Deadline: 7-Aug-23
Women’s rights / feminist organisations and informal groups in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda & Zimbabwe are encouraged to submit applications for Her Voice Fund.
Her Voice Fund is a fund from Womankind Worldwide that provides flexible funding to women’s rights and feminist organisations and activists in the Global South to resource advocacy work. The fund supports women’s rights organisations to influence policy at local, national, regional and international levels.
It focuses on supporting organisations working with women in all their diversities, who face discrimination based on their diverse identities, as they are most often excluded from decision-making spaces.
Why is Her Voice Fund needed?
- Women’s rights and feminist organisations have long been at the forefront of mobilising and advancing transformative visions for a more just and equal world. Most do so on limited budgets and without access to flexible and timely resources to respond to the most pressing concerns. Policy influencing initiatives are particularly underfunded especially with respect to organisations working in communities and those addressing intersecting forms of marginalisation and discrimination. Drawing on Womankind’s experience of collective action on girls’ and women’s rights with its partners from the global south, the organisation intends to provide funding to women’s rights and feminist organisations and activists seeking to access and influence key advocacy spaces and opportunities at all levels.
Funding Information
- Womankind will provide grants of up to GBP 20,000 for a period of one year to partners in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. They will also directly fund informal groups for up to GBP 10,000 for a period of one year.
- Examples of advocacy initiatives the fund can include but not limited to; 16 Days of Activism campaigns, influencing a specific law/policy at country level, engaging with regional institutions such as the African Union, the African Commission on People and Human Rights, Influencing UN processes (Commission on Status of Women 68, The Universal Periodic Review Process, the High Level Political Forum, CRPD) amongst others as well as in participating in Global Feminist Spaces such as the upcoming AWID forum.
Eligibility Criteria
- Both Womankind Worldwide partners and informal groups advancing women’s rights and a feminist agenda in the focus countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe) can apply.
- As of 2023, Womankind has revised its funding criteria for informal groups in its focus countries. Informal Groups can now be funded directly without an existing relationship with a Womankind partner who has agreed to host funds on their behalf. This had been the practice from the inception of the fund. This shift is aligned to and compliant with HMRC guidance including requisite due diligence.
Funding Criteria
- Applications received will be considered against the following criteria. They should:
- Identify as Women’s Rights or feminist Organisation and an existing Womankind Partner or an informal group whose vision and mission focuses on advancing women’s human rights in all their diversities.
- Advance progressive women rights and feminist agendas in key advocacy spaces and opportunities at the national, regional and international levels.
- Address systemic and structural barriers that continue to perpetuate gender inequality and discrimination.
- Demonstrate collaboration of multiple organisations and/or strengthen movement building.
- Adopt an intersectional feminist approach that recognises and centres the voices of the most marginalised girls and women in all their diversities.
- Be based in Womankind focus countries. These are; Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Nepal.
For more information, visit Her Voice Fund.