Mannion Daniels Ltd - Gender and Social Development

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Practice area

Gender and Social Development

At MannionDaniels, gender and social development is a key focus. We manage a range of interventions through projects and funds. We support knowledge management, so that research makes a wider impact on policy.

We work on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) to ensure all people have bodily autonomy. We also work on education issues, with an inclusivity angle to ensure girls and those most marginalised have access to quality education. Climate justice intersects with gender justice at many angles as well, and our work aims to drive change in a way that is sustainable.

MannionDaniels was instrumental in the incubation and development of AmplifyChange, a multi-donor fund to support civil society advocacy on SRHR.

In Phase 1, AmplifyChange established a unique place within the global SRHR architecture - no other platform specifically supporting civil society SRHR advocacy has the reach or range of AmplifyChange. The fund reaches groups in countries that face the biggest SRHR challenges, supporting a large diverse network of grassroots organisations and movements, especially those who are self-led and work on social norm change to tackle discrimination and harmful practices.

In Phase 2, AmplifyChange has transitioned to become an independent organisation. AmplifyChange’s vision, to achieve SRHR for all, remains and its Strategy articulates its continued place as a global leader within the SRHR movement. We continue to provide limited support to AmplifyChange during the transition period to ensure continuity.

In addition to managing grants, at MannionDaniels we think about how to inform and build stronger movements.

Within AmplifyChange we have supported the development of 98 coalitions, across 44 countries.

We have also supported youth-SRHR researchers funded by the Dutch NWO-WOTRO to come together in a knowledge management approach, making sure their learnings fed into wider policy impact.

We are leading a programme focusing on female genital mutilation/cutting. It looks at empowering grassroots groups to implement local solutions, whilst coming together to form networks that share learning. We also appreciate that resource-poor settings or those undergoing climate shock are more likely to see an increase in harmful traditional practices like female genital mutilation/cutting, and we can program accordingly. Our work on the Jo Cox Memorial Fund cohort of grants is also centred around women’s empowerment. We are building evidence to inform the wider sector.

We host the Secretariat for ‘Building Evidence in Education’ (BE2), to ensure education research is coordinated and impacts policy decisions.

During Covid-19 many children have been out of school for too long, but many girls have not returned to the classroom. In association with Population Council Kenya, we are gathering evidence of best practice on getting girls back to school and keeping them in school across East Africa.

For lasting social change, we recognise the intersectionality of issues within gender, race, disability, and climate justice.

Topic areas covered:

SRHR: we follow the Guttmacher-Lancet definition of SRHR. We recognise the bodily autonomy of all people, so that everyone and especially girls and women can have full reproductive choices
Menstrual health, in particular choice of environmentally sound products such as menstrual cups
Gender equality and inclusion
Intersections between environmental and gender issues
Education, particularly that of girls and the most marginalised
Social justice: with a focus on ethical grant-making to grassroots organisations with a focus on human rights
Knowledge management, so that evidence contributes to wider movements and policy making
Promoting action research, so that research actively engages with social transformation

Case study: AmplifyChange

AmplifyChange is a multi-donor challenge fund to support civil society advocacy on SRHR.

MannionDaniels was instrumental in the incubation and development of AmplifyChange. AmplifyChange has now established a unique place within the global SRHR architecture – no other platform specifically supporting civil society SRHR advocacy has the reach or range of AmplifyChange.

Phase 1 of AmplifyChange launched in 2014. MannionDaniels worked with the African Women’s Development Fund and the Global Fund for Women to manage the fund. Since then we have:

Run 43 funding rounds
Supported almost 900 grants
Disbursed over €98m, predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Our grant making and capacity development work supported community-based groups working in some of the most neglected areas of SRHR. Many of these groups had never before received external funding
Achieved an almost 8-fold increase in donor commitments
Supported the development of 98 coalitions, across 44 countries
Catalysed more than 30 significant policy and law changes, across 24 countries plus the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Increased grantee capacity to successfully apply for, and manage, larger grants – across the portfolio 20% of grants from eligible funding rounds have graduated to a higher level of grant
Innovated to provide unique support to small local organisations working on the most challenging issues, including a focus on peer-to-peer technical support.

Under Phase 2, we maintain our limited support to AmplifyChange as it transitions to become an independent organisation. We continue to strongly endorse AmplifyChange’s added value. AmplifyChange’s ability to engage and fund grassroots organisations, amplify their voices and support the wider SRHR movements globally is essential to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

See where we’re currently working on Gender and Social Development.

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