Kvinnoforum has been at the forefront in developing and conducting gender training targeting all sectors of society in Sweden and internationally. Kvinnoforum’s gender training is always tailor-made to suit the needs and the particular situation of the client. Kvinnoforum often combines gender training with other relevant components such as organisational development, gender mainstreaming, leadership, project management, trafficking in human beings, empowerment, human rights and other agreed upon with the client.

Kvinnoforum training principles:

• The training programmes reflect what gender is all about: to see, understand and use gender differences
• Learning content in correspondence with the participants needs
• A firm participant and learner perspective in an empowerment approach
• A gender mixed group of participants of 50%
• A male and a female trainer
• International gender theory combined with concrete practical experiences
• Considering and enhancing motivation for participants active learning
• The use of the Kolb learning-cycle in changing between concrete experience (doing), reflection and observation, generalizing (theory building) and applying the acquired knowledge.
• The use of different learning styles (visual, auditory and kinesthetic, individual and group learning process)
• Activation of participants through interactive teaching, group work, role plays and exercises
• Memory enhancement by different kinds of repetition exercises and observation
• Distribution to the participants of relevant documentation.
• Home task given to be presented the next training (to apply the acquired knowledge on a defined problem)

Kvinnoforum defines empowerment as ”all those processes that increase women and men’s ownership of their lives, at individual, group and societal leve l”. Further, empowerment consists of three main mutually reinforcing components, which need to be addressed in order for empowerment to occur: Awareness of power structures, self-esteem and agency and sense of agency.All Kvinnoforum’s activities are based on an empowerment perspective. Kvinnoforum offers special training on empowerment.

Kvinnoforum has developed a theoretical framework on empowerment as well as developed tools for measuring levels of empowerment.

Gender norms and values and their resulting behaviours impact on the health of women, men, boys and girls. In particular in developing countries health services are often male-biased, i.e. not designed to meet the full needs of women. Women are further in many ways more vulnerable and experience health challenges to a higher extent then men do. Kvinnoforum works to highlight the link between gender and health. Q Web, The world-wide network on Women’s Empowernt and Health is a health program run by Kvinnoforum since 1996 (www.qweb.kvinnoforum.se).

Special focus is on gender aspects on HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

Kvinnoforum is today a leading NGO in the Swedish work against human trafficking. Also internationally Kvinnoforum is a well-known actor in the field of human trafficking having conducted a range of projects and activities. Kvinnoforum follows the UN Convetion on Organised Crime and it’s Protocol on Trafficking in Human Beings. Kvinnoforum has adressed trafficking in human beings since start, initially in the Phillipines, Thailand and Chile.

A special focus on the topic was made in the mid 1990s, since when Kvinnoforum has conducted around 20 projects and assignments on the topic, particularly in the Baltic and Nordic countries, but increasingly also with Russia as well as in a global context.

Q Web hosts a large resource base on trafficking in human beings. (www.qweb.kvinnoforum.se). For more information about Kvinnoforum's work on trafficking click here

Women are protected by all human rights provisions, such as prohibition of torture, freedom of opinion, freedom of the media, and the right to a fair trail. Women’s rights however tend to refer to the parts of international human rights law that have specific bearing on the situation of women. From the perspective of international law women’s rights is in a sense uncomplicated insofar as human rights prohibits discrimination of women in all spheres of life. However, a complete understanding of women’s rights requires consideration of the economical and social situations facing women in the world and recognition of the huge differences between the opportunities available to women and men.

All Kvinnoforum’s work is based on the CEDAW convention and guided by the Beijing Platform of Action. In the context of its capacity building activities Kvinnoforum provides training on CEDAW and other key instruments and mechanisms for women’s rights.

Women’s empowerment takes different forms. One important aspect of women’s empowerment is equitable access to the business sector and the job market. Women are often affected harder than men are by economic and social crises. Furthermore, in the context of human trafficking, lack of employment and business opportunities make women more susceptible to be lured by criminals involved in human trafficking.

To strengthen women’s economic empowerment Kvinnoforum has inter alia implemented projects including a interactive and simulative table game developed by Kvinnoforum called “The Change.” The method is used to develop women’s small business skills in order to initiate their participation in the local economy and enhance prospects for the alleviation of poverty.

Throughout the world women face various obstacles to their participation in politics. In 2005, the rate of female representation stood at around 16 percent globally. Increasing the level of female representation and participation in decision-making bodies requires well-developed strategies and information on which measures have worked successfully in different countries with different political systems.

Kvinnoforum actively supports women’s political empowerment inter alia by means of organising study tours to Sweden to enable women and men from different parts of the world to learn about the Swedish experience of enhancing women’s political participation. Earlier experiences involve organising round-tables and networks for women politicians.