Women in Search of Citizenship: Experiences from West Africa

This book provides insights into what gender inclusive citizenship means as a practice, what can be achieved when it is promoted and what role participatory action research can play. It shares the experiences of women in local communities devising ways to exercise their citizenship. It is about women working on rights and thereby furthering their understanding of citizenship, beginning to speak for themselves and to make claims. It is about women developing their own agency and acting for themselves. And it is about women investigating and addressing institutional barriers in order to ensure their rights have concrete effects in their daily lives. These experiences arose out of an innovative regional programme that supported seven women's rights and human rights organisations in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. It was initiated because of the recognition by Oxfam Novib and KIT that despite many development efforts to mainstream gender, provide gender training and strengthen women's leadership, women in many parts of the world are still not fully recognised as citizens with rights. These experiences demonstrate ways in which women can change that.