Statement on the use of the AWID acronym and reference to the AWID Forum by the Zanele Mbeki Foundation

The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) is a global feminist organisation which has been in existence for over 35 years. The first international AWID Forum was held in 1983 in the U.S. with subsequent Forums being held all over the world including South Africa in 2008.

AWID does not have any affiliation or responsibility for the African Women in Dialogue program convened by the Zanele Mbeki Foundation based in South Africa. Despite our directly expressed concern to the Zanele Mbeki Foundation, the African Women in Dialogue program has chosen to use the acronym AWID and describe their convening as the AWID Forum. While we are excited by, and glad for the organizing of forums of African women, we want to make clear that we are not affiliated to this convening because we have played no part in its creation and therefore can hold neither credit nor liability for the meeting or processes.

The AWID Forum is convened every 3-4 years by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development. Please stay tuned to www.awid.org for details of upcoming convenings and the next international AWID Forum.

The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is a global feminist organisation with over 5,000 individual and institutional members from 164 countries. We support feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements to thrive, to be a driving force in challenging systems of oppression, and to co-create feminist realities.