Are you getting ready for the upcoming AWID Forum 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand? We sure are!

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is excited to join this global gathering of feminist activists, thinkers, and changemakers from 2-5 December 2024. Under the empowering theme of “Rising Together: Connect, Heal, Thrive,” AWID 2024 promises to be a transformative experience, and we are honoured to support and contribute to shaping its agenda.

At AWDF, we have been working tirelessly to co-create dynamic spaces that will reinvigorate the African Feminist Charter, strategise around countering the worrying rise of anti-rights movements, and amplify the powerful narratives of African feminists everywhere. 

Here is a glimpse of what we have in store:

Pan-African and Feminist Philanthropies: Building Alternative Narratives and Practices (organised jointly by Harambee-Ubuntu, the Adoye network of African women in philanthropy, AWDF and JASS)

Join us for an interactive and participatory strategy session about opportunities and challenges in the current philanthropic landscape in Africa, and discuss alternative analysis, practices and approaches coming from the African continent and the diaspora. I look forward to being in conversation with Theo Sowa, Leila Heissini (both independent feminist philanthropy thinkers and doers), Ttsitsi Midzi (Urgent Action Fund – Africa) and Shireen Essof (JASS), and you all, about what it will take to reshape existing philanthropic systems to be truly in service of gender justice in Africa, and how other regions can be inspired by practices and lessons from the continent.  

Date: 2 December 2024

Time: 11:45 am – 01:30 pm

Venue: Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre

Resourcing feminist movements in French-speaking Africa (organised jointly by AWDF and the Foundation for a Just Society) 

Over half of the countries in Africa are French-speaking, but feminists working in the region are overstretched and underfunded, as funding opportunities, movement organising and advocacy spaces are set up with English speakers in mind. From Mali to Burundi, feminist movements are facing conflicts and political instability, the effects of climate change, rising anti-rights ideologies, all with limited support. How can funders show up for feminists across French-speaking Africa?

Join the African Women Development Fund (AWDF), Foundation for a Just Society (FJS), and activists from the region for a conversation on the current state of feminist organizing in French-speaking Africa, and how funders can step up. Whether you have funded on the continent for years or are interested in learning more, this space is for you. Delicious snacks and coffee will be provided. Click here to RSVP by December 1st

Date: 3 December 2024 

Time: 2 pm to 3.30 pm

Venue: Workshop,  15/1 Yenakart Road, Chongnonsi, Yannawa, Bangkok 

AWDF: Resistance, love and Poetry: Reinvigorating the African Feminist Charter and Countering anti-rights organising

This strategy session aims to harness the power of collective feminist analysis within a co-creative space where we can dream, weave and build together. The purpose of the sessions is to explore approaches for reinvigorating the African Feminist Charter, focusing on addressing key themes around feminist resistance, love, and poetry. We are thinking of engaging with poetry as a depth of language, love as a cornerstone of organising and resistance as the power to hold the line, push the line or erase the line when need be. 

Date: 3 December 2024 

Time:16:15 – 17:30 pm

Venue: Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre 

Room: 109 B

KOMBOA Strategy Session – Let’s Protect the Maputo Protocol

The Maputo Protocol is under threat, and  has been explicitly targeted by anti-rights movements over the past few years.How do we join forces and protect and strengthen our movements as they face increasing attacks from the opposition? Join the Komboa consortium – a grantmaking and advocacy alliance between AWDF, Initiative Sankofa d’Afrique de l’Ouest (ISDAO), Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Purposeful, and the Doria Feminist Fund – for this important conversation.  Spaces are limited, so please register here .

Date: 4 December 2024 

Time: 7:30 – 9:30 am 

Venue: Workshop – 15/1 Yenakart Road, Chongnonsi, Yannawa, Bangkok

In addition to these side activities, we have sponsored the participation of African feminists, activists and movements, ensuring their vital voices are heard loud and clear at AWID 2024.

We invite you to connect with us at these side events, stay in community and engage with us online #AWDFatAWID2024! Share your side activities with us, we would love to engage and be in community with you too.