In March 2020, we conceptualised and hosted the first conference for Women in Dev: a network that brings together thousands of women working across all areas, experience levels and regions to drive radical change in the international development sector. The conference was designed to unite women to share their knowledge and experience, ignite inclusive dialogues around the greatest challenges facing women in the sector and collectively identify solutions to change how the sector operates.
Problem
Despite the disproportionate load that women, particularly those in the Global South, are already carrying in International Development, there remains an imbalance when it comes to intersectional representation in leadership roles as outdated patriarchal, colonial leadership structures continue to permeate the sector. Women in Dev started as a vision to unite women working in the space around a shared goal for a more equitable sector for both those working within it and those it impacts.
Objectives
Host a women-focused, women-centred conference to forge a space for women and gender-diverse people to share their ideas, engage in meaningful dialogues and identify concrete solutions to reform the development sector and then to continue to build the community with a shared vision to centre women’s leadership and feminist values in the International Development sector.
Approach
In the lead-up to the conference, the team connected with hundreds of women in this space, creating an extended network of highly engaged women leaders, activists and voices. We have since continued to grow the WID community online, using the conference and its learnings as a launch pad. Having appointed a second Steering Committee at the beginning of 2023, we are now incorporating this new cohort of powerful gender advocates into our activities in 2024.
Outcomes
The conference was a resounding success with over 400 attendees, helping us establish our first set of advocacy objectives for the network: to transform funding practices, increase women’s leadership and instil feminist leadership models. The conversations revealed the acute need for such a space in order to do development differently and remedy the power imbalances that permeate our institutions. The WID community now stands at over 10,000 people spanning world regions, areas of specialisation and seniority levels. Furthermore, we have now expanded WID’s communications outputs beyond social media and the newsletter programme to also include a jobs board, a blog and various online event series. In July 2023, we hosted the Kindness Lounge, including a programme of self-care workshops and activities for attendees at Women Deliver in Kigali.
