In 2007, two courageous Indigenous women emerged from a Women's Bush Meeting in the Kimberley region's Fitzroy Valley determined to take a stand against the flood of alcohol decimating their community. Emily Carter and June Oscar from the Marninwarntikura Women's Resource Centre built consensus, then successfully campaigned for the introduction of alcohol restrictions in the Valley. Within 12 months, alcoholrelated presentations at the hospital emergency department had dropped by

36 per cent, children were being better cared for, and the town was quieter and cleaner.

A recent documentary funded by a private donor highlighted the work of the women. The film–Yajilarra–became a lever for social change as it attracted more funding for community-instigated projects, and enabled the work of Aboriginal women to be showcased at the highest levels and influence policy across Australia. Yajilarra is being distributed in high schools and universities in Australia and the Asia Pacific region to educate young people globally on the dangers of alcohol and the importance of strong leadership and communities taking control.

For the first time ever, the voices of Indigenous Australian women were heard at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, when June Oscar and Emily Carter accompanied the Minister for the Status of Women, The Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP, to the UN summit in New York. They shared their story and showed a way forward for other communities searching for solutions to dispossession, alcohol abuse and social decay, and received a standing ovation.

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) in Victoria is a crucial support service for many regional Victorian towns, and is often the heart and soul of the communities. Yet 80 per cent of volunteers are men, and the women who volunteer rarely have operational roles. Why does this matter? As the CFA's Stephen Warrington said, 'if we accept that talent is spread equally across gender then we must admit that our assumption that we operate within a truly meritocratic organisation is fundamentally flawed'. It also threatens the overall sustainability of the CFA: how can a community organisation flourish if half the population is not involved?

With the support of the Victorian Women's Benevolent Trust, the CFA looked at its operations from the perspective of gender, and developed a mentoring and support program for female volunteers called Women and Fire. It was piloted in 2009 in the south west region of Victoria.

The results show that when women are supported, the entire community benefits. Women are now taking on broader roles; brigades in declining rural communities are being strengthened by women taking an active role; and young men are learning how to have healthy working relationships with women. With the support of the program, women volunteers increased by 20 per cent within three years. Strengthening women's participation in the CFA is strengthening rural and regional communities.

Successful non-government organisation The Big Issue Street Magazine Enterprise realised it had a problem: while becoming a street vendor for The Big Issue was a great opportunity for homeless men, what about homeless women? Many women were not taking up this opportunity due to factors like childcare responsibilities, the fear of violence, and negative perceptions of a female selling on a street corner. The Big Issue responded to this challenge by establishing the Women's Subscription Enterprise, a business that employs women as dispatch assistants, collating and sorting the magazine for distribution. Applying a process of gender inquiry to its operations has meant that a successful non-government organisation has become more effective.

Employment, opportunity and hope are now provided for more than 90 homeless women.

In 2008, Goldman Sachs introduced 10,000 Women: a five-year, $100 million global initiative to help grow local economies and bring about greater shared prosperity by providing 10,000 female entrepreneurs with a business and management education, access to mentors and networks and links to capital.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation believes this investment 'can have a significant impact on GDP growth', and 'such an investment in women can have a significant multiplier effect that leads not only to increased revenues and more employees for businesses, but also healthier, better-educated families and ultimately more prosperous communities'.

For nearly a decade, the Nike Foundation has been focusing exclusively on supporting adolescent girls in the developing world through their Girl Effect initiative, investing more than $100 million in this cause. CEO Maria Eitel is also firmly committed to the idea that investing in girls also benefits boys. An educational program called Institute Promundo supported by the Foundation targeted young boys and men in Brazil. The results have indicated a reduction in genderbased violence, and increased awareness of the risks of HIV/AIDS. It's a fantastic outcome for the girlfriends, wives, sisters, and daughters of these young men and for society in general.

Until 1990 the main strategy for confronting the lethal AIDS epidemic was condom education and condom distribution. A group of frontline workers from the developing world applied 'gender inquiry' to this approach, and at a conference in Washington DC challenged the status quo. They argued that, given the poor social standing of the majority of at-risk women, and the fact that many were young and wanting to fall pregnant, a policy based on assuming women could get their husbands to wear condoms all the time was profoundly impractical.

Women needed to be able to protect themselves, and still conceive. From this science started looking for a solution and the Global Campaign for Microbicides was launched, followed by the International Partnership for Microbicides. Thanks to some astute gender inquiry, several products providing a potential preventative option that women can easily control are now in development.

Spotlight is building the capacity of Indigenous women and young people to be self sufficient through the Stitch in Time program. The program aims to help transform communities by providing the skills and equipment to earn their own incomes through sewing. Spotlight has provided 5,000 sewing machines so far throughout the world, donated by customers to stores. The program is now running for women at the art workshop at Bagot Community (Darwin), Injalak Arts and the Women's Centre in Gunbalanya (Western Arnhem Land) and the Babbarra Women's Centre in Maningrida (Central Arnhem Land). Where possible Spotlight staff have also been made available to help set up the machines and assist with the development of sewing skills.

Babbarra Women's Centre produces fine Indigenous textile art, exquisite printed cotton and silk fabrics which are marketed in Australia and overseas. With access to the new sewing machines, the Babbarra women not only create original designs for the marketplace, they can also offer mending and alteration services to people in the community. Babbarra and Spotlight are now exploring opportunities to license a selection of Babbarra designs for commercial production and sale in Spotlight stores, potentially providing a longer-term income stream through royalties for use of the designs.

The Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation in Victoria provided support for White Ribbon's 'Breaking the Silence' Campaign in primary and secondary schools in Victoria through its 2012 General Grants Program. This program works to embed models of respectful relationships within primary and secondary schools to prevent the perpetration of violence against women and girls. It does this through the delivery of facilitated workshops with school principals and senior leadership, offering understandings and stimuli to engage students in the prevention of violence against women and girls. White Ribbon is a male-led campaign that believes that most men are good and that good men abhor such violence.

White Ribbon also believes in the capacity of the individual to change and to encourage change in others. It illustrates the importance of addressing the different behaviours, attitudes and needs of male and female students to achieve greater impact and stronger outcomes for all.

The International Women's Development Agency focuses on initiatives that advance gender equality and women's rights in Asia and the Pacific region, by supporting women's economic empowerment, safety and security, civil and political participation, and sustainable livelihoods and natural resource management.

The Safe House project in Battambang province in Cambodia was established as an integral part of a broader program targeting violence against women. The Safe House serves as a vital centre for women experiencing gender-based violence, offering emergency accommodation and food, transportation, referrals for medical, legal and psychosocial services, orientation on basic rights, basic health education, as well as assistance in filing legal complaints, and accessing longer-term rehabilitation and reintegration services. It is the only emergency accommodation in a province of two million people. In the 2011/12 year the Safe House provided accommodation and support to 191 survivors of rape, 61 survivors of domestic violence and 297 witnesses. The Safe House project was funded in 2011/12 by the Becher Foundation, which was connected to this project through the Australian Women Donors Network.