Awadia Ajabna
Movement Building
Related Content
WITM - Refreshed Intro Text (EN)
Where is the Money? An Evidence-Driven Call to Resource Feminist Organizing
This new report shines a light on the resourcing realities of feminist and womenâs rights organizations amid unprecedented political and financial upheaval. Drawing on over a decade of analysis since AWID last Where is the Money? report (Watering the Leaves, Starving the Roots), it takes stock of the gains, gaps, and growing threats in the funding landscape.
The report celebrates the power of movement-led initiatives to shape resourcing on their own terms, while sounding the alarm on massive aid cuts, shrinking philanthropy, and escalating backlash.Â
It calls on funders to invest abundantly in feminist organizing as essential infrastructure for justice and liberation. It also invites movements to reimagine bold, self-determined models of resourcing rooted in care, solidarity and collective power.Â
Leila Hessini
Biography
Leila is a transnational feminist leader, strategist, and advisor with over 25 years of organizing, advocacy and philanthropic experience advancing human rights, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive rights and justice. Â She was born in Algeria and educated in the U.S., France, and Morocco; over her professional career, she has lived and worked in forty countries across Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Â Leila currently serves as a Senior International Fellow at the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and as Senior Strategist for various feminist movements and organizations as well as the the Urgent Action Fund-Africa and Trust Africa on an initiative on Reimagining Feminist and Pan-African Philanthropies.
Â
From 2017-2023, Leila held the position as Vice-President of Programs at Global Fund for Women where she oversaw its strategic grantmaking, movement-strengthening, global advocacy and philanthropic collaborations. At GFW, she doubled its grantmaking to over $17 million, launched its feminist and gender-based movements and crises work, created an adolescent girls program led by a girlsâ advisory council and led its philanthropic advocacy work. Â Prior to that she served on the senior leadership team of Ipas from 2002 to 2016 where she published extensively on abortion rights and justice, lead global advocacy efforts and partnered with feminist groups working on self-management, community strategies and stigma reduction around bodily integrity and sexual and reproductive rights.
Â
Leila is currently researching shifts in the philanthropic sector including recognizing non-institutional practices of giving resources in the Global South and efforts to decolonize practices in the Global North. Â She has written extensively on the political nature of veiling across North Africa and the Middle East, abortion practices in majority Muslim contexts and feminist approaches to sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice.
Â
Leila holds an MPH in public health and a MA in Middle Eastern and North African Studies, studied Islamic law in Morocco and pursued doctoral studies in sociology in France. She studied Arabic and speaks French and English fluently. Â She is a mother of two feminist young women, an avid scuba diver, mountain bike rider, skier, and outdoor enthusiast.
Position
Co-Treasurer
Add to stories
Off
Snippet - COP30 - Feminist Demands for COP30 col 2
What We Demand:
- Climate finance as reparations: grants, not loans
- Direct funding to frontline communities
- Phasing out fossil fuels NOW
- Defunding military and prison complexes
- Corporate accountability mechanisms
- Enabling environments for feminist alternatives to thrive
- The liberation of Palestine, Congo and Sudan
- Debt cancellation and an end to austerity
- Rapid, direct and flexible funding to frontline communities
- Decolonial feminist just transitions
Who are AWID's members?
A dynamic network of people around the world, AWID members are researchers, academics, students, educators, activists, business people, policy-makers, development practitioners, funders, and more. Our members - of every age - are those who make AWID a unique global feminist association.
Membership with AWID is open to anyone who shares our values
We offer different types of memberships geared to income level and whether you are an individual or an organization. Currently we have over 5000 members, individual and institutional, from 164 countries.
Our members are an important part of our work
We collaborate for advocacy on specific issues, members vote in elections for our Board, and can also participate in and contribute to our Priority Areas through webinars, surveys, or urgent actions, for example.
Our institutional membership draws from a broad range of organizations interested in advancing gender justice and womenâs human rights, including womenâs rights organizations, from the local to the global levels, grassroots networks, major international institutions, government departments, university programs and more. 63% of our members are from the global South and 38% are under the age of 30.
AWID Forum: Co-creating Feminist Futures
In September 2016, the 13th AWID international Forum brought together in Brazil over 1800 feminists and womenâs rights advocates in a spirit of resistance and resilience.
This section highlights the gains, learnings and resources that came out of our rich conversations. We invite you to explore, share and comment!
What has happened since 2016?
One of the key takeaways from the 2016 Forum was the need to broaden and deepen our cross-movement work to address rising fascisms, fundamentalisms, corporate greed and climate change.
With this in mind, we have been working with multiple allies to grow these seeds of resistance:
- Our Seed Initiatives, has helped 20 ideas that emerged at the Forum to grow into concrete actions
- The video âDefending people and planetâ and guide âWeaving resistance through actionâ put courageous WHRDs in the spotlight and present concrete strategies they use to confront corporate power.
- With our animations about the State of Our Feminist Movements and Climate and Environmental Justice, movements now have creative tools to support their advocacy work.
- The compiling artistic expressions of our #MovementsMatter series continues to inspire stronger and more creative organizing around the world.
- Movements can also benefit from new methodologies on Visioning Feminist Futures (Coming up soon!)
And through our next strategic plan and Forum process, we are committed to keep developing ideas and deepen the learnings ignited at the 2016 Forum.
What happens now?
The world is a much different place than it was a year ago, and it will continue to change.
The next AWID Forum will take place in the Asia Pacific region (exact location and dates to be announced in 2018).
We look forward to you joining us!
The next AWID Forum will take place in the Asia Pacific region (exact location and dates to be announced in 2018).
We look forward to you joining us!
About the AWID Forum
AWID Forums started in 1983, in Washington DC. Since then, the event has grown to become many things to many peoples: an iterative process of sharpening our analyses, vision and actions; a watershed moment that reinvigorates participantsâ feminisms and energizes their organizing; and a political home for women human rights defenders to find sanctuary and solidarity.
Related Content
I am experiencing violence in one or more of my relationships. Can AWID advocate on my behalf?
Unfortunately, no. AWID is not a direct service or individual advocacy organization.
It would be better for you to seek legal advice and contact a womenâs shelter or referral centre in your area.
The HotPeachPages is an online resource that offers links to womenâs shelters around the world. AWID cannot vouch for the accuracy or quality of its listings, but it may be a good place to start if you donât know of organizations in your area.
June 2015
Further drafting sessions on the Addis Ababa outcome document
- Additional sessions in support of continued progress on the Outcome Document continued from 1-5 June 2015.
- From 15 â 19 June the scheduled 3rd drafting session of the outcome document of the conference took place at UN headquarters
Learn more from the CSO Hitchhikerâs Guide
Sakine Cansiz
What languages will be included in the Forum?
English, French, Spanish and Mandarin.
Rosa Helena Bernal Pinto
Durvin RamĂrez DĂÂaz en.jpg
Izabela Jaruga Nowacka
Body
Tributo: Recordamos a lxs activistas feministas que cambiaron nuestro mundo
En esta galerĂa en lĂnea, rendimos homenaje a mĂĄs de 450 valientes feministas y activistas de todas las regiones del mundo y 88 paĂses que ya no estĂĄn 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 bĂșsqueda
Mai Ghoussoub
Main image
FFC - Banners.png
Body
The Feminist Film Club
As part of AWIDâs 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 weâll launch in September during AWIDâs Crear, RĂ©sister, Transform: A Festival for Feminist Movements. In the meantime, look out for announcements on special films screenings and conversations with filmmakers!
Noxolo Nogwaza
