Womankind Worldwide launch £1.25 million resilience fund to counter impacts of COVID-19 on women’s rights
By Womankind Worldwide
Womankind Worldwide launch £1.25 million resilience fund to counter impacts of COVID-19 on women’s rights
Global women’s rights organisation to provide flexible funding to women’s rights organisations in Africa and Asia
[2nd September 2020: London, UK] Global women’s rights organisation Womankind Worldwide launches a £1.25 million fund to support its partners in Africa and Asia to adapt to the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.
From increased violence and economic instability to reports of state-sanctioned violence and a lack of meaningful engagement in official responses to the pandemic, the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated many of the issues that women and girls face around the world. In times of crisis, violence against women and girls increases. The United Nations estimate that for every three months of lockdown, 15 million more women and girls will face domestic violence. An additional 2 million girls will be forced to endure Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a result of COVID-19 pausing prevention programmes around the world.
Women are disproportionately impacted by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. As schools and childcare facilities close and health systems are overloaded, care for children and sick relatives largely falls to women who already perform over three quarters of unpaid care and domestic work. Women are also more likely to be in precarious and low paid work, providing critical services with no secure income or social protections, such as street vendors or domestic workers. For example, 80% of women across Uganda rely on day-to-day informal labour to support their families. Lockdown measures and lasting economic downturn threaten not just the income and livelihoods of these women but the survival of whole communities.
Womankind partners have reported a greater need for their services during the pandemic, for example partners in Ethiopia, Nepal and Zimbabwe have seen a higher demand for their safe houses and shelters for women survivors of violence. Yet they face a lack of core, flexible funding that would allow them to sustain their organisations, finance new and increased services, and advocate for a gender responsive approach to the COVID-19 crisis.
The Womankind COVID-19 Resilience Fund provides flexible, unrestricted grants to 42 women’s rights organisations in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The grants will be used where most needed, from paying rent on offices or safe houses and adapting programmes to the challenges of COVID-19, to providing emergency food relief to the most marginalised women and girls, and influencing and holding governments to account on addressing the needs and priorities of women in their responses to COVID-19.
Caroline Haworth, Womankind CEO, said: “Together with our partners we recognise that existing challenges to women’s rights and wellbeing are compounded by the COVID-19 crisis and that flexible, core funding is more vital than ever. Across our policy and programmes we continue to be led by the needs of our partners and to respond directly to how the crisis is affecting them and the communities they serve. The fund will support our partners to continue their work and, in some cases, enable their organisations’ very survival. The Womankind Worldwide COVID-19 Resilience Fund is a way for us to recognise the importance of continuation of our partners’ inspiring and courageous defence of women’s rights in these unprecedented times and to express our heartfelt solidarity with them.”
The fund aims to reach the most marginalised women due to caste, age, ethnicity, indigenous status, and geographical location. Grants have already been made to Womankind partners including those supporting women with disabilities or LBTQI+ women. Activities and services made possible through the grants include mental health support for LBTQI+ women, and the development of accessible communications on COVID-19 for women with disabilities.
Agness Chindimba, Founder and Executive Director, Deaf Women Included in Zimbabwe explains: “The resilience grant will enable us to make information more accessible for our beneficiaries in a language that they understand. It will also help us to raise more awareness on the needs of women and girls as we are using some of the funds to run 13 episodes on the national television on COVID-19. The resilience grant has made a difference not only to DWI but to our communities at large.”
Speaking from the Kibera informal settlement in Kenya, Jane Anyango, Director and Founder, Polycom Development Project, said: “We will use Womankind funding to get leaflets made, specifically aimed at girls about COVID-19 and the precautions they must take as for now they look at it as an adult issue. We also want to give the poorest 1,000 households hand sanitisers and soap along with sanitary products for girls during this tough time and ensure our staff and the girls who champion our talking boxes have masks so they can stay safe.”
“As a marginalised and underprivileged community, LBT women have been experiencing extreme hardships at this difficult phase of a global pandemic. Many LBT people will lose their source of income after the lockdown is lifted putting them in a vulnerable position long after the government relief packages are available. With this grant from the Womankind COVID-19 Resilience Fund we plan to promote small businesses, as well as train LBT people in skills that will help them generate income so that can be financially independent in the long term.” added Laxmi Ghalan, President, Mitini Nepal.
Womankind continues to fundraise to continue resourcing the Womankind COVID-19 Resilience Fund and to reach as many partners and the women they support as possible. Donations can be made on the Womankind website at https://www.womankind.org.uk/support-us/donate.
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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.
