Introduction
Leading from the South (LFS) is a feminist philanthropic fund and alliance conceptualised and managed by four leading women’s funds: African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), Fondo de Mujeres del Sur (FMS), International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI) / AYNI Fund (AYNI), and Women’s Fund Asia (WFA). LFS supports women’s rights activism and lobbying efforts by women’s organisations, movements and networks at the regional, national, and grassroots levels in the Global South. It is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Under the umbrella of LFS, the four implementing funds:
• Provide funding in the form of innovative and flexible grants to women’s organisations
and change agents in the Global South.
• Invest in capacity building through technical and financial resourcing to strengthen
capacities of change agents.
• Promote advocacy by supporting women’s movements and networks in the Global
South.
• Contribute to build partnerships across strategic regional and global alliances, and
provide critical spaces for South-South learning, and advancing the human rights of
women and girls.
The core objective of the Leading from the South grants is to support organizations to scale up their strategies for political, social, and economic empowerment of women. LFS grants
largely support women’s rights work across these priority areas: climate change and environmental justice; leadership, voice-agency and women’s political participation; violence
against women, and women’s economic justice. Women’s funds, organisations, groups, and movements have been at the forefront of advocacy on the human, economic, and social rights of women and girls for decades. There are currently 37 women’s funds worldwide working under the umbrella of Prospera, the International Network of Women’s Funds, to support grassroots-led efforts towards sustainable and inclusive social change in over 170 countries. Twenty-six of the funds are based in the Global South, including the four LFS member funds.
Women’s funds in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean play a crucial role in ensuring availability, diversification, and sustainability of
funding for interventions committed to advancing the rights of women and girls. Women’s funds in the Global South also serve as important allies and advocates for local change agents
and grassroots organisations working under oppressive systems and environments to advance human rights and social justice. Together, they strive against marginalisation, violence, and discrimination against women and girls in attaining and enjoying their civil, economic, cultural, social, and political human rights.
Objectives of the Call
The main objective is to produce two animated videos to visibilize the importance of Leading from the South and women’s funds based in the Global South.
Although similar in their missions, each of the four women’s funds has its own organisational structures, processes and strategies for communicating both internally and externally, and
operate within unique regional contexts. Furthermore, each of the four funds is already established in the national, regional, and global women’s rights landscapes. Consequently,
LFS communications aims to capture the diverse voices and experiences at the local, national, and regional levels; as well as advocating for the shared vision of the full enjoyment of human rights by all women and girls, trans* and indigenous people in the Global South. This set of videos is promoted by the LFS Communication Working Group, integrated by staff of the four funds, as part of the activities planned for 2019 of the Joint Communication Strategy.
This strategy includes three goals:
- Goal 1: Communicate effectively about LFS with a diverse yet unified voice
- Goal 2: Establish LFS as a key advocacy partner
- Goal 3: Promote LFS-LED advocacy and learning for stakeholder action
The videos should promote the overarching message of LFS being a feminist fund dedicatedto resourcing, supporting and boosting human rights advocacy for women and girls in the
Global South. They should focus on why LFS exists, how stakeholders can engage, why fundingwomen’s rights in the Global South is important and what is the role of Women’s Funds from the Global South in strengthening women’s rights organizations and movements as drivers of social progress.