Mapping Best Practices: Promoting Gender Equality and the Advancement of Kenyan Women

This publication assesses choice non-governmental organizations that have national reach in their implementation of international and national obligations that safeguard the rights of women. These practices identify what is already being done, where and by whom, with a keen emphasis on what are the striking lessons that can be identified as contributing greatly to the success of gender work. This book is designed to aid in the mapping out of a logic of what works, why and what the way forward could be. It ultimately intends to share information, knowledge and experience for those currently in, or planning to undertake similar work – in a bid to provide a framework for building on existing initiatives for greater impact.

It emerges at a crucial time, coinciding with the recently concluded ten-year review of the progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action, the five-year review of progress on the Millennium Declaration, and the anniversary of the Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Its conceptualization draws on the experiences and expertise of state officials, members of national civil society, international organizations working on gender issues and the private sector, who participated in various sponsored consultative sessions reflecting on the 1985 Nairobi Conference, the 1995 Beijing Conference and subsequent +5 and +10 reviews. These efforts were further supplemented by varied and intense public discourse in the Foundation’s monthly Gender Forum series that assessed the emergent state policy prescriptions and their fit to the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) 12 critical areas of concern providing both materials for human rights education and a guideline for claiming and fulfilling the human rights of women.