MANO CAMBIADA

("exchange hand") 

Term of the black communities of the Northern Cauca for the minga, the collective work based on solidarity and mutual support.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed the world how important essential workers are. We’re talking about cleaners, nurses, paramedics, domestic workers, transport workers, grocery shop workers, among others. Their work is to tend to and guarantee the wellbeing of others, and they make our economies function.

But while they take care of us…

More than an event!

The AWID International Forum is a truly global space that gives participants an opportunity to network, build alliances, celebrate, and learn in a stimulating, emotive and safe atmosphere. 

More and more, we are trying to bring the Forum process outside of the convening’s borders. Engaging with partners and deepening relationships all year round, connecting with local movements to better understand problems and co-create solutions. The Forum event itself, held every three to four years in a different region of the world, is just a crystallization of all these alliances that we are building as part of our work.

The AWID Forum dissolves our inner and external boundaries, fosters deep discussion, personal and professional growth, and strengthens our movements for gender justice and women’s rights.

As a convening, it is a response to the urgency to promote stronger and more coordinated engagement and action by feminists, women’s rights and other social justice advocates, organizations and movements. We also believe that the Forum is more than just an event – it can facilitate a process to influence thinking and set agendas for feminist movements and other related actors.

Evolving from a national conference of around 800 people, the event now brings together around 2000 feminists, community leaders, social justice activists, and donor agencies from around the world. 

The 14th AWID International Forum will take place 11-14 January 2021 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Find out more!

The past Forums

2016 - Feminist Futures: Building Collective Power for Rights and Justice (Costa de Sauipe, Brazil)

Given the complex world that we face today, the 2016 AWID Forum did not focus on a particular “issue”, but rather on creating more effective ways of working together!

Despite the challenging contexts in which the 2016 Forum took place (the Zika epidemic, a strike by Brazilian foreign-service workers, the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and subsequent turmoil), it succeeded in bringing together over 1800 participants from 120 countries and territories across all regions of the world.

What happened at the 13th AWID international Forum:

• For 96% of participants who responded to the post Forum evaluation survey, the Forum was a major source of inspiration and energy.

• 98% of participants considered it an important convening space for feminist movements and expressed hope that AWID continues to organize forums.

• 59% of Forum evaluation survey respondents declared to be very satisfied with the Forum and 34% somewhat satisfied.

• Over 150 sessions were delivered in different formats on a variety of topics ranging from bodily integrity and freedoms, to gender-based violence in the workplace, to strategies for building collective power.

• The first-time Black Feminisms Forum (BFF), held just before the main AWID Forum, brought together 250 Black feminists from all over the world to co-create a powerful space to build and strengthen ongoing, intergenerational, transnational connections

Read more about what the 2016 AWID Forum achieved:

Download the Forum evaluation report

2012 - Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice (Istambul, Turkey)

The 12^th AWID Forum was the largest and most diverse AWID Forum to date, bringing together 2239 women’s rights activists from 141 countries. Of these participants, around 65% were from the Global South and close to 15% were young women under 30, and 75% attended an AWID Forum for their first time.

The Forum program focused on transforming economic power to advance women’s rights and justice and featured over 170 different kinds of sessions including feminist economics toolbox skills-building sessions, breakout sessions representing all 10 Forum themes, in-depth sessions, and solidarity roundtables. 

Building on the momentum of the 2012 Forum, we transformed the website into a resource and learning Hub, which builds on the content generated by participants by featuring multi-media resources on all Forum components. 

Visit the 2012 Forum web archive

All AWID Forums

• 2016: Feminist Futures: Building Collective Power for Rights and Justice (Costa de Sauipe, Brazil). Read the 2016 Forum Evaluation report
• 2012: Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice (Istanbul, Turkey)
• 2008: The Power of Movements (Cape Town, South Africa). Read our 2008 Forum Report
• 2005: How does change happen? (Bangkok, Thailand)
• 2002: Reinventing Globalization (Guadalajara, Mexico)
• 1999: Leading Solutions for Equality and Justice (US)
• 1996: Beyond Beijing From Words to Action (US)
• 1993: Joining Forces to Further Shared Visions (US)
• 1991: Working Together/Learning Together: A South North Dialogue (US)
• 1989/1990: Global Em-Powerment for Women (US)
• 1987: Moving Forward: Innovations in Development Policy, Action and Research (US)
• 1985: Women Creating Wealth; Transforming Economic Development (US)
• 1983: ‘Women in Development’ (Washington D.C, US)

The data from our tribute indicate that Mexico is a particularly dangerous country for defenders. Out of the 12 Mexican Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) we commemorate in this years’ Tribute, 11 were murdered. They were journalists, women’s rights advocates, trans* rights and social activists. Join us in remembering and honoring these WHRDs, their work and legacy by sharing the memes below and tweeting by using the hashtags #WHRDTribute and #16Days. 

Please click on each image below to see a larger version and download as a file

See Our 2015 WHRD Tribute