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On 16 July 2015 the Third International Financing for Development Conference (FfD3), which took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and that was preceded by a long preparatory process, concluded with a very disappointing outcome document - the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA). Nonetheless it holds some entry points for the advancement of women’s rights and gender equality.

AWID is deeply saddened by the loss of Josefa Gigi Francisco, whose life was dedicated to defending women’s human rights and advancing social justice. Her death on 22 July 2015 is a source of great sadness to women’s rights activists around the world. 

Following the signing of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali on 20 June 2015, AWID spoke with Bintou Founé Samaké Bouaré and Fatoumata Maiga to learn more about mainstreaming gender into the Mali peace building process and the associated challenges.

Today we stand at the last milestone of the post 2015 development agenda process. In the coming two weeks of negotiations at the UN – and the months of informal consultations to follow - there will be debates on the language of the initial declaration, the SDGs and their targets, the means of implementation (MOI); and follow up and review mechanisms outlined in the draft outcome document.

World leaders at the development finance summit may have paid lip service to women’s rights, but the Addis Ababa action agenda tells a different story

As part of the “Undoing the Empire” teach-in, AWID met with Annette Davis, Sharone Omankoy and Fania Noël, all three members of Collectif Afroféministe MWASI (MWASI Afrofeminist Collective), to learn more about the French collective's activism in a context characterized by racism and misogyny and other forms of discrimination.

The 29th session of the UN Human Rights Council in June 2015 saw the introduction of the second ever Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on ‘Discrimination & Violence against Individuals Based on their Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity’. AWID spoke with Cynthia Rothschild, feminist, human rights and sexual rights activist, about the significance of the report and outcomes of the June 2015 Human Rights Council session.

The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) made a statement on behalf of AWID, FORUM-ASIA, Just Associates, Nazra for Feminist Studies and the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights – members of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition – to the 29th Session of the Human Rights Council.

With only a few days until the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) starts on July 13th in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, and governments at the UN headquarters in New York are still locked in negotiations on the outcome document. In the midst of this uncertainty, one thing is certain - what is finally agreed in Addis will impact how the next fifteen years of development financing are shaped, including financing for women’s rights, gender equality and the sustainable development goals (SDGs), to be agreed on September 2015 at the UN General Assembly.

AWID spoke with Dorotea Wilson, general coordinator of the Afro-descendant women in Latin America, the Caribbean (LAC) and the Diaspora, about the situation of Afro-descendant women in the region and how they are organizing and preparing for the Decade for People of African Descent.