Event

Celebrate International Women’s Day with us! Join this empowering, informal learning event as we hear from grassroots feminist organisations worldwide.

Women’s rights organisations have long been delivering feminist, inclusive, community-lead social justice work in diverse country contexts across the world. The commitment to directly fund women’s rights groups in the White Paper on International Development in November 2023 has put a spotlight on their work. For many, the role of feminist political solidarity in achieving social justice is not new, and offers a framework to us in international development for a different practice of power. For others, understanding feminist models of power will be a lightbulb moment in the journey our sector is on in moving towards locally-led development and increasing equity. This session will offer a snapshot into what UK-based organisations can learn from the practice and knowledge of grassroots women’s groups in lower and middle income countries and their feminist practice. 

This event offers a platform to learn, share, and engage with the powerful stories and impactful initiatives spearheaded by these organisations, aiming to foster a deeper understanding of locally-led development initiatives to achieve gender justice. Further information on our speakers will be updated nearer to the event. 

Speakers at this event;

Godess Bvukutwa

Godess Bvukutwa is a published writer and a feminist development practitioner with more than 15 years of working in the development sector in Zimbabwe. One of her short stories, published in Writing Mystery and Mayhem (Weaver Press), won the Konrad–Adenauer-Stiftung Best Short Story Award. In 2012, Godess also won the Zimbabwe Women Writers Norma Kitson Short Story Award. A founder of Mambakwedza Women’s Centre, she is the Zimbabwe Project Lead for a British Council-funded series of projects titled ‘When Women Write’. Currently, Godess is studying towards a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia where she is a Global Voices Scholarship recipient.

Dr. Atuki Turner

Dr. Atuki Turner is a gender and equality activist, with a legal and gender background. She is responsible for the MIFUMI landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2015 outlawing bride price refund. Atuki has employed her skills and expertise working to end violence against women and children nationally and internationally.

Dr. Stella Nyanzi

Dr Stella Nyanzi is a scholarship-holder of Writers-in-Exile program of PEN Zentrum Deutschland, and a fellow of the Center for Ethics and Writing jointly organised by Bard College and PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection . She is a dissident poet, radical queer African feminist activist, academic scholar, social commentator and opposition politician belonging to Forum for Democratic Change party in Uganda. Having been imprisoned twice in maximum security for her dissident writings published on social media, she is an ardent defender of free expression, digital rights, internet democracy and online freedoms. She is actively engaged in menstrual activism against period poverty, and advancing sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing. 

For more information or any questions, email Emma at info@swidn.org.uk for further details. This event is open to all!

Register to join the Zoom call here!