At the start of 2017,  Lydia Alpízar Durán stepped down as AWID’s Executive Director, after 10 years of passionate leadership,and Cindy Clark and Hakima Abbas became the organization’s first co-Executive Directors.

Given the current state of the COVID 19 pandemic, our Board of Directors has decided to postpone the 14th AWID International Forum to September 20-23, 2021. The location of the Forum remains Taipei, Taiwan.

Feminists have mobilized on a massive scale to generate our own autonomous resources for daily acts of solidarity and survival and to respond politically, collectively, and powerfully to this moment. Many of these actions are coming from within communities and movements in some of the hardest hit and less privileged places, and especially amongst Black, LBTQI+, disability, migrant, land & labour movements. Some of the responses are localised, while others are global.

In recognition of this particular moment in time, and knowing that so many movements may be relying more and more on organising remotely for the next few months, APC, AWID and FRIDA share some of what we have learnt around how to organise politically in virtual worlds.

As we write this text, the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, growing authoritarianism and fundamentalisms along with severe economic inequalities are magnifying what has been known by many - the exploitation of people’s labor and the earth’s natural resources in the name of market-based neo-liberal economics cannot and will not save us.

It’s on everybody’s lips – Covid-19, more commonly referred to as the Coronavirus! Perhaps, like me, you have been glued to the media networks, social media channels and other news outlets trying to understand the scale and scope of one of the biggest surprise epidemics of our times.

Here at AWID we decided to write a People’s Declaration for Beijing+25 to raise the bar on gender equality agendas  — and we want you to write it with us.

The trans house confirms the transformative force of social movements: if no one helps nor provides for us, if the State ignores us, then we’ll do it ourselves.

After careful consideration, the 14th International AWID Forum will now take place 11-14 January 2021 in Taipei, Taiwan. This decision is guided by several criteria like participant safety and security, logistical viability and accessibility.

New Board member Nidhi Goyal reflects on her journey as a disabled feminist and activist from India.