Partnerships with the organizations, policymakers, and movements working to improve policies and laws are fundamental to our approach to change and central to our commitments to collective action and collective benefits. Equal Futures’ leadership team has worked with leaders, policymakers, and civil society groups engaged in work across 110 countries on all continents. To support these and other partners in their efforts to advance change at scale, we have undertaken activities such as:
- Co-hosting regional convenings of CSOs working in key areas;
- Providing data to US and global civil society and advocacy organizations for use in landmark reports and submissions to human rights bodies;
- Sharing data widely through public presentations and workshops, testimony, and media; and
- Creating state- and country-specific policy toolkits for partners in more than 25 countries, providing comparative data and evidence on policy impact to support locally led campaigns for change.
Partnerships are central to how we have impact. Here are a few examples where partnerships have led to meaningful change:
Advancing Maternity and Paternity Leave in Rwanda
As the Rwanda Men’s Resource Center (RWAMREC) was working on a campaign to advance paternity leave, we provided a consultative toolkit on feasible policy options, engaged in virtual and in-person data sharing events in Rwanda, and shared new global findings on paternity leave with RWAMREC and the media, which were picked up by BBC Focus on Africa as well as Rwandan media and bolstered national and regional attention to the issue. Within a year, Rwanda adopted a new policy expanding access to both maternity and paternity leave.
Advancing Paid Paternity Leave in Ireland
After reaching out to us for examples from the data of EU countries with gender-unequal laws, Equality Now published a landmark report highlighting sex discriminatory laws around the world and calling for their reform. Among the featured countries we had suggested was Ireland, which lagged behind the rest of Europe on paternity leave. Local advocates used the report in a campaign to pass paternity leave, while Equality Now met with policymakers to share the findings. The following year, Ireland enacted two weeks of paid paternity leave, benefiting children and parents.
Cuba: Fully Prohibiting Child Marriage
As Cuba was in the midst of a large-scale effort to reform its Family Code, the country came up for review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Committee picked up on our submission’s recommendation that Cuba eliminate its parental consent exception for child marriage, and Cuba responded by stating that the new Family Code would do so. Not long after, the legislature published a new draft of the Family Code bill–and the first draft of many to eliminate the parental consent loophole.
Lesotho, Gambia, and the Maldives: Advancing Access to Education by Children with Disabilities
After UN experts sought out WORLD’s data for the 2018 Flagship Report on Disability and Development, the final publication featured WORLD’s disability findings and highlighted barriers to inclusive education in Lesotho, Gambia, and the Maldives. Within the next three years, all three countries passed new laws banning disability discrimination in schools.
Tuvalu: New Guarantees of Equal Rights for People with Disabilities
As Tuvalu was undertaking a constitutional review process, we shared data on constitutional rights for people with disabilities at the 6th Pacific Regional Conference on Disability, where Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs) from Tuvalu were among the attendees. Alongside Tuvalu DPOs, we also submitted a report to the CRPD Committee when Tuvalu came up for review, highlighting the lack of a disability equal rights provision in its constitution. The following year, Tuvalu amended its constitution to guarantee equal rights for people with disabilities.
We welcome new partnerships. To learn more and find ways we can work together, please email partnerships@equalfutures.org.
