Where is the Money for Women's Rights?
It seems that there are too few interested funders, with too little money, to support existing women's rights organizations and initiatives. Is it that women's rights groups are not bold enough in their fundraising strategies? Is it that donors simply don't understand the urgency and importance of this work? What has really been happening in terms of funding for women's rights organizations in the last ten years and what have been the driving forces behind those trends? This report is the result of an action research initiative launched by AWID to explore precisely those questions and to give insights into possible strategies for changing the existing funding landscape so that more resources are made available to women's rights organizations.

Read the abstracts of the winning essays and case studies of the Call for Contributions "Building Feminist Movements and Organisations: Learning from Experience".

AWID announces winner of the draw for the airline ticket to attend the AWID Forum in Bangkok.

Publications:

• Spotlight #5: Making waves: how young women can (and do) transform organizations and movements, May 2005 (PDF, 134 KB)
• The Future of Women's Rights: Global Visions and Strategies, edited by J. Kerr, E. Sprenger and A. Symington, Zed Books, 2004. Click here to view PDF (332 KB).

We will try to make as many materials as possible available online on this website, but we also will be setting up a database of useful materials you may consult and use online. So, help us collect this useful information and to make it available to women’s groups from different regions.

Click here to provide us with information on materials.

Dame Nita Barrow Visitorship

This is a co-sponsored visitorship which AWID is currently organizing jointly with the University of Toronto, to support an internationally renowned feminist strategist to have a space to think, write and rest.

Click here to learn more about the Dame Nita Barrow Visitorship

Lectures from previous Visitors

• The Empire Strikes Back: But Finds Feminism Invincible. Alda Facio (Director Women, Gender and Justice Program, United Nations Latin American Institute for Crime Prevention) is a jurist, writer and an international expert on women's human rights, violence against women and feminist analysis of the law. The text of her Dame Nita Barrow lecture is presented here.
  Click here to view PDF (552 KB).

Here are some organizations and networks that have done work on different issues related to organizational strengthening and movement building and which have useful tools, resources and information.

Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP): This is an international, non-governmental organization (NGO) that empowers women and girls in the Global South to re-imagine and re-structure their roles in their families, communities, and societies. WLP achieves this goal through providing leadership training, supporting capacity building, and helping women generate and receive information and knowledge.
http://www.learningpartnership.org

Women’s Funding Network: WFN and its partners provide access to a collective of women and girls' programs at local, regional, national, and international levels.
http://www.wfnet.org

International Independent Women’s Funds Network: This network consists of resource funds for women in South Africa, Brazil, Chile, the United States, Ghana, Holland, India, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal and Ukraine.
http://www.inwf.org

Mama Cash: Mama Cash strives for a peaceful and just world where women are free to make their own choices. Mama Cash financially supports women's groups that blaze the trails with self-initiated projects. The activities of the women's groups supported by Mama Cash are centred around Physical Integrity, Art, Culture and Media, Economic Justice, Peace and Security, Empowerment and Participation.
http://www.mamacash.nl

African Women’s Development Fund: established in June 2000, AWDF is the first Africa-wide fundraising and grant-making fund to support the work of organizations working to promote women’s rights in Africa. The AWDF funds local, national, sub-regional and regional organisations in Africa working towards women’s empowerment.
http://www.awdf.org

Global Fund for Women: The GFW is an international network of women and men committed to a world of equality and social justice. It advocates for and defends women's human rights by making grants to support women's groups around the world.
http://www.globalfundforwomen.org

Gender at Work: Gender at Work is a new knowledge and capacity building network focused on gender and institutional change. It was created in June 2001 and works with development and human rights practitioners, researchers and policy makers. It aims at developing new theory and practice on how organizations can change gender-biased institutional rules (the distribution of power, privileges and rights), values (norms and attitudes), and practices. It also aims at changing the political, accountability, cultural and knowledge systems of organizations to challenge social norms and gender inequity.
http://www.genderatwork.org

Contact us:

Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
Feminist Movements and Organizations Program
Zamora 169, Casa 2
Col. Condesa, CP 06140
Mexico DF, Mexico
Tel: (5255) 5212 0696
Tel/Fax: (5255) 5212 0626
Email: lalpizar@awid.org