Adolfo Lujan | Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Mass demonstration in Madrid on International Women's Day
Multitudinaria manifestación en Madrid en el día internacional de la mujer

Priority Areas

Supporting 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.

Advancing Universal Rights and Justice

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Uprooting Fascisms and Fundamentalisms

Across the globe, feminist, women’s rights and gender justice defenders are challenging the agendas of fascist and fundamentalist actors. These oppressive forces target women, persons who are non-conforming in their gender identity, expression and/or sexual orientation, and other oppressed communities.

Discriminatory ideologies are undermining and co-opting our human rights systems and standards,  with the aim of making rights the preserve of only certain groups. In the face of this, the Advancing Universal Rights and Justice (AURJ) initiative promotes the universality of rights - the foundational principle that human rights belong to everyone, no matter who they are, without exception.

We create space for feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements and allies to recognize, strategize and take collective action to counter the influence and impact of anti-rights actors. We also seek to advance women’s rights and feminist frameworks, norms and proposals, and to protect and promote the universality of rights.

Our actions

Through this initiative, we:

  • Build knowledge: We support feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements by disseminating and popularizing knowledge and key messages about anti-rights actors, their strategies, and impact in the international human rights systems through AWID’s leadership role in the collaborative platform, the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)*.
  • Advance feminist agendas: We ally ourselves with partners in international human rights spaces including, the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission on the Status of Women and the UN General Assembly.
  • Create and amplify alternatives: We engage with our members to ensure that international commitments, resolutions and norms reflect and are fed back into organizing in other spaces locally, nationally and regionally.
  • Mobilize solidarity action: We take action alongside women human rights defenders (WHRDs) including trans and intersex defenders and young feminists, working to challenge fundamentalisms and fascisms and call attention to situations of risk.  

 

Related Content

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Snippet - Impactmapper’s Database blurb - En

Impact Mapper's Logo

 

 

2025 Funding Database by ImpactMapper

Explore 150+ regularly updated funding opportunities in this searchable database, created in response to cuts in development aid. Filter by issue, region, funder type, and eligibility.

Subscribe to their database here

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With smart filtering for Who Can Fund Me?  Database, you can search for funders based on:

WITM - Refreshed DATA SNAPSHOTS - EN

Data Snapshots

Our collective power, wisdom, and commitment have no boundaries, but our bank accounts do.

Data snapshots are based on the responses of 1,174 feminist, women’s rights, LGBTQI+, and allied organizations (hereafter referred to as “feminist and women's rights organizations”) from 128 countries to the Where is the Money for Feminist Organizing? survey. These snapshots reflect experiences from 2021–2023, analyzed in the context of defunding trends unfolding in 2024–2025.

Here’s what you need to know about the current state of resourcing for feminist organizing.

Explore Data Snapshots

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Feminist Demands for COP30

Reason to join 5

Expand your boundaries. AWID members increasingly represent a diverse and vibrant cross-section of feminists working on land rights, workers’ rights, sexual rights and bodily autonomy, among other issues. By joining us as a member, you can connect your struggles across movements.

Confronting Extractivism & Corporate Power

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Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) worldwide defend their lands, livelihoods and communities from extractive industries and corporate power. They stand against powerful economic and political interests driving land theft, displacement of communities, loss of livelihoods, and environmental degradation.

Why resist extractive industries?

Extractivism is an economic and political model of development that commodifies nature and prioritizes profit over human rights and the environment. Rooted in colonial history, it reinforces social and economic inequalities locally and globally. Often, Black, rural and Indigenous women are the most affected by extractivism, and are largely excluded from decision-making. Defying these patriarchal and neo-colonial forces, women rise in defense of rights, lands, people and nature.

Critical risks and gender-specific violence

WHRDs confronting extractive industries experience a range of risks, threats and violations, including criminalization, stigmatization, violence and intimidation.  Their stories reveal a strong aspect of gendered and sexualized violence. Perpetrators include state and local authorities, corporations, police, military, paramilitary and private security forces, and at times their own communities.

Acting together

AWID and the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD-IC) are pleased to announce “Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractivism and Corporate Power”; a cross-regional research project documenting the lived experiences of WHRDs from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

We encourage activists, members of social movements, organized civil society, donors and policy makers to read and use these products for advocacy, education and inspiration.

Share your experience and questions!

Tell us how you are using the resources on WHRDs Confronting extractivism and corporate power.

◾️ How can these resources support your activism and advocacy?

◾️ What additional information or knowledge do you need to make the best use of these resources?

Share your feedback

Thank you!

AWID acknowledges with gratitude the invaluable input of every Woman Human Rights Defender who participated in this project. This project was made possible thanks to your willingness to generously and openly share your experiences and learnings. Your courage, creativity and resilience is an inspiration for us all. Thank you!

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Promouvoir la santé pour tous et toutes

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Promouvoir la santé pour tous et toutes

Actif dans le secteur sans but lucratif, Isaac Oriafo Ejakhegbe, membre de l'AWID depuis juin 2015, concentre son travail sur l’égalité de genre, le changement climatique, la promotion de la santé et la santé des femmes et des enfants. Il est un jeune leader de l’initiative Women Deliver et travaille actuellement pour le Women’s Health and Action Research Centre (Centre de recherche et d’action pour la santé des femmes), une organisation non gouvernementale établie au Nigeria qui œuvre au service de la santé reproductive des femmes et de leur bien-être social.

Fondateur de l’initiative Youth Spotlight (Coup de projecteur sur la jeunesse), Isaac s’engage également à promouvoir la santé et les droits reproductifs et sexuels des jeunes. En outre, il aborde les enjeux relatifs à l’infection par le VIH.

Isaac a étudié en sciences sociales appliquées en santé à la School of Public Health de l’University of Ghana, où il a obtenu les meilleures notes de sa promotion. Sa thèse portait sur l'égalité de genre, l'autonomisation des femmes et l'usage de la contraception dans la région occidentale du Ghana.

Après avoir obtenu son diplôme, Isaac s’est porté volontaire comme éducateur pour les pairs auprès du Fonds des Nations Unies pour l’enfance (UNICEF), dans le cadre du projet national Reproductive Health HIV and AIDS Prevention and Care (La santé reproductive, la prévention et les soins liés au VIH et au SIDA) dans le Nord du Nigeria. Il est ensuite devenu chargé de programme de l'Initiative for the Rehabilitation and Care for HIV and AIDS (Initiative pour la réadaptation et les soins aux personnes porteuses du VIH et atteintes du SIDA). Il a également participé à plusieurs projets auprès des travailleurs et travailleuses du sexe.

Le renforcement des capacités et du leadership des femmes et des jeunes est un facteur clé pour libérer le potentiel des Objectifs de développement durable (ODD).

Un volet de son travail en promotion de la santé implique une participation communautaire directe. En tant qu’agent de santé communautaire à la Joy Maternity Clinic dans l’État d’Edo au Nigéria, Isaac s’est concentré sur l’offre active d’éducation en matière de santé et de soutien social à l’intention des membres de la communauté. Au même moment, il s’est inscrit à un programme en ligne, obtenant un Clinical Research and Public Health Certificate (Certificat en santé publique et recherche clinique) de la Harvard School of Public Health et un Certificat en  Challenges of Global Poverty (Les défis de la pauvreté mondiale) du Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Pour atteindre leur objectif, les politiques liées à l’environnement et au climat doivent être holistiques : il faut réduire les émissions de dioxyde de carbone, de méthane et d’autres gaz à effet de serre, tout en promouvant des environnements plus sains, ces deux stratégies favorisant une santé durable pour tous et toutes. 

Isaac aime rédiger des articles et des blogues sur les questions entourant la santé et le changement climatique. À l’approche de la Conférence des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques COP 21, il a écrit un article (en anglais) pour The Lancet Global Health dans lequel il souligne les incidences d’un environnement malsain sur la santé.

Apprenez à mieux connaître Isaac !

Vous pouvez entrer en contact avec lui en consultant le répertoire en ligne des membres de l’AWID (uniquement accessible aux membres) ou en envoyant un courriel à membership@awid.org. Vous pouvez également suivre ses tweets sur @wisenobleman.

Region
Afrique subsaharienne
Topics
Santé
VIH et SIDA
Droits sexuels et reproductifs
Source
Isaac Oriafo Ejakhegbe

Advocating Health for Everyone

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Advocating Health for Everyone

Isaac Oriafo Ejakhegbe works in the non-profit sector, primarily focusing his work on gender equality, climate change, and health promotion, including maternal and child health. He is a Women Deliver Young Leader and is currently working at the Women’s Health and Action Research Centre, a non-governmental organisation in Nigeria that advocates for women’s reproductive health and social well-being. As founder of the Youth Spotlight Initiative, Isaac also engages in specifically promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people, including issues bordering on HIV infection.

Issac studied Applied Health Social Science from the School of Public Health at the University of Ghana, where he was awarded the best graduating student in his set. His thesis focused on gender equality, women’s empowerment, and contraceptive use in the Western Region of Ghana.

After graduating, Isaac volunteered as a United Nations Children's Fund Peer Educator under the National Reproductive Health HIV and AIDS Prevention and Care project in Northern Nigeria and has worked as a program officer at the Initiative for the Rehabilitation and Care for HIV and AIDS. He was involved in several projects pertaining to commercial sex workers.

Strengthening the capacities and leadership of women and youth are key to unlocking the potentials of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Part of his work in health promotion included direct community involvement. As a community health officer at the Joy Maternity Clinic based in Edo State, Nigeria Issac actively provided health education and social support to community members. During this time, he enrolled in an online program, earning a Clinical Research and Public Health Certificate from the Harvard School of Public Health and a certificate in “Challenges of Global Poverty” from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

 A successful environment/climate policy must be holistic: cutting carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases as well as promoting clean surroundings - both working towards sustainable health for everybody.

Isaac enjoys writing articles and blogs on health and climate change issues. Ahead of the recent 2015 United Nations conference on climate change COP 21, he wrote an article for ‘Climate Reports’ focusing on the impacts of unhealthy environment on health. 

 

Region
Sub Sahara Africa
Topics
Health
HIV and AIDS
Sexual & reproductive rights
Source
Isaac Oriafo Ejakhegbe

Presentations

Webinar: Corporate Power and Gender Justice

Analyses

Justice climatique : Pourquoi les femmes doivent être intégrées

Source: AWID

Analysis

Climate Justice: Why women must be included

Source: AWID

Análisis

Justicia climática: Por qué las mujeres deben estar incluidas

Source: AWID

Analysis

Life In Leggings: A Story About Untold Stories

Source: AWID

Analysis

Make watered-down SDGs work

Source: AWID in Alliance Magazine

Analysis

Garbage knows no social class, but fighting it does

Source: AWID Young Feminist Wire

Policy Briefs

AWID and partners brief the CEDAW Committee on religious fundamentalisms

Analysis

'Protection of the Family': What it means for human rights

Source: AWID

Análisis

“Protección de la familia” – Lo que esto significa para los derechos humanos

Source: AWID

Analyses

« Protection de la famille » : ce que cela signifie pour les droits humains

Source: AWID

Analysis

Released Egyptian WHRD recounts her arrest and time in prison and calls for the release of all who remain unjustly detained

Source: AWID Young Feminist Wire

Análisis

Marcha de las Mujeres Negras: El acto radical y feminista de reivindicar el espacio y reescribir la narrativa

Source: AWID Young Feminist Wire

Analyses

Marcha das Mulheres Negras : un acte féministe et radical de réappropriation de l’espace et de réécriture du discours

Source: AWID Young Feminist Wire

Analysis

Marcha das Mulheres Negras: The Radical and Feminist Act of Reclaiming Space and Re-writing the Narrative

Source: AWID Young Feminist Wire

Análisis

Combatir las violencias hacia las mujeres en Argelia: movilizaciones y desafíos

Source: AWID

Analyses

Combattre les violences faites aux femmes en Algérie : mobilisations et défis

Source: AWID

Analysis

Combatting violence against women in Algeria: Mobilizing and challenges

Source: AWID

“Where is the Money for Women’s Rights?" AWID’s WITM Toolkit (landing page intro)

A new edition of the Where is the Money?  research is underway.

Learn more.

A Do-it-Yourself Research Methodology

AWID offers the WITM Toolkit to support individuals and organizations who want to conduct their own research on funding trends for a particular region, issue or population by adapting AWID’s research methodology.

AWID’s WITM Toolkit builds on 10 years research experience. AWID’s WITM research and WITM Toolkit is a political and practical demonstration of the resources and steps it takes to conduct solid action-research.

Learn more about the context around the WITM research methodology

The Resourcing Feminist Movements team also offers technical and political support before and during the research process. Review the toolkit and contact us at fundher@awid.org if you need more information.

FRMag - Armenians

Armenians, Feminism is our Past and Future

by Sophia Armen

Like it or not fierce ungerhouis have been part and parcel to our histories of resistance and are here to stay. (...)

Read

Feminist film club - holding up the skies

Check out the AWID Feminist Film Club program “Holding up the Skies” - a film series on Feminist Realities from Africa and the African Diaspora curated by Gabrielle Tesfaye

WATCH

Animation: Calling all Feminist Superheroes!

Animation:

Calling all Feminist Superheroes!

Follow our Superhero as she embarks on a quest to reclaim the narrative from anti-rights actors across the globe.

Watch animation

Sexting Like a Feminist: Humor in the Digital Feminist Revolution | Content Snippet

Sexting Like a Feminist: Humor in the Digital Feminist Revolution

On September 2nd, 2021, the amazing feminist and social justice activists of AWID’s Crear | Résister | Transform festival came together not only to share resistance strategies, co-create, and transform the world, but also to talk dirty on Twitter.

The exercise was led by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, co-founder of the blog Adventures From The Bedrooms of African Women and author of The Sex Lives of African Women, who paired up with the Pan-Africanist digital queer womanist platform AfroFemHub, to ask the question: How can we safely and consensually explore our pleasure, desires, and fantasies via text?

Basically: How would a feminist sext?

I believe this is a critically important question because it looks at the larger issue of how one navigates the online world with a feminist understanding. Under capitalism, discourse around bodies and sex can be dehumanizing and distorting, and navigating sexual pleasure in virtual spaces can feel performative. So seeking out avenues where we can explore how we share our desire in ways that are affirming and enthusiastic can push back against dominant models of presentation and consumption to reclaim these spaces as sites for authentic engagement, proving that all sexting should be just that: feminist.

Plus, allowing feminist discourse to embody its playful side in online discourse helps reframe a popular narrative that feminist engagement is joyless and dour. But as we know, having fun is part of our politics, and an inherent part of what it means to be feminist.

Using the hashtag #SextLikeAFeminist, scholars and activists from all over the world chimed in with their thirstiest feminist tweets, and here are my top ten.

As these tweets show, it turns out that sexting like a feminist is sexy, funny – and horny. Yet, it never loses sight of its commitment to equity and justice.

Lindiwe Rasekoala | Snippet EN

Portrait of Lindiwe Rasekoala

Lindiwe Rasekoala is a life coach who specializes in intimacy and relationship wellness coaching. She is a sexual health enthusiast and online contributor. Through her own experiences and unconventional methods of research, she believes she can bridge the education gap and lack of access to information around sexual wellness. She is a contributor on various radio and television shows, and has completed her coach training with the Certified Coaches Alliance. Lindiwe’s mission is to break down the barriers to conversations around sexual wellness and to empower her clients to achieve greater understanding of themselves so that they can experience a more healthy and holistic lifestyle and relationships. 

Ester Lopes | Snippet AR

Ester Lopes Portrait

إيستر لوبيز  راقصة وكاتبة تركز أبحاثها على الجسد والنوع والعرق والعلاقات الطبقية. هي مدرّبة بيلاتيس ومعلمة فنون. تخرجت إستر في دراسة المسرح المعاصر – العمليات الإبداعية (في FAINC) وفي الرقص والوعي بالجسم (في USCS). يشمل تخصصها الموسيقي الغناء الشعبي والإيقاع. تلقت تدريبًا في “نوفوس برينكانتس” مع فليرا فيرو وماتيوس برادو وأنطونيو مييرا في معهد Brincante في عامي 2015 و 2016.