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.
While we dream of a feminist world, there are those who are already building and living it. These are our Feminist Realities!
What are Feminist Realities?
Feminist Realities are the living, breathing examples of the just world we are co-creating. They exist now, in the many ways we live, struggle and build our lives.
Feminist Realities go beyond resisting oppressive systems to show us what a world without domination, exploitation and supremacy look like.
These are the narratives we want to unearth, share and amplify throughout this Feminist Realities journey.
Transforming Visions into Lived Experiences
Through this initiative, we:
Create and amplify alternatives: We co-create art and creative expressions that center and celebrate the hope, optimism, healing and radical imagination that feminist realities inspire.
Build knowledge: We document, demonstrate & disseminate methodologies that will help identify the feminist realities in our diverse communities.
Advance feminist agendas: We expand and deepen our collective thinking and organizing to advance just solutions and systems that embody feminist values and visions.
Mobilize solidarity actions: We engage feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements and allies in sharing, exchanging and jointly creating feminist realities, narratives and proposals at the 14th AWID International Forum.
The AWID International Forum
As much as we emphasize the process leading up to, and beyond, the four-day Forum, the event itself is an important part of where the magic happens, thanks to the unique energy and opportunity that comes with bringing people together.
We expect the next Forum to:
Build the power of Feminist Realities, by naming, celebrating, amplifying and contributing to build momentum around experiences and propositions that shine light on what is possible and feed our collective imaginations
Replenish wells of hope and energy as much needed fuel for rights and justice activism and resilience
Strengthen connectivity, reciprocity and solidarity across the diversity of feminist movements and with other rights and justice-oriented movements
This year we are honoring 18 Women Human Rights Defenders from the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Alone 15 of those were murdered, among which 6 are journalists and 4 LGBTQI and/or sex workers’ rights defenders. Please join us in commemorating the life and work of these women by sharing the memes below with your colleagues, friends and networks and by tweeting using the hashtag #AWIDTribute.
You can follow Nous Sommes la Solution
on Facebook and support their work by donating here.
Why and how to renew your AWID membership
Meet Other Members
Our individual and institutional members come from ALL regions of the world and 163 countries. Our latest members join us from France, South Sudan, the United Kingdom, and Lebanon. All of our members bring with them a rich and diverse array of perspectives, experiences, knowledge, energy and inspiration!
Did you know about our weekly member profiles?
One of the benefits of being an AWID member, is having your story featured on awid.org, in our newsletters which go out to 35,000 subscribers, and via our social media channels which have over 60,000 followers.
If you have any difficulties and require support with the sign-up process, please do not hesitate to contact us at membership@awid.org
What Our Members Say
"We have found AWID to be a very exciting network and we are involved in many of its platforms." - Engabu Za Tooro (AWID institutional member)
"I am looking forward to a fruitful engagement with the team. Feeling great. Thanks for accepting me as a member." - R. Chakraborty (AWID individual member)
"Thank you so much AWID, your work is tremendous. I really appreciated your efforts." - E. Khan (AWID individual member)
THE EXCLUSION, STIGMA AND INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE
that trans and travesti people continue to face on a daily basis
Challenging the economic growth model
Context
Contesting the premise that a country’s economy must always ‘grow or die’, de-growth propositions come to debunk the centrality of growth measured by increase in Gross domestic product (GDP).
Definition
A de-growth model proposes a shift towards a lower and sustainable level of production and consumption. In essence, shrinking the economic system to leave more space for human cooperation and ecosystems.
The proposal includes
Downsizing resource-, energy- and emission-intensive superfluous production, particularly in the North (e.g. the automotive and military industries)
Directing investments instead into the care sector, social infrastructure and environmental restoration
Feminist perspective
Feminist perspectives within de-growth theory and practice argue that it also needs to redefine and revalidate unpaid and paid, care and market labour to overcome traditional gender stereotypes as well as the prevailing wage gaps and income inequalities that devalue care work.
Learn more about this proposition
In “The Future WE Want: Occupy development” Christa Wichterich argues that in order to break up the hegemonic logic of unfettered growth and quick returns on investment, three cornerstones of another development paradigm must combine: care, commons and sufficiency in production and consumption.
Equitable, Ecological Degrowth: Feminist Contributions by Patricia Perkins suggests developing effective alternative indicators of well-being, including social and economic equity and work-time data, to demonstrate the importance of unpaid work and services for the economy and provide a mechanism for giving credit to those responsible.
For each AWID Forum we call for contributions from a wide range of feminist and social justice movements to propose activities and create the Forum program.
For the 14th AWID international Forum, we want to make the program truly representative of the diversity of the movements.
That is why we put in place a new and engaging way to choose the proposals that will generate the final Forum program: the Participatory Selection Process (PSP).
What is the Participatory Selection Process (PSP)?
The Participatory Selection Process is the final step in reviewing the activity proposals and selecting those that will be part of the official Forum program.
This is how it works:
Activity proposals have originally been submitted via our Call for Forum Activities, open to everyone - groups and individuals - interested in presenting their feminist reality at the Forum.
Out of all the activities submitted, AWID staff pre-selects the ones best reflecting the Forum theme and presenting a creative approach for audience engagement.
Activities are then reviewed and short-listed by different Forum Committees to ensure a good diversity of regions, movements and ideas.
The selected proposals are then reviewed and rated by individuals and groups whose proposals have also been short-listed. The proposals which receive the most votes from fellow candidates will become part of the final Forum program.
The whole activity selection process at a glance:
Step
Step 1:
Call for Forum Activities: Application submissions
Step 2:
First screening
Step 3:
Shortlisting
Step 4:
Participatory Selection Process
Timeline
December 2019 - mid.February 2020
January-February 2020
Summer 2020
timeline to be adjusted
People involved
Everyone interested in co-creating the Forum program
50-60 most voted activities selected for the final Forum program
Why did AWID decide to organize a PSP for the 14th AWID Forum activities?
We think a PSP is relevant for the AWID Forum because:
It places at the centre of the decision making process the communities who live the feminist realities that will be showcased and discussed at the Forum
It is consistent with our identity and our role as a movement support/ accompaniment organization.
It is in line with our vision of the Forum as co-created with different feminist and social justice movements, who shape the Forum through their participation in committees (content and methodology, access, artivist and host country), creating and facilitating activities as partners with AWID and also making decisions about the Program through the PSP.
It allows for greater diversity in the textures that will make up the Forum fabric (or in the voices that will compose the Forum song). It ensures we go beyond AWID itself and the movement partners that we already know and work with. It opens the door to the unexpected.
How did AWID come up with this PSP idea?
This is the first time AWID is considering such a process.
The initial idea came from AWID’s Co-EDs and staff. Before committing to a decision, we consulted some of the community funds that have been implementing participatory selection processes for years. These included FRIDA: The Young Feminists Fund, the International Trans Fund, UHAI - East Africa’s fund for sexual minorities and sex workers - and the Central American Women’s Fund. We consulted them to learn from their extensive experiences and get their feedback.
Pre-selected activities
Financial autonomy, breaker of silence
ORGANISATION DES FEMMES AFRICAINES DE LA DIASPORA (OFAD)ASSOCIATION LES PETITES MERESPRODADPHEASSOCIATION AMBE KUNKO (AAK)
Contribution of feminist organisations to the fight against violent extremism in Niger
Femmes Actions et Développement (FAD)
Self-financing: home banking for women
Rassemblement des Femmes pour le développement endogène et solidaire RAFDES
Food and food sovereignty for rural women Association Song-taaba des Femmes Unies pour le Développement (ASFUD)
Feminist leaders, investing in positive masculinity, creating a new balanced social order: how to change mentalities?
Une societe cooperative, la chefferie traditionnelle des localites, les autorites administratives et les autres associations femininesONG Centre Solidarite "Investir dans les Filles et les Femmes
Co-creating the sponsorship methodology.
NEGES MAWON
Millennium of opportunities to save the earth (MOST) by supporting climate justice for local and Indigenous communities in Congo Basin.
Jeunesse Congolaise pour les Nations Unies (JCNU), Association Genre et Environnement pour le Développement (AGED)
Envisioning an Asian Queer Feminist Politics
ASEAN Feminist LBQ Womxn NetworkSayoni
Supporting the Self-Managed: Abortion Doulas, Acompanantes, and Radical Networks of support
inroads
Online Feminisms: How Women Are Taking Back The Tech
Feminism In India
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Sex Workers
Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW), The International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW AP)
Sustainable Feminist Leadership and Organizing - Personal and Collective Experiences
HER Fund, Institute for Women's Empowerment (IWE) ,Kalyanamita,AAF
Caribbean Realities: Black Sauna Radio
WE-Change Jamaica
Telephone Helplines Care and Women Experience
Generation Initiative for Women and Youth Network (GIWYN),Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development (YNCSD),Community Health Rights Network (CORENET)
Sensuality as resistance; body movement workshop
UHAI EASHRI
Lesbian Disco Eastern European Style
Sapfo Collective
Queering Communications for an Open Internet
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
Is the Way you Think about Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRHR) Ableist? Good Practices for Disability Inclusive SRHR Programmes and Advocacy.
Asia Pacific Network of Women with Disabilities and Allies
Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication
API Equality-LA, Sayoni,ASEAN Feminist LBQ Womxn Network
Feminist centred approaches to prosecuting sexual harassment in the world of work
Women's Legal Centre
Women in Conflict in Myanmar
Women's League of Burma, Rainfall
Caribbean Feminist Spaces, Creative Expressions & Spiritual Practices for Community Transformation
CAISO: Sex and Gender Justice
POP-UPS: Just Power: Popular Education Tools for a Feminist Future
JASS/Just Associates
UnAnonYmous: Queering Black African Diaspora Feminist Practices Sobriety
Digital Witchcraft: Magical Thinking for Cyberfeminist Futures
The Digital Witchcraft Institute
Building Womanifestos: Grassroot Women's Agenda for Change in Asia Pacific
Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development
Designing your astral travels
EuroNPUD, narcofeminists as a loose group
Collective Care
RENFA Rede Nacional de Feministas Antiproibicionistas
Music of our movements
Radical imagination
From waste to Ecofriendly coal
KEMIT ECOLOGY SARL
Collective care and insurgency of feminist antiracist movements under authoritarian and violent contexts
CFEMEA - Feminist Center of Studies and Advisory Services,CRIOLA - black women`s organization,Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras
Breaking Patriarchal Religion's Stranglehold on Family Laws that Affect Our Lives #FreeOurFamilyLaws
Musawah
Feminist approach to claim and control over lands within investment
Badabon Sangho, APWLD
Women's Global Strike: Our resistance, our future
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development, ESCR-Net, Women's March Global
Towards an Inclusive ‘Mother Earth’
Disability Rights Fund, Open Society Foundation
From Inclusion to Infiltration: Strategies for Building Intersectional Feminist Movements
Mobility International USA (MIUSA)
The hidden stories of women with invisible disabilities: Art in action
The Red Door, Merchants of Madness, Improving Mental Wellbeing through Art
Public-Private Partnership and Women´s Human Rights: learnings from case studies in the Global South
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
The Interconnected Journey: Our Bodies, Our Sci-Fi! <3
The Interconnected Journey Project, Laboratorio de Interconectividades
Compiling and Building: Alternative feminist vision to challenge the dominant world economic order
IWRAW Asia Pacific
Self-publication as a feminist act
International Women* Space
Good Practices of legal protection for gender & sexual minorities in Pakistan and their Intersectionality
Activists Alliance Foundation,Khawja Sirah Society, Wajood Society,Wasaib Sanwaro
Feminist Approaches to Counter Trafficking
IWRAW Asia Pacific,Business & Human Rights Resource Center
Critiquing individualism and state policies: transnational organizing against targeted violence
Masaha: Accessible Feminist Knowledge
Decolonizing Intimacy: How Queer Identities Challenge Heteronormative Family Structures
WOMANTRA
Yeki Hambe - Sex worker theatre
Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Task Force
Creating the Indigenous feminist reality: honoring the sacred feminine and building new paths for Indigenous women
Cultural Survival, International Funders in Indigenous Peoples
Eyes on Anti-prohibitionism by Brazillian Women
Mulheres Cannabicas, Tulipas do Cerrado
Black Feminist Truth Commission: Addressing Injustices to Revolutionize Intersectional Feminism as the New Reality
Black Women in Development
Community care is self care: true stories are told in safer spaces
Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, Metzineres,Urban Survivor’s Union,Salvage women and children from drug abuse
NO MOVES BARRED:Dancing connections between Disability,trans & sexual rights against violence
National Forum of Women with Disabilities, Autonomy foundation, Nazyk kyz
The Impact of Corporate Capture on Feminist Realities: Developing Tools for Action ESCR-Net | Economic, Social, Cultural Rights Network
Reimagining AIDS: building a feminist HIV response
Frontline AIDS, Aidsfonds, IPPI (Indonesian Network of Women Living with HIV),UHAI-EASHRI (East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative)
Advancing Economic Justice towards Realizing Our Vision of a Feminist Planet
International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ESCR-Net
Sex Workers Cafe
Hydra e.V.
Adopting an ecofeminist approach in dealing with climate change and food security
Umphakatsi Peace Ecovillage,Human Rights Educational Centre
Connecting the grassroots with the international: experience from creative sex worker mobilisation in Europe
International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe, STRASS - French Sex Worker Union, APROSEX, Red Edition
Experiment with how innovative tech can help us feel safer when navigating our cities
Soul City Institute for Social Justice, Safetipin,Womanity Foundation
question “Are hierarchies within organisations UNfeminist?”
Gay and Lesbian Coalition of KenyaNational, Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
We all are different, but we do have joint shared values
UNWUD (Ukrainian network of women who use drugs), JurFem Association, Women's Prospects
A World Without Class
Bunge La Wamama Mashinani (Grassroots Women's Parliament)
Women Empower the Community
Institute for Women's Empowerment (IWE),Solidaritas Perempuan,ASEC Indonesia,Komunitas Swabina Pedesaan Salassae (KSPS)
Feminist Organizing: Transformational Leadership - Women Workers in Latin America Creating a Feminist Labor Movement and a Feminist World of Work
Solidarity Center
Acting Out, Acting Up : Disability-Feminism decolonising narratives of Stigma thro' Participatory theatre
Rising Flame,National Indigenous Disabled Women Association, Nepal,The Spectrum & Union of Abilities,The Red Door
Valuing and centering rest, pleasure and play
ATHENA Network
The African feminist judgment project
The Initiative for strategic Ligation in Africa (ISLA)
Voices from the frontlines: Bolstering collective power to end the incarceration of women worldwide
International Drug Policy Consortium,Equis Justicia para las Mujeres,National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls,Women and Harm Reduction International Network
Queer Youth Organising: imagining in an era of human rights and sustainable development
African Queer Youth Initiative,Success Capital Organisation
Our Struggles Our Stories Our Strengths
Oriang Lumalaban,Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan
Breaking barriers for collective Indigenous climate action in Southeast Asia
Cuso International,Asia Indigenous Peoples' Pact
Love Positive Women: Going beyond romantic love to deep community love and social justice
Eurasian Women's Network on AIDS
Intersex and Feminism
Intersex Russia
Understanding the reproductive health experiences and needs of transgender and gender diverse people
Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN)
Because She Cares: Critical conversations on HIV activism as (un)caring work
Because We Care Collaborative
The Mississippi Food Systems Manifesto
Center for Ideas, Equity & Transformative Change,National Council of Appropriate Technology - Gulf South, MS Food Justice Collaborative,Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Kurdish Women's Movement co-presidency experience as an example of a radical feminist realization: Co-presidency is our PURPLE line!
The Free Women’s Movement (TJA)
WOES -"Walking on Egg Shells"
Eldoret Women For Development (ELWOFOD),Mama Cash,Young women against Women Custodial Injustices Network
FREEDOM
Prison Isn’t Feminist: Exploring the impact and alternatives to reliance on police and incarceration
Migrant Sex Workers Project, Showing Up For Racial Justice
Bondo without Blood: A Feminist Reimagining of Sierra Leonean Rites of Passage
Purposeful
Liberated Land & Territories: A Pan-African Conversation
Thousand Currents (USA), Abahlali baseMjondolo (South Africa), Nous Sommes la Solution (west Africa/regional), Movilización de Mujeres Negras por el Cuidado de la Vida y los Territorios Ancestrales (Colombia), and Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Brazil)
Popular Education and Organizing for a Feminist Economy
Jamaica Household Workers Union (JHWU),United for a Fair Economy,Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL)
So You Wish To Mobilise With An Empty Wallet? Let’s Make It Happen!
Breakthrough India
Experience sharing establishing a network for women human rights defenders in East Africa: Ugandan perspective
Women Human Rights Defenders Network Uganda
Building Inclusive Movements: Going Beyond Tokenism
Rising Flame
Justice & Healing for Survivors of GBV: an interactive debate on restorative justice and the anatomy of an apology
One Future Collective
Collective actions to ending transphobia through a feminist lens
Asia Pacific Transgender Network,Iranti,Transgender Europe
LBQ women & Asylum
Sehaq
Abortion and Disability: Towards an Intersectional Human Rights-Based Approach
Women Enabled International
Learn how to support the self-organizing of undocumented, migrant, and criminalized and sex workers communities
Buttrerfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network)
Self Care: A Fundamental Tool for Sustaining LGBTQI & Feminist Organizing
United and Strong Inc.,S.H.E Barbados,Lez Connect
Reclaiming Young African Feminist VOICES-REALITIES-POWER for climate justice
Young Feminist organization Gasy Youth Up, Young African Feminist Dialogues
Women in action & solidarity: performing our realities (Asia & Africa)
Young Feminist organization Gasy Youth Up ( co-founder) , Young African Feminist Dialogues ( member)
Women in action & solidarity: performing our realities (Asia & Africa)
Women Performing the World (Asia/Africa)
Challenging patriarchy: Workers in entertainment sector
Women Forum for Women in Nepal (WOFOWON)
The non-citizens: issues of women's citizenship in the context of migrant, vulnerable communities in South Asia
NEthing
Visioning for voice in migration and climate crises
Women's Refugee Commission, The Feminist Humanitarian Network, ActionAid
In It Together: Women's Funds and Feminist Movements Co-Creating Feminist Realities
Mama Cash, Global Fund for Women, Urgent Action Fund - Africa
Co-creating magic with young feminist movements - participatory practices that spark joy
Feminist organizing, FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund (Community), Teia
Protection right of woman’s in difficult realities 3 organizations of women from marginally communities
NGO Asteria, Ermolaeva Irena and Bayazitova Renata. NGO Ganesha Musagalieva Tatiana. NGO Ravniy Ravnomu Kucheryavyh Tanya
Feminnale - traditions against art and expression
Bishkek Feminist Initiatives
Resistance through knowledge, arts and activism: creation of a feminist library in Armenia
FemHouse, Armenia
Conquering the UN System with Feminist Strategies (You Don’t Need to be a Lawyer to Have Fun)
Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative "Feminita", IWRAW Asia Pacific, ILGA World
Data. Huh. What is it good for? Feminist data and organizing for feminist outcomes
International Women's Development Agency, Women's Rights Action Movement, Fiji Women's Rights Movement
Criminalized Women’s voice, leadership and influence on laws, policies and practices in Kenya
Keeping Alive Societies Hope-KASH, Katindi Lawyers and Advocates, Vocal Kenya
From Colombia to the world, African women's changing force
Proceso de Comunidades Negras en Colombia -PCN, Solidarité Féminine por la Paix el le Develppment Integral -SOFEPADI,
Afro Queer Listening Lounge and Story-Telling Booth
AQ Studios, None on Record, AfroQueer Podcast
Learning from diversity
Circulo de Mujeres con Discapacidad -CIMUDIS, Alianza Discapacidad por nuestros Derechos -ADIDE, Fundación Dominicana de Ciegos -FUDCI, Filial Puerto Rico de Mujeres con Discapacidad
Football as a feminist tool
Fundación GOLEES (Género, Orgullo, Libertad y Empoderamiento de Ellas en la Sociedad)
Migratory constellations
LasVanders
Ecofeminist dialogues to defend territories
CIEDUR (Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre el Desarrollo), Equit, Foro permanente de Manaos y Amazonia
La Frida BikesMoviment
La Frida Bike
Witchcraft, shamanism and other insurgent knowledge against patriarchy.
Colectiva Feminista MAPAS-Mujeres Andando Proceso por Autonomías Sororales
Experiences, learnings and challenges in managing holistic security of horizontal feminist organisations and of gender-dissidence in times of social and political crisis. The experience of the popular uprising in Chile of 18 October.
Fudación Comunidades en Interfaz
Food that we all know about
Las Nietas de Nonó, Parceleras Afrocaribeñas por la Transformación barrial (PATBA)
Practices of resistance against climate change of Indigenous women in Peru and Guatemala
Thousand Currents, Red de Mujeres Productoras de la Agricultura Familiar, Asociación de Mujeres Ixpiyakok (ADEMI, Ixpiyakok Women's Association)
Building Feminist Cities
CISCSA, Articulacion Feminista Marcosur
Stand in my place
Alianza Discapacidad por nuestros Derechos - ADIDE, Circulo de Mujeres con Discapacidad -CIMUDIS
Clearing the way for women's fullness of life, healing collective and historical traumas
Grupo de Mujeres Mayas Kaqla
Zapoteca Indigenous women challenged by nature
Houses of Care and Healing for Women Human Rights Defenders as part of Integral Feminist Protection: A Feminist Reality
Iniciativa Mesoamericana De Defensoras de Derechos Humanos, Consorcio Oaxaca para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad A.C, Red Nacional De Defensoras De Derechos Humanos en Honduras, Coletivo Feminista de Autocuidado
Healing your unicornix voice: Weaving ancient and digital technologies to sharpen the tongue
Feminist trajectories for an assisted motherhood protocol for women with disabilities
Circulo emancipador de mujeres y niñas con discapacidad de Chile, CIMUNIDIS, WEI
School for trans feminist children
Fundación Selena
REDTRASEX: Experience of Organization and Struggle for the Rights of Women Sex Workers in Latin America and the Caribbean
RedTraSex Red de mujeres trabajadoras sexuales LAC
Gender based violence and the world of sex work in Mexico
Brigada Callejera de Apoyo a la Mujer, "Elisa Martínez", A.C., Red Mexicana de Organizaciones Contra la Criminalización del VIH. Red Mexicana de Trabajo Sexual
Migration forces us to draw the path as we walk
Asociación de Trabajadoras del Hogar a Domicilio y de Maquila. ATRAHDOM
New narratives for Black women: body, healing and pleasure
Weaving memories and networks - Black Feminists strengthening Black feminisms in LAC
Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora, Articulação de Organizações de Mulheres Negras Brasileiras (AMNB), Voces Caribeñas