Collective Learning Workshop 2025: Centring Community and Care
Date:
From 7-11 April 2025, the UN Trust Fund’s newest grantee partners joined the annual Collective Learning Workshop, which supports new grantee partners start up their initiatives and enables them to share experiences, network and foster a sense of community.
The event heard from diverse voices working to prevent and end violence against women and girls in a range of activities, including poster sessions, plenaries, breakout groups and collaborative visualization, all underpinned by a deep commitment to inclusion. It also introduced grantee partners to their key focal points at the UN Trust Fund – including portfolio managers, monitoring and evaluation staff, and operational and communications colleagues – who will be working with them throughout their four-year grant.
Stories, Strategy and Solidarity
On Day 1, using the “world cafe” method, participants moved from station to station to learn about each other’s work, exchange innovations and share cross-regional lessons learned. Participants highlighted the importance of peer-to-peer learning and the urgent need to dismantle patriarchal norms, especially in contexts of conflict, backlash against women’s rights, and political instability.
On Day 2, in a storytelling plenary, participants emphasized the value of using positive messaging and leveraging traditional and social media platforms to amplify survivors’ voices, shift narratives and effect institutional change.
Mariia Makarovych from Insight NGO recalled how systemic reporting at national and international levels led by women's human rights defenders and activists helped end the ban on women accessing certain professions in Ukraine.[1]
Fátima Marielos Chicas Vásquez from the young feminists-led organization Asociación Ameyalli explained how the “Justice for Beatriz” campaign flooded social media across Latin America to highlight the human cost of the absolute ban on abortions in El Salvador. This led the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to order El Salvador to implement legal reforms to protect women’s health and ensure medical personnel have guidance in such cases.[2]
Ethics and Survivor Safety in Monitoring
Day 3 focused on measuring change in the work of ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG), zooming in on data collection, ethics and safety. Participants discussed the complex realities of informed consent, confidentiality and trauma-informed care. Using real examples – from Guyana’s use of coded data and secure storage, to a culturally-sensitive approach to outreach in the Occupied Palestinian Territory– discussions reinforced that ethical data collection is a human-centred responsibility to ensure survivors’ stories are told.
“[Ethics and safety] is a dialogue that should be centred on dignity. It is about gathering knowledge in a way that respects women’s time and truth,” said Jessenia Karim Casani Castillo from Demus, a grantee partner from Peru.
In the current context of increasing backlash and heightened threats to the work of women’s rights organizations, data collection tools such as focus groups, surveys through encrypted platforms, and anonymous phone interviews were shared as best practices. Participants echoed the importance of creating safe spaces, training data collectors on intersectionality and inclusion, and respecting survivors’ right to withdraw from any activity at any time.
Confronting Risks and Backlash
On Day 4, grantee partners discussed the rise of anti-rights movements and backlash –from physical acts and threats of violence against women’s human rights defenders, to election-related violence, racial violence, freezing of organizations’ assets, and bureaucratic inertia. They proposed ways to mitigate and respond to these challenges, including establishing inter-organizational networks to jointly respond to legislative or political barriers.
In Asia, grantee partners shared their work on internal monitoring systems to flag corruption risks and ensure accountability from the government. In Europe and Central Asia, grantee partners used technology and digital platforms to deliver psychological support to staff under threat to ensure timely response to staff’s needs.
Another key focus was the identification of underrepresented and underserved groups in EVAWG programming. Participants shared the challenges of reaching women and girls in rural areas, including those belonging to ethnic minority groups, those with disabilities, Indigenous women and girls, older women and self-identified sex workers. Participants discussed feminist participatory research and programming approaches that empower these groups to shape the questions, tools and strategies used in their own communities.
Strengthening the Foundation: Budgets and Flexible Funding
The day also provided practical guidance, through the “Make Flexible Funding Work” session, on how to incorporate contingency and indirect costs – such as those related to security, exchange rate fluctuations, communications and healthcare – into project budgets. Participants were encouraged to balance compliance with flexibility and revisit their budgets in collaboration with portfolio managers to ensure timely adaptations to emerging risks and evolving contexts. The message was clear: budgets are living documents, and funding flexibility is key to sustainability.
Looking Ahead: Peer Exchange and Collective Advocacy
"Power isn't just what you have, it's what you share,” one grantee partner said.
On Day 5, grantee partners joined plenary and group sessions on artificial intelligence (AI) and mutual aid.[3] The session on mutual aid sparked particular interest and created a network of cross-continent support among grantee partners.
The day ended with topics of discussion determined by grantee partners. A range of ideas on how to move forward emerged, from running joint campaigns to staying connected and learning through the SHINE platform. Participants urged the UN Trust Fund to continue championing intersectional, survivor-centred programming while providing technical and moral support to navigate shrinking civic space and anti-rights backlash.
Closing the workshop, Ana Carolina Querino, Country Representative a.i. of UN Women Brazil Country Office, said:
“When we work for women’s rights, it’s like waves in the sea. Progressing and receding. There’s always movement... These past few days are testimony to that. And I hope in difficult times, you remember the energy I saw here, this joy, this resilience.”
[1] UN Women, “CEDAW-Based Legal Review: Brief Guide”. Accessed: 28 April 2025.
[2] I/A Court H.R., Case of Beatriz et al. v. El Salvador. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of November 22, 2024. Series C No. 549.
https://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/resumen_549_esp.pdf
[3] Mutual aid is a voluntary, cooperative exchange of resources and support among individuals or groups to meet shared needs and strengthen community resilience, often outside formal institutions.