UN Women / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Guatemala - Rural Women Diversify Incomes and Build Resilience
Left
Half
Left

Priority Areas

Supporting feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements to thrive, to be a driving force in challenging systems of oppression, and to co-create feminist realities.

Building Feminist Economies

Building Feminist Economies is about creating a world with clean air to breath and water to drink, with meaningful labour and care for ourselves and our communities, where we can all enjoy our economic, sexual and political autonomy.


In the world we live in today, the economy continues to rely on women’s unpaid and undervalued care work for the profit of others. The pursuit of “growth” only expands extractivism - a model of development based on massive extraction and exploitation of natural resources that keeps destroying people and planet while concentrating wealth in the hands of global elites. Meanwhile, access to healthcare, education, a decent wage and social security is becoming a privilege to few. This economic model sits upon white supremacy, colonialism and patriarchy.

Adopting solely a “women’s economic empowerment approach” is merely to integrate women deeper into this system. It may be a temporary means of survival. We need to plant the seeds to make another world possible while we tear down the walls of the existing one.


We believe in the ability of feminist movements to work for change with broad alliances across social movements. By amplifying feminist proposals and visions, we aim to build new paradigms of just economies.

Our approach must be interconnected and intersectional, because sexual and bodily autonomy will not be possible until each and every one of us enjoys economic rights and independence. We aim to work with those who resist and counter the global rise of the conservative right and religious fundamentalisms as no just economy is possible until we shake the foundations of the current system.


Our Actions

Our work challenges the system from within and exposes its fundamental injustices:

  • Advance feminist agendas: We counter corporate power and impunity for human rights abuses by working with allies to ensure that we put forward feminist, women’s rights and gender justice perspectives in policy spaces. For example, learn more about our work on the future international legally binding instrument on “transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights” at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

  • Mobilize solidarity actions: We work to strengthen the links between feminist and tax justice movements, including reclaiming the public resources lost through illicit financial flows (IFFs) to ensure social and gender justice.

  • Build knowledge: We provide women human rights defenders (WHRDs) with strategic information vital to challenge corporate power and extractivism. We will contribute to build the knowledge about local and global financing and investment mechanisms fuelling extractivism.

  • Create and amplify alternatives: We engage and mobilize our members and movements in visioning feminist economies and sharing feminist knowledges, practices and agendas for economic justice.


“The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing”.

Arundhati Roy, War Talk

Related Content

Snippet - CSW69 - OURs & friends - EN

OURs & friends at the Feminist Solidarity Space

✉️ By invitation only

📅 Tuesday, March 11, 2025
🕒 2.00-4.00pm EST

🏢 Chef's Kitchen Loft with Terrace, 216 East 45th St 13th Floor New York

Organizer: Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) Consortium

Communicating Desire | Small Snippet EN

Communicating Desire

and Other Embodied Political Praxes

We tend to think about communicating desire as something that is limited to the private intimacy of the bedroom and our personal relationships. But can we also think of this kind of communication as a structure, a praxis that informs our work, and how we are, how we do in the world?

Read more

Snippet - Jobs and opportunities intro

If you’re looking to have an impact through your work in feminist, social justice and other non-profit organizations, we hope this page provides a start.

Here you will find open vacancies and call for applications from AWID and the Alliance for Feminist Movements, when available. Follow us on social media to be in the loop.

Instagram LinkedIn Facebook X (Twitter) BlueSky

El Nemrah | Snippet EN

El Nemrah Avatar

El Nemrah

Snippet - WCFM With smart filtering - EN

With smart filtering for Who Can Fund Me?  Database, you can search for funders based on:

Hospital | Small snippet EN

Hospital

Hospitals are institutions, living sites of capitalism, and what gets played out when somebody is supposed to be resting is a microcosm of the larger system itself. 

Read more

Snippet - WITM Infographic annual budget - EN

In 2023, feminist and 
women's rights organizations 
had a median annual budget of $22,000

In contrast, over $1 billion went to three anti-rights groups 2021-2022, with funding for anti-gender networks still rising.1

1 Global Philanthropy Project, 2024

Snippet Kohl - Plenary: She is on her way | AR

Plenary: She is on her way

جلسة عامة | إنّها قادمة: بدائل وأشكال متعددة من النسوية وعالم آخر 
مع د. فاندانا شيفا ود. ديلار ديريك ونانا أكوسوا هانسو

YOUTUBESOUNDCLOUD

Snippet - COP30 - International Eco-Socialist Encounter - EN

International Eco-Socialist Encounter

Panels, workshops, plenaries and spaces for exchange between collectives, activists and organizations in struggle to collectively walk the path towards an agenda and a program of struggle for ecosocialism.

📅 November 8 - November 11, 2025
📍 Buenos Aires, Argentina

Register here

#3 - Sexting like a feminist Tweets Snippet AR

بصراحة…

Image of a tweet with a gif of a man saying "Yes daddy". Text says: No one: (blank). Me: Bae I wanna squeeze your ass like I wanna squeeze misogynists out of corporate hierarchies.

رغبتي في الانقضاض على جسدك تعادل رغبتي بالانقضاض على كراهية النساء المتجذرة في التسلسلات الهرمية للشركات

Snippet - COP30 - Resistance Hubs

Resistance Hubs for Climate Justice

Snippet Feminist Propositions for a Just Economy EN

AWID, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), and the African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), offers this think piece to challenge mainstream understandings of development and put forward initial propositions for a feminist agenda for development, economic and gender justice.

Learn more about where this project comes from


The propositions

These propositions are intended to be just that - proposals, to be discussed, debated, added to, taken apart, adapted, adopted, and even to inspire others.

Snippet - WID2026 - Join the Global _EN

Join the Global Feminist Community!

Sign up to be an AWID member to connect with 9,600+ global feminist movements and co-create a range of platforms and spaces designed especially for activists and organizations from teach-ins to solidarity spaces and member mixers. 

The AWID Membership community is available as an app. Download the app and start connecting with movements! 

Confronting Extractivism & Corporate Power

Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) worldwide defend their lands, livelihoods and communities from extractive industries and corporate power. They stand against powerful economic and political interests driving land theft, displacement of communities, loss of livelihoods, and environmental degradation.


Why resist extractive industries?

Extractivism is an economic and political model of development that commodifies nature and prioritizes profit over human rights and the environment. Rooted in colonial history, it reinforces social and economic inequalities locally and globally. Often, Black, rural and Indigenous women are the most affected by extractivism, and are largely excluded from decision-making. Defying these patriarchal and neo-colonial forces, women rise in defense of rights, lands, people and nature.

Critical risks and gender-specific violence

WHRDs confronting extractive industries experience a range of risks, threats and violations, including criminalization, stigmatization, violence and intimidation.  Their stories reveal a strong aspect of gendered and sexualized violence. Perpetrators include state and local authorities, corporations, police, military, paramilitary and private security forces, and at times their own communities.

Acting together

AWID and the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD-IC) are pleased to announce “Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractivism and Corporate Power”; a cross-regional research project documenting the lived experiences of WHRDs from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

We encourage activists, members of social movements, organized civil society, donors and policy makers to read and use these products for advocacy, education and inspiration.

Share your experience and questions!

Tell us how you are using the resources on WHRDs Confronting extractivism and corporate power.

◾️ How can these resources support your activism and advocacy?

◾️ What additional information or knowledge do you need to make the best use of these resources?

Share your feedback


Thank you!

AWID acknowledges with gratitude the invaluable input of every Woman Human Rights Defender who participated in this project. This project was made possible thanks to your willingness to generously and openly share your experiences and learnings. Your courage, creativity and resilience is an inspiration for us all. Thank you!

Related Content

Sin límites ni barreras

Sin límites ni barreras

«No dejen de pelear porque la lucha no ha terminado: recién empieza.» – Marianna Karakoulaki

Desde el verano (boreal) de 2015, Idomenei, un pueblo ubicado en la frontera entre Grecia y Macedonia, albergó el campamento no oficial de personas refugiadas más grande de Grecia. A fines de mayo de 2016, las autoridades lo cerraron. Desde hace ya un año, Marianna Karakoulaki, una joven originaria de otra ciudad pequeña pero en el noroeste del país, ha venido cubriendo la crisis de las personas refugiadas en Idomenei como periodista independiente. 

Con colegas tras la policía en una protesta en Thessaloniki, Grecia

Marianna también ha cubierto protestas y levantamientos sociales, en particular desde Thessaloniki donde vivió durante los últimos años. Es corresponsal de varios medios como Deutsche Welle (DW), IRIN News, y Middle East Eye. Además, produce informes para la televisión y recientemente intervino en una producción de Channel 4 News: Macedonia: tracking down the refugee kidnap gangs [En la pista de las bandas que secuestran refugiadxs en Macedonia; en inglés] que obtuvo varios premios, entre ellos el de cobertura noticiosa del año en televisión otorgado por la Asociación de Prensa Extranjera en Londres. 

Feminismo, un hilo conductor rojo    

 «Me defino como feminista, absolutamente y sin ninguna duda. Es parte de mi identidad, al igual que ser atea y de izquierda.»  – Marianna Karakoulaki

El feminismo ha sido un hilo conductor rojo que recorre todas las experiencias, la formación y el desempeño laboral de Marianna a lo largo de su vida. Considera que: «desde siempre me he identificado con el feminismo, sin saber qué era», ya en su adolescencia y durante sus estudios de Maestría en Seguridad Internacional en la Universidad de Birmingham, Reino Unido. Marianna hizo frente a crisis depresivas esporádicas y además de estudiar los movimientos y las luchas por la igualdad, el feminismo la ha inspirado y le ha aportado un nuevo enfoque «prácticamente sobre todas las cosas».

«El feminismo cambió por completo mis prioridades académicas, mi ideología política y mi enfoque sobre la vida en general. Por eso siempre llevo puesto un colgante con el puño feminista.»  - Marianna Karakoulaki

Durante una protesta en la frontera entre Grecia y Macedonia cerca de la recientemente construida barrera fronteriza macedonia

En su trabajo, Marianna intenta abordar temáticas feministas para hacer que se escuchen las voces de los márgenes sobre todo en Grecia  «ya que los temas de género son ignorados o no se los cubre como se debería».

Pero aunque lleva más de un año informando sobre la crisis de las personas refugiadas ha tratado, en forma deliberada, de evitar escribir sobre las mujeres refugiadas. 

 «La razón principal es que no quiero entrometerme en las vidas de las mujeres refugiadas solo para obtener una buena nota; escuché algunas historias dignas de ser publicadas, pero nunca sentí que fuera apropiado hacerlo porque son personas en una posición de vulnerabilidad. Es necesario que se escuchen sus voces pero hay un momento adecuado para hacerlo y para mí ese momento será cuando por fin lleguen a un espacio seguro donde estén protegidas.» - Marianna Karakoulaki

Un poco más acerca de Marianna

En su trabajo académico actual, es una de las directoras y editoras de E- International Relations [Relaciones internacionales electrónicas; E-IR], una publicación académica en línea para la que está editando un libro sobre migraciones en el siglo XXI que se publicará este año. Marianna también ha dictado varios talleres en Grecia sobre igualdad de género, otras temáticas de género y la diversidad de los feminismos. Escribió artículos académicos y periodísticos sobre el derecho al aborto en Estados Unidos así como sobre temáticas feministas y de mujeres en Medio Oriente.

Marianna se afilió a AWID porque:

«...es una organización cuyas áreas prioritarias son muy afines a mi ideología y a lo que yo priorizo. También porque le da voz a quienes viven en zonas del mundo desde las que no pueden ser escuchadas, y eso me gusta.»

En respuesta a la pregunta sobre qué cambios le gustaría ver en su vida, Marianna afirmó:

«Si tuviera que elegir un cambio que quiero ver en mi vida, sería una igualdad producto de un enfoque ‘desde abajo hacia arriba’. Eso llevará tiempo, esfuerzo y dedicación, así como una revisión de las tácticas y la estrategia de los movimientos. También tengo el sueño utópico de un mundo sin naciones ni fronteras, cuya base sea la organización autónoma, pero eso es bastante imposible.»

Para saber más sobre Marianna, por favor visita su sitio de Internet [en inglés]

Region
Europa
Source
AWID

Sans frontières ni barrières

Sans frontières ni barrières

« Ne cessez jamais de vous battre parce que la lutte n’est pas finie ; elle vient juste de commencer. » – Marianna Karakoulaki

Depuis l’été 2005, Idomeni, un village situé à la frontière gréco-macédonienne, est progressivement devenu le plus vaste camp officieux de réfugié-e-s de Grèce. À la fin du mois de mai, ce camp a été fermé par les autorités. Et depuis maintenant un an, Marianna Karakoulaki, une jeune journaliste indépendante originaire d’une petite ville du nord-ouest du pays, couvre les événements qui se produisent dans ce village.

 

Accompagnée par des collègues derrière la police anti-émeute grecque durant une manifestation à Thessalonique

Marianna a aussi couvert les manifestations et les émeutes qui se sont déroulées principalement à Thessalonique, la ville où elle vit depuis quelques années. Outre le travail qu’elle effectue pour différents médias, dont Deutsche Welle (DW), IRIN News et the Middle East Eye, elle réalise également des reportages pour la télévision. Elle a récemment co-réalisé un reportage d’actualité, Macedonia: Tracking down the refugee kidnap gangs (Macédoine : sur la trace des gangs qui kidnappent les réfugiés, en anglais), qui a remporté plusieurs prix dont celui  du meilleur reportage d’actualité pour la télévision décerné par l’Association de la presse étrangère à Londres.

Le féminisme, un fil rouge

« Je me sens absolument féministe, sans aucune réserve. Mon féminisme fait partie de mon identité, tout comme mon athéisme et mes convictions politiques de gauche. »​ – Marianna Karakoulaki

Le féminisme a été le fil rouge de la vie, de l’éducation et du travail de Marianna. Elle a l’impression « de s’être toujours sentie féministe, même quand elle ne savait pas encore vraiment ce que ce mot signifiait », et ce depuis son adolescence et tout au long de ses études de master en sécurité internationale à l’université de Birmingham, au Royaume-Uni. Pendant les épisodes dépressifs occasionnels qu’elle a connu et pendant toutes ses années d’études des mouvements et de la lutte pour l’égalité, le féminisme l’a inspirée et lui a permis d’adopter une nouvelle approche « d’à peu près tout ».

« Il [le féminisme] a entièrement changé mon orientation académique, mon idéologie politique et mon approche de la vie au sens large. C’est la raison pour laquelle je porte toujours autour du cou le poing féministe. » - Marianna Karakoulaki

Pendant une manifestation à la frontière greco-macédonienne à côté d’une clôture macédonienne nouvellement construite

Dans le cadre de son travail, Marianna tente de se consacrer aux questions féministes en donnant la possibilité à celles qui sont reléguées à la marge de s’exprimer, notamment en Grèce où « les questions relatives au genre sont soit ignorées soit insuffisamment prises en charge ».

Elle travaille  depuis un an sur la crise des réfugié-e-s, mais elle a délibérément évité d’écrire un article sur les femmes réfugiées.

« J’ai pris cette décision tout d’abord parce que je ne voulais pas faire intrusion dans la vie de ces femmes dans le simple but de dénicher une bonne histoire. J’ai entendu des récits qui auraient méritées d’être publiées mais, sans vraiment savoir pourquoi, je ne me suis jamais sentie autorisée à raconter la vie de ces personnes dans telle situation de vulnérabilité. Il faut que leurs voix soient entendues, mais il y a un bon moment pour le faire, et je pense qu’il faut attendre qu’elles atteignent enfin un espace sûr dans laquelle leur protection est assurée. »  - Marianna Karakoulaki

Quelques informations complémentaires sur Marianna

Dans le cadre académique, elle est membre de l’équipe de direction et de rédaction de E- International Relations (E-IR), un site académique pour lequel elle dirige la publication d’un livre sur les migrations au XXIe  siècle, à paraître fin 2016. Marianna a également dispensé des cours lors de différents ateliers organisés en Grèce sur l’égalité de genre, les questions de genre et la diversité des féminismes. Elle a également écrit des articles sur le droit à l’avortement notamment aux États-Unis mais aussi sur les questions féministes ou relatives aux femmes dans le Moyen-Orient.

 

Marianna explique comme suit sa décision de devenir membre de l’AWID :

 

« Je suis devenue membre de l’AWID parce qu’il s’agit d’une organisation dont les domaines d’action prioritaires sont très proches de mon idéologie et de mes préoccupations et qui donne la parole aux personnes du monde entier que l’on entend jamais, et j’aime beaucoup cela. »  

À la question « quel changement aimeriez-vous voir se matérialiser de votre vivant ? », Marianna apporté cette réponse :

« Si je devais choisir un changement que j’aimerais voir survenir de mon vivant, ce serait l’instauration d’une égalité issue d’une approche venue de la base ; cela demandera du temps, des efforts et du dévouement. Cela exigera également une refonte des tactiques et stratégies des mouvements. Je fais aussi le rêve utopique d’un monde sans nations ni frontières fondé sur l’auto-organisation, mais je crains que cela ne soit pas possible. »

Pour en savoir plus sur Marianna, n’hésitez pas à consulter son site internet (en anglais)

Region
Europe
Source
AWID

Without Borders and Barriers

Without Borders and Barriers

“Don’t give up fighting because the struggle is not over; it has just begun”. – Marianna Karakoulaki

Since the summer of 2015, Idomeni, a village at the Greek-Macedonian border, has increasingly turned into a site of the largest unofficial refugee camp in Greece. At the end of May it was shut down by authorities. For a year now, Marianna Karakoulaki, a young woman originally from a small town in the north-western part of the country has been covering the refugee crisis in Idomeni as a freelance journalist. 

With colleagues behind Greek riot police during a protest in Thessaloniki, Greece

Marianna has also been covering social protests and riots, mostly from Thessaloniki where she has been living for the past couple of years. Reporting for several media outlets, including Deutsche Welle (DW), IRIN News, and the Middle East Eye, she additionally produces TV reports, recently being part of a  Channel 4 News production: Macedonia: tracking down the refugee kidnap gangs which has won several awards including ‘TV News Story of the Year’ from Foreign Press Association in London.

Feminism, a red thread

“I absolutely and without any doubt identify as a feminist, it’s part of my identity along with being an atheist and a leftist.” – Marianna Karakoulaki

Throughout Marianna’s experiences, education and work, feminism has been a red thread throughout her life. She feels she has “always identified with feminism, without actually knowing what it was”, from her teen years and all through her Master’s degree studies in International Security at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Marianna has countered occasional bouts of depression, and alongside studying about movements and the struggle for equality, feminism has inspired and given her a new approach to “pretty much everything”.

“It [feminism] entirely changed my academic focus, political ideology, and general approach to life. That is the reason I always wear a necklace with the feminist fist.” - Marianna Karakoulaki

During a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border next to the newly built Macedonian fence

In her work, Marianna tries to focus on feminist subjects aiming to give voice to those on the margins especially in Greece seeing “gender related issues are either ignored or not covered as they should be.”  

But even though she has been reporting about the refugee crisis for the past year, she has been, as she tells us, deliberately avoiding writing a story on refugee women.

“The main reason for that is that I don’t really want to intrude in refugee women’s lives just for the sake of a good story; I have heard some stories that would have been worth publishing, but for a reason it never felt right as these people are in a vulnerable position. Their voice needs to be heard but there is the right moment for that and for me this is when they finally reach a safe space where they are protected.” - Marianna Karakoulaki

A bit more about Marianna

In her current academic work, she is one of the directors and editors of E- International Relations (E-IR), an online academic publication, where she is currently editing a book on migration in the 21st century due to be published in late 2016. Marianna has also taught at several workshops in Greece on gender equality, gender issues, and the diversity of feminisms and has written papers and articles on abortion rights specifically in the United States of America, as well as about feminist and women’s issues in the Middle East.

Marianna joined AWID as a member because:

“I joined AWID as it’s an organization where its priority areas are very close to my ideology and focus, plus it is giving a voice to those in parts of the world that cannot be heard, and I like that.”

And in answer to the question “what change would you like to see in your lifetime?” Marianna responded:

“If I had to choose a change that I’d like to see in my lifetime, that would be equality that will come from a bottoms-up approach; that will demand time, effort, and devotion. It will also demand a re-approach of the movements’ tactics and strategy. I also have a utopian dream of a world without nations and borders based on self-organisation, but that is rather impossible.”

To find out more about Marianna, please visit her website

Region
Europe
Source
AWID

2019: Feminist Realities in a changing world

AWID began preparing this annual report just as the global pandemic began to unravel how we gather, organize and live our lives. It is impossible to review what we have done without COVID-19 tinting our assessment. 

Download the full 2019 Annual review


frmagazine cover eng

 

 

Co-Creating Feminist Realities is no longer just an AWID Forum theme - it is a rallying cry in response to a pandemic that has laid bare the failures of social, political and economic systems.

It is an urgently needed affirmation that there are other, more just ways of organizing our lives. During 2019 hundreds of groups shared their experiences and proposals for feminist realities with us, ranging from radical networks of community support in Latin America facilitating self-managed abortion, to practices of community-centered economies in Indonesia and community-centered food systems in India and the US, to a  re-imagination and new practice of harm-free rites of passage in Sierra Leone. These are the experiences that will chart a path forward for a “new normal”. 
Yet long histories of oppression and violence can make it difficult to imagine the possible. A key part of our work in 2019 was to spark these explorations through a toolkit AWID launched to support groups interested in unearthing the stories and aspirations that are the building blocks of feminist propositions.

While we focus on our proposals for a different world, we recognize the challenging context around us.

Through the Observatory on the Universality of Rights, Feminists for a Binding Treaty, Count Me In! and other alliances, AWID has continued to push back against unfettered corporate power and fascist and fundamentalist agendas that undermine women’s rights and gender justice. With dim prospects for transformative change through multilateral processes  and limited responsiveness from most states, we are redoubling our efforts  to ensure that feminist movements, in all their diversity, are resourced in ways that match the critical roles they play - supporting their communities, demanding rights and responding to crises. In 2019 we introduced feminist principles and approaches to ground-breaking funds like the Spotlight Initiative and the Equality Fund, and succeeded in leveraging resources through feminist reality seed grant funding from feminist funders.

As we look ahead, it is clear that the context is calling for a transformation of our organizing strategies:

  • we are learning to navigate global advocacy confined to online channels,
  • we grapple with the uncertainty of when and how we can convene in person, and
  • we use the tools at our disposal to tighten connections across local to global spheres.

AWID is embarking on a new membership model that lowers barriers to access and emphasizes opportunities for engagement and cross-member connection. We will continue to experiment with different online tools and processes for building community. Cross-movement engagement will stay at the center of our work. AWID’s actions in solidarity with oppressed movements and identities, even and especially where these are marginalized in feminist movements, are important to drive change and support broad and inclusive movements for all.

Crisis is not new to feminist and social movements.

We are resilient, we adapt, and we show up for each other. And we have to keep doing better. Thank you to all who are part of the journey with us.

Download the full 2019 Annual review

Download the full 2019 Annual review

Priscilla Hon

Biography

Priscilla has nearly two decades of experience working in the non-profit sector with social justice organizations that worked on women and youth rights, conservation, peacebuilding and development. Her interests are in setting up progressive processes and systems that will help an organization live to their values and principles and thrive, and finding ways to support organizations and fundraisers to locate and secure the resourcing they need to do good work. . Priscilla joined AWID in 2018 as Resource Mobilization Manager and in July 2023, took on the role of Director of Operations and Funding Partnerships.

Priscilla holds an MSc in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), a growing pile of books she is still trying to find time to read, and sits on the Board of Hodan Somali Community, a London-based charity.

Position
Director of Operations and Funding Partnerships
Add to stories
Off