Womankind Worldwide launch anti-racism pledge
By Hannah Coombes
Global women’s rights organisation announces detailed commitments towards racial justice
[5th April 2021: London, UK] To coincide with the one-year anniversary of the death of Belly Mujinga, Womankind Worldwide publicly launch their anti-racism pledge, making commitments to reckoning with the colonial past of the development sector and addressing working practices, both within the organisation and the wider sector.
One year ago today, Belly Mujinga lost her life to COVID-19. Belly was a trailblazer and had overcome much adversity throughout her life. Born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belly graduated from the University of Kinshasa with a degree in journalism and became the first woman sports reporter for the national broadcaster, Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise. Due to unrest in the DRC, Belly moved to the UK in 2001 as a political refugee and worked at a post office before working as a railway worker. It is in this role where she was likely exposed to COVID-19. On 21st March 2020, Belly was selling tickets at London Victoria station when she and a co-worker Motolani Sunmola were spat and coughed on by a man claiming to have the virus.
“Today, we are presented with a stark reminder of the pervasive and underlying racism that still exists, both here in the UK and across the globe. Regardless of whether this racially aggravated attack led Belly to become infected, her story exemplifies the both the blatant and more covert, structural racism existing in our societies” said Maggie Baxter, Chair of Trustees, Womankind Worldwide. COVID-19 has demonstrated that racism impacts public health, with Black people dying at four times the rate of white people in the UK. Inequalities and discrimination play a significant role in this, with London disproportionately relying on Black and people of colour to fulfil key worker roles.
“We pay tribute to Belly – and all other Black and women of colour whose lives were cut short by racism – and wish to commemorate and celebrate her. As calls for an inquest and public inquiry into Belly’s death heighten and the trial into George Floyd’s murder takes place in the USA, we stand in solidarity with all those demanding justice for Belly and all Black and people of colour who face injustices in all aspects of their lives” added Baxter.
As a feminist organisation, working to dismantle systems of oppression that discriminate against women, girls and gender diverse people is at the heart of the organisation’s mission. For Womankind, this includes understanding and addressing the ways Black, Indigenous and people of colour experience discrimination, as well as recognising that the aid and development sector was founded in the context of colonisation and there are ongoing power imbalances.
To this aim, Womankind has developed an anti-racism pledge that details commitments to working long-term, in a reflexive and accountable way, to ensure that anti-racism permeates throughout the strategies, culture and working policies and practices of the organisation. The pledge covers three areas:
- Internal commitments: looking at how Womankind will strengthen anti-racism within the organisation, how they will work towards equitable and feminist team composition, how they will create a safe and conducive working environment for Black and women of colour, and how the forthcoming organisational strategy will prioritise and support anti-racism;
- Commitments to partners and allies: including how Womankind will forge better equal partnerships and collaborations with partners in the Global South, and how they will progress from amplifying our partners voices to shifting the power to them;
- Commitments in funding, communications and public affairs: considering how Womankind can address colonial dynamics in fundraising practice, how they make flexible and core funding available to partners, how they ensure their communications do not perpetuate power imbalances and how they learn and share with others in the sector.
Baxter concluded, “We hope that our anti-racism work over the coming years will enable us to be part of a movement towards systemic healing, justice and a more equitable world no longer based on racial hierarchies. Because we know, there is no gender justice without racial justice.”
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About Womankind Worldwide
Womankind Worldwide is a global women’s rights organisation working in solidarity and equal partnership with women’s rights organisations and movements to transform the lives of women. Our vision is of a just world where the rights of all women are respected, valued and realised. Womankind supports women’s movements to strengthen and grow by providing a range of tools, including technical support, communications, connectivity and shared learning, joint advocacy and fundraising.
