The UN Women Multi-Country Office (MCO) - Caribbean, seeks to partner with a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to provide support to women's rights groups, CSOs, and relevant stakeholders through the coordination of actions aimed at increasing opportunities and support to women’s rights groups to share knowledge, network, partner and jointly advocate for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (GEWE) and ending Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), including family violence, at sub-national, national, regional and global levels.

This past year, the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the tourism and hospitality sector – one of the key economic drivers of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – due to border closures or restricted movement. This economic shock also extended to craft traders, many of whom are responsible for their families’ livelihoods and are women. What did this mean for those whose livelihoods were reliant on tourist arrivals?

Birthed from a desire to reunite their country which had been torn apart by civil war, the women of Rwanda began the journey of reconciliation. It was this early commitment to work together which they attribute to the country leading the world in women’s representation in Parliament.

In the Caribbean, women are often described as the foot soldiers of the political parties, yet despite a consistently strong showing as voters, their voice and needs are not always reflected; and their presence in elected and appointed decision-making positions remains limited.