OUR Vision
A world where all women, girls and people of all genders enjoy equal rights and freedoms and live with joy, choice and dignity.
We believe in a world where women, girls and people of all genders enjoy equal rights and freedoms and live with joy, choice and dignity.
A world where women, girls and people of all genders – in all their diversities – live without fear of violence. Where they are respected and valued for who they are.
A world where women, girls and people of all genders live as they choose, thrive and have equal economic rights.
A world where women, girls and people of all genders have a say in their lives and communities. Where they can participate and lead in all spheres of public and private life.
It is a world of collaboration, not conflict, of love, not hate. It is a future beyond patriarchy.
This world is possible. This is our feminist future.
together we have the power to create it.
A feminist future
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
Courage in an unequal world
The world is in crisis. So many women, girls, trans and intersex people are still denied their rights and freedoms, while recent progress made in gender equality is under threat.
A backlash against women’s rights was already on the rise, but the global pandemic, climate emergency and unfettered capitalism are all further increasing inequalities across the globe.
But feminist movements and courageous activists across the world are rising up. Womankind stands with them.
The patriarchal system, in which women and girls are considered inferior to men, continues to dominate societies. Misogyny, racism and abuse persist.
The world works for the few, designed to maintain power imbalances that drive inequality between us, between genders, between the Global North and South, between races.
Misogyny, racism and abuse persist.
We awaken by turning on the light inside when everything outside feels dark.
Funding and Strengthening Movements
Womankind Worldwide is an international women’s rights organisation and funder, working with women’s rights groups and feminist movements across the world to end gender inequality.
We take collective action alongside women’s rights organisations, feminist movements and activists in Eastern and Southern Africa and South Asia. We support them to challenge inequality, at home, in communities and the workplace. We fund and strengthen these movements and advocate for change alongside them.
We are intersectional and inclusive
Our feminism is intersectional – always considering the effects of overlapping social identities: gender, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality and disability. Everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression. We work for diversity and inclusivity at the core of movements and our organisation.
We maximise our position in the movement
For over 30 years we’ve worked at heart of the feminist movement. We are much more than intermediary between donors and the grassroots. We recognise our privilege and history as an organisation based in the Global North and use our position to advocate for changes to policies and mobilise funds internationally, while championing and supporting the grassroots.
We work in feminist partnerships
Women’s rights organisations and activists are the driving force of movements. They are how movements are built, supported and grow. We form partnerships with diverse women’s rights organisations based on feminist principles of solidarity and shared understanding, collaboration and care.
We stand in solidarity with partners in delivering their missions, united in our commitment to high-quality programmes. Through our distinctive approach, we create space for diverse women and groups to come together as one to demand meaningful change. We intentionally seek to balance power and are heightening our partner organisations’ agency, so they are central in our decision-making.
Our Values
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
Feminism isn’t about making women stronger.
Women are already strong.
It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.
Our Strategy to 2030
Over the next decade the world around us will continue to change but our pursuit of equality and freedom from violence remains unflinching. By coming together in movements, we have the power to create a feminist future.
Movements are the beating heart of change. We exist to nourish them.
From providing service delivery to challenging harmful attitudes and behaviours, organisations, networks and activists are the backbone of movements. We support diverse women’s rights groups and organisations, representing the most marginalised groups – including LBTQI+, women with disabilities, young women, Indigenous women and women in the criminal justice system.
We support feminist movements by offering:
Flexible funding
So groups best placed to understand local issues can achieve lasting change for women, girls and people of all genders.
Spaces for learning and exchange
So action can be grounded in feminist values of shared leadership, inclusivity and personal and collective wellbeing.
Influencing opportunities
So diverse voices from the feminist movement have a seat at the table in critical local, national, regional and global decision-making spaces.
OUR FIVE STRATEGIC GOALS
To achieve genuine, deep and lasting change, we must challenge the root causes of gender inequality. We must go beyond addressing the effects to overhaul the structures and systems within societies that continue to perpetuate inequalities, generation after generation.
Under this strategy, we will:
Womankind’s Funding Charter guides our feminist, anti-racism and decolonising aspirations, outlining the key principles of Womankind when fundraising for and financing work led by women’s rights organisations.
FOCUS ON FLEXIBLE FUNDING
Womankind is increasing its focus on raising core, unrestricted, flexible and long-term funding.
Funding for women’s rights organisations often comes with restrictions on how it can be used and lots of admin.
Flexible funding means fewer restrictions and admin, giving the groups that receive the money more say in how they use it. It means less time spent on detailed proposals, budgets and reports, and more time tackling gender inequality.
All the flexible funding we raise is always transmitted as flexible funding to partners.
We talk to donors openly about the impact flexible funding can have on feminist movements and we strongly advocate for more flexible approaches.
- Our fundraising centres the rights of women, girls, trans and intersex people and is partner led.
- We seek funders aligned with our values and never compromise on these to win funding.
- We ensure our funding practices do not compromise the safety and wellbeing of our staff, partners and individuals they work with.
- We collaborate and complement rather than compete with partners for funding.
- We work with partners to build reciprocal fundraising knowledge.
- We are transparent with partners about the sources and allocation of funding.
- We maximise funds for partners.
Reckoning with Racism and the colonial past
As a feminist organisation, Womankind works to dismantle the systems of oppression that discriminate against women, girls and people of all genders.
This includes understanding and addressing the ways Black, Indigenous and people of colour experience discrimination and recognising that the aid and development sector was founded in the context of colonisation and has ongoing power imbalances.
We are committed to reckoning with this colonial past and to ensuring anti-racism permeates through the strategies, culture and working policies and practices of Womankind and the wider sector.
Our anti-racism pledge is to:
- Prioritise and strengthen anti-racism within the organisation during the life of this strategy, work towards equitable and feminist team composition and create a safe, conducive working environment for Black people and people of colour.
- Forge better, equal collaborations with partners in the Global South, progressing from amplifying our partners’ voices to sharing power with them.
- Address colonial dynamics in fundraising practice, making flexible and core funding available to partners and ensuring our communications do not perpetuate power imbalances.