Throughout 2021, CBR continued implementing a research titled: ‘Countering Backlash: Reclaiming Gender
Justice’. This research project which started in January 2020, seeks to unravel the nature of forces that were
pushing back to reverse many of the gains that had been made for women’s rights and gender equality, as well
as to shrink civic space for progressive movements. The research funded by the Swedish International Devel
opment Agency (SIDA) through Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex University, Brighton, England, is
seeking to create knowledge needed and identify opportunities for women’s rights organizations and other gen
der justice defenders to counter the backlash and address the erosion of gender objectives within the develop
ment policy and practice. Research spent much of 2021 reviewing available secondary literature on the subject
to map key policy spaces where gender backlash is happening or likely to occur as well as identify policy areas
where attention should be focused on. Researchers are preparing an annotated bibliography on the identifed
literature. Field work also commenced to collect empirical data for analysis to determine how best to respond to
enhance gender justice.
