AWID Friday File: Funding for Women's Rights in Brazil and the Southern
Cone
Friday, February 15, 2008
1) Funding for Women's Rights in Brazil and the Southern Cone
Last December, women from five countries attended a resource mobilization
strategy meeting in Brazil. Today we summarize some of the discussions at
the meeting.
By Kathambi Kinoti
2) New Fund to be launched to support work on MDG3
A summary of the Dutch government's upcoming call for proposals for the
'MDG3 Fund: Investing in Equality.'
By Kathambi Kinoti
________________________________________________________________________
1) Funding for Women's Rights in Brazil and the Southern Cone
Last December, women from five countries attended a resource mobilization
strategy meeting in Brazil. Today we summarize some of the discussions at
the meeting.
By Kathambi Kinoti
While globally women's rights work is generally under funded, the funding
landscape for every region has its unique topography. From December 6 to 9,
2007 women's organizations and funders from Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Uruguay and Paraguay convened in Brazil to discuss the impact that funding
has had on women's movements in the region as well as to explore innovative
resource mobilization strategies. The meeting was organized by Alquimia and
Angela Borba women's funds with the support of AWID.
Brazil and the Southern Cone have acquired the reputation of being
economically successful and are considered to be middle-income countries.
They are therefore no longer priorities for donors and as a result, women's
rights work suffers. As is becoming the trend the world over, what donor
support there is tends to prioritize governments over non-governmental
organizations. NGOs are expected to access funding from governments, which
typically have priorities other than women's rights. In addition, they are
intensely bureaucratic which complicates and slows things down further.
The rise in religious fundamentalisms and in conservative politics has also
impacted funding for women's rights work. In addition, the lack of
credibility, visibility, acceptance and recognition of women's rights
organizations also come into play. Amongst the wider society, NGOs lack
credibility and at the same time feminism is regarded as something for
middle and upper class women. The corporate community has yet to adopt the
culture of corporate social responsibility and there is no private
philanthropic culture to speak of.
The meeting participants acknowledged the positive impact that funding has
had on women's regional movements and agendas. It has promoted advances in
public policies as well as regional and international agreements. It has
also promoted visibility for the movement and allowed for networking,
consolidation, mobilization, research and increased knowledge. It has
encouraged the development of expertise on women's rights and the
intersection of other issues with women's rights as well as the
professionalization of women's rights work.
On the other hand, the fragmented way in which resource mobilization has
been done has contributed to the fragmentation of women's movements.
Resources have been centralized in the urban areas, and in particular in
the capital cities. This has undermined grassroots work. There is distrust
between the activists and the professionals in the movement. Funders'
agendas at the regional level tend to be focussed on formal policy and this
has prohibited prioritization of work on the ground.
Participants at the meeting had an opportunity to examine their personal
relationships to money. They discussed the need for personal empowerment to
recognize the value of the work they do and overcome the feelings of guilt
and shame often associated with asking for money. The meeting was also an
opportunity for the participants to experience a different way of relating
with donors and the possibilities of negotiating terms and relationships
with donors. They agreed on the need to work more closely with women's
funds in the region and to start new women's funds in countries where there
are none.
The meeting provided space for critical reflection and analysis on women's
movements. The need for greater solidarity amongst women's organizations,
not only in resource mobilization, but also in general was highlighted as a
way to overcome fragmentation. Participants also acknowledged the need to
re-emphasize grassroots organizing and to popularize feminism. A number of
them called for a collective agenda to be built in order to collectively
work on fundraising for women's organizations, while others thought that
funding should be regarded as a political and cross cutting issue for
feminist movements.
As a follow up to the meeting, the majority of the participants committed
to disseminating what they had learnt, either through meetings or by
publishing the information. Others said that they would definitely
incorporate the funding theme into their agendas. A number of the donors
committed resources for a follow up strategy session in one years' time.
________________________________________________________________________
2) New Fund to be launched to support work on MDG3
A summary of the Dutch government's upcoming call for proposals for the
'MDG3 Fund: Investing in Equality.'
By Kathambi Kinoti
Next month, the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs will send out a call for
proposals for a new, temporary fund called the 'MDG3 Fund: Investing in
Equality.' The Fund is a contribution towards the achievement of the third
millennium development goal. It will support activities aimed at improving
legislation on non-discrimination, equal rights and law enforcement. Its
focus will be on four priority areas out of the seven defined by UN MDG
Task Force 3 on Education and Gender Equality.
The four priority areas are as follows:
1. Women's property and inheritance rights;
2. Women's formal employment and equal opportunities on the labour market;
3. Participation and representation of women in political bodies and
governance;
4. Combatting violence against women.
Work in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and rights, and
secondary education for girls, while not excluded from receiving funding,
will not be prioritized in the assessment of proposals.
Three target groups are considered to merit specific attention and will be
prioritized:
1. Women and girls in situations of conflict;
2. Marginalized women;
3. Adolescents.
Applicants should be non-governmental organizations dedicated to equal
rights for women and girls in developing countries, and can be profit
making companies, formal coalitions of organizations and re-granting
organizations. They can be national, regional or international, and should
be able to demonstrate that they have a support base in selected countries
where activities supported by the Fund are being implemented. Organizations
that already receive funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs will
not be eligible to apply, but those that receive funding from Dutch
co-financing agencies will be able to send proposals.
Projects supported by the Fund will have a maximum time span of three years
and will receive a total of between 900,000 and 6 million Euros. Recipient
organizations will be expected to develop a fundraising strategy to obtain
25% of their income from sources other than the Dutch Ministry of Foreign
Affairs by 2010.
The call for proposals is expected to go out on March 15, 2008 and be open
for eight weeks.
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