Our note to you...

This story is told in the voices of AWDF founders, staff (past and present), partners, grantees, and friends.

As you read, you may notice that the stories interchange between we and I and they - an interplay of what the narrators know, heard and saw. We ask that you read this journey in the way that it was experienced, very many voices - individual, and collective, so many sisters, together.

We ask that you read this journey in the way that it was experienced, very many voices - individual, and collective, so many sisters, together.

The Spark

Dr Hilda Tadria and Joana Foster connecting on the sidelines of a preparatory conference for Beijiing held in Dakar, back in 1994. Followed by an early morning recreational walk on the beach to share reflections on the experiences at the conference and subsequent conversations about needing a resource pool, by African women, for African women.

A USD 5,000 grant to write a proposal offered by the Global Fund for Women. A submitted proposal. A follow up grant. Ruminations of an African women’s fund by Bisi Adeleye- Fayemi, while at Akina Mama wa Afrika. A culmination of those ideas as Bisi and Joana take a walk in London, right before they are to attend the 1998 Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

Further conversations between the three, refined thinkings of what this fund would look like and some initial commitment of funds from select partners and individual African women. A launch and donor forum in 2000 that results in millions of resources, and AWDF is born. The rest, as they say, is herstory.

“I was impacted by their vision and fearlessness...and the determination of the three women to make this work. At that time, there was nothing like a basket of funds going to the emerging organisations doing so much work, good work..all the funding was coming from Northern organisations ...it was a very interesting and innovative idea...to have African women leading such an initiative was interesting, but also a little bit scary because you never knew where it would end – you know how sometimes you have a very good idea but you’re afraid to step forward, but it was clear to me that these women were not afraid to step forward. That stood out to me.” — Rose Mensah-Kutin, ABANTU for Development, Ghana

The Landscape

The international development sector was exceptionally exclusionary at the time that AWDF started. The different voices we interviewed in creating this story spoke of partners that would tell you everything you needed to do to get money for African women, and their conditions were significantly different than for organisations outside of Africa. Some of the African feminists at the time felt that the philanthropic and development sectors just didn’t trust African women. They didn’t think them capable.

AWDF started because resources weren't going where they needed to go. They weren't going to smaller organisations, to those that weren’t registered, didn’t have formalised structures and processes in place, all of which they needed to make them eligible. But, of course, with their proximity to communities, several years of expertise and lived experience of the nature and magnitude of the problems, they are the ones leading transformative change across the continent. We knew this as the founders when we began AWDF. We knew this as friends, as partners, as colleagues, as grantees. We knew who was doing the work. We knew them and we believed in them.

AWDF came into the philanthropy world, a sector that was created and ruled by the Western world. AWDF confronted it, and joined forces with other women’s funds from the Global South, with partners and friends, to turn philanthropy on its head. And it wasn’t just that they changed the way things were done amongst those that ran the sector, it was that they created an altogether new space. A space for and by African women. It was quite a thing. It still is.

“I’m most proud of the times we were brave. Bisi, Joana and Hilda, when they set up the organisation, they were brave. They were pushing boundaries. There was no regional women’s fund and they took that decision to raise the money, to set up the organisation, to set up the networks…” - Theo Sowa, former AWDF CEO, Ghana

The Launches

At the turn of the millennium, women from all over the globe were gathered in New York for the five year review of the Beijing Declaration - a visionary global agenda for the empowerment of women. It was June 2000. The AWDF founders - Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, Joana Foster and Hilda Tadria decided this was where AWDF would be introduced to the world, alongside their African and diaspora feminist sisters.

There had been no plans to fundraise during the launch, but impromptu pledges were made by African women who wanted to be a part of kickstarting this fund. They gave what they could, raising USD 13,000 in one night.

A little over a year later, on a beautiful December day in 2001, African women gathered for the Africa launch of AWDF in Accra, Ghana with high hopes, ready to celebrate, and celebrate they did. As Bisi recounts, by the time of the launch, AWDF had already awarded USD 344,000 to 38 women’s organisations in 28 African countries.

The Early Years

The first home for AWDF was the third floor of Aviation House, across from the Shangri-la in Accra. It was a great landmark. The day of the opening, even the pillars were dressed up! A few years in, the third floor could no longer contain AWDF, and so by 2004, AWDF moved to a building that it occupied in its entirety. Although AWDF was still renting, she was proud! Four years later, AWDF managed to purchase two buildings, one of which it used as its more permanent, rent-free home to date. For Taaka Awori’s newborn baby, the AWDF House was the first stop from the hospital, even before he got home!.

It was an exciting time, the early years. Everytime we would have meetings, all of the gatherings and consultations, there were always wonderful conversations. You just can’t imagine the quality of the debate in those early years. It was right after Beijing, and there was a lot of momentum to ensure it wasn’t just gathering dust on the shelves. To have an organisation like AWDF, pushing the agenda of Beijing, which African women’s rights organisations had championed and which countries had signed on to, was very significant.

And of course, it was wonderful to have funds dedicated to African women led organisations. Millions were given out in grants in the first few years, pushing African women to the centre stage.

What it looked like? Back in the day, it didn’t matter that a grantee partner didn’t have a phone or email to be reached directly at any time of the day. AWDF would mail and receive grant agreements by post, and phone calls would be made to contacts in towns, setting up a day and time to speak with the grantee partner. That’s how we worked. That’s how we had to work to get to the women we knew we needed to support, the women doing the work.

We started with money

We started with money. We started with money because we knew African women’s organisations needed funding for their programs, so we got to work, raising funds. Here is our story in figures.

Over the past 22 years between 2000 and 2022, AWDF has given out 2,884 Grants (from 38 in 2001 to 250 in 2022)

Equaling USD 68,801,984 in all-time grants (from USD 344,000 in 2001 to USD 11,447,143 in 2022)

to 1,555 women’s rights and feminist organisations in 47 African countries + 5 Middle East countries* AWDF’s Endowment Fund now stands at USD 4.7million

Change at a glimpse

Over the years, we have witnessed our grantee partners do amazing work in all corners. Pushing boundaries, shaping and shifting policies, challenging attitudes and practices, building movements, strengthening themselves and their organisations, setting precedent for progressive rulings and advancing accountability mechanisms. They have pushed for women’s representation, participation and leadership; agitated for the rights of women to own and control their bodies and their lives, free of violence, discrimination and coercion; organised so that women would have access and control of resources; and challenged oppressive systems. It is the collective strength of many chipping away at the mountain, one stone at a time that can cause it to come crumbling down.

“I slept that day like a happy woman, today people will know husbands don’t have the right to do whatever they like with their wives, the laws on violence apply to everybody.” That’s Gladys Mbuyah of FIDA Cameroon speaking about a woman coming to FIDA to prosecute her husband for domestic abuse. He quickly found out that he was in trouble.

“The Groupe d’Appui aux Initiatives Féminines pour un Développement Intégré et Durable (GAIFEDID)/AWDF relationship is like a tree where AWDF is the root, GAIFEDID is the trunk, the women we support are the branches, and the positive changes at the level of these women are the fruits. Let’s take as an example the ability of female sex workers trained by GAIFEDID, through AWDF funding, to advocate in front of more than twenty Members of Parliament at the National Assembly of Benin. This is unprecedented in Benin.” – Pauline Houdagba, GAIFEDID, Benin

Learning as we grow

We’ve been in the philanthropy sector now for two decades and counting. We are still learning. We’ve understood, again and again, that alone, we can go fast. But it’s only when we go together, that we can go far. This comes with its own set of wahalas, but it’s worth the trouble in the end. We have embraced our mistakes and the major shifts that have altered our work, using them as moments to pause, introspect, tease out the lessons and grow.

Change takes time - especially the kind of systemic, deep rooted change we seek. It requires a real investment of resources, a commitment to engage deeply, to try varied methods from different angles. The resources and support needed are not only financial, technical and human, but also emotional. We have learnt to plan, while also being able to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, pandemics, emerging needs and lessons we learn along the way. We know that our funding processes must be flexible, responsive and relevant to actual needs at all times, including in emergencies. Most importantly, we can’t do this work without centring those whose lives are most impacted by the change we seek, and without building the movements that sustain us.

Our bold and ever evolving strategy is guided by our grantee partners and peers on the continent and around the world. We are here to support and resource the work of women’s and feminist movements, which means we must first understand what works for them. What kind of support do they need to work in transformative ways? What would strengthen them? What would allow them to adapt to changing conditions, to survive and weather the storms, and come out stronger? We convene them together so they can guide us, and based on what they tell us, and what we hear, we adapt our approaches accordingly.

Beyond the money

When we started out, we knew African women’s and feminist organisations needed money for programmes but it was not long before they made it clear to us that money alone was not sufficient. They needed mentors and coaches, networks, knowledge and communication tools and platforms. They needed to convene and to lean on each other to build their capacities and ensure their own sustainability, as well as to ensure the sustainability of the change they were seeking to bring about. So, we co-created the capacity building programme in 2007 together with the African Capacity Building Foundation. Twenty years later, we tell the story of our contribution to strengthening African feminist leadership highlighting change at individual level and within organisations.

Read more about AWDF’s capacity strengthening work to learn about the impact we have co-created with actors in the movement below...

Organisations with a soul

You’re in this movement long enough and you know that it won’t last if it’s not joyful. It needs space for pleasure. Belly laughs and communion. Building organisations with a soul, as Hope Chigudu calls it. Over the years - listening to our grantee partners, seeing the work’s toll on our staff, on our bodies, feeling the anxiety in our communities, across the world - our work has increasingly focused on wellbeing and the centring of the people that allow movements to exist.

We detail this journey in this collection on what wellbeing means to us. It highlights the AWDF- led Flourish Retreat inaugurated in 2018 and snippets on framing wellbeing in feminist organisations and for individual feminists by Theo Sowa - former CEO of AWDF, Ghana; Mpumi Mathabela - One in Nine Camawdfgn, South Africa and Cynthia Moses - Box Girls, Kenya.

The Charter Of Feminist Principles For African Feminists

Early on in the work, it became clear that what we were keen to do was support activists, women’s rights and feminist organisations and feminist ideas. So, we gathered, we organised workshops and forums, we debated, we interrogated our own beliefs, privileges, identities and aspirations and, together, we worked to contribute to African feminist thinking and communion that defines us, as a collective.

Following some earlier attempts, AWDF convened the first African Feminist Forum in Accra in 2006 - a momentous occasion that was! It brought together over 100 African feminists to think deeply and converse openly and honestly about the state of the women’s movement.
The conversations and deliberations at the Forum birthed several national feminist forums and the African Feminist Charter - a crucial tool that sets out the collective values we hold in our work and in our lives as African feminists. Sixteen years later, the African Feminist Forums continue to convene across multiple countries, providing space for African feminists to pause and introspect, to question, to affirm, to analyse and collectively strategise on ways to best dismantle oppressive patriarchal systems.

This journey is not linear. Many times, you go back to the beginning. You ask, how can we do this better? What do we need to change? What are our principles and how can we stick to them? How do we ensure peace and safety in the movement? How do we make sure we are inclusive? You know, one of the most important things to come out of the AFF was the Charter of Feminist Principles For African Feminists. Now we can say, read this. If you agree, sign your name. Welcome to the movements.

The Devil is a Liar

In the words of an anonymous sibling...

So, we’re in a meeting and we’re talking about something like abortion rights and unbeknownst to us, we had invited women to a meeting who were Christian fundamentalists. They started talking fire and brimstone, “the devil is a liar!,” one of them screamed. We were so shocked. We just thought, what have we just invited into this space? It’s not the first time something like this has happened. It wasn’t the last time. In one meeting, a woman complained that, “the lesbians are taking all of the resources.”

There is so much diversity in the African women’s movements. And that’s where the Charter comes in. What does the Charter say about intersectionality? What does it say about mutual accountability? Who are we? Over the years, that is what we have had to remind ourselves of. We have stumbled and we’ll stumble again. But the future is dependent on us reminding ourselves of our principle feminist values.

Growth can be a scary thing. Once we started getting larger funding streams, more bilateral and multilateral funding, there was a shift in our accountability, which leaned heavier to our funders rather than to our movements. Grant making processes became more stringent, which meant that the smaller organisations we intended to resource couldn’t access us because they could not meet our criteria.

Sisterhood is Prime

It’s so alive. The work. Over 20 years and I didn’t experience boredom. There was power in working with a determined women’s rights organisation like AWDF working with other determined women’s rights organisations.

You know, I remember that I was in Kampala for a meeting and the director of one of AWDF’s grantee partners was there - Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), a queer-led organisation based in Uganda. It was my first time meeting them in person. And they just kept on saying, “I can’t believe you trusted us with that much money, we’re a small organisation. You gave us money and then you gave us more...”

We have other funders. We know how it works. But, our relationship with AWDF feels different. It has been a long and grounded friendship that has bloomed throughout the years in love, solidarity, and sisterhood. More so is the joy of knowing that we can always call on each other as friends, partners, and sisters on this revolutionary journey.

Governance is a labour of love

AWDF would not be where we are today without the love, labour and leadership of the African feminists who have built and rebuilt our governance structures. Since our very first Board meeting in 2001, wonderful African feminists, on the continent and in the diaspora, have collectively steered AWDF’s growth, providing strategic advice and deepening our connections with feminist movements and funders. We are hugely indebted to all the women and feminists who joined our Board over the past two decades, and grateful for their commitment.

AWDF was guided to explore several governance approaches, including formal registration in addition to the main one in Ghana. In the early years, friends of AWDF in the United States registered AWDF-USA as a 501(c)(3) to raise visibility and financial support in the United States for the Accra-based AWDF. Similarly, in 2011, AWDF was registered under Section 21A of the Companies Act of South Africa with the objective of raising funds for our grantmaking in the Southern Africa region. Over time, our Ghana based entity became strong enough to carry all the responsibilities, registering directly as a 501(c)(3) in the US, and managing all our continental work from Accra. These processes provided opportunities for learning and growth that we are still benefiting from as we continue into the future.

Sankofa

We believe very much in Sankofa - which refers to the belief that we must look back to go forward. We must learn from what we didn’t do right so that together, with all the lessons we learn collectively, we can go further. In order to keep moving, we must also look to the future and anticipate what is to come. In 2016, AWDF embarked on a strategic planning process that was inspired by the need to invest in building feminist futures.

In thinking about what may come, and preparing scenarios so that we’re ready for any eventuality. This process birthed “Shaping Africa’s future”, AWDF’s 2017-2021 strategic plan that gave direction for how we should best utilise our resources, capacities and aspirations based on what research and futuristic trend analyses projected would be the landscape to come for African women, girls and gender-diverse people.

Our 2023-2033 strategy offers a long term plan and focuses on providing holistic support to African women’s and feminist movements in ways that respond to their evolving needs, and enabling them to lead the much needed transformative work, investing in their agency and resilience, not just their programmes and activities. We will also focus on amplifying African women’s and feminists’ voices and knowledge and voice, and promoting a more supportive philanthropic and development ecosystem for gender justice in Africa and beyond.

Read more about AWDF’s journey to preserve African feminist narratives over the years

Rooting in partnerships

This work has always been about partnerships and the creation of diverse and expansive funding opportunities for African women’s movements and organisations. We entered partnerships with other Africa-based philanthropic initiatives, feminist funds, Global South funds and international organisations and continue to serve as founding member, advisor, partner and active participant representing the aspirations of African women and feminist organisations in the philanthropic sector. Among others, these include Prospera the International Network of Women’s Funds which we have been actively involved with since the early 2000s, the African Philanthropy Network which we jointly co-foundered in 2009 alongside our partners Trust Africa and Kenya Community Development Foundation; the South-feminist funds collaborative - Leading from the South which was launched in 2016 and the Equality Fund, formally launched in 2019.

AWDF was actively involved in the formation of Prospera, the International Network of Women’s Funds, in the early 2000s, even as we were beginning to shape what AWDF would look like. In 2003, we hosted the annual conference for Prospera, where 25 women’s funds from all over the world were in attendance. We continue to be an active member of Prospera, working to transform the funding landscape for girls, women, gender-diverse people and their communities. The network serves as a global hub for various women’s rights funds across the globe to be in solidarity with each other, learn from one another, and influence together.

In July 2009, we co-founded the African Grantmakers Network, alongside our partners Trust Africa and Kenya Community Development Foundation. This was the culmination of years of conversations, deliberations and convenings. This network later became the African Philanthropy Network, a continent-wide network of organisations and individuals in Africa and the diaspora engaged in and setting the direction for philanthropy, shaping how resources are mobilised and spent. The network strives to manage power dynamics, put gender, race and class at the forefront of conversations and decisions about giving, and encourage and centre empathy and solidarity.

Auntie Joana

On 5 November 2016, Joana Foster, our co- founder and sister, passed at the age of 70. Her spirit lives, her courage and fierce love for African women guides us still. In her honour, AWDF established the Joana Foster Memorial Grant and awarded grants totalling USD 55,000.

We recollected what staff, partners and friends remember and say about Joana.

The journey continues

It has been beautiful, yes? We were there for our sisters and they were there for us. We were African women funding African women. We are African women.

Gratitude

This story carries the words by AWDF co- founders, staff (past and present), Board members, partners, friends and grantee partners, collected and woven together, added to and organised by African feminist storytellers - Agazit Abate and Nebila Abdulmelik. Some are direct quotes while others paraphrased to create a community of voices. They are the writers of this story, together. The names of all those whose words are used in this AWDF story are detailed below. We directly spoke to some of them, read through responses to questions we had sent out to others. We also read through posts, write-ups, articles, documents, reports, even book excerpts - written by and about AWDF. We went through AWDF’s archives - including images of this journey, and this is what became of all of that.

This documentation project was carried out by African feminist storytellers Agazit Abate and Nebila Abdulmelik, with the guidance of Dinnah Nabwire (Knowledge & Voice Specialist), Malaika Naa Lamley Aryee-Boi (Knowledge & Voice Assistant), and Françoise Moudouthe (CEO) from the AWDF team. The design and illustration was done by Naadira Patel, assisted by Kirsty de Kock. The story webpage was developed by Kihingu Inc. Audio content support was provided by The Stub Accra. Translation support was provided by Bolingo Consult.

We were in conversation with, and/or took quotes and inputs from the following:

The funding partners

It would be remiss of us to talk about who we fund and how we fund, without acknowledging who have funded us in the past and those who continue to fund us - trusting our mission and resourcing the centring of African women and feminist organisations, individual activists and collectives.

Over the years, we have received funds from 80+ individual, institutional and corporate donors. We must pause here to deeply thank individual donors for their trust and generosity. The African women who gave what they could at the very start. Those who volunteered to raise big and small amounts of money for our work. And those who decided to include a gift to AWDF in their legacy estates. They have strengthened us financially, but also emotionally.

What follows is a list of AWDF’s funding partners from the 22 years of our existence.

Rollcall

We know a journey is never walked alone. There are more people who were a part of AWDF’s journey than we could mention. Please help us honour all those who were and continue to be part of this story, by adding their name to the form on our site.

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