WUNRN
Association for Women's Rights in
Development
Funding for Women's Rights in Brazil and the Southern Cone
South America
Last December, women from five countries attended a resource mobilization
strategy meeting in Brazil.
By Kathambi Kinoti - AWID
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 learned, 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 year's time.
________________________________________________________________________
================================================================
To leave the list, send your request by email to: wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com.
Thank you.