Author: Tarisai Nyamweda

In the face of rising backlash against gender equality and women’s rights, Gender Links (GL) has launched the #PushForward4Equality campaign – an urgent and collective call to action across Southern Africa and beyond.

The campaign which kickstarted at the beginning of South Africa’s Women’s Month and ahead of the SADC Heads of State Summit  in August – comes at a critical moment to demand regional leadership on gender justice. The campaign will also build momentum toward the G20 and W20 summits later this year, where global commitments to women’s rights face mounting pressure.

This year marks 30 years since the landmark Beijing Platform for Action, the global blueprint for advancing the rights of women and girls in all their diversities. While the past three decades saw significant advances – legal reforms, policy advances and changing social norms – this progress is increasingly under threat.

Across the world, including in Southern Africa, conservative forces are mounting regressive legislative efforts, promoting discriminatory narratives and coordinating attacks on feminist movements and civil society. Backlash doesn’t just slow progress – it puts women’s freedom, safety and autonomy at risk. Recognising and countering it is one of the most urgent challenges facing gender justice movements today.

The #PushForward4Equality aims to counter these regressive trends by spotlighting powerful stories of resistance, amplifying voices and galvanising collective movement-building. It is a call for united action – to push forward, together.

“We are living in a time where hard-won rights are under threat,” said GL Special Advisor Colleen Lowe Morna. “The #PushForward4Equality campaign is our rallying cry – to resist, to rise, and to reclaim space through solidarity, storytelling and sustained advocacy.”

The campaign is powered by collaboration with Gender Links’ extensive network of regional partners, including the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance, Women of the South Speak Out (WOSSO), the Marang Fund, African Women in Dialogue (AfWID), media organisations and others. The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) through Leading from the South supports the campaign’s focus on deepening advocacy, advancing digital strategies and strengthening feminist movement-building across the region.

Read more about the #PushForward4Equality here.

Article courtesy of Gender Links

Francoise Moudouthe CEO of the  The African Women’s Development Fund recently challenged the philanthropic sector to rethink its role in today’s crisis driven world. Speaking during the opening plenary of  the recently ended Philea Forum 2025, Moudouthe observed the contrast between how the  philanthropy sector and feminist movements are navigating the current ongoing crises differently. She observed philanthropy’s sense of “panic” and contrasted it with the resilience and adaptability of African feminist movements  who are approaching this moment from a distinctly different approach that,

“...we’ve been here before, We’ve experienced this loss of life, loss of rights, loss of resource, loss of allyship. We’ve survived it and we’ve built back and we’ll do it again…”

Drawing from African feminist movements’ experiences, she shares what it takes to meet this  moment using  three transformative lessons from the movement  that she believes philanthropy can learn from African feminists. She notes that philanthropy needs to centre justice – social and gender justice are the foundations for the change we want to see. Secondly, to centre movements  as they are best placed to make justice happen and lastly to undertake feminist philanthropy

Watch more from Moudouthe’s submission at the Philea Forum 2025 below

For more information about the Forum visit philea.eu

Celebrating Arielle Enninful: A Heartfelt Thank You

After nine exceptional years on the AWDF Board, we bid farewell to Arielle Enninful as she steps down from her role as Board Treasurer. Her dedication, expertise, and unwavering commitment have been instrumental in the growth and impact of AWDF.

As Board Treasurer, Arielle provided meticulous financial oversight and maintained the highest standards of governance and transparency. Beyond her fiduciary responsibilities, she has been a strategic advisor whose insights have guided critical organisational decisions and shaped AWDF’s evolution.

Françoise Moudouthe, CEO 

“Arielle has been an exceptional partner in AWDF’s journey. Her financial expertise provided the solid foundation we needed to grow our impact, but it was her strategic insights and genuine care for our mission that made her truly invaluable. She didn’t just manage our finances—she helped us navigate critical decisions with wisdom and integrity.”

Taaka Awori, Board Chair:  

“In nine years of service, Arielle exemplified everything we hope for in a Board member. Her meticulous attention to governance, combined with her thoughtful contributions to our strategic direction, made every Board meeting more productive. She brought both professional excellence and authentic commitment to our shared vision.”

Dr. Hilda Tadria, Founder:

“Arielle understood from day one what AWDF stands for and what we’re trying to achieve. Watching her steward our resources with such care while never losing sight of the communities we serve has been truly inspiring. She’s helped ensure that our financial foundation is as strong as our mission. She brought grace and a great smile, both of which  I hope to match one day.”

Gertrude Bibi Annoh-Quarshie, Director of Operations :

“On behalf of the entire operations team. I would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Arielle for 9 years of strategic guidance, commitment and care. Arielle’s listening, collaborative approach, and financial acumen made even the most complex investment, budget, and financial management discussions seamless and productive. She found ways to support our programmatic goals while maintaining fiscal responsibility. Arielle’s leadership style has left a lasting impression that will continue to inspire us.”

As Arielle’s Board tenure comes to a close, she will continue to be part of the AWDF community. The strong financial foundation and governance framework she helped establish will continue supporting our work for years to come.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Arielle for her extraordinary service and wish her continued success in all future endeavours.

This year, with support from African Women’s Development Fund, Femme Forte Uganda unveiled the Virtual Museum of African Feminists — an interactive digital platform that documents, preserves, and celebrates African feminist histories, thought, and resistance. 

Femme Forte described this as a “historic and deeply personal launch. The museum emerged as a bold response to shrinking civic space, erasure of feminist narratives, and the silencing of gender- diverse communities across the continent.

 The virtual museum has drawn widespread attention from mainstream and new media. Dubbed by Ugandan media as “Uganda’s feminist digital museum” and hailed as a “groundbreaking virtual museum” this spaces marks the “dawn of a new era”.  It curates archival materials, storytelling, activist histories, and visual content that reflect the depth and diversity of African feminist organising. 

Answering why anyone would want to visit a feminist museum, in her speech, Penelope Sanyu, then Chief Stewardess of the Femme Forte, noted that “the simple answer is because history has always done a good job at erasing the genius labour, and stories of women”. 

The Virtual Museum of African Feminists is designed as both a memory project and a tool for education, it enables women, queer, and gender-diverse persons to reclaim voice and visibility on their terms. By reimagining digital museums as civic and political spaces, Femme Forte is expanding how feminist knowledge is produced, preserved, and accessed. This initiative offers a model for how digital platforms can resist erasure while affirming the lived realities and resistance of African feminists. 

African feminist stories deserve to be told and this is a powerful tribute to the voices, struggles, and victories of African feminist icons.

Watch the launch HERE 

Step inside the museum here

Women and children around the world face violence in its many forms every day, and it impacts families, entire communities, and whole countries. It is a global health crisis with profound social, economic, and generational consequences that no one is immune to.

The  African Women’s Development Fund  seeks the services of four experienced coaches to provide individualised and organisational coaching to selected organisations over a  one year period. These coaches will support our work on the Feminist Leadership and Governance project which aims to strengthen organisational systems and culture at the board level; improve the delivery of quality services at the organizational level; and develop the leadership capacity of individual women leaders within five French-speaking feminist countries. Two representatives from each country will participate in the coaching program, totaling 10 participants.

The selected coaches will play a vital role in supporting the organisations and individuals  to achieve the project’s expected outcomes and personal growth with a specific focus on navigating the complexities of working within African feminist spaces. Once confirmed, the four coaches will work with issue-specific facilitators who will be brought in from time to time to engage with individual leaders, especially, collectively. These include keynote speakers, knowledgeable individuals on critical issues like affecting the wellness of leaders and organisations such as anti-rights organising, feminist political education and consciousness.

What’s involved:

Each coach will be responsible for:

• Participating in the baseline assessment process for their assigned organizations and individuals.
• Contributing to the due diligence/capacity needs assessment to identify organizational gaps and inform tailored coaching content.
• Providing regular individual coaching sessions to representatives from assigned organizations, focusing on leadership development, management skills, communication, and navigating the specific challenges and opportunities related to their work in African feminist spaces.
• Providing governance strengthening activities for the boards of assigned organizations, including observation, review, support services, training, and advice. This will include one dedicated governance board training session per organization
• Facilitate the Inception and grand finale forum

Application Process

Interested consultants should submit:

• A technical proposal outlining their understanding of the assignment, methodology, and work plan.
• A financial proposal with a detailed budget.
• A CV or profile highlighting relevant experience. 

Applications should be submitted to consultants@awdf.org by 13th June 2025

Read more in  HERE…

Our world is shifting, philanthropy faces unprecedented challenges, and attacks on gender justice are growing by the day. While the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) has felt these impacts alongside many of you, we choose to respond, as feminists always have, with greater purpose. Pushing to the best of our abilities, in the face of the growing limitations, all while remaining in community with African feminists and movement actors. 

We are excited to announce the launch of our call for proposals set to amplify and continue the necessary,  bold and radical gender justice and social transformation work being initiated and led by movement actors.  This funding opportunity is specifically tailored to support nascent, grassroots organisations, unregistered groups and movements in Africa who are often left out of funding opportunities. It affirms our unwavering commitment to resource, accompany African women’s rights organisations and feminist movements led by women, girls and gender-diverse people in ways that allow them to sustain transformative work.

The Call in Focus

For this funding cycle, we have tailored five (5) funding grants targeting different movement actors working on gender justice and social transformation. The available grant opportunities include:

Inua Grants – This grant will support initiatives that strengthen the voice, agency and leadership of women, girls and gender-diverse persons to lead actions that contribute to gender justice.

Siza Grants – This crisis response grant provides flexible funding to small grassroots and unregistered groups in building sustainable solutions in crisis and conflict areas.

Matla Grants – This grant will support delivery of essential services to women, girls and gender diverse persons experiencing violence, backlash and/or discrimination.

Zimba Grants – This grant will support capacity strengthening and movement building in French-speaking Africa.

Economic Justice Grant – This grant will resource organisations to dismantle the barriers to economic justice and equality for African women, girls and gender diverse persons.

Read more and apply HERE .

Key Dates

From 28 April to 27 May 2025,  we are accepting applications in English or French and strongly encourage applicants from Portuguese and Arabic speaking countries to submit their applications in English or French. 

Are you ready to be part of a passionate, diverse, and dedicated team working to support and strengthen feminist organisations and movements in pursuit of gender justice and social transformation in Africa?

The African Women’s Development Fund is thrilled to announce an exciting vacancy that could be the career opportunity you’re looking for.

About the role 

AWDF is looking for a short term Grants Administration  Support intern to support the resourcing department in its operations. AWDF as a grant’s maker receives a number of applications each year that needs to be processed. We therefore need a team member to support the grant making administrative process from the pre grant making process to the post grant making process.

Duration of the Assignment: The assignment is for a duration of 6 months and the role holder will be working from Monday to Friday.

Applications for the vacancy should reach AWDF no later than Friday, 25th April, 2025.  Due to our limited capacity, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for additional information and interviews.

See more details APPLY HERE

In line with AWDF’s Mission, qualified African women are encouraged to apply.

Thirty years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, feminists from around the world converged in New York for the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69), held from 10–21 March 2025. This was not just a moment to reflect on a historic milestone, but a critical time to take stock of the gains, the setbacks, and the shifting terrain for gender justice globally.

CSW as a Site of Feminist Strategy and Solidarity

The session focused on reviewing implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action—a document that remains one of the most ambitious, visionary blueprints for women’s rights. CSW is often a collision of worlds: grassroots organisers and movement leaders rub shoulders with diplomats, donors, and bureaucrats. But it’s also a vital space where feminist solidarity is rekindled, collective priorities sharpened, and political strategies debated.

Celebrating Gains, Confronting Realities

And yet, this year’s CSW felt bittersweet. While there was cause for celebration—the political reaffirmation of the Beijing Platform for Action, the powerful convening of feminists across generations—the broader context is troubling. Hard-won feminist gains are under attack. Sexual and reproductive health rights are being rolled back. Gender-based violence laws are being weakened or ignored. Space for feminist organising is closing in the face of rising authoritarianism and anti-rights agendas. Trans and queer communities are being criminalised and erased. Women human rights defenders face targeted harassment and violence. And economic policies continue to devalue women’s labour—especially in the informal and care economies—under the guise of post-pandemic recovery.

AWDF at CSW69: Political Presence and Purpose

In this context, AWDF’s presence at CSW69 was both strategic and urgent. Our focus was clear: to stand with our partners and movements, to amplify African feminist voices, and to push for sustained, flexible funding for women’s rights work—especially for those organising at the margins.

Resourcing Feminist Futures: A Call to Action

AWDF CEO Françoise Moudouthe opened the session with a powerful call for meaningful investment in gender justice. “We must immediately commit to protecting not just gender equality but gender justice for all—not with words, but with resources,” she declared. Her message resonated with urgency and clarity, calling on governments, international institutions, and philanthropic actors—especially those in the Global South—to back their commitments with real, sustained funding.

Strategic Convenings and Collective Visioning

Throughout CSW69, AWDF created spaces for strategic alignment and collective visioning. We hosted and co-hosted key events such as the Leading From the South (LFS) Collective Care event on Safeguarding Feminist Activism in Times of Polycrisis and a strategic meeting with the LFS Consortium. These spaces centred care, safety, and political strategy as feminist responses to a world in crisis.

Legacy, Leadership, and Intergenerational Dialogue

We also convened an intergenerational dialogue bringing together African feminists from across the continent and diaspora. The session explored legacy, mobilisation, and what it means to pass the baton without dropping it. As Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi reflected, “This is a movement. Intergenerational organising is about all of us being in the race, knowing we will be doing different things at different times, and playing different roles.”

Zeedah Meierhofer-Mangeli called for intentionality in passing on feminist knowledge: “Let us not leave it to coincidence—we must train, we must hand over, we must make legacy building deliberate.” Coumba Toure added her rallying voice: “Don’t wait for leadership to be handed to you. Take it. Push. Shift. That’s what the young have always done in this movement.”

Feminists on the Ground: Listening and Learning

Beyond panels and speeches, AWDF also took to the streets—with Warkha TV—to hear from everyday feminist activists. We listened, we learned, and we documented the power and plurality of feminist voices at this pivotal moment.

Movement Support in Practice

In line with our commitment to solidarity and movement support, AWDF enabled over 25 African feminist partners to attend CSW69. Partners like Nyaradzo Mashayamombe of Tag a Life International (TALI) and Anuli Aniebo of Heir Women Hub shared reflections on what it means for African women’s rights organisations to be present, visible, and resourced at global platforms like CSW.

The Road Ahead: From Commitments to Action

The session closed with a political declaration reaffirming the commitments made in Beijing, and calling for strengthened national systems, women’s machineries, and increased financing for gender equality. It was a reminder that while declarations matter, implementation—and resourcing—is what defines progress.

Moving Forward With Purpose

As AWDF, we leave CSW69 with sharper political clarity, deeper solidarity, and renewed urgency to fund, protect, and amplify the work of African feminists. The moment demands nothing less.

*Leading from the South (LFS) is a feminist funding initiative that supports women’s rights activism in the Global South through flexible, movement-led grantmaking. LFS is made up of  African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), FIMI – Indigenous Women’s Fund, Fondo Mujeres del Sur (FMS), and Women’s Fund Asia (WFA).

The African Women’s Development Fund seeks a consultant to implement capacity strengthening activities for National Feminist Forums. The consultancy is expected to cover the period from April- September 2025.

Expectations:

• Develop tailored capacity strengthening programs based on the needs assessments and mapping findings.
• Design and deliver various capacity strengthening approaches and initiatives including but not limited to workshops, training sessions, and mentoring programs .
• Provide technical assistance and support to NFFs in implementing their action plans.
• Develop a monitoring and evaluation framework to track the progress and impact of the capacity strengthening activities.
• Conduct regular monitoring visits and collect data on the effectiveness of the interventions.
• Prepare progress reports and a final evaluation report.

Application Process

Interested consultants should submit:

• A technical proposal outlining their understanding of the assignment, methodology and workplan.
• A financial proposal with a detailed budget,
• A CV or profile highlighting relevant experience.

Submit your application to consultants@awdf.org  by 14 April 2025.

Read more HERE .