About AWDF The African Women’s Development Fund was established in June 2000, as an Africa-wide philanthropic, grant making initiative to support the realisation and fulfilment of African women’s rights through funding of autonomous women’s organisations on the continent. AWDF believes that if women and women’s organisations are empowered with skills, information, sustainable livelihoods, opportunities to […]

The year was 2006. HIV-activist Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, known to the public only as Khwezi, faced off against Jacob Zuma, then the deputy-president of South Africa, in court. She had accused him of rape. She stood her ground amidst death threats from Zuma’s supporters, harassment from the ANC Women’s League and widespread torment from the […]

The rates of violence against women have reached pandemic levels across the world. It is estimated that 1 in 3 ever-partnered women above the age of 15 have, at some point in their lives, experienced some form of physical or sexual interpersonal violence. In some parts of Africa, the prevalence rate is almost double that […]

Children in well-worn school uniforms play on the dirt road that runs past the small, red-brick structure on the corner of an unnamed street in Orange Farm, about 45km south of Johannesburg in South Africa’s Gauteng province. Established in 1988, Orange Farm is one of South Africa’s youngest township, with the original inhabitants consisting predominantly […]

Gender Links – for equality and justice From the outside, the unassuming red-brick house in Johannesburg’s southern suburbs does not look like much. From the street, it would be near impossible to guess that these are the offices of one of Southern Africa’s leading women’s rights organisations. Gender Links is a small organisation with a […]

African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is a Pan-African grant making organisation that funds local, national and regional autonomous women’s rights organisations in Africa and the Middle East, that are working towards the promotion and realisation African Women’s Rights. Since the beginning of its operation in 2001, AWDF has awarded grants and provided technical support to […]

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 […]

At AWDF we believe that in order to achieve impacts towards our collective mission of advancing our women’s rights we also need to dedicate resources to help build the capacity of changemaker organisations. As a donor, AWDF aims to support best practice financial management both internally and also amongst our grantees. We acknowledge that financial […]

By: Sabine Afodanyi, Knowledge Management Intern I began my internship with the African Women’s Development Fund with eagerness and desire to soak in as much knowledge as I can concerning African feminism. I had the opportunity of interning with the Knowledge Management department, which is responsible for archiving and analyzing feminist knowledge produced by the […]

Gender activists from across Southern Africa launch the#VoiceandChoice 2019 Barometer alongside the State of Women in SADC 2019 report. The Barometer has been produced for the last eleven years by the Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance, a network of Women’s Rights Organisations that campaigned for the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development in 2008, its updating and […]