WUNRN
MDG 3 Fund: http://www.minbuza.nl/en/Key_Topics/Millennium_Development_Goals_MDGs/Dutch_aim_for_MDG_3/MDG3_Fund
AWID - Association for Women's
Rights in Development
21/12/2010
DUTCH GOVERNMENT REPLENISHES MDG3
FUND FOR 2011
Excellent
News - The Dutch government has replenished the MDG3 Fund for 2011.
The MDG3 Fund, inaugurated in 2008 with its first three-year grant cycle, awarded €70 million to 45 organizations, networks, and funds from around the world to advance women’s empowerment, gender equality, and women’s rights work. The grants helped catalyze progress towards achievement of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG), particularly MDG3, which focuses on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The projects supported by the Fund have wide-ranging aims and outcomes, with a primary focus on: reducing violence against women, enhancing women's economic independence, increasing women’s property and inheritance rights, and increasing the participation and representation of women in politics and public administration. As such, the Fund represents a historic commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, allowing key actors in women’s movements to expand their reach, take on new projects, and make a deeper impact on social discriminations and rights injustices worldwide. The MDG3 Fund fills a critical gap in development funding for gender equality today, particularly as it is one of the only funding mechanisms available for civil society organizations, which primarily supports women’s organizations and grassroots women.
Given political shifts in Dutch leadership after the dissolution of the ruling government coalition last February and the impact of economic recession, the fate of MDG3 Fund replenishment beyond 2010 was unclear and tenuous. However, after strong arguments from the Dutch gender lobby, internal advocacy and lobbying on the part of the MDG3 Fund administrators, as well as advocacy and research inputs from a group of MDG3 Fund grantees, we stand today with the firm recognition of the importance and success of the MDG3 Fund in catalyzing deep and transformative changes in women’s and communities lives worldwide.
While the MDG3 Fund will be resourced at a lower level, €12 million for 2011, replenishment is a significant achievement. This is particularly the case as the Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation, Ben Knapen assessed the Fund as successful, and reversed intentions to cut its funding. In addition, the parliament voted to add additional funding to the MDG3 Fund budget line this week in order to reach the total €12 million set aside. This vote of confidence in the success of the MDG3 Fund sets an excellent precedent, and honors the reality that women’s rights activists have been communicating for some time—that there is catalytic power in investing in women’s organizing that can profoundly shift and enhance women’s equality, empowerment, and rights on the individual and community levels. These investments have far reaching impacts on a diverse and wide-ranging set of development issues from the local to the global levels. We applaud the Dutch government and their cutting-edge commitment and feel confident that their leadership will encourage and inspire other donors to invest in the MDG3 Fund and make it a permanent mechanism.