WELCOME TO Funding the Future of Womens Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation of Womens Rights Initiatives? Presented by The Young Feminist Activism Program AWID Funding the Future of Womens Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation of Womens Rights Initiatives? Presented by The Young Feminist Activism Program AWID 1

Session Presenters Lindiwe Bardill AWID Young Feminist Activism Program Sanushka Mudaliar AWID Young Feminist Activism Program Ana Adeve Jovens Feminitsta de SP e REDLAC, Brazil Purity Kagwira Resource Centre for Black Women, Kenya Rasa Erentaite New Generation of Womens Initiative, Lithuania Nadine Moawad Meem Collective, Lebanon 2 AWID Session Slide

Where is the Money for Young Womens Rights Work? These findings are based on responses to AWIDs 2008 Where is the Money? online global survey about funding for womens rights work The survey contained 13 questions designed to gather data and perspectives from womens rights organisations that Work with Young Women Under 30 as a Main Target Group Note: These findings reflect the responses to the survey and are NOT representative of AWIDs views 3 AWID Session Slide

The Survey Results Does your organisation work with young women under age 30 as a main target group? 1032 Womens Rights Organisations answered the 2008 Where is the Money? survey 61% Said YES WE DO (633 WR Organisations working with Young Women) 25% Said NO WE DONT (258 WR Organisations DO NOT work with Young Women ) 7% Said NOT SURE (72 WR Organisations) 7% Unknown 4 AWID Session Slide

Regional Distribution of Survey Sample 5 AWID Session Slide

What was the reason that your organisation started to work on young women's rights? N=553 Organisations (check all that apply) % of Orgs. Because we recognized that young womens rights needed specific attention in our context 76% Because young women started to get involved in our organization and pushed for this to be a core issue 29% Because we wanted to expand our youth programs23% 6 AWID Session Slide

Approaches to working with young women Please mark the item that best describes your organisations work with young women (check all that apply): 40% said We seek to involve young women in our wider programs/activities that target all women 39% said We integrate young women in leading roles within our activities 37% said We run programs that target young women as beneficiaries of our activities 22% said We seek to include young women in our youth programs/activities (Where N=633 orgs./check all that apply) 7 AWID Session Slide

Age and Leadership Who Manages these Organisations? From a total of 615 organisations: 57 organisations (9%) are completely managed by young women 167 (27%) are mostly managed by young women 301 (49%) have a few young women in managerial roles 83 (13%) organisations do not have any young women in managerial roles 7 (1%) do not know 8 AWID Session Slide

Activities The top three activities that organisations undertake with young women are Leadership training for young women (including mentorship activities) (72%) Providing information and skills-building for young women (70%); and Mobilizing young women to affect social change (66%). (Where N=624 orgs/check all that apply) 9 AWID Session Slide

Other Significant Activities Include: Advocacy on issues affecting young women (61%) Campaigning on young womens rights issues (54%) Creating spaces for young womens networking activities and knowledge exchange (50%) Building young womens activist networks (48%) Providing legal representation to defend and uphold young womens right (46%) Conducting research on thematic issues related to young women (40%) 10 AWID Session Slide

Where is the Money for Young Womens Rights? How much money do organisations have? Where does the money for young womens rights work come from? What are the main challenges organisations face mobilizing resources specifically for work with young women? What activities related to young women are the easiest/most difficult to raise funds for? What should donors do to support young womens rights work? 11 AWID Session Slide

Grants Received by Organisations that Work with Young Women: AWID Session Slide

If you add up all the grants and other income sources in 2007 what was total organisational income in US dollars? 13 AWID Session Slide

Total Budget for Young Womens Work: AWID Session Slide

Where are the funds coming from? Sector Percent of grants in 2007: Organisations working with young women Percent of grants in 2007: All organisations Bi/multilateral agencies 13.7% 16.1% Private foundations 1.6% 2.4% INGOs 7.4% 8.0% Women's Funds 16.4% 15.0% Corporate philanthropy 0.0% 0.1% Individual giving 0.3% 1.2% Faith-based organization 0.5% 1.4% Family foundations 2.2% 3.6% National/local government 2.5% 5.2% Other organizational resources 19.0% 24.9% Unknown/no grants received 36.3% 22.0% Total 100.0% AWID Session Slide

What are the three main challenges you face mobilizing resources specifically for your work with young women? 16 AWID Session Slide

Resource Mobilization Challenges: work with young women 1) Scarce Resources for Womens Rights Work Respondents offer the following reasons: There are no funding agencies or donors who support young womens rights work Resources are available, but funding does not cater to the type of work that needs to be done e.g. movement building with young women Fierce competition for the limited resources available and lack of cooperation amongst NGOs working on young womens rights (Where N=417 Orgs/1224 Suggestions) 17 AWID Session Slide

Resource Mobilization Challenges: work with young women 2) Organisational Capacity Specifically fundraising capacity is limited by: Poor quality of organisational resources and infrastructure Small number of staff Limited skills in -General fundraising and resource mobilization -Financial management -Communications -Proposal writing and development 3) Access to Information about Donors who Fund Work with Young Women 18 AWID Session Slide

4) Donor Funding Policies Specifically respondents say that donors: Do not trust that organisations working with young women can manage funding, especially small or newly established organisations, or organisations run by young women Prefer small grants such as project and activity based funding instead of the long term or core funding that is needed Only fund certain thematic areas or agendas Place burdensome reporting requirements on funding Many respondents also mention long delays in receiving promised funding & funding promises that are not fulfilled Resource Mobilization Challenges: work with young women 19 AWID Session Slide

5) Young Women are not a Priority for Donors Respondents report a lack of interest from donors in funding: a)young womens work in general b)specific areas of work important to young women such as sexual and reproductive rights and education Resource Mobilization Challenges: work with young women 20 AWID Session Slide

Respondents report that this makes it hard to justify the importance of young womens work to donors. This invisibility is related to: Factors limiting the participation of young women in the movement (see slides 13-15) including traditional social and cultural norms Lack of coordination and networking between organizations working with young women Lack of awareness amongst womens rights organisations or donors about young women as a sub-group of the womens movement Little research or published information on the specific needs of young women or the issues they face Resource Mobilization Challenges: work with young women 6) Invisibility of Young Women in the Womens Movement 21 AWID Session Slide

Dialogue with Donors What should Donors do to support the work of young women in the womens movement? 22 AWID Session Slide

What Should Donors Do to Support Young Womens Rights Work? Learn More about Young Women Respondents request that donors: Increase their understanding and awareness of the needs, interests and priorities of young women Engage in research on the needs of young women in the womens movement and the situation facing young women in different contexts Share with each other experiences and best practices about funding young womens work Listen to young women and those that work with young women Base funding decisions upon what young women need, know and experience in their specific contexts 23 AWID Session Slide

What Should Donors Do to Support Young Womens Rights Work? Develop More Flexible Funding Schemes Specifically, funding that: reflects the specific contexts and circumstances faced by young women Is simpler to access and manage Includes core functions and administration 24 AWID Session Slide

What Should Donors Do to Support Young Womens Rights Work? Prioritize Young Women as a Main Target Group Donors should: Increase the amount of their budget allocated to young womens work Expand funding programs to include special programs for funding young women Create separate funds specifically for young womens work Encourage womens rights organisations to include a young womens component in their work 25 AWID Session Slide

What Should Donors Do to Support Young Womens Rights Work? Get More Involved, and Not Just Financially Work in partnership with organisations to assist in the writing of funding proposals Engage in regular and ongoing communication Maintain personal contact during the grant period through donor field trips or visits Assist organisations fulfil monitoring and evaluation expectations 26 AWID Session Slide

The Global Fund for Women: A Case Study of Funding for Young Womens Rights Work (2008) Some Highlights….. Donors do face challenges in identifying, tracking, and funding these groups Young women applicants tend to have fewer sources of support, making operational support especially important for these groups Many of young womens rights groups are newer and smaller. Small grants become an increasingly important source of funding as these groups begin to grow and gain access and legitimacy in the funding world. Flexibility in funding criteria is necessary to support these groups, including providing funding to groups that are not yet registered NGOs. Grantee networking and fundraising capacity building tools such as fundraising handbooks are particularly helpful for in assisting new groups to grow and build their capacity. 27 AWID Session Slide

WELCOME TO Funding the Future of Womens Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation of Womens Rights Initiatives? Presented by The Young Feminist Activism Program AWID Funding the Future of Womens Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation of Womens Rights Initiatives? Presented by The Young Feminist Activism Program AWID 28

Strategies to Overcome Resource Mobilization Challenges Networking activities between womens rights organisations that work with young women Development of organisational capacity A directory of donors funding young womens work Continued dialogue with donors Make the case for funding young womens rights work 29 AWID Session Slide

Strategising Together: What else should be done? How can we work together? 30 AWID Session Slide

THE END Funding the Future of Womens Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation of Womens Rights Initiatives? Thank You For Your Contributions Funding the Future of Womens Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation of Womens Rights Initiatives? Thank You For Your Contributions 31