Author: African Women's Development Fund
A huge boost for transformative feminist funding
A huge boost for transformative feminist funding
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AWDF welcomes a generous, transformative gift from MacKenzie Scott
24 March 2022
The African Women’s Development Fund Board and Team are thrilled to receive a generous gift from American philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
As Africa’s first women’s fund, AWDF has awarded over USD 50 million in grants across Africa and beyond in the two decades since we started operating, all while providing critical capacity-strengthening, movement-building, and narrative change support to African feminist groups. We are humbled by the recognition of the impact of our grantee partners and the wider African feminist movements towards disrupting the patriarchal status quo on the continent, and by the trust in AWDF’s critical role in supporting that change.
When it comes to philanthropy, direct funding to feminist organisations is notoriously low and usually comes with directions or restrictions on when, where, how and with whom funding can be used, leaving little room to do and support transformative work in a way that is innovative and inclusive. We therefore deeply appreciate that MacKenzie Scott’s donation to AWDF is both a sizeable and unrestricted donation.
Françoise Moudouthe, CEO of AWDF, says: “I am amazed by how much AWDF has been able to do since its inception, with the support from a generous community of donors. Yet, we are still only able to fund less than 15% of the eligible applications we receive, and the fact that only about 10% of our resources are unrestricted has kept me up at night more than once, not least because I know we fare much better than other African women’s rights groups in that respect. So, for AWDF to receive an unrestricted gift that is about the size of our current annual budget is a huge, exciting opportunity.”
With our excitement comes a great responsibility to our partners and the constituencies we serve. Listening to the priorities they have identified while consulted as part of our ongoing strategy development process, we look forward to leveraging these new resources to go further and deeper than we have been able to so far.
We will prioritise reaching more diverse and marginalised women and gender-non-conforming people across Africa. We will develop even more agile, inclusive and responsive ways to support feminist innovation and transformation. And we will invest in the long-term sustainability of movements as well as our own organisational resilience, so we can sustain and bring to scale the change we will have seeded beyond the coming few years.
There is comfort in knowing that MacKenzie Scott’s gift will enable AWDF to put these ideas into concrete action without delay. We can’t wait to work with our partners and demonstrate the power of collective African feminist imagination!
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AWDF reçoit un don généreux et révolutionnaire de MacKenzie Scott
24 mars 2022
L’équipe de l’AWDF ainsi que son conseil d’administration sont ravis de recevoir un don généreux de la philanthrope américaine MacKenzie Scott.
En tant que premier fonds féminin d’Afrique, le Fonds Africain pour le Développement des Femmes (AWDF) a accordé plus de 50 millions de dollars de subventions à travers l’Afrique et au-delà au cours des deux décennies qui ont suivies le début de ses activités, tout en fournissant un soutien essentiel au renforcement des capacités des groupes féministes africains, à la construction de nouveaux groupes ainsi qu’au changement du discours narratifs de ceux-ci. Nous sommes honorés par la reconnaissance de l’impact de nos partenaires bénéficiaires et des mouvements féministes africains en général pour changer le statu quo du patriarcat sur le continent et par la confiance au rôle essentiel de l’AWDF pour soutenir ce changement.
En matière de philanthropie, le financement direct des organisations féministes est très faible et s’accompagne généralement de directives ou de restrictions sur le moment, le lieu, la manière et les personnes avec lesquelles le financement peut être utilisé; ce qui laisse peu de choix pour réaliser et soutenir un travail transformateur de manière innovante et inclusive. C’est pourquoi nous apprécions profondément que le don de MacKenzie Scott à l’AWDF soit à la fois un don important et sans restriction.
Françoise Moudouthe, directrice de l’AWDF a déclaré à cet effet : « Je suis stupéfaite de tout ce que l’AWDF a pu faire depuis sa création grâce au soutien d’une communauté de généreux donateurs. Pourtant nous ne sommes encore en mesure de financer que moins de 15% des demandes admissibles que nous recevons, et le fait que seulement 10% de nos ressources soient sans restrictions m’a empêché de dormir plus d’une fois, notamment parce que je sais que nous nous en sortons beaucoup mieux que d’autres groupes de défense des droits des femmes à cet égard. Ainsi, le fait que l’AWDF reçoive un don non restrictif qui représente à peu près la taille de notre budget annuel actuel est une opportunité énorme et excitante.»
Notre enthousiasme s’accompagne d’une grande responsabilité envers nos partenaires et les groupes que nous servons. En écoutant les priorités qu’ils ont identifiées lors des consultations menées dans le cadre de notre processus continu de développement de la stratégie, nous sommes impatients d’utiliser ces nouvelles ressources pour aller plus loin que nous n’avons pu le faire jusqu’à présent.
Nous nous efforcerons d’atteindre prioritairement les femmes les plus diverses et les plus marginalisées, ainsi que les personnes non conformes au genre dans toute l’Afrique. Nous développerons des méthodes encore plus dynamiques, inclusives et réactives pour soutenir l’innovation et la transformation féministes. Et nous investirons dans la durabilité à long terme des mouvements ainsi que dans la résilience de notre propre organisation, afin de soutenir et de mettre à niveau le changement que nous aurons initié au-delà des quelques années à venir.
Il est réconfortant de savoir que le don de MacKenzie Scott permettra à l’AWDF de concrétiser ces idées sans délai. Nous avons hâte de travailler avec nos partenaires et de démontrer le pouvoir de l’imagination collective féministe africaine!
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Funding frontline women-led organisations to redefine community impact
Funding frontline women-led organisations to redefine community impact
THE CASE OF IMPROVING WOMEN’S HEALTH OUTCOMES IN KENYA
Written by: Dinnah Nabwire, Knowledge Management Specialist, AWDF
In 2020, over 300 million African women were directly affected by Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and 2.4million of these had suffered from at least one form of cancer.
Across most African countries, addressing the burden for cancers and other forms of NCDs remains undermined by low national health care budgets and intervention packages that do not intricately include the needs of most affected populations.
In our work, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) has found that women-led organisations, the majority of which are situated in and across hard-to-reach, under-served and marginalised parts of communities continent-wide, are well-positioned to address the growing burden of NCDs. However, they lack adequate resources to build alliances, co-create innovative approaches built on their years of community work experience and lessons, champion advocacy and implement the service delivery needed to achieve inclusive health outcomes for women.
In 2021, AWDF extended funding to one of such powerful frontline organisations, Women4Cancer Early Detection and Treatment, a community-based women-led organisation that addresses cervical cancer across sixteen counties in Kenya. In the following sections, we present four levels of unique value addition from resourcing community-level women-led organisations using examples from our work with Women4Cancer Early Detection and Treatment.
Designing sustainable models that address underlying drivers of health inequities
In Kenya, cervical cancer kills nine women a day and is almost entirely caused by infection from the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). While early detection and treatment is a clear path to elimination, HPV vaccines for young girls and boys can prevent infection by the virus in the first place. However, women and girls do not equitably access and utilise this opportunity due to a range of barriers.
According to Elizabeth Mbuthia, the Head of Programmes at Women 4 Cancer Early Detection and Treatment, most women targeted in the awareness sessions often lacked resources (transport and hospital fees) to access screening services at various health centres. Other critical barriers were significant numbers of women lacking information about screening opportunities, not seeing the importance of screening since they presented no signs or symptoms, while others cited lack of cervical cancer screening services at community level health centres when they visited.
With funding from AWDF, Women4Cancer Early Detection and Treatment sought to address these barriers. The team was able to provide free screening that resulted in increased numbers of women who know their status – a crucial step in maximising prevention and treatment for cervical cancer.
The organisation uses a community-driven intervention model that targets girls aged 10-14 and women. Over the past ten years, they have built reciprocal relations with the Ministry of Health, County Departments of Health, Sub- County Health Management teams, community health workers, opinion leaders, caregiver groups and schools with whom they collaboratively design and deliver interventions.
Champions who mainly consist of community health workers, particularly women, are trained and equipped with skills and tools to educate communities on the prevalence of cervical cancer, assess barriers to effective screening and popularise the opportunity for early treatment. During health camps, the project teams and volunteer nurses are attached to healthcare workers in the target health facilities to monitor the quality of services and support documentation and learning.
From the pre- and post-assessments, a significant increase in the numbers of women getting screened across health centres targeted by the project was recorded during the intervention period. At Bahati Sub-County Hospital in Nakuru North, screening rates grew from 13 in June 2021 to 241 in July 2021 following the community education activities coupled with free screening, on-site treatment and referral health camps. Similar trends were registered in the Nakuru North Sub-County Engashura, Kabatini and Dundori Health centres.
Tapping into the unique opportunity to integrate intervention lessons
At the project’s inception, the Women4Cancer Early Detection and Treatment team learnt that Nakuru County had adopted the school-based strategy for delivering the HPV vaccine for girls aged 10-14 years. Low vaccine uptake was registered when learners returned home for holidays or during short breaks and an increase in the uptake when schools resumed.
Based on these observations, the project team guided activity planning and scheduling to maximise holidays and breaks. Specific messaging was integrated to target community influencers and men as parents or guardians to support the participation of women and girls in project activities. The result was the sub-county recording a significant increase in the numbers of eligible girls taking up the HPV vaccine at the end of the intervention.
A partnership was initiated between schools and Engashura Health facility to co-host vaccination outreaches in neighbouring schools which further increased screening and HPV vaccination uptake outcomes. It also enabled the health facility to replicate similar initiatives in the sub-county. Integrating lessons during implementation ensured that the intervention model adjusts to address emerging needs, reaches excluded populations and maximises screening, testing and referrals for the navigation treatment program among women and girls manifest positive results.
Linking community needs to influence policy and programming at the county, national, and global levels.
As host of the STOP Cervical Cancer Technical Working Group secretariat, the Women4Cancer Early Detection and Treatment convenes over thirty partners, including the Ministry of Health’s National Cancer Control Programme, and nonprofits committed to addressing cervical cancer. The organisation is also an HPV vaccine technical support partner in the Advocacy, Communications and Social Mobilisation Technical Working Group (ACSM-TWG) at the National Vaccines and Immunisations Programme, Ministry of Health in Kenya.
The project team continually utilises these platforms to highlight health system challenges from the communities where they work and actively lobby government and key actors to prioritise emerging issues and barriers. During the 2019 launch of the integration of the HPV vaccination to the routine immunisation schedule, Women4Cancer Early Detection and Treatment facilitated the participation of one of the project champions to share the story of her survivorship. She also called upon policymakers who included the President of the Republic of Kenya to subsidise screening costs for more women to know their status and access navigation programs early. The project team uses their membership on these national and regional platforms to follow up these asks.
Impacting key populations and often excluded women and girls
The project team collaboratively works with the Sub-County Health Management Teams (SCHMT) in the different counties to report into the cancer registry databases like the Kenya Health Information System (KHIS). This ensures that national databases capture necessary details about women’s health and their multiple vulnerabilities crucial for health interventions that leave no one behind.
Moreover, in Kenya, it is estimated that female sex workers are almost ten times more likely to contract HIV than non-sex workers – yet, women living with HIV have a substantially increased risk for cervical cancer compared with women without HIV infection.
Before receiving funds from AWDF, Women4Cancer Early Detection and Treatment had worked with female sex workers without deliberate disaggregation. However, with the funds, they scaled up this work through deliberately targeting and training their leadership who subsequently mobilised their colleagues to participate in screening activities. The majority of the champions engaged by the project team had been trained in other health issues, particularly HIV and AIDS, which made it easy to highlight the integration between HIV and Cervical Cancer.
Like Women4Cancer Early Detection and Treatment, hundreds of African women-led community-level organisations are front lining initiatives that promote holistic outcomes for women’s health. Placing funds in the hands of community-level women-led organisations means generating community-driven strategies that reach most marginalised populations and build on resident resources to deliver sustainable high impact interventions.
Diana Louise Ofwona
Diana Louise Ofwona
Diana Ofwona is the Resident Representative of UNDP in Niger since April 2019. As the main interlocutor with the Government of Niger on behalf of UNDP, her key assignment is to provide substantive leadership for sustainable and inclusive development, with particular focus on AU Agenda 2063 and UN Agenda 2030. She is also responsible for the formulation of the UNDP Country Strategy for Niger, mobilising resources and partnerships for Niger’s development agenda, and providing strategic guidance and oversight for UNDP’s operations in Niger.
In her current assignment, she is also in charge of leading UNDP Niger’s strategy for the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin and Liptako Gourma Regions in mitigating the effects of violent extremism, notably the Boko Haram and ISWAP1 insurgencies, through a robust, coherent and integrated approach to security, humanitarian and development challenges under the $100m Regional Stabilisation Programme.
A graduate of the University of Nairobi (M.A), Diana has over 30 years’ work experience in government, private sector, international NGOs, the Academia and the United Nations. Prior to her current appointment, Ms. Ofwona held, from 2015 to 2018, the position of Regional Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), in charge of all countries in West and Central Africa (WCAR). Ms. Ofwona has held other senior positions in the UN across three continents (Africa, the Caribbean and North America), notably as:
1. Regional Director, UNIFEM Central Africa based in Kigali, Rwanda (2010-2015).
2. Special Advisor to the UN Assistant Secretary General/UNDP Regional Director for Africa based in New York, USA (2006-2008).
3. UNDP Deputy Resident Representative based in Niamey, Niger (2004-2006).
4. UN Policy Analyst for Southern Africa based in Pretoria, South Africa (2002-2004).
5. Policy Analyst, UNDP in Trinidad and Tobago (June to September 2002) – UNDP Trainee.
6. UN Regional Advisor for the Great Lakes Region based in Kigali, Rwanda (2000-2002).
A leader and senior international development practitioner, she has proven capacity to shape and lead socio-economic policy. Ms. Ofwona has served on several high-level boards and committees, notably the UN high-level Strategy and Management Review Panel commissioned to develop a new strategy for UNDP in Africa. She also served on the Boards of the North-South Institute (Canada), the Makerere Female Scholarship Foundation (Uganda) and the MTN Foundation (Rwanda).
Diana is a life member of the International Association of Students of Economics and Business (AIESEC) and the Lions Club International.
Call for Proposals: Main Grants and KASA!
Call for Proposals: Main Grants and KASA!
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From January 25th 2022, AWDF will be accepting proposals from interested women led organisations registered and working in Africa. AWDF defines a woman led organisation as an organisation whose board chair and executive director are both women. Also at least 70% of the board and staff members of the organisation are women. The call ends on 22nd February 2022.
For this round of grant making we will prioritise the following:
- Organisations working in French speaking African countries
- Organisations working in two or more African countries
- Young women led organisations
- LBTQI led organisations
- Women living with disabilities led organisations
We have two funding streams you can apply to:
- Main Grants for women led organisations registered and working in Africa and
- Kasa! for women led organisations registered and operating in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal and working on sexual violence issues
Applicant Guidance Note – Main Grants
- The Main grants support work around all of AWDF’s three thematic areas
- Organisations located in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, working on sexual violence can apply for both the Main grant and the Kasa fund
- Organisations working in two or more countries are encouraged to apply
- For the main grant, an organisation working in two or more countries can apply for a maximum of USD100,000 for one year. With this you can apply for only a one-year grant
- For the main grant, an organisation working in one country can apply for up to a maximum of USD50,000 per year for two years
- Please note that AWDF can provide funding to a maximum of 50% of an applicant organisation’s confirmed income for 2021. For example, if your confirmed income for 2021 was USD50,000, you can apply for a maximum of up to USD25,000 per year
Applicant Guidance Note – Kasa!
- The Kasa! grant is specifically for work around sexual violence. The Sexual Violence Research Initiative defines sexual violence here https://www.svri.org/research-methods/definitions .
Sexual violence/abuse refers to any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act, or unwanted sexual comments or acts to traffic, that are directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion by anyone, regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including at home and at work.
- Please DO NOT apply for the Kasa! grant if your organisation is not based in nor working in Ghana, Nigeria or Senegal
- Organisations located in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, working on sexual violence can apply for both the Main grant and the Kasa! fund to work on different aspect of sexual violence or sexual violence and another theme.
- For organisations in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal who intend to apply for the Kasa! grant, please note that the Kasa! grant is specifically for work around sexual violence issues in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal
- For the Kasa! grant, you can apply for a grant of up to USD30,000 per year if your 2021 confirmed income can support that
- For the Kasa! grant you can apply for grant up to a maximum of 3 years.
- Please note that AWDF can provide funding to a maximum of 50% of an applicant organisation’s confirmed income for 2021 per year. For example, if your confirmed income for 2021 was USD20,000, you can apply for a maximum of up to USD10,000 per year
Please note that we expect to receive over 1000 applications and therefore are only able to contact successful applicants once the review process is completed – successful applicants will hear from us in June 2022.
If you are interested in applying, please read the Applicant Guidance Document as it contains essential information to help you through the process. If, after reading the applicant guidance document, you are interested in hearing more about the AWDF application process and would like to join one of our Applicant Webinars, please REGISTER HERE . The French applicants’ webinar will be held on Tuesday February 1st 2022 at 10.00am GMT and the English applicants’ webinar will be held on Wednesday the 2nd of February 2022 at 10.00am GMT.
To apply for a grant from AWDF please complete the application process by clicking the link below
AWDF GRANTS APPLICATION PORTAL
Guidance for the online platform can be accessed here
Click here to read our Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQs)
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À partir du 25 janvier 2022, l’AWDF acceptera les propositions de projet d’organisations dirigées par des femmes africaines enregistrées et travaillant en Afrique. L’AWDF définit une organisation dirigée par des femmes, une organisation ayant une femme comme directrice exécutive et comme présidente du conseil d’administration et dont la majorité (au moins 70%) de l’ensemble des membres du conseil d’administration et du personnel sont des femmes. L’appel est ouvert jusqu’au 22 février 2022.
Pour ce cycle de subvention, nous prioriserons les demandes provenant :
- des organisations travaillant dans les pays africains francophones
- des organisations travaillant dans deux ou plusieurs pays africains
- des organisations dirigées par les jeunes femmes
- des organisations dirigées par les LBTQI
- des organisations dirigées par les femmes vivant avec le handicap
Nous avons deux volets de financement auxquels vous pouvez présenter une demande :
- La subvention principale est destinée aux organisations dirigées par des femmes africaines enregistrées et opérant en Afrique.
- La subvention Kasa! est pour les organisations dirigées par des femmes africaines enregistrées et opérant au Ghana, au Nigeria et au Sénégal et travaillant dans la lutte contre la violence sexuelle.
Informations pour les organisations demandeurs de la subvention principale
- La subvention principale soutient les projets répondant aux trois domaines thématiques de l’AWDF
- Les organisations basées et opérant au Ghana, au Nigeria et au Sénégal, qui travaillent dans la lutte contre la violence sexuelle peuvent demander à la fois la subvention principale et la subvention Kasa!
- Les organisations travaillant dans deux ou plusieurs pays africains sont encouragées à présenter une demande.
- Pour la subvention principale, une organisation travaillant dans deux ou plusieurs pays africains peut demander un montant maximum de 100.000 USD pour un an. Avec cela, vous pouvez demander une subvention d’un an seulement
- Pour la subvention principale, une organisation travaillant dans un pays africain peut demander une subvention d’un montant maximum de 50 000 USD par an pour deux ans
- Veuillez noter que l’AWDF peut fournir un financement jusqu’à 50 % du revenu annuel confirmé pour 2021 d’une organisation. Par exemple, si votre revenu annuel confirmé pour 2021 était de 50 000 USD, vous pouvez demander un montant maximum de 25 000 USD pour un an.
Informations pour les organisations demandeurs de la subvention – Kasa!
- La subvention Kasa! est spécifiquement destinée aux interventions sur la violence sexuelle. L’Initiative de recherche sur la violence sexuelle définit la violence sexuelle comme suit https://www.svri.org/research-methods/definitions .
La violence sexuelle/l’abus sexuel désigne tout acte sexuel ou tentative d’obtenir un acte sexuel, ou les commentaires ou les actes sexuels non désirés ou la traite, qui sont dirigés contre la sexualité d’une personne en utilisant la coercition par quiconque, quelle que soit sa relation avec la victime, dans n’importe quel contexte, y compris à la maison et au travail.
- Veuillez NE PAS soumettre une demande pour la subvention Kasa! si votre organisation n’est pas basée au Ghana, au Nigeria ou au Sénégal.
- Les organisations basées et opérant au Ghana, au Nigeria et au Sénégal, qui travaillent dans la lutte contre la violence sexuelle peuvent demander à la fois la subvention principale et la subvention Kasa! pour travailler sur différents aspects de la violence sexuelle et un autre thème
- Pour les organisations au Ghana, au Nigeria et au Sénégal qui ont l’intention de présenter une demande pour la subvention Kasa! veuillez noter que Kasa! est une subvention spécifiquement destinée aux interventions sur la violence sexuelle au Ghana, au Nigeria et au Sénégal.
- Pour la subvention Kasa! vous pouvez demander une subvention pour un montant maximum de USD30,000 par an si votre revenu annuel de 2021 confirmé peut soutenir la demande de ce montant maximum.
- Pour la subvention Kasa! vous pouvez demander une subvention pour une durée maximum de 3 ans.
- Veuillez noter que l’AWDF peut fournir un financement jusqu’à 50 % du revenu annuel confirmé pour 2021 d’une organisation par an. Par exemple, si votre revenu confirmé pour 2021 était de 20 000 USD, vous pouvez demander un montant maximum de 10 000 USD par an.
Pour ce cycle de subvention, nous prévoyons de recevoir plus de 1 000 demandes et que, par conséquent, nous ne pourrons contacter les organisations retenues qu’une fois le processus d’évaluation terminé. Les organisations retenues seront contactées en juin 2022.
Si vous souhaitez soumettre une demande, nous vous invitions à lire attentivement le guide de soumission de subvention, qui contient les informations essentielles pour vous aider dans votre démarche
Pour en savoir plus sur le processus de demande de subvention de l’AWDF, nous vous invitons à participer à l’un de nos webinaires sur cet appel à propositions. Le webinaire en français se tiendra le 01 février 2022 à 10h00 GMT et le webinaire en anglais se tiendra le mercredi 02 février 2022 à 10h00 GMT. Pour rejoindre le webinaire, veuillez-vous INSCRIRE ICI.
Pour soumettre une demande de subvention à l’AWDF, veuillez remplir le formulaire de demande en ligne en cliquant sur le lien ci-dessous.
PORTAIL DE DEMANDE DE SUBVENTIONS DE L’AWDF
Cliquez ici pour lire notre Foire-aux-questions-cycle-49
Pour accéder au guide d’utilisation du portail en ligne de demande de subventions de l’AWDF, veuillez cliquer ici
Cliquez ici pour vous inscrire au webinaire
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Consultancy Opportunity: Communications Accelerator
Consultancy Opportunity: Communications Accelerator
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 the funding of autonomous women’s organisations. To achieve this, AWDF supports African women’s organisations leading the charge for women’s rights and gender equality in Africa by: mobilising and advocating for increased and improved financial resources to support gender equality initiatives led by African women (through resource mobilisation and philanthropic advocacy); funding organisations that work towards the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality (through grantmaking); strengthening African women’s rights and feminist organisations and leaders (through capacity building and technical support); supporting African feminists as they learn from each other’s work and build solidarity (through knowledge- and movement-building); and amplifying the voices of, and changing the narrative around African women and feminists (through communications). AWDF is currently in the process of developing a new strategic framework to guide its work in the next decade.
We are committed to improving and deepening our work to change the narrative around African women’s agency, to expand public understanding of what gender justice means for Africa, to amplify the voices of African feminists, and to provide the best possible representation of the work and impact of AWDF’s team and grantee partners. Building on the recommendations of a Communications Audit undertaken in 2018, AWDF is now recruiting a consultant (or teams of consultants) to act as a Communications Accelerator – a communications strategist and expert who can assist the team in ensuring our communications strategy, brand and voice, contents, practices and competencies are aligned with our new strategic vision.
The Communications Accelerator’s work will run concurrently with, and feed into AWDF’s overall strategic planning process. The Communications Accelerator will help keep momentum and move from talk to action on ideas that have been raised in the past, bring in fresh ideas, help identify and fill key competency gaps, and review progress. The role is about supporting the Communications team to transform, not tweak, their approach and work for improved impact. The approach will be participatory with activities that encourage ownership.
This assignment will last 6 months, and will ideally start around mid-February 2022. We envisage that 60 to 75 working days will be necessary to complete the assignment.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 15 February 2022.
For more details about the consultancy, the preferred profile of the consultants, and how to apply,
please download the full Terms of Reference here.
In line with AWDF’s mission, qualified and interested women from Africa or from African descent are encouraged to apply.
Celebrating two Phenomenal African women: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee
Celebrating two Phenomenal African women: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee
The African Women’s Development Fund is honouring two trailblazing feminist activists, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, with the AWDF Milestone Award Grants, on the 10th anniversary of jointly winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The grants, amounting to US$100,000 each, will go to their respective organisations to support the work they are doing to advance African women and girls’ participation in conflict resolution, public service leadership and governance.
President Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee were jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize together with Yemenite pro-democracy activist Tawakkol Karman in 2011 “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” The two African women both played a critical role in securing sustainable peace in their country Liberia which was emerging from a brutal civil war, and they continue to work towards protecting human rights and promoting peace.
The AWDF Milestone Grant is a recognition of their remarkable achievement of being the only other African women to win the Nobel Peace Prize, after Wangari Maathai, who won the prize in 2004. Wangari Maathai passed away in 2011, making President Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee the only living African women Nobel Peace Laureates.
Women’s leadership and participation in governance is central in contributing to equality and to positive transformation, and the two recipients of the Milestone Grants have shown leadership for decades in the instrumental roles they played in their country’s quest for peace. The AWDF Milestone Grant is a way to honour and document the experiences and contributions of African women who have committed their lives to the women’s movement and to democratic values and struggles in their countries. It also serves to uplift African women through philanthropy rooted in sisterhood.
By awarding these grants, AWDF is sending a signal not only to these phenomenal women, but to all African women of our commitment to changing the narrative around African women, and highlighting African women’s agency, expertise, leadership and ability to transform societies towards justice.
CEO of AWDF Françoise Moudouthe said she is “inspired by these two outstanding and fierce activists, and AWDF is excited and privileged to support their work ”.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is an economist and was president of Liberia between 2006 and 2018, the first woman to be elected head of state of an African country. She is also the founder of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Centre for Women and Development, an organisation that aims to amplify the voices of women and girls in all spheres of life by increasing their representation in public service leadership roles in Africa. The centre works to champion women’s ascension to the highest levels of leadership and challenge systemic barriers to girls’ and women’s advancement.
Leymah Gbowee is a peace activist responsible for leading a women’s nonviolent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Leymah is founder of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, established to improve access to quality education for women and youth in Liberia.
On accepting the offer of the grant, President Johnson Sirleaf had this to say “AWDF has shown true leadership in advancing women’s rights in Africa and this grant is a further demonstration of their commitment to the cause”.
Leymah Gbowee expressed her appreciation to AWDF, and said that “this grant will ensure that girls and women will continue to benefit from education and leadership empowerment opportunities”.
Established in 2000, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is a feminist grantmaking foundation that supports local, national and Africa regional women’s organisations working towards the promotion and realisation of women’s rights and recognition of African women’s leadership in all spheres of life. As Africa’s first women’s fund, AWDF plays a pioneering role in of both feminist movement-building and philanthropy on the continent.
Listen to Leymah Gbowee in this video as she accepts the award
Follow us on social media:
Twitter: @awdf01
Facebook: African Women’s Development Fund
Instagram @the_awdf
LinkedIn: African Women’s Development Fund
Experiences of women survivors of violence in the mainstream media – Part 2
Experiences of women survivors of violence in the mainstream media – Part 2
[Image by Sylvia Nalubega, UGA, Oct/2021, via AWDF/AfriRep]
Who broke-the-story-first?
Violence is a form of expressing power — whether it is exercised by individuals who wield power or those seeking to reclaim it. Thus, in unpacking all forms of violence, we cannot divorce the two – violence and power.
Journalism is able to perpetuate violence against women because it is a socio-political construct through which information, experiences, beliefs, values and thought processes of individuals, communities and societies are reproduced, relayed to a vast audience which in turn often relies on the medium as readers, listeners or viewers. This, in itself, makes journalism and its channels of engagement powerful. Media practitioners assert this power through tools like language, often revising it to fit an intended narrative that mostly aligns with a socially acceptable discourse around critical issues affecting targeted communities and populations.
As we saw in part one of this blog, violence against women does not happen in a vacuum. At its root is a patriarchal system that reinforces unequal power relations between sexes, providing a conducive environment for the reproduction of different forms of violence. In this second part of the blog, I argue that journalism operates within this system, and media practitioners are not exempt from that patriarchal conditioning. And, because of the power journalism holds as it administers its core responsibility of passing knowledge to the public, it has an ability to impact virally, shaping perspectives, and by extension, attitudes among consumers. It is therefore critical that women’s rights organisations and activists insist on journalism practice that aids prevention of violence against women, rather than one that reproduces, approves and normalises it.
Re-traumatisation of survivors, and language as a tool of violence in the media
As seen in part one, many a time, media practitioners have utilised journalism fluidly based on the politics of the day and of the issue being disseminated. In the next paragraphs, I use reflections from feminist journalists to engage on re-traumatisation of survivors, and language as a media tool to narrate the stories of violence experienced by women on the continent.
Feminist journalist and scholar, Wunpini F. Mohammed notes that the problems with media coverage and representation on violence against women are structural. She adds that newsrooms in Ghana parade survivors of rape, and domestic abuse for news consumers with little thought to how these representations will affect them (survivors).
“Ghana’s National Media Commission has a lot of work to do in monitoring insensitive reportage and sanctioning media organisations accordingly. Media organisations also need to do the work of providing more training in gender sensitive reporting to ensure that survivors of violence are not re-traumatised through harmful media narratives.”
Mohammed raises urgent issues for capacity strengthening that target raising consciousness among media practitioners and regulation by overseeing media practice as an institution for accountability to ethics such as ‘do no harm’. These are a great starting point for advocacy and engagement by women’s rights organisations and activists.
On language, Ugandan feminist journalist Jacky Kemigisa says: “language can be weaponised in reporting, as well as in accountability.” Referencing a harassment case in Uganda in which a publication adamantly refers to harassment texts as “love messages”, Kemigisa explains this in contrast with how corruption is reported. “If someone stole money, they would never refer to it as donations to accord the offender the benefit of the doubt. But here, it did not matter that the court charge sheet read harassment. The language switches to perpetuate violence, as a reflection of reporters’ held patriarchal biases against women.”
For a recommendation, Kemigisa notes that the way to counter that structural problem is if media houses have frameworks in place that counter the misogyny that seeps in [to reporting].”
Scaling what we have
It is worth noting here that feminist activists, women’s rights organisations and media houses alike have provided alternative language and methods of reporting. Moreover, they continue to invest in capacity strengthening activities that target media practitioners to raise their consciousness around sociocultural belief systems, patriarchy and implications for disseminating knowledge on violence against women.
Premising on the findings of a report on gender-based violence data in South Sudan which highlights the gap in media coverage of violence against women around protection of survivors, Ayen Achol Deng, a journalist in South Sudan, underscores the impact of journalist training programmes. Deng refers to trainings conducted by internews to highlight the difference made within the sector arguing that “education is paramount in bridging the gap that patriarchal stereotypes and illiteracy have left.”
Activists and women’s rights organisations seeking to undertake the internews approach can consider combining media practitioners and activists to harness intersections from both fields with a focus on gender-based violence. The approach uses mock sessions for media tools like press conferences to allow activists or women’s rights organisations and media practitioners to exchange questions and reflections on critical issues like the ethics of narration.
In South Africa, Gender Links, a women’s rights organisation carries out research and supports media training; providing cross-learning opportunities and small grants for journalists. In addition to advocating the mainstreaming of gender in media studies, their approach offers an adaptable training module that activists and women’s rights organisations can use to engage media practitioners.
Similarly, the GBV Prevention Network which works in 18 African countries has created a 10-page training module for organisations that advocate for better media coverage of violence against women to guide synergies with media practitioners on the continent.
These efforts are one way to address the gap of inadequacy of training tools highlighted in Part one of this story. Yet, perhaps in addition to many more other efforts needed, training modules need to expand beyond a homogenised look at violence against women. Violence leaves devastating effects on most marginalised groups like gender non-conforming persons, and women living with disabilities.
Without inclusive tools and resources that deliberately address the unique challenges faced by women across the board, the conditioned homophobic violence in mainstream media rages on and hinders the shared quest to liberate all women from all forms of violence.
Edna Ninsiima is a Uganda-based young feminist writer and Communications Consultant. This blog is part of a series following the joint launch of the Evidence Generation Guide and in [French] on prevention of violence against women in September 2021 by AWDF, Raising Voices and the Sexual Violence Research Initiative. Read the first blog in this series and access all launch resources here.
Ford Foundation, OSIWA and AWDF Launch New Fund to End Sexual Violence in West Africa
Ford Foundation, OSIWA and AWDF Launch New Fund to End Sexual Violence in West Africa
Ford Foundation West Africa Office, Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) are joining forces to address and reduce sexual violence, and its deep-rooted drivers, across West Africa. The initiative, KASA! Ending Sexual Violence in West Africa, will leverage the growing focus on sexual violence in the region and boost feminist action and advocacy to reduce it.
Focusing primarily on Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, KASA! (meaning ‘speak’ in the Twi language) will be a fund hosted by (AWDF) to strengthen and support women’s rights organisations to raise awareness of sexual violence as a violation of human rights and rally support to combat it.
Read the full Press Release here
Click here to watch the KASA video
To watch a replay of the launch event, please click here
Experiences of women survivors of violence in the mainstream media - Part 1
Experiences of women survivors of violence in the mainstream media - Part 1
Who broke-the-story-first?
Image by Sylvia Nalubega, UGA, Oct/2021, via AWDF/AfriRep
It is March of 2018 in Uganda. The conversation on prevalent sexual assault is frequenting media, civil society, and public conversation spaces as part of the International Women’s Day momentum. One prominent news publication runs a social media campaign asking women to share their sexual harassment and gender-based violence stories. The incentive — “a luxurious bottle of wine” for the “lucky winner.” After the inevitable public backlash, the publication offers a defensive apology, citing pure intent and regretting the “misunderstanding” caused. They take down the post.
The fourth estate trades in public information, and to acquire and tell stories, reporters would have to follow a process. For instance, they would have to do some fairly extensive research, go into the field, sit down with survivors and get to the bottom of not just facts but also hopefully the emotional and psychosocial reflections of respondents. The stories would also have to be subjected to quality checkers before press time. Checkers are supposed to catch such tone-deaf messaging as in the newspaper’s campaign.
However, a fast-growing trend of social media as a news source has made the space a worthy competitor for mainstream media; and the race to who-broke-the-story-first has intensified. There are, of course, perks to a more saturated media: less bureaucracy, more opportunities for emerging reporters, you name it. On the other hand, the risks include a dangerously diminishing quality of the content presented to the masses. As fate would have it, responsible journalism flies out the proverbial window, and the pursuit of a top spot on the social media algorithm prevails.
In violence against women reporting, inaccuracies stem from an even bigger issue: social beliefs pertaining to gender stereotypes and sexist conditioning. In patriarchal societies like most African countries, where perpetrators are rewarded with impunity for their behaviour, journalism has increasingly doubled down and reinforced that culture. Media language and tone take the form of subtle or overt blame and mocking directed at the survivor and a eulogy for the perpetrator. Unfortunately, those narratives only serve to keep the lives and existence of women in perpetual danger of patriarchal violence.
Acquitted perpetrators, trivialised survivors.
Often, news stories on violence against women not only have the face of the survivor plastered at the top of a page but also attempt to sanitise the perpetrator. When a former woman Member of Parliament in Uganda sought legal action against a man who had sexually harassed and threatened her to the point of a nervous breakdown, the dailies repeatedly referred to the harassment texts as “love messages.” In one story, a headline that seemed to take a hit at the survivor read: “MP cries in court over love text messages.”
In March 2021, three male morning show presenters on a Kenya radio station ridiculed and blamed a survivor of sexual harassment with overtones of slut-shaming, implying that it was her fault that she had been pushed out of the window of a storey building by her aggressor. It is worth noting here that while in the case of the Ugandan Member of Parliament, a public call on editors to revise the language was not heeded, the Kenyan radio took reparative action on its presenters.
Both these narratives were neither fair nor the truth — standards that journalism holds itself to. Indeed media houses — including these — have on countless occasions done a sterling job at telling stories on injustice, especially where the victims are dissidents of the State. However, when it comes to preventing and responding to violence against women, the debate takes a pattern of ineptitude that mirrors a value system that undermines the dignity of women reproduced through language, voice, and information platforms.
What media practitioners say
Samira Sawlani is a freelance journalist and media analyst in East Africa who covers stories across Africa. She says that the pursuit of trending topic-statuses on social media may indeed shape practitioners’ coverage of a story, a justification some journalists give when called to account. But for her, there is one major factor behind insensitive reporting on violence against women on the continent: “…we can talk all we want about the media and what can be done on the part of practitioners — however, a lot of what is brought into the newsroom comes from their belief systems which are rooted in societal systems and structures,” she says. How to fill the gaps? Samira says there is a need for all media houses to carry out training and workshops on how to report on violence against women. “There is also the possibility of setting up media watchdogs to oversee these,” she adds.
“We can talk all we want about the media and what can be done on the part of practitioners — however, a lot of what is brought into the newsroom comes from their own belief systems, which are rooted in societal systems and structures”, Samira Sawlani, Regional Freelance journalist, East Africa.
Josephine Karungi, a seasoned journalist in Uganda, attributes these challenges to three critical aspects: poorly trained practitioners, a culture of media sensationalism, and a general lack of empathy. In the newsroom, investment in stories often varies according to their perceived importance. That investment can look like human resource training, how much time is spent assessing the facts and sensitivity of a story, among other things. “Hard news (serious, of high interest and consequence), and disaster take precedence and violence against women is not considered that.” She points to mass distribution of traumatic events, or what has been colloquially termed trauma porn: “unless there’s 50 girls locked in a house, or something like that, it will not be considered top news.”
In Part 2, we unpack the foundations of media practice that pander to these harmful belief systems and discuss the recommendations by feminists who have organised around reform thereof.
Edna Ninsiima is a Uganda-based young feminist writer and Communications Consultant. This blog is part of a series following the joint launch of the Evidence Generation Guide [and in French] on prevention of violence against women in September 2021 by AWDF, Raising Voices and the Sexual Violence Research Initiative. Read the first blog which focused on the webinar reflections and access all resources related to the launch here.
Annonce de Participantes des Ateliers d’écriture 2021
Annonce de Participantes des Ateliers d’écriture 2021
Candidates retenues pour les ateliers d’écriture pour écrivaines et féministes africaines 2021
SESSION 1: 15 novembre au 19 novembre 2021
1. Dulce Akonkwa – RD Congo
2. Elsie Fidélia ANATO – Bénin
3. Judith EWECK – Gabon
4. Binta Kaké Coulibaly – Ghana
5. Gertrude Kemayong – Sénégal
6. Manuella Kati Koné – France
7. Viviane Akisi KOUAKOU EPSE MONTÉOMO – Côte d’Ivoire
8. R. Gwladys LEBOUDA – Cameroun
9. Lydia Lobe – France
10. Linda Maroy – Rwanda
11. Mireille Moualal – Cameroun
12. Esther N’KUBA – RD Congo
13. Isabelle OTCHOUMARE – Burkina Faso
14. RACHIDA SADOUNI – Algérie
15. Émilie Tapé – Côte d’Ivoire
16. Sadya Touré – Mali
17. Murielle Simone Wonja-Ngueah – Cameroun
18. Augustine Yema – RD Congo
19. Kelly Yemdji – Cameroun
20. Clémence Lontsi – Cameroun
21. Anne Christelle KEDI SIADE – Cameroun
22. Chimène Kouékeu Ngoukam – Cameroun
23. Eulalie Patricia ESSOMBA – Cameroun
SESSION 2: 22 novembre au 26 novembre 2021
1. Floriane ACOUETEY – Togo
2. Dina Nomena – Madagascar
3. Lynn Aurelie ATTEMENE – Burkina Faso
4. Selma Ayari – Tunisie
5. Mariamar CONON – Bénin
6. Aminata Diallo – Guinée
7. Aby Gaye – France
8. Nafissatou Hamadou Saley – Niger
9. Rabiatou HAROUNA MOUSSA – Niger
10. Marie Josée KANDOMBA – RDCongo
11. Injonge Karangwa – Rwanda
12. Anne Marie Manga – Cameroun
13. Caroline Mveng – Cameroun
14. Tém NABROULABA – Togo
15. Prudence Marcelle NGO MANDENG II – Rwanda
16. Marie Renée NWOES A SANAM – Cameroun
17. Fatimata Ouedraogo – Burkina Faso
18. Mina Rakotoarindrasata – Madagascar
19. Ouma Sani – Niger
20. Marilyne SOUROU – Bénin
21. Virginie Merveilles TAZOU MANTHO – Cameroun
22. Claire YVETTE KININGA – RDCongo
23. Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa – Maroc
24. Meriyem Kokaina -France
25. Danielle Gonaï – Côte d’Ivoire
26. Rokia Doumbia – Mali