A merry holiday season to you
We wish you all a lovely end of year holiday season and a happy New Year! Thank you for following us this year, see you in 2022 for more projects and updates.
Insight
Work with us
GPG is hiring! We have several job opportunities currently available:
- Project Assistant
- Projects Manager
- Senior Projects Manager
For more details, find the full opportunities on our Careers page.
Make sure to read our latest research paper
Last month, we were delighted to announce the launch of our latest publication ‘Women’s Economic Empowerment in Iraq: Voices of Female Entrepreneurs’, written by GPG’s Associate, Researcher and Policy Consultant Müjge Küçükkeleş as part of our Voices from Iraq series under our currently Sida-funded project in Iraq. Make sure to read the publication here.
Discover our recent blogs
How can aid agencies help policymakers?
On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, our Project Manager Abdal-Rahman Eltayeb outlined the stakes and challenges of our anti-trafficking project in Sudan, and made a case for aid agencies to place greater emphasis on the potential of policymakers in combatting modern slavery.
Empowering parliaments to address threats to democracy from emerging technology
This blog was written by GPG’s Associate Alex Read, who has over a decade’s international democratic governance experience, specialising in institution building during democratic transitions and in post-conflict settings. To mark the beginning of the 2021 Global Summit for Democracy, he reflected on the impact and threats posed by emerging technologies to the democratic process and citizen’s engagement and representation, with particular reference to Myanmar, where he lived for five years
Read this month’s Associate Profile Series – Meg Munn
Meg Munn was a Member of Parliament in the UK Parliament and served on the Education and Skills Select Committee, and the Procedure Committee. She was a Minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 2007 and 2008, and Minister for Women and Equality between 2005 and 2-07. She is now an independent governance consultant working internationally on parliamentary processes, political party development, gender mainstreaming and women’s leadership.
Sudan
Deriving lessons for Sudan from Bahrain’s approach to Trafficking in Persons
The Sudan Modern Slavery project team concluded their visit to Bahrain where they met with multiple institutions involved in Bahrain’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM) framework. Bahrain’s government’s commitment to protect migrant labourers in the country, culminated in this joint effort that saw international organisations work hand in hand with governmental institutions (such as the Bahraini Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) and the National Committee for Combatting Trafficking in Persons (NCCTIPs)) to produce the most sophisticated NRM system in the region.
GPG’s itinerary in Bahrain included meetings with LMRA’s Director of Grievances and Protection, one NRM Specialist, and the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Directorate. Our hosts shared their experience, lessons and challenges, which will be factored by the GPG team in an NRM comparative study currently being prepared for our partners in Sudan.
We would like to convey our thanks to our hosts in Bahrain for their time and sharing Bahrain’s experience in leading regional efforts to combat exploitation and trafficking of persons.
As concluding remarks, the recent events in Sudan has made it even more challenging for our partners at the Sudanese human trafficking committee to progress with their national plan for combatting modern slavery. As this year comes to a close, we hope that 2022 will bring long-lasting stability for the country, and a safe environment for the Sudanese NCCT to deliver change across Sudan.
Iraq
A successful visit to Erbil for the Iraq team
After over three years apart, our team returned to Iraq and reconnected with our partners in the country. We were delighted to pick up right where we left off! We met with the most dedicated group of staff members from the Iraqi parliament as well as some female political activists from the Yazidi and Kurdish communities in Kurdistan. The latter are some of Iraq’s leading advocates for women’s rights and the protection of minorities, particularly those persecuted by ISIL or Mosul, or from the Sinjar mountains. They called for transitional justice, accountability, peace and security in post-conflict areas, and to press the international community to resolve the plight of over 300,000 Yazidi Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in refugee camps.
Our team also met with senior officials from the Iraqi parliament and exchanged lessons and best practices on supporting the new MPs of the incoming parliament and enable them to represent the needs and priorities of Iraqi citizens in an inclusive and transparent manner. We helped them build a strategic plan for their interventions and set priorities for the next year, and we discussed ways of providing impartial support to the new parliament. The visit was a clear success and we look forward to continuing our work with our Iraqi partners!
Lebanon
Incoming publications on campaigning for local elections in Lebanon
Our GPGF programme, in collaboration with local partners LOST, continued the delivery of our Strategic Platform for Women in Lebanon. This month, participants from across the country delved into Local Development and Gender Perspectives with GPG’s Associate, Dr. Halimeh Kaakour. The sessions will resume shortly after the end of year holidays.
Interviews are still being conducted for the research of the project, with a very interesting line up of former candidates who went on to become municipal council members, experts, and international stakeholders supporting women’s political participation in Lebanon. The publication will investigate the electoral campaigning process at the local level in Lebanon. Stay tuned to our social media channels to be the first to know when our publication is out!