Some of the JASS community, circa 2005: diverse individuals grounded in and affiliated to important national and regional organizations around the world, and known for their long history in social justice, women’s rights, democratic participation, popular education and grassroots empowerment, all linked to bold, systemic change strategies.
In its initial years, before focusing solely on women’s collective power, JASS undertook capacity-building and research with and for international development NGOs, trade unions, and a variety of economic and social justice alliances, from national debt networks and youth groups to small farmers’ organizations. Through all of this work, JASS integrated new ways of understanding rights and how change happens, leading to innovative approaches to evaluation and learning.
During this period, JASS deepened skills, materials and partnerships in three core programs.
- Women’s rights and empowerment: working with women to understand, build and use their collective power effectively. For example;
- Economic rights and citizen action: strengthening citizen groups to understand and participate in defining their countries’ and communities’ economic priorities, and to hold accountable key public and private actors – from corporations to international financial institutions – in the context of globalization. For example
- local-to-global bridges for learning and action – linking JASS allies from the Global South with their counterparts in the US, Canada and Europe to improve mutual understanding, solidarity and joint action on common global rights agendas – for example
Since its first days, JASS publications and tools have won acclaim. Worldwide, activists, advocates, scholars and practitioners use A New Weave of Power, People and Politics: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation, and it has been translated into Spanish, Russian, and Bahasa with French and Arabic versions planned. Also much used and cited is Making Change Happen, JASS’ occasional series of compact, lively and accessible papers.
In late 2005, key associates in the JASS network met to assess the gains and challenges of its early years. A troubling analysis of worsening inequality and of the powerful forces against social change led us to rethink our direction. To enhance our impact, the gathering took the decision to focus exclusively on building women’s empowerment, leadership and organization. This meant drawing from our local and national presence and relationships in many parts of the world, to create regional, cross-regional and global strategies and teams. It also meant ending fee-for-service partnerships and cultivating, instead, new donor partners who share JASS’ concerns about fragmentation among social justice actors and the dominance of depoliticized approaches to inequality and change, along with a commitment to revitalizing the collective capacity of women to resist violence and advance human rights and democracy.
In mid-2006, JASS launched the movement-building initiative, “Imagining and rebuilding feminist movements for the future.” This integrates the experience and approaches developed through the previous three distinct program areas, and taps JASS’ particular strengths and accomplishments, including:
- Demonstrated capacity to serve as catalyst, bridge and “honest broker” between different, often conflicting, groups operating in different locations with distinct agendas, yet in pursuit of common visions;
- Useful, critical perspectives and alternatives to apolitical approaches to inequality;
- Innovative ideas, tools and methods for understanding, negotiating and building collective power;
- Advocacy strategies integrated with constituency-building through community organizing, popular education, communications and leadership support;
- Demystification of economic and budget policy and development of citizen-centered approaches to economic rights;
- Unique capacity for participatory action-research on cutting edge agendas, such as Where’s the Money for Women’s Rights? and Citizen Engagement and Global Economic Power;
- New knowledge about social change from practitioners, including how-to tools and frameworks; and
- Creative approaches to communications and media strategies for self-empowerment, public education and mobilization.
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