Womankind COVID-19 resilience fund: what one year has taught us about flexible funding
By Tallulah Belassie-Page
Over a year since the pandemic begun the lives and rights of women and girls around the world has changed drastically. To respond to the crisis Womankind supported 42 partners with the Womankind COVID-19 Resilience Fund. Here, alongside partners we reflect on the status of women in their communities, what the resilience grants have meant, and why resourcing women’s rights organisations and the movements they are a part of is urgently needed today, to secure the rights of women and girls now and in the future.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on women and girls around the world, deepening existing inequalities and accelerating the rollback on women’s rights. For women’s rights organisations this has meant an increase in demand for their services at a time when resources are even more limited. Last year, in response to the pandemic we launched the Womankind Worldwide COVID-19 Resilience Fund to support 42 of our partner women’s rights organisations and the women and girls they work with.
Adapting to a shifting landscape
The pandemic has meant ever-changing needs for communities. With rules and restrictions changing constantly, the social and economic landscape for women and girls has been harsh and volatile. To meet these varying needs, women’s rights organisations have needed a greater level of flexibility, something which the Womankind resilience grants have enabled our partners to do. Our partners have been able to act quickly whenever it is needed, responding to the continually shifting landscape of disaster management.
Womankind partner TEWA used the resilience grant to meet the immediate needs of the women in Nepal by raising awareness of COVID-19 and providing hygiene kits.
“The funding focused on meeting the emergency needs of our partners during COVID-19. The resilience grant support made us feel relieved. When the pandemic started and with the initiation of lockdown, our partners and the lives of vulnerable people were impacted”.
-TEWA
They have also been able to address some of the social impacts of the pandemic, including providing counselling and mental health support for women who have experienced violence. With the ‘shadow pandemic’ seeing violence against women surge during lockdowns services like this are vital.
Supporting marginalised identities
COVID-19 has exacerbated pre-existing social inequalities leaving women and girls most marginalised hardest hit. Flexible funding provided by the resilience grants has helped partners respond to the specific needs of those most disempowered.
“Due to the pandemic situation, women with disabilities are confined at their own home because of which they are not being able to purchase their daily needs like diaper, sanitary pads, hygiene materials their own”, – Nepal Disabled Women’s Association (NDWA)
For NDWA the Womankind resilience grant allowed them to adapt their services and provide essential hygiene materials for the women they support.
In Uganda Womankind partner Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), has used Womankind resilience funds to support LBTQ+ people. During the pandemic they have worked hard to ensure that their services continue to support women dealing with forced marriage, domestic violence and rape by turning their office into a safe space. In Uganda LBTQ+ women who are ‘masculine presenting’ have also been denied emergency supplies. FARUG have been working to support the women that have been left out of emergency food funds by supplying food packages and relocating them when they are not safe.
“LBQ women have been hit so hard by the pandemic, so hard. It’s now very common for someone to just call you and say, “I have not eaten for three days. I’m starving, could you please give me something to eat?” So, we appreciate organisations like Womankind for funds that are flexible like the Womankind resilience grant, it has helped us counter the implications of COVID-19.”
-Freedom and Roam Uganda
Women’s movements: strengthening whole communities
The rights of women are inextricably linked to the rights and lives of the wider community. History tells us that when women respond to crisis or create change, whole communities benefit. This is true for our partners who have used Womankind resilience funds to reach more people in the wider community.
“As a women’s fund, most of our support only goes through grants to address the need of the women and their initiatives, and support their movement, but the resilience grant has helped us expand our supporting horizon”.
-TEWA
Powering movements
Not only have the Womankind resilience grants enabled partners to respond and adapt to the crisis, support women and girls, and benefit their communities, it has also ensured the work they are doing is able to continue. With demand surging and resources limited, many women’ rights organisations have found it difficult to continue their operations. The flexible nature of the Womankind resilience grants mean that organisations have been able to cover staff costs. For NDWA, the flexible funding allowed them to pay the wages of staff who were doing three to four times the work they used to do.
For the Young Women’s Leadership Institute (YWLI) in Kenya the Womankind resilience grant they received meant they were able to pay their bills and pay staff for their community outreach.
“We really appreciate that we had partners like Womankind who really supported in terms of resilience funds. Because for us I think we could have [had to] shut down our organisation because we had to keep on paying rent for our offices. [Staff also] needed to get a pay check to support themselves.”
-Young Women’s Leadership Institute (YWLI)
Acting now for an equitable world
“I can hardly remember a grant that has had such a large impact”
-Freedom and Roam Uganda
From being able to adapt quickly to changes, to supporting women who have been hardest hit by the pandemic, and ensuring that women’s rights organisations are able to continue to survive, the Womankind resilience grants have impacted our partners and the women they work with. As we continue to see the rollback on women’s right accelerated and face mounting threats to women’s rights organisations resisting the rollbacks, the need for core, flexible funding becomes more urgent. We must properly resource women’s rights organisations now if we’re to have an equitable world post-COVID.
