International Women's Initiative (IWI)

International Women’s Initiative is an international women’s human rights organization who, with the aid of volunteers and grassroots women’s organizations indigenous to the regions being served, will address issues central to their communities including but not limited to reproductive and medical rights, freedom from violence, education and other fundamental human rights. By providing support, training and resources to sister organizations they will address the concerns of their communities while helping them develop long-term solutions to ongoing challenges. By working with professionals and volunteers they are able to help women build lives of dignity, health, security and self-sufficiency. Through their programs in women’s health, freedom from violence and economic justice, IWI researches and develops innovative social and individual strategies that deliver resources and support to women and families, research and offer alternative solutions to educate and inspire people to action, and work for an equitable distribution of resources to sustain social changes. THEIR WORK Safe Birthing Programme Through the Safe Birthing Programme, International Women’s Initiative aims to promote gender equality by reducing maternal mortality in countries where women have the highest lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth. IWI’s Safe Birthing Programme offers low-cost, high-impact solutions for achieving SDG 3, aiming to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio, and SDG 5, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment through universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services. The Human Project This protocol is meant to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children. Despite this, at least 20.9 million adults and children are bought and sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labour and bonded labour. Of these, women and girls make up 98% of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. International Women's Initiative’s The Human Project is looking at forms of human trafficking that disproportionately affect women and girls and the methods of recruitment that target these groups. They will help to create a world where women and girls can live free from exploitation and full of dignity. TechHumanity The objective of the TechHumanity Research Project is to strengthen the evidence base on the use of technology in the prevention of human trafficking, and in enhancing the support to vulnerable peoples, with a particular focus on Asia. In collaboration with our partner Liberty Asia, IWI is undertaking research into the role of mobile technology in reaching the victims (and the vulnerable) of human trafficking. With technology advancing at an unprecedented rate, it is inevitably featuring more heavily in NGO prevention and protection programmes. However, there is little to no research out there exploring which technological interventions are actually successful, and which are not. Mobile phone technology is used in very different ways across the globe, according to a country's history, culture and infrastructure - and there have been a wealth of technology-based programmes aimed at the prevention and support of human trafficking victims with varying success. Taking Action Special Reports The Taking Action Report Series sheds light on the circumstances unique to women which challenge their ability to realising their basic human rights.