Projects

Development of the NSW Women’s Strategy 2023-2026

Client.
Women NSW
Services
Strategy, Policy, Engagement

End-to-end government strategy development reflecting the voices of thousands of women across NSW.

01.
Client issue

Our client had a mandate to prepare a NSW Women’s Strategy with tight timeframes. The role of the Strategy was to set out the approach of the NSW Government to women’s issues and opportunities. The Strategy was being developed alongside significant work through the Women’s Economic Opportunity Review, and needed to complement the consultation and proposals being developed through that Review. The voice of women from all walks of life across different communities was key to designing the Strategy.

02.
Our approach

Our team developed the Strategy from beginning to end including:

  • Reviewing national approaches by governments to women’s issues
  • Preparing research-based issues papers on issues affecting NSW agencies
  • Conducting interagency consultation to identify areas of innovation and opportunity
  • Conducting focus groups of location and cohort-based women across NSW, from longstanding CWA members in the central west to young mums in Southwest Sydney, schoolgirls and university students, culturally diverse women and the LGBTIQA+ community
  • Conducting analysis of a large survey open to women across the state
  • Preparing a comprehensive internal consultation report
  • Developing the Strategy pillars and the responses, including successful actions to continue and scale up, new initiatives to advance equality and inclusion and signposts for future action and investment
  • Preparing the draft strategy itself.

03.
Result

We heard from more than 2,000 women and girls, from school girls and university students just starting out in the workforce, to those experiencing retirement and thinking about the world their granddaughters were inheriting. Their insights and experiences shaped a clear Strategy outlining an extensive response, which we delivered within the ambitious timeframe.

View the Strategy

04.
Key learnings

  • Tapping directly into women’s voices is powerful; the Strategy was shaped around what they told us was important to them.
  • The expectations of women are changing, with young women both acutely aware of the gendered nature of society and increasingly impatient of those structures. Queer women, transgender people, and non-binary people are seeking safety and access to basic services, which discrimination can make more difficult.
  • Agency trust is vital to supporting changed activity; building trust and engagement was a key component of this project.
  • In this case, there was considerable activity by the NSW Treasury (economic opportunity) and national policy makers (women’s safety) paralleling the Strategy’s development. It was important to find an approach that pointed to emergent activity while also guiding areas such as inclusion that were not otherwise being addressed.

“And another massive thank you from all of us for your incredible work across the last few months, culminating in the strategy drafts. We are very grateful for your expertise, enthusiasm and persistence in delivering each product along the way. It’s hard to believe what has been achieved in just a couple of months!”

Executive Director