‘Our grandmother's miniskirts’ project to spark #MeToo talks

‘Our Grandmothers’ Miniskirt’ is an art project by Hivos East Africa which aims at starting conversations about sexual harassment.

This is a prelude to the anti-sexual harassment lab which will be launched in July 2019.

Hivos Programme Manager of Women's Empowerment, Nyambura Gathumbi, spoke to  Nation.co.ke  about the lab and the project.

What was the inspiration behind the project?
Hivos believes that all women and girls should have control over their lives and be able to actively participate in social, political and economic spheres.

We work with various human rights instruments in support of communities’ and countries’ efforts towards gender equality.

For decades, we have partnered with frontrunners of change and social justice to further women’s rights and lobby for new laws protecting women against discrimination and violence.

Although sexual harassment cuts across sectors and social class, women who work in occupations with lower wages have been found to face more assault and harassment.

Around the world, progressive initiatives are slowly starting to gain ground. More girls are going to school, more women have decent jobs and political power, and more rights are enshrined in law and policies.

However most of the laws and policies are not implemented in a manner that will ensure they provide protection to women and girls.

Moreover, experience has shown us that the existence of laws and policies on paper does not necessarily translate to better realities of women’s rights.

There is need to bridge this gap. With the currency of the discussion on sexual harassment that has been created by the #MeToo movement and recent cases of sexual harassment in the aid sector, there is a big opportunity to hold accountable the duty bearers on the implementation of anti-sexual harassment laws and policies.

Now is the time to accelerate efforts for women’s equal rights and operate in an environment where they are free and safe from harassment.

Tell us more about Our Grandmother’s Miniskirt.
The project, which is being executed in partnership with Sitawa Namwalie, seeks to start a creative dialogue that will interface photography with diverse topics such as the right to bodily autonomy to promote awareness on sexual harassment.

As an organisation that has a rich history in supporting the creative economy in East Africa, Hivos has supported alternative spaces through art to promote dialogue on sensitive issues such as sexual harassment.

As such, the project will continue this dialogue through photography in various counties to discuss how women’s choice of dressing from the 1960s-1970s has been used over the decades to justify sexual harassment.

It will be simple; Kenyans will walk down memory lane by collecting pictures of their mothers and grandmothers wearing miniskirts, short dresses hot-pants, drain pipes, peddle-pushers, bell-bottoms and platform shoes to accelerate discussions on free choice of dressing and why it shouldn’t be a recipe for sexual harassment.

These conversations will contribute to the Anti-Sexual Harassment Lab that Hivos East Africa is launching that seeks to develop innovative approaches to prevent and respond to sexual harassment cases.

The lab will work in partnership with different sectors such as the development sector, private and public sector companies, institutions of learning and in horticultural value chains.

By adopting a lab approach to sexual harassment, Hivos East Africa will support institutions to learn, share and develop a Certification Checklist for private and public companies that will look into measures adopted to protect workers against sexual harassment.

How long will the lab be running for once it starts in July?
The lab will to run in perpetuity. It will work collaboratively with other stakeholders to develop solutions and new age techniques of dealing with sexual harassment and the bigger conversation on safeguarding.

It will pull together public, private and civil society resources that will be hosted by the lab for learning, scaling, prototyping and hosting projects and innovative ideas to handle sexual harassment across multiple sectors.

What will the project involve?
Hivos East Africa’s anti- sexual harassment lab is a social innovation where stakeholders will work together to spearhead knowledge development and sharing  on emerging issues related to safe and secure workspaces.

The lab will work collaboratively with change ambassadors who are at the frontline of developing solutions to sexual harassment and towards creating safer and secure workspaces.

The lab will be used to test new ideas, design prototypes, learn and share what works and what doesn’t in solving sexual harassment as a complex social problem.

The proposed lab will develop innovative solutions to sexual harassment that can be scaled to the private sector, government agencies, learning institutions, the civil society and other sectors within our society.

The interventions within the lab will revolve around public policy, new business models, framing of cultural values and behavioural change at both an institutional and individual level.

The lab will host forums, workshops and learning sessions to engage key stakeholders in conversations around sexual harassment.

It is envisioned to have a resource centre that will be a custodian of legal resources, model sexual harassment policies, research, publications, and data.

The lab will provide a space to scale innovative solutions, prototype projects and share best practice and innovative ideas on anti-sexual harassment.

The lab will also provide capacity building trainings to institutions to develop policies, train staff and formation of redress mechanisms in workplaces to handle reported sexual harassment cases.

What do you hope to achieve at the end of it all?
Hivos East Africa envisions workspaces that are safe for women and free of sexual harassment.

We believe that it is through having responsive structural, legal and policy mechanisms in place that the safety of women can be upheld.

Hivos East Africa believes that by engaging, companies and institutions can develop effective safeguarding policies that work for their staff to ensure that workplaces are free and are rid of perpetrators.

How many countries will be participating in the project?
For this initiative, we are starting with Kenya with potential to scale to other regions that Hivos operates in.

We are also actively seeking collaboration with other actors working on the same issue to ensure that the multi-pronged approach to develop solutions addressing sexual harassment.