Coalition Building Around Women's rights
Coalition building is one of the most essential elements of effective organizing. This is particularly true in the women's human rights movement, which by its nature encompasses a wide variety of issues. Women's human rights activists can embrace this diversity, working with a wide variety of individuals and organizations in order to achieve their goals. Coalition work has the potential to dramatically increase the success of women's human rights advocacy efforts.
What is a coalition?
A coalition is a group composed of many organizations that are working together to achieve a common goal. Goals may be as broad as ending violence against women, or as specific as implementing a new curriculum about women's human rights in a local school system. Coalitions exist in many different forms: they may be permanent or temporary, multi-issue or single issue, formal or informal.
Why work in a coalition?
- Coalitions enable organizations to pool their resources and influence in order to achieve outcomes that none of the organizations could achieve individually.
- The existence of a coalition demonstrates broad-based interest in, and support for, specific issues or courses of action to the wider community and to decision-makers. The power of a coalition exemplifies the idea that there is strength in numbers.
- Working with groups from different communities helps to create a message that is more compelling to a wider audience.
- This is the first time that violence against women has been the focus of an international campaign for Amnesty International. Coalition work will provide your group with valuable opportunities to learn from organizations which are experts in the field, as well as to make new contacts that may be useful in future campaigns.
- By working in coalition, Amnesty International activists bring the organization's strengths to the group and increase the awareness of other organizations about how a human rights framework can be useful in advancing women's rights.
- Working with other organizations can expand AIUSA group members' skills, making the group's work more successful in the future. Coalition work can give your AIUSA group a new opportunity to observe and learn new approaches to conflict management, meeting facilitation, and other critical tasks.
What are the challenges of working in a coalition?
Coalition work can be extremely rewarding. In many cases, the possible benefits to be gained by working in coalition greatly outweigh the difficulties that may arise. However, it is helpful to be aware of the challenges that may be involved in coalition work.
- Coalition work inevitably involves compromise. Therefore, coalition members must be willing to be flexible in their goals and methods.
- Coalition work may take time and resources away from each individual organization's agenda.
- When activities are planned by the coalition, individual organizations may not receive equal credit for the results.
Who should be in our coalition?
Every organization that is committed to stopping violence against women and advancing women's human rights should be in your coalition! Likely coalition partners include women's rights organizations, domestic abuse and sexual assault organizations, progressive political groups, and peace and justice groups. Don't limit your focus to women's organizations! Also, remember to include groups that might have a particular interest in a specific issue. For example, if you plan to work on protecting women's human rights in Afghanistan and Iraq, make an effort to reach out to Muslim community groups, groups for people from that region, or groups for people who have a cultural connection to those countries. Think strategically about who in your community has a stake in the issue you are working on, and consider what they could bring to a coalition.
Tips for Organizing
- All members of the coalition agree on the coalition's goals - for example, reauthorizing VAWA or ratifying CEDAW - from the very beginning. These goals should be put in writing.
- Keep the focus on your common goals, avoiding issues on which coalition members have differing positions. Remember, coalition members don't have to agree on everything - just the common goal(s) of the coalition.
- Make sure that everyone has a chance to participate in determining the group's goals, structure, methods, and plans of action. Make an effort to encourage everyone to participate in discussions, and try to discourage a few people from dominating the discussion.
- Keep the lines of communication open. Make sure that all participating groups are updated regularly on what other coalition members are doing, what needs to be done, and what progress has been made.
- Avoid burnout by making sure that work is evenly distributed among the coalition members. In addition to preventing any one person from taking on too much work, this technique helps members to feel a sense of ownership in the coalition. Coalitions are much more successful when each member of the coalition feels like she or he has some responsibility for the group's accomplishments.
- Coalition should see results of their efforts. In addition to the long-term goal(s) of your coalition (i.e. reduce domestic violence in our community), set several short-term goals that you can definitely achieve (i.e. get a certain number of signatures on a petition to the governor calling for stronger enforcement of the law; set up a display that showcases the impact of domestic violence in your community that is viewed by a certain number of people; get a letter to the editor of your local newspaper published, etc).
Coalition work may seem intimidating at first, but the potential rewards are well with the effort involved in building a coalition. If you have any questions about coalition work, feel free to contact your Amnesty International USA Regional Office at 1-866-A-REGION.
Some information has been adapted from materials developed by Ohio State University and the Midwest Academy
