We are
Women’s Platform
Women’s Platform connects the women’s sector in Northern Ireland to international networks and human rights mechanisms. Our role is to amplify the voices of women and girls in Northern Ireland at the international level, including at the UN. Locally, we build capacity on international human rights standards to help women and girls in Northern Ireland achieve equality, diversity and full participation in decision making.
Our Purpose
It's our story and yours
Women’s Platform is a feminist membership organisation working to achieve gender equality for women and girls in Northern Ireland and make their voices heard in Northern Ireland heard at national and international level.
Our vision is of a Northern Ireland where women and girls, in all our diversity, can live our lives as we choose, in safety and with dignity, free from misogynistic and patriarchal pressures and stereotypes, and supported by policies that meet our needs.
Read moreCSW68 side event recording now available
NI CSW68 side event
Gender budgeting: A solution to women’s poverty
Women’s Platform, Women’s Support Network and NI Women’s Budget Group hosted a virtual CSW68 side event on Thursday 21 March. The event explored gender budgeting as a solution to women’s poverty and received positive feedback.
The session highlighted research by Siobhán Harding at Women’s Support Network, for the Women’s Regional Consortium, on the impact of the cost of living crisis on women in Northern Ireland, which shows that women feel they are existing rather than living, and face both physical and mental health impacts from ongoing financial stress and being unable to meet their families’ needs. Omna Sreeni-Ong from Engender Consultancy in Malaysia highlighted a very positive example of gender budgeting in Malaysia, where a number of Ministries have begun piloting gender budgeting. The Malaysian Ministry of Finance is among these, and Omna stressed that this is vital to ensure the process is understood and adopted consistently across Ministries.
Speakers also included Samah Krichah and Liz Hind from UK Women’s Budget Group, who underlined the importance of engaging women from a range of backgrounds in the process, and stressed access to data as crucial for effective gender budgeting. Women’s Budget Group undertakes analysis of the UK budget and advocates for a gender lens in budgeting, and also teaches grassroots women to use data in their advocacy for more gender sensitive budget decision making.
The side event was recorded and is available below. It received positive feedback from participants, and follow up will be undertaken to explore how future collaboration with speakers could be developed.
Our International Networks
