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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Only 1% of Gender Equality Funding Is Going Women’s Organisations – Why?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">There’s been a $1bn boost in support in the last two years, but only tiny pots of money are trickling down to feminist groups<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img width="624" height="416" id="_x0000_i1029" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D534B8.40ACC930" alt="4000"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The Women Demand Bread & Roses protest in London, January 2019. Photograph: Dinendra Haria/Alamy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#0D0D0D">By Kasia Staszewka, Tenzin Dolker and Kellea Miller – AWID<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">July 2, 2019 - In the past two years alone, governments and international institutions have announced more than $1bn (£0.8bn) in
new commitments to support gender equality globally.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">These include: €500m (£440m) for the European Union and UN’s joint <a href="https://www.un.org/en/spotlight-initiative/index.shtml"><span style="color:#E05E00">Spotlight Initiative</span></a>,
€120m by France for its <a href="https://lc.ambafrance.org/France-promotes-feminist-foreign-policy"><span style="color:#E05E00">feminist foreign policy</span></a> and $114m by Norway to <a href="https://www.africandiasporaleaders.com/acting-together-to-end-sexual-and-gender-based-violence-in-humanitarian-crises-en-ar-world/"><span style="color:#E05E00">end
sexual and gender-based violence in conflicts</span></a>. Canada has announced CAD$490m (£290m) towards three programmes: <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2017/06/canada_launches_newfeministinternationalassistancepolicy.html"><span style="color:#E05E00">women’s
leadership</span></a> ($150m), the LGBTQ2 Fund ($40m), and the<a href="https://matchinternational.org/equality-fund/"><span style="color:#E05E00"> Equality Fund</span></a> ($300m). This fund was among the nearly $600m committed to women and girls in June at
the <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/can-a-new-wave-of-feminist-funding-change-the-way-development-is-done-95072"><span style="color:#E05E00">Women Deliver conference</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">When the Dutch created the <a href="https://www.awid.org/publications/women-moving-mountains-collective-impact-dutch-mdg3-fund"><span style="color:#E05E00">€77m MDG3 Fund in 2008</span></a>,
it was one of the first and largest of its kind ever created for gender equality. Now, it would be one of the smallest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">We should celebrate this unprecedented scale of commitments and, especially, the feminist movements and allies who have organised for decades to bring these resources to the table. But
we celebrate cautiously.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">A <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13552074.2013.802158"><span style="color:#E05E00">growing body of evidence</span></a> proves that feminist movements are driving
gender equality, and increasingly <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/708116/Strategic-vision-gender-equality1.pdf"><span style="color:#E05E00">donors agree</span></a>. However, we often
see governments’ bold statements fizzling into inaction and only <a href="https://www.awid.org/news-and-analysis/20-years-shamefully-scarce-funding-feminists-and-womens-rights-movements"><span style="color:#E05E00">tiny pots of money trickling down</span></a> for
feminists organising in the global south.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">We also know that while recent government commitments might be big, they pale in comparison with spending that compounds inequality for women, girls, and LGBT people, such as increasing
militarisation, growth based on natural resources, and an unjust economic system.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">For example, in 2017, governments <a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-topics/Aid-to-gender-equality-donor-charts-2019.pdf"><span style="color:#E05E00">committed
$</span></a><a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-topics/Aid-to-gender-equality-donor-charts-2019.pdf"><span style="color:#E05E00">4.6bn</span></a><a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-topics/Aid-to-gender-equality-donor-charts-2019.pdf"><span style="color:#E05E00"> in
aid for gender equality</span></a> as a primary objective, but <a href="https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2018/global-military-spending-remains-high-17-trillion"><span style="color:#E05E00">spent </span></a><a href="https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2018/global-military-spending-remains-high-17-trillion"><span style="color:#E05E00">$1.7tn
on the military</span></a>. Massive wealth disparities mean that <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2018-01-22/richest-1-percent-bagged-82-percent-wealth-created-last-year"><span style="color:#E05E00">the richest 1% hold 82% of the world’s
wealth</span></a> – much of it accumulated on the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/why-economic-inequality-feminist-issue-winnie-byanyima/"><span style="color:#E05E00">backs of women’s labour</span></a>, both paid and unpaid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">The new influx of funding has the potential to shift the needle on gender injustice. But only if the money supports feminist solutions to the root causes of gender inequality. To do this,
donors must transform their power, politics and practices to centre feminist movements driving change on local, national and global levels.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Here’s how this can be done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Firstly, money must be moved directly to feminist movements in the global south.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">With the new government commitments, one might think that movements’ coffers are growing. But they’re not. The <a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-topics/Aid-to-gender-equality-donor-charts-2019.pdf"><span style="color:#E05E00">latest
figures from 2016-2017</span></a> show that a meagre 1% of all gender-focused aid went to women’s organisations. The bulk of this money went to international organisations based in the donor countries, rather than feminist groups leading their own, context-specific
solutions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Secondly, working with movements requires a transformational approach, not a transactional one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">We hear time and time again that donors want to support movements, but that those movements don’t fit their bureaucratic requirements: their budgets are too small, finances unaudited,
or their evaluation systems are underdeveloped.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">What local feminist movements need are resources that are big, agile, cross-issue and long-term. It means that some of the donors’ long-established funding models need to change, but it
is not impossible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">If you can’t reach feminist movements with your money, adopt new funding models and <a href="https://www.astraeafoundation.org/stories/astraeas-feminist-funding-principles/"><span style="color:#E05E00">feminist
funding practices</span></a>. <a href="https://www.leadingfromthesouth.org/about-us"><span style="color:#E05E00">Leading from the South</span></a>, for instance, is a €40m funding model led by women’s funds in Asia, Africa and South America, created by the
Dutch government in response to the advocacy by movements after their flagship <a href="https://www.government.nl/documents/decrees/2015/06/12/funding-leadership-and-opportunities-for-women-flow-2016-2020"><span style="color:#E05E00">Funding Leadership and
Opportunities for Women</span></a> programme failed to reach women’s rights groups.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Thirdly, donors must use their power to transform their own politics, peers and sectors.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Funding is not a single charitable gesture detached from the world outside.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">To effect change, donors need to not only invest ambitiously in movements, but to critically reflect on their policies and practices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">Commitments are great, but now it is time for action. Donors must engage feminist movements as equal partners, work to transform their own institutions, and campaign to build an interdependent
and coherent <a href="https://www.awid.org/news-and-analysis/why-we-need-feminist-funding-ecosystem"><span style="color:#E05E00">feminist funding ecosystem</span></a> that unlocks resources for human rights and gender justice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212">This is not only the way to better spend $1bn, it’s the way to unlock the power of well-resourced and resilient feminist social change</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#1F497D">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:#FEF9F5">
<span style="color:#1F497D"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jul/02/gender-equality-support-1bn-boost-how-to-spend-it">https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jul/02/gender-equality-support-1bn-boost-how-to-spend-it</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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