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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.

Building Feminist Economies

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Building Feminist Economies is about creating a world with clean air to breath and water to drink, with meaningful labour and care for ourselves and our communities, where we can all enjoy our economic, sexual and political autonomy.

In the world we live in today, the economy continues to rely on women’s unpaid and undervalued care work for the profit of others. The pursuit of “growth” only expands extractivism - a model of development based on massive extraction and exploitation of natural resources that keeps destroying people and planet while concentrating wealth in the hands of global elites. Meanwhile, access to healthcare, education, a decent wage and social security is becoming a privilege to few. This economic model sits upon white supremacy, colonialism and patriarchy.

Adopting solely a “women’s economic empowerment approach” is merely to integrate women deeper into this system. It may be a temporary means of survival. We need to plant the seeds to make another world possible while we tear down the walls of the existing one.

We believe in the ability of feminist movements to work for change with broad alliances across social movements. By amplifying feminist proposals and visions, we aim to build new paradigms of just economies.

Our approach must be interconnected and intersectional, because sexual and bodily autonomy will not be possible until each and every one of us enjoys economic rights and independence. We aim to work with those who resist and counter the global rise of the conservative right and religious fundamentalisms as no just economy is possible until we shake the foundations of the current system.

Our Actions

Our work challenges the system from within and exposes its fundamental injustices:

  • Advance feminist agendas: We counter corporate power and impunity for human rights abuses by working with allies to ensure that we put forward feminist, women’s rights and gender justice perspectives in policy spaces. For example, learn more about our work on the future international legally binding instrument on “transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights” at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

  • Mobilize solidarity actions: We work to strengthen the links between feminist and tax justice movements, including reclaiming the public resources lost through illicit financial flows (IFFs) to ensure social and gender justice.

  • Build knowledge: We provide women human rights defenders (WHRDs) with strategic information vital to challenge corporate power and extractivism. We will contribute to build the knowledge about local and global financing and investment mechanisms fuelling extractivism.

  • Create and amplify alternatives: We engage and mobilize our members and movements in visioning feminist economies and sharing feminist knowledges, practices and agendas for economic justice.

“The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing”.

Arundhati Roy, War Talk

Related Content

Type

How did AWID get started?

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AWID began in 1982 and has grown and transformed since then into a truly global organization.

Find out more:

Read From WID to GAD to Women's Rights: The First 20 Years of AWID

Mena Mangal

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Category
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Region
West Asia
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Killed

Mena Mangal was a prominent TV journalist, women’s rights advocate and cultural adviser to Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of Afghanistan's national parliament. 

For more than a decade, she worked for Ariana TV, Tolo TV's Pashto-language channel Lamar, and the private Afghan national television broadcaster Shamshad TV. As a presenter, Mena focused on women’s rights and cultural talk shows. 

"Women's rights activist Wazhma Frogh said Mangal "had a loud voice" and actively spoke out as an advocate for her people."

Off-screen, she also ran popular social media pages that advocated for the rights of Afghan girls and women to education and work. In terms of her private life, Mena wrote extensively about being forced into an arranged marriage in 2017 and the process she had to go through to finally obtain a divorce. 

In a Facebook post, Mena wrote she was receiving death threats from unknown sources but would continue to carry out her work.

On 11 May 2019, she was attacked by unknown gunmen and shot dead in broad daylight in a public space in Southeast Kabul. 

"We are concerned about the situation because it has a direct impact on women who work outside their homes...Female journalists are changing their professions due to the increasing risks they are facing." - Robina Hamdard, Kabul-based women’s rights activist.

คุณจะเปิดรับให้เสนอกิจกรรมภายในงานหรือไม่

แน่นอน! กรุณาอ่านการเปิดรับสมัครกิจกรรมภายในงานและสมัครได้ที่นี่ กำหนดเส้นตายในการปิดรับรายละเอียดกิจกรรมใหม่ : 1 กุมภาพันธ์ 2567

I am writing a research paper. Can AWID help me?

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AWID provides a wealth of resources to help your research.

We invite you to explore the Priority Areas and Stay Informed sections of our website, or use the search function to find information about the specific topics you are researching.

We particularly recommend that you explore our toolkit “Where is the Money for Women’s Rights” (WITM Toolkit). This is a Do-it-Yourself Research methodology 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.

Explore the WITM Toolkit

Aïssata Kane

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Category
Civil & Political Rights
Region
Africa
Sub Sahara Africa
Date of birth
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Natural

Aïssata Kane, also fondly known as “Yaye Kadia” (Mother Kadia), was a feminist with a lifelong committment in advocating for African and especially Mauritanian women’s rights.

In her career as a politician, she was appointed Minister of Family Protection and Social Affairs in 1975, the first time a woman held such a position and in which Aïssata fervently worked to improve the status of women in her country.  

This work included advancing girls’ and women’s education, fighting against the practice of force-feeding of young women, lobbying for an inclusion of a marital rights provision, and advocating for a female representation quota to be created in the Parliament. 

“[Aïssata] realized all her passions with humility, courage and determination. She didn’t want to disturb anyone by her fight on all these fronts at the same time.” Ball Halimata Dem, Aïssata’s niece

She founded the National Union of Women of Mauritania (UNFM), co-creating and publishing Marienou for them, a magazine dedicated to the emancipation of Mauritanian women. Aïssata also directed several sub-regional and local organizations, including as the President of the International Association of Francophone Women (AIFF) and as a resolute ecologist, she was President of the Association for the Protection of the Environment in Mauritania (APEM). 

In 2018 she received the Pioneer Woman Award. It honors her work in advancing Mauritania’s women’s status and recognizes her strong leadership and sense of innovation.

Aïssata passed away on 10 August 2019. 

หากผู้นำเสนอต้องการนำเสนอเป็นภาษษมืออื่นๆที่ไม่ใช่ภาษามือสากล จะมีการสนับสนุนการล่ามในภาษษมืออื่นๆหรือไม่

หากกิจกรรมของคุณได้รับการคัดเลือกคุณจะได้รับการติดต่อจาก AWID ที่จะช่วยสนับสนุนและตอบคำถามถึงการล่ามและการช่วยในการเข้าถึงที่จำเป็น

May 2015: Consultations on the Draft Outcome document are held

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Additional consultation sessions on the Draft Outcome Document

  • On 7 May, the revised outcome document for the 3rd FfD conference in Addis was released by the co-facilitators
  • In support of continued progress on the Outcome Document, ad hoc additional sessions for consultations on the Draft Outcome Document took place from 12-15 May 2015 and 26-29 May 2015 at UN headquarters in New York

จะมีมาตราการด้านการเข้าถึงสำหรับฟอรัมที่จะเกิดขึ้นหรือไม่

ตอบแบบสั้นคือ ใช่! AWID กำลังทำงานร่วมกับคณะกรรมการการเข้าถึงเพื่อให้มั่นใจว่าฟอรัมนี้จะสามารถเข้าถึงได้มากที่สุดเท่าที่จะเป็นไปได้ เรากำลังทำการตรวจสอบการเข้าถึงสถานที่จัดงานฟอรัม โรงแรมโดยรอบ และการคมนาคมขนส่ง ข้อมูลโดยละเอียดเกี่ยวกับการช่วยการเข้าถึงของ AWID ฟอรัม จะถูกอัปเดทเนื้อหาที่นี่ก่อนที่จะเปิดการลงทะเบียน ในระหว่างนี้ หากมีคำถามใดๆ โปรดติดต่อเรา

Do I have to be an AWID member to participate in the Forum?

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No, you don't have to be an AWID member to participate but AWID members receive a discounted registration fee as well as a number of other benefits.

Learn more on how to become an AWID member

Snippet - CSW68 - Follow the Money Post - EN

Image to promote the event Follo the Money for AWID at CSW68

Events

Member Teach-In | Under the Same Umbrella: feminism and sex workers' rights

Snippet - WITM To share - EN

To share your lived experience with mobilizing funding for your organizing

Jobs Board

Closed | Vacancy: Alliance for Feminist Movements Membership Engagement Lead

Statements

Feminist Groups Reject State Attempts to Roll-back on Gender Justice at HRC50

Snippet - WITM Acknowledgements - EN

Acknowledgements

AWID gratefully acknowledges the many people whose ideas, analysis and contributions have shaped the “Where is the Money for Feminist Organizing?” research and advocacy over the years.

First and foremost, our deepest thanks goes to the AWID members and activists who engaged in WITM consultations and piloted this survey with us, sharing so generously of their time, analysis and hearts.

Our appreciation to feminist movements, allies and feminist funds, including but not limited to: Black Feminist Fund, Pacific Feminist Fund, ASTRAEA Lesbian Foundation for Justice, FRIDA Young Feminist Fund, Purposeful, Kosovo Women’s Network, Human Rights Funders Network, Dalan Fund and PROSPERA International Network of Women's Funds - for your rigorous research on the state of resourcing, sharp analysis and continued advocacy for more and better funding and power for feminist and gender justice organizing in all contexts.

Join the global community of feminists speaking up about the state of resourcing, demanding more and better funding and power for feminists everywhere

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Tributo: Recordamos a lxs activistas feministas que cambiaron nuestro mundo
En esta galería en línea, rendimos homenaje a más de 450 valientes feministas y activistas de todas las regiones del mundo y 88 países que ya no están con nosotrxs.

Lxs traemos a todxs a nuestra memoria colectiva y llevamos su legado de lucha como nuestra antorcha en los movimientos feministas y por los derechos de las mujeres.

Usa los filtros para refinar tu búsqueda

My language is not one of the official survey languages and I am struggling to complete it, what can I do?

AWID is committed to language justice and we regret that, at this point, having the WITM survey available in more languages is not feasible. However, if you need support with translations or want to fill the survey in any other language, please reach out to us at witm@awid.org.

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The Feminist Film Club

As part of AWID’s Feminist Realities journey, we invite you to explore our newly launched Feminist Film Club: a collection of short and feature films selected by feminist curators and storytellers from around the world, including Jess X. Snow (Asia/Pacific), Gabrielle Tesfaye (Africa/African Diaspora), and Esra Ozban (South West Asia, North Africa). Alejandra Laprea is curating the Latin & Central American program, which we’ll launch in September during AWID’s Crear, Résister, Transform: A Festival for Feminist Movements. In the meantime, look out for announcements on special films screenings and conversations with filmmakers!

Our Companion Sites

The Young Feminist Wire

An online community for and by young feminists working on women’s human rights, gender equality and social justice around the world.

Visit the site

The Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)

The platform is the go-to place for information and resources on safeguarding the universality of rights in international and regional human rights spaces.

Visit the site

The Young Feminist Fund-FRIDA

Provides funding for young feminist-led initiatives. It aims to strengthen the capacity of young feminist organizations to leverage resources for their work and to increase donors’ and allies’ commitments to resourcing young feminist activism.

Visit the site

Online Directory of Urgent Responses for WHRDs

A go-to site to learn about the urgent responses undertaken to protect women human rights defenders and to find tools and resources to support the work and wellness of WHRDs.

Visit the site

IM-Defensoras (Mesoamerican Initiative for Women Human Rights Defenders)

A regional initiative created to prevent, respond, document and make public all cases of violence against women human rights defenders in the Mesoamerican region.

Visit the site

The WHRD International Coalition

The WHRD IC is a resource and advocacy network for the protection and support of women human rights defenders worldwide.

Visit the site

Post-2015 Women´s Coalition

A Coalition of feminist, women´s rights, women´s development, grassroots and social justice organisations working to challenge and reframe teh global development agenda. 

Visit the site

Women´s Major Group on Development

The role of the Women’s Major Group is to assure effective public participation of women’s non-governmental groups in the UN policy processes on Sustainable Development, Post2015 and Environmental matters. 

Visit the site

Women Working Group on Financing for Development

An alliance of women’s organizations and networks to advocate for the advancement of gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights in the Financing for Development (FfD) related UN processes.

Visit the site

When will survey results be available?

We will analyze the survey responses, derive insights and trends, and present the results during the 15th AWID International Forum in Bangkok, and online, in December 2024. Register to attend the Forum here!