Womankind Worldwide announces 24 new strategic grants partners 

Around the world, feminist organisations and movements are pushing for gender equality, so that women, girls and people of all genders can live with joy, choice and dignity. Womankind and partners are a vital part of this movement, working to end violence against women, ensure they have a seat at decision-making tables, and championing women’s economic rights. 

Despite the vital role they play, feminist movements are massively underfunded, receiving less than 1 per cent of Official Development Assistance globally. Organisations and networks that work to sustain feminist movements often operate on shoestring budgets, relying on small, short term, and highly restricted grants. This kind of highly restricted funding is time consuming to manage, and limits innovation and flexibility by tying organisations to rigid project frameworks and timelines. 

Feminist movements have long called on donors to provide more long-term flexible funding, which is essential to their survival and effectiveness:  

“Flexible funding allows us to respond quickly and effectively to emerging needs and changing circumstances. This adaptability is crucial in contexts where issues and priorities can shift rapidly”, according to Dibabe Bacha, General Manager of Womankind partner the Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National Association (EWDNA).

“It helps us have the freedom to use funding in creative ways, to test new ideas, approaches, and strategies. This can lead to innovative solutions to longstanding challenges”. Pooja Pant, Executive Director of Voices of Women in Media, agrees: “Flexible funding allows organizations to think beyond projects and focus on the wellbeing and health of the entire organizational structure. It allows us to be more creative and free in our work and imagine the world we would like to create without being bogged down by bureaucracy”, she said.  

As part of Womankind’s commitment to making long-term, flexible funding available to our partners, in April we launched Strategic Partner Support Grants. Through this two-year, £1 million pilot, Womankind will provide core funding to 24 partners, with a focus on historically excluded and marginalised feminist organisations in our focus countries.  

While Womankind has for several years provided flexible funding for advocacy and movement strengthening through the Her Voice Fund and Movement Strengthening Fund, Strategic Partner Support Grants are intended to fund partners more holistically. These grants will support the realisation of partner’s overall strategies and visions, and enable them to work flexibly according to the needs of their local contexts and the individuals and communities they serve.  

According to Sankalpa president, Sangeeta Lama, these grants will allow partners to “respond dynamically to the evolving needs of diverse women and communities and foster unity among diverse groups of women, empowering them and providing a safe space for working together on advocacy and action.’’ 

Furthermore, Strategic Partner Support Grants will help partners resource essential aspects of their work that are often harder to fund, like ensuring staff have access to health insurance, salaries and wellbeing support. “Organizations are only as strong as the people within them”, said Hala Alkarib, Regional Director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA). “The Strategic Partner Support Grant from Womankind will allow us to invest in the capacity and well-being of our staff”.  

Feminist movements and organisations are experts in their contexts and the issues they work on. They are tackling some of the most complex and entrenched issues preventing the realisation of gender equality. This work requires proper resourcing, trust in local initiatives, and active solidarity with their demands for change. “While existence matters, the life of the people in the frontline and self-care matters. It is also the knowledge that you are trusted to transform the community you serve and this makes the difference in the perception of self” said Anne Agar, Managing Director of Polycom Development Project.  

“As an organization with limited resources, flexible funding from Womankind has created a sense of financial security and stability in our work”, said Christine Bwailisa, Executive Director of the National Association for Women’s Action in Development (NAWAD). “Other donors should embrace [similar initiatives] given the shrinking civic space in the current context”. Womankind joins this call to action, encouraging other donors to support or develop flexible funding initiatives.   

Flexible funding for feminist movements should be the norm, not the exception. While our Strategic Partner Support Grants pilot will initially run for two years, our long-term aim is to make as much of our funding as possible flexible, so that our partners can focus their time and efforts on the important work of realising gender equality. This ambition will only be realised with flexible, long-term support from other donors.  

We invite our donors and supporters to join us on this journey, and to support our partner’s transformative work and sustainability. You can learn more about Strategic Partner Support Grants and how to contribute here: https://www.womankind.org.uk/strategic-partner-support-grants/