Women-led organisation engagement and influence in the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence

Dynamique des Femmes Juristes (DFJ), a women-led organisation (WLO) founded by a collective of women lawyers in 2008 to provide legal support to women in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has worked in humanitarian response for more than two decades. As a local WLO participating in the gender-based violence (GBV) sector and humanitarian coordination at provincial level, DFJ works to influence decision-making with regards to GBV and humanitarian preparedness and planning on a local level. DFJ advocacy on the scale of needs for women and girls at risk of and experiencing GBV in multi-dimensional conflict and humanitarian crises in DRC, and the urgency of funding for frontline humanitarian response by WLOs, focused on local decision-makers that were accessible to WLOs.

Within North Kivu province, DFJ has prosecuted hundreds of cases to ensure that rural women have access to justice for gender-based violence. It has trained paralegals in rural areas and advocates for legal protections for women and girls. DFJ built its reputation locally through its GBV response, highlighting the expertise and capacity of local GBV actors, and exemplifying the value of local leadership in humanitarian decision-making. Over time, DFJ expanded its advocacy work from local and national to global level to reach more senior decision-makers, who have greater resources to address gaps in GBV prevention and care, promote GBV resource mobilisation, and integrate GBV prevention, response and risk mitigation in humanitarian planning at both national and global levels. This was achieved by devoting significant resources to engagement in global-level decision-making spaces, such as the United Kingdom-led Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI), the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) High-Level Roundtable on GBV Financing, and most significantly, the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies (Call to Action).

Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies

Since 2018, DFJ has engaged in the Call to Action, a multi-stakeholder initiative founded in 2013 by donor governments, United Nations (UN) agencies and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), that works to mobilise resources, increase attention and strengthen programming to better prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in emergencies.

DFJ has worked resolutely to leverage the visibility and participation in decision-making spaces that the Call to Action affords. A rare opportunity for DFJ to contribute to policy discourse and global decision-making, the Call to Action also provides an opening for DFJ to increase attention to challenges meeting the humanitarian needs of women and girls in DRC. In 2020, DFJ became the first women-led organisation admitted as a signatory to the global Call to Action partnership, and continues to champion the Call to Action, acting as a coach and mentor to WLOs active in GBV prevention and response, within the central and west Africa region.

Call to Action country pilot in DRC

In 2017, a Call to Action country pilot was planned in Northeast Nigeria, followed by plans in 2018 for a second country pilot in DRC, to increase resources, coordination and funding for GBV prevention and response in these contexts and explore the value of the Call to Action partnership at country level. This presented an opportunity to GBV actors in DRC to engage with the Call to Action and to demonstrate the value of their practical insights and expertise to international partners. DFJ saw the Call to Action pilot as an opportunity to address gaps in GBV prevention and care, improve coordination between provinces, promote GBV resource mobilisation from Call to Action donor signatories present in DRC, and integrate GBV prevention, response and risk mitigation in humanitarian planning at provincial and national levels. A national roadmap for 2018–2020 was launched by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Family in March 2019 in Kinshasa.

DFJ coordinated among WLOs from different provinces to showcase the range of expertise and present on different conditions across contexts in DRC at the national launch workshop, and to lobby UNFPA to broaden the planned pilot and engage in multiple provinces.

Despite limited resources to support outreach to GBV actors at provincial level in the national launch workshop, DFJ engagement in the annual meeting in Brussels provided valuable experience with the Call to Action initiative at the global level which was useful to the coordinators of the DRC country pilot. DFJ leveraged this connection to secure invitations for two additional WLOs, Réseaux Femmes et Développement (REFED) and Forum des Mamans de l’Ituri (FOMI), to attend the national launch workshop and become signatories to the DRC roadmap. DFJ convened a panel discussion among women-led organisations at the national workshop to surface the challenges of and opportunities for Call to Action field implementation in the conflict-affected provinces of Kasai Orientale, Ituri and North Kivu. This session changed the conversation at the workshop about how the pilot could improve GBV prevention and response in DRC, the modalities for coordination among partners, and the profile of actors needed to meet the challenge of implementing activities, advocacy and coordination to reach the goals of the pilot. This engagement continued beyond the national workshop, with DFJ playing a central role at the North Kivu provincial workshop, and with the ongoing reporting of activities into the roadmap. In 2020, DFJ conducted a provincial evaluation of engagement in the Call to Action.

Local to global: sharing learning from DRC

Throughout the experience of engaging in the DRC pilot, DFJ remained enthusiastic to share perspectives and experience from the pilot with Call to Action partners at the global level, but was not able to participate in the NGO working group of the Call to Action as it was not yet a signatory. However, DFJ was invited to participate in the 2019 annual partners meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, by Global Affairs Canada (the meeting coordinator). Despite significant obstacles to attending the meeting, due to strict visa requirements and lack of influence over the visa application process by the meeting organiser, DFJ resolved to attend to demonstrate the experience, knowledge and insights that could be shared by WLOs within the Call to Action partnership and strengthen further implementation of the global roadmap at field level. Due to budget limitations, French interpretation was not available throughout all sessions of the meeting, which posed a challenge to active participation from DFJ, but the potential of the Call to Action as an opportunity for women-led organisations to mobilise needed attention to the challenges faced by GBV actors at country level remained clear.

Since the early experiences of participation as an observing non-signatory in 2018 and 2019, DFJ has continued to strengthen its engagement in the Call to Action, becoming the first women-led organisation signatory to the Call to Action in 2020, and advocating for the enlargement of Call to Action membership to include GBV actors from the Global South. DFJ’s intention to mobilise additional resources and expertise to address the unmet needs of women and girls in DRC by coordinating with partners from the global Call to Action evolved into a multi-year investment in a global process, originated by international partners operating in English, working at HQ level. The country pilot in DRC provided a unique opportunity for DFJ to act as a conduit between field-based actors engaging with the Call to Action locally and global actors engaging with the Call to Action in a policymaking capacity. Building relationships of trust with international GBV actors in the humanitarian system steadily increased DFJ’s influence as a member of the NGO working group and a valued signatory of the Call to Action, which in turn created space for more women-led organisations to engage at a global level. By contributing evidence of the collective and organisational capacity of local WLOs to design, lead and deliver humanitarian responses to women and girls at risk of GBV, DFJ and 15 other WLO signatories have raised the profile of the work undertaken by WLOs to influence the local and national humanitarian agenda as regards prioritising GBV prevention, response and risk mitigation through coordination and advocacy.

WLO engagement and influence

Within the structures of the Call to Action, DFJ has advocated for interpretation in meetings of the NGO working group and in all sessions of the annual partners meeting, worked with lead governments to regularise the visa application process for meeting attendees, and pushed for transparency throughout planning of the annual meeting so WLOs can contribute to development of the agenda and take on leadership and coordination roles. As the first WLO to join the Call to Action, DFJ champions a shared vision of working together as diverse GBV actors to break through obstacles facing the GBV community, and encourages signatories to pool resources and expertise in the DRC context and beyond. This has included mobilising resources for field implementation of the Call to Action in the West and Central Africa region as a co-creator of the ‘Call to Action Field Implementation’ project with the Arab Women Organization of Jordan (AWO) and CARE USA, and acting as a coach and mentor to WLOs active in GBV prevention and response, within the West and Central Africa region.

The increased interest in the Call to Action engendered in the region through this work has also yielded dividends in increased focus on the region within the Call to Action at global level. WLO signatories to the Call to Action from the West and Central Africa region have greatly increased since Germany took the lead of the Call to Action in 2023 and provided opportunities in French language for prospective signatories to apply to join the Call to Action.

However, obstacles to WLO engagement remain significant for the dozens of organisations that have demonstrated interest in joining the Call to Action as a global signatory. Long delays in processing signatory applications during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and the transition from Denmark to Germany as lead government limited engagement in the NGO working group. Language barriers remain at the working group and steering committee levels, and are a sizable obstacle to equal and meaningful participation by WLOs. Despite challenges managing the time commitment, bureaucratic requirements and language barriers, WLOs see participation in the Call to Action as a worthy endeavour. They feel that they are engaging with the appropriate actors, at the appropriate level, to take part in global decision-making for the GBV community, rather than being relegated to local-level implementation only.

Conclusion

DFJ has maintained its enthusiasm to share experience of participating in the Call to Action, navigating the signatory process, and engaging in the NGO working group, with women-led organisations from diverse emergency settings who struggle to raise the profile of unmet needs and challenges faced by women and girls in their contexts. DFJ and other WLO signatories have worked to promote inclusion of local GBV actors in the Call to Action annual meeting, which included 10 WLOs in 2023, by energetically engaging in planning to bring together global partners requiring visas, interpretation and dialogues across both practical GBV actors and technical/institutional experts. Over the course of its six-year engagement in the Call to Action, DFJ has seen an appreciable difference in what the Call to Action has evolved and grown to become, particularly its relevance to challenges in better resourcing and wider implementation of GBV prevention and response. Additionally, DFJ champions initiatives led by local partners, such as regional Call to Action roadmaps, which facilitate South–South exchange among GBV actors and collaboration with international agencies on humanitarian advocacy for women and girls in emergencies. DFJ and sister WLOs are leveraging these global platforms not only to mobilise resources for unmet needs in local contexts, but also to call for more equal partnership approaches, focused mentorship, and longer-term support of and capacity-exchange with WLOs.

Claudine Tsongo is Coordinator and Co-Founder of Dynamique des Femmes Juristes.