AWID's INITIATIVES AND PROGRAMS

AWID’s work is structured through multi-year programs known as Strategic Initiatives. Each strategic initiative includes a range of activities from membership consultations and surveys, primary research and dialogues with policy makers (including targeted advocacy) to capacity building institutes, regional networking and information dissemination. In addition, AWID works to ensure that the specific priorities and voices of young women are strongly represented in all our initiatives.

Where is the Money for Women's Rights?

Recognizing that movements without resources cannot be sustained, this initiative undertakes research and advocacy in order to significantly increase the amount and quality of funding to support women’s rights work. The initiative was primarily developed to tackle the urgent need of women’s organizations and movements to access more resources on better terms and to transform their relationship to funding – moving beyond a culture of “scarcity” to see funding and resource mobilization as a critical aspect of their political agendas and key for building strong feminist movements. At the same time, the initiative also works to improve the ability of women’s organizations to use these funds in ways that are strategic, bold and effective.

Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms

Recognizing that regressive political-religious projects are gaining ground all over the world with particularly negative consequences for women’s rights, this AWID initiative hopes to contribute to greater strategic thinking, dialogue and advocacy on religious fundamentalisms by women’s rights organizations and movements. It aims to develop more knowledge and resources in the area across regions and religions, foster a deeper and greater shared understanding of the way fundamentalist projects work, grow and undermine women's rights, and share strategies that have been used by women’s rights advocates to resist and challenge religious fundamentalisms.

Building Feminist Movements and Organizations

Feminist movements and organizations around the world face numerous challenges to their strategic capacity and ability to effectively empower women and advance their human rights. Through our Building Feminist Movements and Organizations strategic initiative, AWID promotes reflection and action on ways to strengthen women's movements and organizations worldwide. The goal of this program is to assist advocates in organizational strengthening and movement building and help them develop ways to work not only individually but collectively to achieve the common goals of women’s rights and gender equality.

Women's Rights Information

AWID’s Women’s Rights Information Strategic Initiative aims to build knowledge and understanding of the forces that undermine or promote women’s human rights at the global level, put new issues on the agenda of the women’s rights movements globally and amplify the voices and perspectives of marginalized women from around the world. The initiative provides a wide range of information resources in English, Spanish and French, from interactive e-mail discussions and e-bulletins to a high quality global feminist website and print communications. Highly accessible and based on the multitude of voices and experiences, these information resources are an invaluable tool in the promotion of women’s human rights.

The AWID International Forum

The AWID International Forum on Women's Rights and Development is both a conference and a call to action. AWID's International Forum is the largest gathering of its kind outside the United Nations System. In fact, the Forum is our flagship event. The first eight forums were successfully held in Washington DC. Our 9th International Forum was held in Guadalajara, Mexico from October 3-6, 2002 and the 10th International Forum in Bangkok, Thailand from October 27-30, 2005.
The Forum is one of the most dynamic, enlightening and inspiring market places of ideas and opinions anywhere. The AWID Forum brings together the diverse stakeholders from all disciplines and all ages in the gender and development and women's human rights communities. AWID members enjoy a discounted rate when they register for this tremendous gathering.
In 2008, the Forum is being held in Cape Town, South Africa from November 14-17.

Influencing Development Actors and Practices for Women's Rights

This initiative seeks to contribute to advancing feminist understandings of the relationship between development and women’s rights issues with a particular focus on the aid effectiveness agenda and the Financing for Development process at the UN as entry points to this debate. Towards this end, the initiative produces and disseminates knowledge on developmental issues with special emphasis on women’s perspectives; undertakes advocacy actions and alliance building to influence development policy and practices; and mobilizes women’s organizations and groups on development discussions and key policy processes.

Young Feminist Activism Program

AWID’s Young Feminist Activism program seeks to build a multi-generational movement by amplifying the voices of young women so that their experiences and ideas are reflected in feminist discourse and activism. The Young Feminist Activism program supports and mobilizes younger activists by creating provocative opportunities for engagement, innovative research projects, capacity-building activities and multi-generational dialogues linked to AWID’s initiatives to promote change. The program also works with participants to create independent spaces for young women to debate, discuss, analyze and plan.

Feminist Responses to HIV and AIDS

This soon-to-be-launched initiative will aim to build the capacity of women’s organizations and movements to challenge the dominant approaches to HIV and AIDS that both undermine as well as ignore women’s rights, as a prerequisite for stopping the spread of the disease. Some preliminary mapping has been conducted on these issues but this initiative will be fully launched after the 2008 forum.