A New Weave of Power, People & Politics provides a well-tested approach for building people’s participation and collective power that goes beyond influencing policy and politics to transforming public decision-making altogether. Based on 25 years of participatory research, community development, neighborhood organizing, legal rights education, and large-scale campaign advocacy experiences worldwide, A New Weave combines concrete and practical action “steps” with a sound theoretical foundation to help users understand the process of people-centered politics from planning to action. Published in 2002 and reprinted in 2007, the guide is unique in its emphasis on power and constituency-building discussed through the lens of gender/race/class and based on the concrete experiences of social change in dozens of countries worldwide.

Reflecting on over a decade of collaboration that has contributed to more than a million more women accessing the Indonesian family courts for Muslims known as the Religious Courts, this paper considers the elements that contributed to the results and what is important for programmes that prioritise women’s access to justice and, in particular, access to the formal justice system. The authors also look forward and address changes needed in the coming decade to further accelerate improvements in women’s access to the courts and address the quality of service they receive. Six concluding reflections are offered, summing up some of the striking lessons. These: include: the importance of inclusive (and sometimes unlikely) networks or coalitions that support reform; the need for research and knowledge publications that lay an evidence base to present to national agencies that control budget resources; the value of adequate time to trial approaches, building trust to show results; and the importance of paralegals supporting women and girls to access the formal justice system. An earlier version of this paper was presented by the authors at the World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights in Dublin in June 2017.

JASS (Just Associates) and Accountability Research Center (ARC) hosted a panel discussion on Movements, Power and Accountability: Grassroots Organizing Perspectives from Asia, Africa and Latin America on November 2, 2018. Panelists from Indonesia, the Philippines, Zimbabwe and Guatemala shared reflections on their work and contexts. We also launched a publication based on PEKKA’s 20 years of feminist movement-building work, “Movement Building for Accountability: Learning from Indonesian Women’s Organizing.” Panelists: Nani Zulminarni (PEKKA, Indonesia) Joy Aceron (G-Watch, Philippines), Lucy Mazingi (JASS, Southern Africa), Paulina Culum Xajil (Health Rights Defender, CEGSS Guatemala). Discussion was moderated by Lisa VeneKlasen, JASS Executive Director.

‘PEKKA’s work began in 2001, emerging from the Komnas Perempuan (Widows’ Project), which set out to document the lives of widows in the conflict-ridden Aceh region. In the Widows’ Project, PEKKA founder Nani Zulminarni saw potential for something more, and re-cast the project into an ongoing and comprehensive strategy for change. Importantly, she changed the title, naming it PEKKA; as well as meaning Women-Headed Family Empowerment, the word is also an abbreviation for “women heads of household”. Since Indonesian marriage law states that the household heads are male, and does not recognize women in this capacity, the organization’s name sends a political message.’