievements
Why gender equality? Gender equality is globally the most common form of inequality and remains a major obstacle to the eradication of poverty. We specifically focus on gender equality as a means to significantly reduce inequalities and empower people living in extreme poverty to improve their lives.
Across the world, so many women and girls still do not have access to or control over resources and services. They live in fear of gender-based violence (GBV), are denied education and have no say over decisions in their homes. Gender equality forms a major pillar of Concern’s equality strategy 2016 to 2020 and is a key area of focus for all programmes in livelihoods, health and education.
And we are seeing an impact.
"We started to realise that a lot of roles in the home can be done by anybody. By sharing these we can see the changes in the welfare of the family and how women are treated."
Souley Mai Daoua (17) is a member of the 'Mama Lumiere' mothers group in Niger. Photo: Jennifer Nolan / Concern Worldwide.
Hadiza Adam (28) is a member of the 'Mama Lumiere' mothers group in Niger. Photo: Jennifer Nolan / Concern Worldwide.
Assoumane Tssiako is a member of the Husband Schools in Niger. Photo: Jennifer Nolan / Concern Worldwide.
Ibrahim Abdou member of the Husbands School in Tahou, Niger. Photo: Ciara Hogan / Concern Worldwide.
Ibrahim Abdou, a member of the Husbands Schools, with his family. Photo: Ciara Hogan / Concern Worldwide.
Concern staff member in Sierra Leone. Photo: Jennifer Nolan / Concern Worldwide.
A closer look at our approach to gender equality
Here are just some of the ways our gender equality programming is helping to change the lives of women, men and children around the world.
Gender sensitive to gender transformative
Every programme that Concern implements is 'gender sensitive' – meaning it identifies and takes into account the different needs, abilities, and opportunities of girls, boys, women and men. Our ultimate aim, however, is to move from 'gender-sensitive' to 'gender-transformative' on all programmes. This means working with communities to develop programmes that transform the root causes of gender inequality at many layers of society – from the individual to the institutional and national.
Engaging men
Conflict and gender equality
"The greatest barriers we face to improving our lives are our husbands. I know my rights but they don’t apply in my home. When I come home, I leave my rights at the door."
Positive results
Engaging with men doesn’t mean that women lose out. Based on Concern’s positive results using the approach in Tanzania and Sierra Leone, we believe that engaging men is an essential element of women’s empowerment so that benefits are brought to children, women and men themselves.
Publications on the theme of gender equality
Research and insights from our gender-sensitive programmes in action.
