Gender Equality & Human Rights

When women have increased access to resources, education, healthcare, and employment opportunities, poverty rates decrease. Studies show that educated and empowered women invest in their families’ health, education, and well-being, breaking the cycle of poverty. Advancing gender equality is thus integral to achieving every single Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs). Achieving gender equality is however a complex and challenging due to deep-rooted issues that intersect cultural, social, economic, and political dimensions.

Human rights serve as a foundation for peaceful, prosperous, fair, equitable, accountable, and sustainable world that is based on the rule of law. A human rights-based approach (HRBA) is rooted in the international human rights norms, and the rule of law. It involves integrating the principles of accountability, transparency, equality, and inclusive throughout our development efforts. On the one hand, it consists if empowering rights-holders, including people from marginalised groups, to claim their rights and participate in development processes in decision-making. On the other, it also consists of building the capacity of duty-bearers – such as governments and public agencies – to fulfil their obligations.

At NIRAS, we are dedicated to advancing gender equality and human rights through impactful development consulting. We integrate gender equality as a core element of our operations and drive transformative change by raising awareness, empowering communities, and promote sustainable development. We understand that gender equality must actively involve men and boys to ensure sustainable progress. Our intersectional analysis of data —considering ethnicity, race, class, caste, age, ability, religion, and sexual orientation/gender identity & expression/sexual characteristics— is crucial for identifying who experiences inequality and understanding how intersecting social factors define and shape power dynamics. We employ participatory approaches and emphasize inclusivity to address the needs of diverse groups. Recognizing historical and contextual inequalities, we work towards systemic and individual change, focusing on institutions, structures, and communities.