Funding for gender equality

The Dutch Mission at the United Nations organised a side event as part of CSW61 to discuss ways on addressing the continued cuts on funding for women and feminist organisations. Speakers at the event included representatives from AWID, JASS and Danish Pension Funds.

AWID gave a good introduction, and recalled the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study which shows that from all official development assistance funding for civil society, less than 1% goes to Southern Women and Feminist organisation, and that funding has halved in the last 5 years.

JASS gave an overview how the previous FLOW1 fund had been beneficial for transformation including in policies, and why long-term support from women and feminist organisations is needed.

The Danish Pension Fund said they allocate 80 million to funds that contribute to gender equality, but that they lack gender projects and cooperation with women’s organisations. But he also said it was our fault as women org’s do not communicate well, and should first become something ‚like a media agency to explain how we can benefit business’.

Zimbabwe Human righter lawyer and Chief Executive Officer of Rozaria Memorial Trust, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda bemoaned how organisations in the global south are side-lined on big grants. She said, “We might be located in the village but we are not small organisations.”