The second thing I was trying to draw attention to was something that I mentioned that was affirmed by the largest ever global study into violence against women. It's that the independent women's movement and the mobilization of feminists worldwide has been hugely influential in policy change regarding violence against women. Independent women's groups and the independent women's movement are not funded to meet, coordinate, or advise the government, never mind operate in the first place. For example, CASAC has no operational funding, no national staff, no travel budget, no lobbying budget, no funding whatsoever, and we still do the best we can to do the work that we do, but our capacity to do it has been drastically reduced from back in the 1980s and 1990s when we regularly were invited to meet with and advise the government, as well as each other as the women's movement, as to what needed to happen in order to prevent violence against women and advance women's equality.
On November 27th, 2014. See this statement in context.