FAQs

The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is an international membership organization that works to strengthen the voice, impact and influence of women’s rights advocates, organizations and movements internationally to effectively advance the rights of women.

Read more about AWID

AWID began in 1982 and has transformed itself over the years. To find out more about our history, read From WID to GAD to Women's Rights: The First 20 Years of AWID

A dynamic network of women and men around the world, AWID members are researchers, academics, students, educators, activists, business people, policy-makers, development practitioners, funders, and more – of every age and profession – making AWID a unique global feminist association of both women and men. Membership with AWID is open to anyone who shares our values.

We offer different types of memberships geared to income level and to whether you are an individual or wish to sign your organization up as a member of our dynamic network. Currently we have close to 5,000 individual and over 300 institutional members, drawn from some 130 countries from every region of the world.

Our members have been a key enabling force, working collectively with AWID to advance the rights of women and girls around the world. Our institutional membership draws from the gamut of organizations interested in advancing women’s rights, and they include tiny women’s organizations, grassroots networks, major international institutions, government departments, university programs and more. And the issues covered range from reproductive technologies through policy change to women’s human rights and other critical issues. About one third of our members are young women under the age of 35.

Learn more about our membership

AWID’s work is made possible primarily through the generosity of foundations and government agencies. We are registered in the United States of America as a 501 (c) (3) organization, and are classified as a public charity under section 509 (a) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code.

View a list of our current funders

We work to strengthen the voice, impact and influence of women’s rights advocates, organizations and movements internationally to effectively advance the rights of women by:

• Building knowledge and understanding of the forces, trends, institutions and aspects that are undermining women’s rights and appropriate strategies to address them.

• Creating capacity building resources and strategies for and with women’s rights advocates, organizations and movements that will strengthen our overall impact.

• Building alliances across differences based on age, sectors, social movements, regions, issues, and communities in order to build a stronger movement for women’s rights

• Influencing international institutions and actors to strengthen their approaches (beyond commitments) to advance the rights of women worldwide.

Find out more about AWID

Yes, AWID is a feminist organization. You do not have to specifically identify as feminist or use that terminology to be a member of AWID or to engage with our work in advancing women’s rights. The principles associated with feminism, as well as a rich body of feminist research, dialogue and practice, inform our values and our work.

The issues on which AWID works run the gamut from religious fundamentalisms to funding for women’s rights work. Essentially, any issue that touches on women’s rights in development falls within our focus. Internally, we divide our work into strategic initiatives and programs – Challenging and Resisting Religious Fundamentalisms, Where is the Money for Women’s Rights?, Building Feminist Movements and Organizations, Women’s Rights Information, Influencing Development Actors and Practice for Women’s Rights, Young Feminist Activist Program and the AWID Forum.

Find out more about AWID's strategic initiatives and programs

No, we regret that AWID is not a funding organization and cannot review funding proposals or requests. There are several other organizations that do fund development projects relating to women. These include Mama Cash, the Women’s Funding Network and the Global Fund for Women to name a few.

No, we regret that AWID cannot provide funding for your studies, nor can we advocate on your behalf with other organizations. You may find the following AWID compilation of scholarships in the fields of women’s rights and development useful as you seek opportunities to fund your schooling:Scholarships in Women’s Rights and Development

Membership with AWID is open to anyone who shares our values, including men. A number of men who share our commitment to feminism and women’s human rights are members of AWID.

We encourage institutional membership and currently count some 300 of the most prominent, innovative and daring organizations working on issues related to women’s rights and development as members. Criteria for membership are the same as for individuals, although membership fees and membership benefits are different, and are geared to address the needs of our member institutions.

Find out more about institutional membership with AWID.

AWID is a global organization with offices in North America, Africa and Latin America. Our staff and our board of directors are international. The work that we do is intended to empower women all over the world, but our focus is particularly on the rights of women in the Global South and Eastern and Central Europe.

Yes, we do. As a membership benefit, we mail a copy of our annual activity report to all of our member institutions. If you are not an institutional member of AWID but you would like a copy of the report, please contact us at membership@awid.org. To access an electronic copy of our last annual report, click here.

AWID is a global organization and while we have offices in Mexico, South Africa and Canada we do not have any country representatives. Due to limited resources and our desire to be as effective as possible in our work, we are not able to consider applications to be a country or regional representative of AWID, nor are we able to consider opening local chapters or offices of AWID. But you don’t need to represent AWID in order to become involved in our work.

Find out how to become a become a member of AWID

Young women are at the heart of AWID’s work. We believe that young women are the present and the future of the struggle for women’s rights. With our Young Feminist Activism Program and other initiatives, we promote young women as leaders in the global women’s movement. Through discussion lists, regional institutes and publications, we contribute new analysis to current debates and ensure that young women are able to articulate their priorities and voice their concerns.

Find out more about our Young Feminist Activism Program

We have produced a glossary of terms and acronyms that you may find useful

This is an area of critical concern to many young or older women getting started in the field of women’s rights and development. Proper training, mentorship, volunteering and paid work experience are all elements of developing your career. We have produced a number of resources that you may find useful, including Getting a Job and Scholarships in Women’s Rights and Development.

Every three years, AWID hosts its international forum, a gathering of women’s rights leaders and activists from around the world that is the largest recurring event of its kind outside of the UN system. In 2005, the forum was held in Bangkok, Thailand and examined from all angles the critical question of How does change happen? Our 11th Forum titled, ‘The power of movements,’ will be held in Cape Town, South Africa in November 2008.

Find out more about the 2008 Forum

We work in English, Spanish and French and produce our publications in all three languages and to a lesser extent in Arabic. We also offer e-lists to our members in each of these three languages, and members can choose to be subscribed to any or all three language lists. Although the majority of our staff members are English-speaking, you can also contact our office in Spanish or French as we do have staff members who speak and write all three languages.

You can email your paper or your proposal about an article, analysis or announcement you would like to contribute to contribute@awid.org. If the content is appropriate for the nature of the site, we will be pleased to post it on this website.

No, we cannot authorize members or others to represent AWID at any event.

We regret that with the exception of the AWID Forum, for which we issue letters of invitation where necessary to participants, we cannot issue letters of invitation or facilitate your application for a visa.

To send us information about your conference, please write to contribute@awid.org. Due to limited resources, we are generally not able to travel to give workshops. However, if we are in a particular area we are always interested in meeting members and local organizations, and may be able to facilitate a workshop or event. To send a request for a speaker, please write to contact@awid.org

We cannot get you a job with one of our member organizations. However, most of our institutional members have made their website link available. You are free to investigate the different members and research their work. When openings appear, you can apply, or you can contact them directly to ask about job openings or volunteer opportunities. AWID also produces a weekly jobs bulletin which may include openings in our member organizations.

Find out about our institutional members

Subscribe to the jobs newsletter

AWID provides a wealth of resources to help your research and to point you in fruitful directions. We will not do your research for you, but we invite you to explore the resources we offer on this website.

AWID is not a direct service or individual advocacy organization. It would be better for you to seek legal advice and contact a women’s shelter or referral centre in your area. The Peach Pages is an online resource that offers links to women’s shelters around the world. AWID cannot vouch for the accuracy or quality of its listings, but it may be a good place to start if you don’t know of organizations in your area.