AnnualReport2022: Impacting Lives

Throughout 2022, at Equidad de Género, Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia (Equidad de Género), we reaffirmed our commitment to continue working on transforming lives in a challenging context towards ensuring that women of all ages can fully exercise their rights.

We have therefore focused on advocating for girls, adolescents and women to live free from violence, increasing access to safe abortion and preventing teenage pregnancy. In addition, we worked to counter initiatives that seek to restrict or deny the rights of women.

This year, we have witnessed historic advances for reproductive rights, such as the decriminalization of abortion in Baja California Sur, Guerrero, Quintana Roo, and Sinaloa, which we celebrate as great achievements and which encourage us to continue our commitment to ensure that all people have access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and to promote gender equality in order to build more just societies.

When we work collaboratively, we know that our work and efforts have a greater impact. Therefore, we have strengthened collective alliances at both regional and global levels through our participation in the advancement of macroeconomic and global agendas.

We work in partnership with organizations, networks, and social movements to develop platforms that address important issues such as climate change, domestic and unpaid care work, national and international tax policies, and debt crises in language that is accessible to the broader public.

As we reflect on the future, we recognize the need to continue to advocate for SRHR, social, economic and environmental justice, especially in the Global South, from a decolonial approach, building equitable alliances and ethics based on feminist principles.

Last but not least, I extend my gratitude to all of our partners for their continued commitment to advancing the feminist movement’s quest for a world of equality, inclusion, and social justice. None of our achievements would be possible without the work of the staff and allies around the world, as well as the generous support of our donors.

Equidad de Género, Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia is an organization with over 27 years of history and, from the very beginning, it has been committed to changing the world. We are a feminist organization. We promote equality between women and men to achieve a more just society. Based on our experience, we recognize that the promotion of women’s rights is necessary to achieve the social change that will improve the living conditions of individuals and families, impacting, among other things, the workplace and the environment.

Our Mission:

Promote equality between women and men and the Rule of Law by advocating for public policies with a gender perspective and by strengthening women’s leadership and participation in all areas of political and social life.

Our Vision:

A democratic society with broad citizen participation where women and men can make decisions about their lives within the Rule of Law with institutions that comprehensively integrate a gender perspective in their internal and external policies.

At Equidad de Género, we recognize the importance of working at municipal and state levels. This allows us to deepen our advocacy at the federal level, which is essential for the comprehensive implementation of public policies and to ensure that women, girls and adolescents experience positive changes in their lives through the full exercise of their rights.

Equidad de Género is an organization that is recognized in community, academic and political spaces for its wide experience and high degree of specialization on the gender perspective, feminism and SRHR, among other issues that are central to social change. Thus, during the year 2022, we have been invited to be speakers at different events to provide information to public officials in the health and education sectors, as well as to congressmen and congresswomen.

We especially highlight our participation in the Open Parliament on Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Legal Abortion, Roundtable “Criminalization of Women: An Approach from a Gender Equality Perspective,” presenting “The Importance of Decriminalizing Abortion in the State of Puebla”.

Equidad de Género, through the project “Promoting the access and the decriminalization of legal and social abortion in Quintana Roo, Puebla and Jalisco” continued to strengthen the capacities of feminist movements within these entities to expand alliances and support the pro-choice movement.

We held meetings, organized events, conducted workshops and forums, and disseminated messages that focused on issues such as access to legal and safe abortion, SRHR, comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), gender and sexual diversity, right to decide, legal advocacy, gender perspective in social services, social justice, abortion care, self-care, and accompaniment, among others.

In Quintana Roo, we expanded our reach and presence in the Mayan region by strengthening our network of accompaniers. We held more than 80 meetings and events with feminist allies, including “Embroidering for our rights”, “Green ride”, “Green picnic”. These events initially contributed to the social decriminalization of abortion and eventually to the legalization of abortion in the state of Quintana Roo.

We contributed to the strengthening of the “Campaign for Legal, Safe and Free Abortion in Puebla” by participating in a network of organizations that are state and national leaders, such as the First Open Parliament on Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Legal Abortion. Furthermore, a feminist meeting for the right to choose was held, during which we reviewed the activities and impact of the campaign.

In Jalisco, we were part of a coordinated effort to monitor the state’s legal abortion program (“ILE”, in its acronym in Spanish) as well as to strengthen the Gender Department at the University of Guadalajara. As for gender violence, we joined the placement of “anti-monuments” in Quintana Roo and Jalisco to demand justice for the victims of femicide.

These efforts have improved the knowledge and skills of activists, communities, and organizations in the promotion of women’s rights, including access to abortion, and in advocacy with public institutions, thereby advancing the feminist agenda.

With the support of Hispanic in Philanthropy and the United Nations Trust Fund for the Elimination of Violence against Women, training and capacity-building activities were carried out for 52 female youth leaders, who led creative workshops and recreational and artistic activities.

On August 26-27, an institutional capacity building meeting was held in Mexico City with state leaders of the Mexican Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (ddeser) to analyze progress, lessons learned, opportunities and challenges faced by states on issues such as SRHR, CSE, abortion, violence against women and girls (VAWG), gender perspectives, teenage pregnancy, and strengthening feminist movements at the national level.

Equidad de Género participates in the State Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Groups (GEPEA) in Mexico City, Jalisco, Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca. In Jalisco, we are also part of the Interinstitutional Roundtable on Health and Comprehensive Sex Education, and we follow the monitoring of the ILE Program.

In Puebla, on the other hand, the demand for legal abortions was placed on the public agenda and alliances were forged with the Safe Abortion Program and the Program for Attention to Violence, both of which depend on the state’s Ministry of Health.

We also highlight that in 2022, the legal protection, which ddeser Puebla advocated for alongside other organizations, was approved, establishing that no woman shall be penalized for receiving advice or counseling from the following organizations: GrupodeInformaciónenReproducciónElegida(GIRE), CentrodeAnálisis,FormacióneIniciativaSocial,A.C.(CAFIS) and Observatorio CiudadanodeDerechosSexualesyReproductivos,A.C.(Odesyr).

In the State of Quintana Roo, the most important achievement was the decriminalization of abortion. This was the result of the organized work of feminist collectives and organizations. In addition, the decriminalization of abortion was a historic achievement in Guerrero, where we worked together with other allies. We also accompanied the first abortion trial in the state, and ddeser Guerrero has maintained a leading role in the Guerrero’s Network forWomen’sRights.

We are pleased to report that in Chiapas and Guerrero, colleagues who have worked as leaders of the ddeser network have taken positions as public officials in charge of SRHR policies, allowing us to continue our contribution to reducing adolescent pregnancy and eliminating child pregnancy in these entities.

We held advocacy meetings with municipal and state authorities from the Ministries of Equality or Women’s Affairs, Women’s Justice Centers, Ministries of Education, State Systems for the Integral Development of the Family, and Institutes of Indigenous Peoples, among others, in the states of Jalisco, Puebla, Quintana Roo, and Tlaxcala.

In Tlaxcala, we created alliances for pregnancy prevention and referral of cases of VAWG with midwives, indigenous language interpreters, nurses, teachers, artisans, and vendors in rural communities or in extreme poverty.

Our work in the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala, Mexico, includes creating and strengthening alliances with institutions that provide health, social and legal services, allowing victims and survivors of violence to access these services more efficiently. We also monitor the institutions’ performance and the quality of their services, and conduct periodic evaluations to follow up on training and collaboration agreements.

We are members of the Observatory for the Procuration of Justice with a Gender Perspective of the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Hidalgo, where we contributed to the revision of cases and legislation from a gender perspective. We also participate in the Municipal System of Equality of Pachuca, which in 2022 launched the first municipal pathway of comprehensive attention to violence against women and appointed a candidate for the Secretary of Women in Pachuca.

At the federal level, this year Equidad de Género joined the Territorial Strategy Working Group of the Interinstitutional Group for the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy (GIPEA), through which we contributed to the implementation of the National Strategy for the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy (ENAPEA), provided follow-up and technical, programmatic and thematic support to the work plans of the State Groups for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (GEPEAs) in Colima, Coahuila and Baja California, and disseminated educational and awareness-raising information through our social networks and in collaboration with other organizations and institutions.

We are also part of the Social Council of the National Women’s Institute (Inmujeres) for the period 2021-2024. Within this council, we promoted gender equality policies in different areas, such as access to justice and attention to violence on university campuses.

During 2022, we collected more than 700 signatures in support of the “Declaration and Demonstration Against Budget Cuts for Sexual and Reproductive Health Care in Mexico,” in which we demanded that the Ministry of Health adjust budgets to the real needs, especially of women, in order to fully meet its institutional commitments to Mexican women’s health.

At the international level, we represent Mexico and Latin America in the global Women Deliver program, which aims to promote political and financial investments to benefit girls and women around the world. We were also part of several actions at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in connection with the Beatriz case to raise awareness of the impact of the criminalization of abortion on women’s lives.

In 2022, the platform www.focos.org.mx (Focos) became a safe digital space where women who have had voluntary abortions helped to reduce stigma by lighting a light bulb on a virtual map of our country and sharing their experiences.

As a result, it is possible to demonstrate the diversity of women making the decision and the need for support in facilitating access to safe abortion and collective advocacy through the narratives they share in a virtual forum.

Each light bulb lit represents a woman who chose to have an abortion in a country that continues to stigmatize those who exercise their right to choose. More than 6,000 female users visited the platform in 2022 and lit 1,206 light bulbs, reaching 6,828 light bulbs lit since 2017.

Safe and Dignified Menstruation

Dignified menstruation focuses on free access to menstrual hygiene products such as sanitary pads, tampons, and menstrual cups for all girls, adolescents, women, and people who menstruate.

At Equidad de Género, we recognize the importance of a dignified menstrual cycle. In 2022, we distributed 115,920 sanitary pads to girls and adolescents in high-risk environments in schools located in the municipalities of Gustavo A. Madero and Iztapalapa, in Mexico City, and Ocuilan, Tenango del Valle and Villa Guerrero, in the State of Mexico.

Disabilities and SRHR implemented under the Fund for the Well-being and Advancement of Women (FOBAM) Guerrero 2023

In partnership with the Women’s Secretariat of Guerrero, we implemented a project to raise awareness about CSE in both school and non-school settings. The project involved local and institutional actors in the municipalities of Chilapa de Álvarez, Coyuca de Catalán, San Luis Acatlán, Iguala de la Independencia, Ayutla de los Libres and Zihuatanejo de Azueta, in the state of Guerrero.

We disseminated accessible information on CSE to children, adolescents and young people with disabilities, as well as students and out-of-school youth aged 10-19, through innovative materials, awareness-raising workshops, and recreational and cultural activities.

A key element in the development of this project was training teachers so that they had practical tools to integrate CSE issues into their curriculums. We also reached out to mothers, fathers and caregivers, who play a critical role in protecting children and adolescents, through workshops and community conversations.

Contributing to Equality in Chiapas through Education for Adolescent Girls

We distributed 70 educational kits to students in the state of Chiapas, which included a tablet and educational materials to help reduce the digital gap among high school students and reduce dropout rates. In addition, we secured 60 leases for Internet service for beneficiaries in high-risk contexts, and we held workshops on the safe use of technology and on the importance of life strategies.

At EquidaddeGénero, we know that teachers and public officials in the social, health and judicial sectors who deal with cases of VAWG play a fundamental role in identifying, responding to and preventing cases of violence.

In 2022, we trained 278 public officials in the states of Hidalgo, Puebla, Tlaxcala and Mexico. We provided conceptual and practical tools on CSE, strengthening their capacity to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls; a commitment they agreed to.

During the months of March and April 2022, 11 community assessments were conducted among women, youth, and girls in the communities of Miguel Hidalgo and Quiahuatla, in the municipality of Tláhuac, and in the towns of Santa Cruz Acalpixca and San Gregorio Atlapulco, in the municipality of Xochimilco.

Results showed the social normalization of feminicide and a general sense of danger in public spaces, including public transportation. Although the target groups agreed that their home was a safe environment, a number of women and adolescents associated living with men with an increased risk of violence, especially sexual violence.

Based on the results of this assessment, we conducted a virtual training program for public officials and teachers from both communities. All of them have taken on the commitment and responsibility to address and prevent violence against women by addressing the specific needs of women.

Assessing Gender-Based Violence in the Municipalities of Tláhuac and Xochimilco

Education and Social

Participation

in Mexico City, Puebla, Tlaxcala and Mexico State.

In the municipalities of Tláhuac and Xochimilco, we implemented the project “For a Future Without Violence”. This project aimed to promote social participation and community education activities to enable girls, boys, youth and women to identify family violence, find services and learn about interventions.

We conducted 16 outreach events where we distributed violence prevention awareness materials. Strategic communication was also integrated into six murals painted by the feminist artist @Fannieeeeeeeeee in different neighborhoods of both communities.

Through this project, we assisted 28 victims of violence and served 2,429 children, adolescents and women.

In addition, we conducted talks, recreational activities, workshops, reflection groups, follow-up meetings and community workshops with girls and adolescents in Tlaxcala, Puebla and the State of Mexico. Our goal was to make them aware of gender-based violence, to help them develop life projects, and to identify support networks and institutions that they could turn to.

The community workshops and talks have been instrumental in reaching parents and caregivers, who play a key role in protecting children and adolescents.

Our work also included activities with boys, adolescent men and adults to raise awareness and build empathy around gender-based violence and SRHR so that they reflect and challenge hegemonic masculinities, participate in preventing and responding to VAWG and sexual violence, and share responsibility for domestic work and unpaid care.

In 2022, we fostered the creation of synergies to debate the global economic dynamics that reproduce inequalities and deepen the current crises. Throughout the year, we continued to position the global, regional and local demand for economic justice. At the local level, we also worked to promote a comprehensive agenda that links public care systems and the environmental agenda with national gender equality policies.

In the context of multiple health, economic, and political crises in Latin America, the From the South for Economic Justice project strengthened and fostered broad-based citizen action for economic justice for women and historically marginalized groups.

We have generated knowledge and developed advocacy and mobilization processes in Mexico, Peru and Colombia on the impacts of the ecological crisis, public and private debt, vaccine apartheid, and the lack of policies and budgets for the domestic and care work agenda.

Accordingly, at Equidad de Género in 2022, we were involved in promoting global macro agendas, supporting movements and campaigns such as the one focused on recognizing the right to a healthy environment (R2HE), launched by the United Nations General Assembly; the #FightInequality campaign; and the Global Week of Action for Justice and Debt Cancellation, with its open letter to all governments, international institutions and lenders to seek a decisive and comprehensive solution to the debt problem as part of the profound transformation of economic and financial systems that the current crises urgently require.

We also took part in the #EndAusterity and #PublicServicesForAll campaigns, calling for the restoration of the priority of public spending and public services, and opposing privatization and public-private partnerships.

1 Linking the feminist movement to other social movements

We also joined the campaign “Timeisrunningout,thefutureisnow!” in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, in alliance with 19 organizations in Latin America, calling for urgent mobilization for real solutions to stop the climate crisis and challenge Global North organizations and governments. Finally, we strengthened our relationship with DAWN Feminist through participation in their #Fem4PeoplesVaccine campaign.

In 2022, we participated in the drafting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. For the first time, climate justice was included in the section highlighting the links between gender and climate change, thus linking it to Sustainable Development Goal 5.

We led the #BlockBlackRock campaign to express our opposition to the partnership between UN Women and the Black Rock investment fund, in collaboration and alliance with other feminist organizations and activists around the world.

This campaign had more than 700 endorsements from organizations and individuals around the world, making it one of the most successful collective efforts of the global feminist movement in recent times, when UN Women suspended the partnership.

At Equidad de Género, we know that it is necessary to continue to advocate for social, economic and environmental justice, especially in the Global South. For this reason, we participated in the 2022 Conference of the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), the Annual Conference of Latindadd, the 30th Annual Conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) and the Global Conference of the Public Services for All Alliance, among others.

The goal of participating in such conversations, debates and meetings is to raise awareness that many of the solutions and proposals in the international arena have neo-colonial agendas, are not macro-disruptive and continue to disproportionately affect women due to the sexual division of labor.

Through the Campaign of Campaigns, we strengthened links with various organizations, networks and movements. We also continued to strengthen collective alliances at the regional and global levels.

Our advocacy efforts included participating in United Nations forums such as the Commission on Status of Women, the Financing for Development Forum, the High Level Political Forum, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Generation Equality Forum, the International People’s Assembly, the World Assembly for Women, and the Civil Society Summit 7 (C7), to name a few.

Finally, we strengthened our legitimacy as experts on the decolonial feminist economic justice agenda and gained greater acceptance among different audiences and actors to talk about feminist economics, positioning us as local and global referents.

Equidad de Género is well known in the field of feminist macroeconomic analysis, and in 2022 we were invited to speak at universities, with students, legislators and public officials. In addition, we have continued to work with the Feminist Economics Study Group to promote the generation of collective knowledge.

We are also in the process of formulating a methodology for designing climate change policies with a gender perspective, in collaboration with the Inter-institutional Group on Gender and Climate Change.

The following working documents were developed this year:

• Reflections on the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Fiscal Justice for Ecosocial Transformation.

4 Participation in national inter-institutional groups

In 2022, we reinforced our collaboration with the National Forestry Commission and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, with the participation of the National Women’s Institute (Inmujeres), to promote gender mainstreaming and the institutionalization of gender equality in the Support Program for Sustainable Forestry Development, particularly in its component of Comprehensive Productive Projects for Women.

In addition, in the Coalition for the Right to Dignified Care and Women’s Own Time, we continue to work on the drafting of the General Law for the Constitutional Recognition of the Right to Care.

In this regard, the Mexican Care Network has appointed Equidad de Género as its representative in the Adelante project, a triangular initiative for the exchange of experiences between civil society in Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain in order to influence care policies, an initiative promoted by the European Union.

Development of methodologies and technical assistance for the implementation of public policies.

In 2022, as part of the series “Rise Up Episode 2: World’s Mightiest SHEroes”, we hosted two film debates in Spanish for national and regional audiences in Mexico and Colombia, and two virtual sessions in English with experts Valeria Esquivel and Antonella Picchio to discuss the unequal distribution of unpaid domestic and care work.

Nine virtual sessions and one in-person session of Las Reinas Chulas’ cabaret theater piece “Con la deuda al cuello” were organized, with 410 participants. We also presented the third episode of the series “Rise Up: The Ultimate Partnership for People and Planet” at the Public Services for All Alliance Global Conference in Chile in December 2022.

We also participated in two episodes of the Fight Inequality podcast, the first on intersectional movements with activists and movement leaders including Njoki Njehu of Fight Inequality Alliance (FIA), Tasneem Essop of Climate Action Network - International (CAN I’nal), presented by Nadia Fabela (FIA) and Barbara van Paassen, host of the People vs Inequality podcast. While “Feminists Unite to Change Global Economic Power” was the theme of our second intervention.

We were also interviewed for radio programs on economic justice, the recent IPCC report, degrowth, and climate change. We conducted other sessions, including the CARE series, which was broadcast by 36 community radio stations in 20 states across our country.

Finally, during the Global Week of Action for Justice and Debt Cancelation, we organized a screening of the series “Let’s talk economic justice,” which focused on the need for debt cancellation in the Global South.

ARROPA Initiative

Project For economic justice for women workers in the textile industry in Tlaxcala and Puebla.

This initiative is based on a macro-structural understanding that the problems faced by women workers in the textile industry cannot be separated from environmental and safety issues, as well as the domestic and care work agenda.

The historical tradition of textile production in the region is based on the dynamics of exploitation and global inequality, which are translated in the territory into the material precariousness of living conditions and the systematic violation of women’s human rights.

In this sense, one of the main results of this project is to generate knowledge regarding gendered inequalities in the textile industry in Tlaxcala and Puebla. In order to identify labor needs, six focus groups were conducted with formal, informal, and self-employed women workers.

In doing so, significant information was obtained that demonstrates the inequalities on which the textile value chain is based, mainly by extracting the time and value of women’s paid and unpaid work.

The work of Equidad de Género focuses on economic justice from a feminist perspective, so this project is part of a broader advocacy work that we have been doing in Tlaxcala for the last three years. Therefore, our findings contribute to structural advocacy for economic justice, recognizing that textile workers are among the most precarious women.

It is important to note that a process of recognizing their contribution to the value chain and the need to ensure their labor rights has begun among the textile workers in Tlaxcala and Puebla who have participated in the project’s activities.

We thank our institutional donors for supporting our work throughout 2022.