Photo: Basma Nazer, 34, from Jordan runs a social enterprise ‘Khoyoot’, translating as Threads. Basma’s Khoyoot Initiative creates partnerships with women in a refugee camp to produce hand embroidered products. ©CARE Netherlands
CARE International is honored to be selected by the Generation Equality Forum core group - as one of the global leaders of the Action Coalition on Economic Justice and Rights. This is one of six coalitions bringing together a diverse group of public, private and civil society organizations, each tasked with working together over the next five years to accelerate progress for women and girls through concrete actions that will tackle systemic barriers to gender inequality.
“As we all struggle to defeat COVID-19 and see years of hard-won progress on women’s rights at risk of reversal, now is the time we must come together to develop a global game plan that will deliver a quantum leap forward for women’s economic empowerment, and their human rights,” says CARE International Secretary General, Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro. “This was part of the promise in the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, yet as this remarkable year marks the 25th anniversary of that promise, we see much still needs to be done; this action coalition could not be coming at a more critical time”.
Women have long been seen as critical agents of post-crisis recovery, and investing in gender equality has the potential to stimulate the economy and reverse losses to global wealth by up to $160 trillion. CARE has a long history of working on economic justice for women, based on a deep-rooted understanding that when women earn, everyone benefits. CARE pioneered the first Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) back in 1991 in Niger, for example. Today, VSLAs operate across over 54 countries, with over 8.4 million members generating an average $2.34 billion financial transactions each year.
As part of this Action Coalition, CARE will be led by grassroots women’s rights organizations, local women-led organizations, women’s movements and the women and girls we already partner within over 100 countries around the world. “We are committed to ensuring that we offer women and girls meaningful opportunities to participate as part of this action coalition, and are accountable to them in return,” says Sprechmann Sineiro. “We will also build on the expertise and lessons we have learned in local communities over the last 75 years to empower women and girls to drive breakthroughs on women and girls’ economic justice and rights”.
As part of the action coalition on economic justice and rights, CARE is joining forces with co-leaders which include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the governments of Mexico, Spain, South Africa, Sweden and Germany, and civil society organisations including African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET) Huairou Commission, Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
For the full list of global leaders
For more on Generation Equality Action Coalitions
About CARE
Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and providing lifesaving assistance in emergencies. In 100 countries around the world, CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to help lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. To learn more, visit www.care-international.org.