1. Partnerships, making justice
work for women
Ms Casey McCowan ActionAid Australia
Dr Lucy Fiske, Curtin University

2. ABOUT THE PROJECT
Investigating the efficacy of transitional justice for women
Northern Uganda, Kenya and DRC
Identifying women’s priorities in transitional justice context &
obstacles preventing them accessing justice
Providing an avenue for women’s voices to be heard in
development of alternatives

3. ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP
AusAID Australian Research Development
Award Scheme
Practice & Academia – ActionAid, University of Sydney & Curtin
University
Cross Faculty/ Interdisciplinary – University of Sydney Law
School & Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University

4. SOME OF THE BENEFITS
ActionAid – evidence based programming, advocacy &
lobbying, capacity building in conducting research
Academic researchers - research with real life impact, more
ethical research, access to difficult to reach populations, incountry support
The donor – can inform their policy and programming,
Women Affected by Violence - a chance to have their
voices heard

5. THE PROCESS
Research project sensitisation & training workshop
16 – 20 Nov, Nairobi Kenya
23 Sept – 3 Oct pre-testing of research tools in each country

6. KEY CHALLENGES
& HOW WE ADDRESSED THEM
navigating an academic-NGO partnership – our differing
worldviews
the current political context in Africa and implications for the
research project
challenges around methodology and some of the ethical
issues posed by this research.

7. NAVIGATING AN ACADEMIC–NGO
PARTNERSHIP
ActionAid - wants to use the research for lobbying &
advocacy, & as a basis for programming
University partners – pressures of meeting academic
measures of esteem
Different traditions, approaches, language between
academic disciplines & NGOs

8. Consensus building on the project idea & scope.
Partnership principles & associated behaviours workshop
and agreement
Interrogation of overarching research questions & interview
schedules
Rather than just collecting data, ActionAid in-country staff
shape research methodology and are actively involved in
analysis and communication and engagement
Providing an avenue for women’s voices to be heard in
development of alternatives

9. NAVIGATING AN ACADEMIC–NGO
PARTNERSHIP
APPROACHES:
Resourcing this kind of partnership appropriately is important
Significant budget for travel, staff, teaching buy out, and a
degree of experimentation & flexibility

10. THE CURRENT POLITICAL
CONTEXT IN AFRICA
All the three countries have cases related to war crimes and
are currently at the ICC
DRC is still in conflict and so you can not conclusively talk
about transition.
There is need to engage with the Great Lakes Conference –
NGO’s are not invited to all sessions
The leadership of the three research countries are men and
the countries still stuggle with implementing women’s rights.

11. METHODOLOGICAL
CHALLENGES & ETHICAL ISSUES
Sampling methods – ActionAid’s approach to conducting
research vs academic approach
Recruitment of research participants - Ethical requirements of
academic research