Building Feminist Movements (BFEMO)

The BFEMO Team is in the final stages of our participatory assessment of the global impact of the Dutch Government's MDG3 Fund. AWID shared highlights from our aggregate assessment at a recent meeting in the Netherlands that will bring MDG3 grantees together with the grantees from the Fund's successor: Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW). The MDG3 Fund is the single largest fund ever created for gender equality and targeting civil society organizations.

The team is also delighted to announce that the second edition ofChanging Their World: Concepts and Practices of Women's Movements edited by Srilatha Batliwala is now available in Spanishand French in addition to English! The second edition includes the original 10 cases studies featured in the first edition and summaries of four new case studies that highlight the origins, structures, strategies, and impacts of movements of women particularly those living in conflict situations and those affected and discriminated against due to their occupation, sexual identity or ability. The publication is currently being widely distributed. To order a free copy in English contact us at [email protected]   

Young Feminist Activism (YFA)

The YFA program has been increasing its engagement with its members through various interactive activities hosted on the Young Feminist Wire. In August, the YFA launched 'Guests on the Wire', a peer-to-peer learning model dedicated to young women sharing their experiences and skills with each other. The first "Guest on the Wire" was a discussion of the outcomes of the International AIDS 2012 Conference, held in Washington D.C and the alternative conference - Sex Worker Freedom Festival - held in India. The two guest speakers Himakshi Piplani, from HIV Young Leaders Fundand Chelsea Ricker, an independent consultant on sexual health and rights shared their reflections on the these two meetings. The session also provided the opportunity for the young women to connect with others who were interested in HIV/AIDS work and to discuss some of the ideas, outcomes, and politics coming out of the International AIDS 2012 conference and the Sex Worker Freedom Festival.

In collaboration with the Center for Women's Global Leadership(CWGL), the YFA team organized a two part webinar on human rights and macroeconomics through the Young Feminist Wire. The first session focused on fiscal policy and state obligation and thesecond on monetary policy and strategies for transforming macroeconomic policies. The webinars aimed to provide the 25 young feminist activists who participated with the skills and knowledge to hold their governments accountable to human rights obligations, influence economic policy, and foster new feminist human rights approaches to macroeconomic policy making. The two sessions were and facilitated by Radhika Balakrishnan, Executive Director of CWGL and James Heintz, Associate Director of the Political Economy Research Institute.  

Women's Rights Information (WRI) 

The Women's Rights Information(WRI) team continues to source and disseminate a wide range of information from news, and analysisto job announcements, new resources, events and appeals and urgent actions.

Through the weekly Friday Files(FF's), WRI continues to provide a feminist lens and analysis on current global events and has produced interviews and analysis on a diverse range of topics and covering a wide regional spread. In June the WRI team produced aFriday File on the proposed Fifth UN World Conference on Women, calling for readers to share their views and opinions and join the debate on how best to celebrate the 1995 Beijing Conference. WRI received responses from approximately 60 readers from all regions of the world and summarized the debates in a follow up Friday File -The Proposed Fifth World Conference on Women - A Time to Take Stock and Demand Implementation.

To share information on the Rio + 20 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, WRI produced a special focus section on the conference which brought together the latest news and analysis. In collaboration with the IDeA team, WRI also produced two Friday Files, the first on the People's Summit, which ran parallel to the official meeting, and then an extended Friday File, on the most important Rio+20 outcomes from a women's rights perspective, and how they are shaping discussions in key development policy processes, including the post-2015 development agenda.

WRI also produced FF's highlighting the ongoing plight of women across the globe experiencing hardship, violence and oppressiondue to ongoing conflict, violence and economic instability; on young women's organizing and the challenges young feminists face; and shared information and learnings from key development cooperationand global agenda setting spaces. And WRI continues to work with the Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRD) Strategic Initiative (SI) to highlight issues of WHRDs globally through Friday Files onWellness, Self-Care and Security, Women Journalists, WHRDs in Uganda Face Unlawful Criminalization and Challenges for Young WHRDs in Pakistan.

The AWID International Forum 

AWID recently launched a Call for Proposals for Innovation Seed Grants to all participants of the 2012 AWID Forum. Dating back to the 2002 Guadalajara AWID Forum, these USD $5,000 seed grants aim to support Forum participants to turn creative ideas, Forum learnings and connections into action. 

We received a record-breaking response of 297 proposals from 93 countries in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Turkish. The proposals from both individuals and organizations reflect new ideas born at the Forum that contribute to transforming economic power. Some of the proposals relate to how participants plan to share new concepts and connections from the Forum. Others present concrete initiatives to strengthen feminists and women's rights movements to more effectively address the important challenges discussed at the Forum. AWID convened a selection committee made up of members of the Forum International Planning Committee, AWID staff and advisors to FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund to help us grade and make final funding decisions by mid-November. AWID will finalize and announce the list of Seed Grant winners by the end of the year.

A vast amount of content was generated for and in response to the 2012 AWID Forum by a wide range of individuals and organizations. To share this important Forum content, we have redeveloped the 2012 AWID Forum website from a logistics and event site to a resource and learning hub on the Forum theme. You can visit the new site here to explore key issues and debates from the Forum and learn more about economic power and the connections with diverse women's rights issues and agendas. 

Influencing Development Actors and Practice for Women's Rights (IDeA)

In collaboration with theSociety for International Development (SID) AWID launched the Development Journal 55.3 on Gender and Economic Justice in New York during September. The launch featured two of the Journal's authors: Radhika Balakrishnan, Executive DirectorCWGL and Bhumika Muchhala, Finance and Development Programme, Third World Network. Lydia AlpÍzar Duran, Executive Director, AWID and Stefano Prato, Managing Director, SID also gave presentations. The journal, produced on the occasion of the 2012 AWID Forum, highlights feminist debates, analysis, and reflections on economic development, exploring the ways in which economic power - and, specifically, mainstream development policy and ideology - impacts women's rights. This is particularly critical as the UN General Assembly began its deliberations in mid-September and the UN system grapples with the development framework that will precede the Millennium Development Goals. AWID is translating parts of the journal into Spanish and French and has provided its members full online access to the English version.

The IDeA team has been closely monitoring the post-2015 development agenda process and has participated in a number of meetings to gather further information and engage in discussions with key allies and partners. The meetings included  "The World We Want 2015: Defining a New Social Contract" in Montreal, Canada in September, organized by CIVICUS, Beyond 2015 andGCAP with the aim to discuss opportunities to influence the creation and essential elements of a post-2015 framework. Also in September, the team participated in a discussion on Post-2015 Development Agenda co-hosted by UN Women and the GEAR Campaign in New York which aimed to provide information on the post-2015 development agenda process and to discuss how UN Women and CSOs can work together to ensure that gender equality and human rights are central to these processes.  

Continuing our engagement in the aid and development effectiveness process, AWID is currently the Civil Society Organization (CSO) representative on the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation. AWID's Advocacy team contributed to the shaping of a new CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) to be finalized in the coming weeks by providing a feminist perspective to the process and working to ensure a strong representation of women's rights organisations within this new CSO structure. As part of this process, we co-organized, along with Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Coordinadora de la Mujer-Bolivia, and hosted by the African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), the International Women's Rights Organisations' Consultation on the proposed new CPDE in Nairobi. The team also released a Friday File to disseminate key information on the new Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) and implications for women's rights and gender equality. In July, AWID's advocacy team participated in the 2012 Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) at the United Nations (UN) in New York and continues to contribute a feminist and women's rights perspective to this process. As part of its contributions to this Forum the Advocacy team organized a side-event on "Exploring the Future of Development Cooperation from a Women's Rights and Gender Equality Perspective". The team also produced a Friday File which asks if development cooperation can work for gender equality.

Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs)

AWID's WHRD team continues supporting WHRDs at risk. In the last few months, WHRD disseminated urgent action appeals and solidarity messages, in English, Spanish and French, through AWID's networks, newsletters and website in support of WHRDs in countries that include Nepal, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Russia, Uganda,Zimbabwe, Pakistan, the Philippines and China. Recently we created a dedicated web page condemning the shooting of Young WHRD Malala Yousufzai from Pakistan, which includes latest news, statements, action appeals, and relevant analysis on this attack.

In September, AWID launched AWID-alerts to provide dedicated information and action opportunities for AWID members regarding WHRDs. In the first issue, in collaboration with Amnesty International, the WHRD team highlighted the situation of WHRDs in Russia and North Caucasus, the criminalization of the peaceful - albeit offensive to some - protest of Pussy Riot and the impunity surrounding the murder of Natalia Estemirova three years ago. In October, we supported the Day of Action in solidarity with WHRDs in Honduras, in collaboration with the Meso-American Initiative of WHRDs. And we urged AWID members to send or personally deliver a letter to their respective Honduras Embassies to denounce growing violence against women and attacks on WHRDs.

As member of the WHRD International Coalition and the Meso-American Initiative of WHRDs, AWID also supported two important international advocacy events. The first-ever panel discussion on WHRDs held by the UN Human Rights Council at the end of June in Geneva. And the participation of the Meso-American Initiative at the 52nd Session of the Committee under the Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), for the review of compliance with the commitments undertaken by the State of Mexico which was held in New York in July.