This year, we topped the FAIR SHARE Index for Women Leadership with 77 percent of leadership positions held by women. This is a proportionate representation of CIVICUS workforce which is also 77 percent women. As the Head of People, I take immense pride because our path to get here hasn’t been easy. But our journey to achieving social and gender equality isn’t quite finished.

Adele Manuel

In our success thus far, three factors stand out: the role of leadership plays in creating the belief that change is possible and driving the process, taking an intersectional or multi-dimensional approach, and walking the talk through policy and practice.

Since starting my career twenty-five years ago, I have seen dysfunctional workplaces where recruitment, recognition, and advancement had less to do with skills and commitment and more to do with belonging to the right groups and cliques. This ‘belonging’ was often beyond our control, like gender, race, or skin colour. Whether in London or Harare, unfair policies and practices made for an unfair playing field.

The FAIR SHARE campaign, since 2018, runs every year, calling on civil society organizations (CSOs) to achieve a minimum of 50 percent of women in leadership. Today, women comprise 70 percent of civil society workforce but hold fewer than 30 percent of the top leadership positions.  The index measures women’s representation in CSOs, holds organizations accountable, and tracks progress on gender equality.

Today, women comprise 70 percent of civil society workforce but hold fewer than 30 percent of the top leadership positions.

The lack of diverse voices in decision-making roles undermines civil society’s impact on promoting equity and its ability to safeguard the workforce and communities from abuse and discrimination. CSOs, particularly at the international level, have struggled to equitably promote leadership for women, people of color, and the global south.

Change is possible

Leadership played a critical role in first creating the belief that change is possible and then driving the process through commitment. Having women of color from the global south with lived experience facing inequality, injustice, and discrimination helped us achieve what was then unimaginable.

When we signed up for the FAIR SHARE commitment in March 2019, Lysa John, our new Secretary General, was less than two months into her role. An internal survey on women’s leadership in 2017 found that women held only 16 percent of management and leadership roles in the organization. Unsurprisingly, there was initial skepticism about us living up to the commitment. Steadfast commitment and drive from our leadership, Lysa, and our then Board Chair, Anabel Cruz, helped replace doubt with enthusiasm and organization-wide belief.

An intersectional approach

Achieving diversity, equity, or inclusion requires unpacking and addressing multiple factors that lead to discrimination. A key to our success was tackling the challenge through both gender and racial lenses while accounting for privilege. We worked together to create stronger opportunities for women of color.

In 2020 and 2021, CIVICUS commissioned a racial justice review and engaged staff creating safe spaces for discussions.  This led to a Racial Justice Action Plan focused on improving our culture so that our beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, policies, and systems better align with our values. We hired an Equity and Engagement Officer and updated and recharged a mandate for an internal Diversity and Inclusion Group to take an intersectional lens on diversity.

With many of our team coming from Africa, we built the leadership of colleagues of colour from Africa.  However, we are now equally committed to building up those from traditionally excluded communities worldwide to enable stronger inclusion of underrepresented groups wherever we are present.

Walk the talk

We set policies and designed systems through consultation, but more importantly, we implemented them. The remuneration policy was updated, creating a transparent and equitable salary structure. The recruitment process was refreshed, reflecting our commitment to a fair and inclusive process at every stage. We are now intentionally scoring for diversity in recruitment and role-modeling feminist leadership.

We uplifted the confidence of junior staff through coaching and mentoring. Our remote and flexible working practices have attracted and retained more women from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds. The human resources team focused on strengthening transparency, fairness, and inclusive decision-making platforms.

As a woman from the global south, who has overcome many hurdles, I will say it again: I’m immensely proud. But we know we can do better, and as we speak, we’re working to align our performance management better with this goal. We continue to tackle the challenges of unconscious biases and further advance our agenda.

A healthy work environment is characterized by mutual trust and respect. The values, behaviors, and practices must affirm and support staff, members, and partners’ diversity, equity, and belonging. We hope our humble progress and the work of the FAIR SHARE index inspires learning and collaborations among our sector partners, civil society organizations, and beyond.

Adele Manuel is Head of People at CIVICUS. She has over 25 years of global experience, including leading policies and practices for equity in the workplace.