zaterdag 21 april 2012

Funding for Women's Rights

Evening Plenary: Tapping Current Opportunities and Assessing Challenges to Mobilize Resources for Women’s Rights and Feminist Organizing Around the World. 



Seven years ago, AWID asked the question “Where is the Money for Women’s Rights?” in a context where many funders and activists agreed that donor interest in women and women’s rights had peaked and then faded. Now nearly everywhere you look—from corporate foundations to mainstream media, international financial institutions to large international development organizations—we increasingly hear talk of investing in women and gender equality not just as smart economics, but also as “the right thing to do”. This renewed interest is important progress and it also comes with some challenges; how to ensure the results of these investments are making a real impact to advance women’s rights in the longer term? 


Tonight's panel shared some current funding trends analysis, explored how various donors are putting their commitments into practice, latest data on the funding situation of women’s organizations and how diverse actors can work together to ensure that the resources becoming available for women really contribute to longer-term structural change and we tap current opportunities to mobilize more resources to support women’s rights and feminist organizing around the world.
The Netherlands is a "bright spot" as it is the biggest bilateral donor in the world through the MDG3 and FLOW funds. Irma van Dueren, head of the Gender Equality division at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "We have gender equality champions in the Ministry that push for this from within the system. I also have to mention that we have a Dutch Gender Platform in the Netherlands. They have a watchdog function, working from the outside to raise awareness and mobilize the network. As a result of cooperation, not only budget cuts have been averted, but the MDG3 Fund was continued as the FLOW Fund."


= Joni van de Sand  = 

1 opmerking:

  1. It was very good to hear Irma van Dueren acknowledge that the Wo=men, the Dutch gender platform activities and lobby have an impact. Irma actually suggested to the large group of participants in the audience to follow Wo=men's lead and to advocate for more money and diplomacy for gender equality causes in their own country with their own (donor) government

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