Category: News
We are inviting Applications for Grants!
We are inviting Applications for Grants!
Are you a feminist or women’s rights organisation working in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine or Yemen, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel Region, French speaking Africa, or in Portuguese or Arabic speaking country? AWDF is a Pan African organisation and while we recognise the significant needs of women, girls and gender diverse people everywhere we work, for this cycle we are prioritising applications for work in French speaking countries.
Are you a women led organisation that has been formally registered for at least three years (before June 2020)? AWDF defines a woman-led organisation as an organisation whose Board Chair and Chief Executive/Director are both women or non-binary, and where at least 70% of the board and staff members of the organisation are women or non-binary.
If yes, AWDF invites you to submit an application today.
What, When and How?
For this round of grant making, AWDF will award grants for an amount between USD20,000 per year to USD500,000 per year. We are able to make grants for up to 20 months in this cycle, and you can apply for one of the following three types of grants:
- Pamoja: you can apply for a maximum of US$500,000 per annum for 20 months
- Ananse: you can apply for a maximum of US$200,000 per annum for 20 months
- Yalla: you can apply for a maximum of US$50,000 per annum for up to 20 months
AWDF expects to receive hundreds of applications for funding. In this cycle we anticipate awarding the following number of each type of grant:
- Three (3) Pamoja grants
- Six (6) Ananse grants
- Eleven (11) Yalla grants
You can apply for up to 50% of your verified 2022 income. For example, if your confirmed income for 2022 was US$600,000 you can apply for a maximum of up to USD300,000 per year for 20 months. If your confirmed income for 2022 was $40,000, you can apply for a maximum of up to $20,000 per year for 20 months.
The deadline for submitting your applications is 11.59pm GMT on 8th August 2023.
02: 59 AM EAT on the 9th of August 2023 – Eastern Africa Time
01: 59 AM SAST on the 9th of August 2023 – South Africa Standard Time
Next Steps
If you are interested in hearing more about the AWDF application process and would like to join one of our potential applicant webinars, please register here. The French applicants’ webinar (with interpretation in English) will be held on Thursday 13th July 2023 at 10.00am GMT, and the English applicants’ webinar (with Arabic and Portuguese interpretation) will be held on Friday July 14th 2023 at 10.00am GMT.
If you wish to submit an application, please complete the application process online. Guidance for the online platform can be accessed here
Read more about this Call for Applications here.
Successful applicants will hear from us in December 2023.
Important Links:
ONLINE APPLICATION GUIDANCE DOCUMENT
Advancing Feminist organising at the Women Deliver Conference 2023
Advancing Feminist organising at the Women Deliver Conference 2023
Will you be at the July 17-20 Women Deliver Conference in Kigali? Come Connect with us.
AWDF will be in solidarity with gender equality and feminist actors attending the conference online and in-person. Our 47-member delegation includes 34 African feminists and women rights actors from 18 countries and 13 staff members.
The Women Deliver Conference is one of the largest multi-sectoral convenings to advance gender equality and brings together grassroots advocates, youth, civil society, governments, multilateral organisations, and the private sector, with a deliberate representation of communities facing systemic discrimination around the world. You can read more about this year’s conference here.
The 2023 Women Deliver Conference in Kigali is the first to be held on the African continent and an opportunity for AWDF to promote and highlight African feminist voices within the space, centre evidence and define approaches that work to promote and sustain gender equality gains. It will also be an opportunity for AWDF to continue to reintroduce ourselves to our partners and constituents as we launch our new strategic framework and direction for the next ten years.
AWDF staff attending will be representing a number of our priority areas of work including Partnerships and Philanthropy, Knowledge and Voice, Resourcing and Movement Building.
We invite you to find and connect with the work and voices of the diverse pool of partners we are sponsoring at the exhibition booth and in the various sessions we are co-hosting at the conference. Here is a summary.
African Feminist Perspectives on Wellbeing: Cultural Meanings, Identities and Innovations
A side event to introduce a guide on a feminist response to trauma, developed jointly with the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
Date: July 18, 2023 | Time: 11:30-13:00 hrs CAT
Venue: Kigali Convention Centre Room AD-12.1 |Translation available:
Prevention, Support and Accountability: Combatting Sexual Violence in West Africa
A concurrent session to present learning from the work of our partners under the Kasa! initiative (funded by the Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundations).
Date: July 19, 2023 | Time: 15:30-17:00 hrs CAT
Venue: Kigali Convention Centre Translation available:
You can find the full programme for the Women Deliver Conference here. Please contact events@awdf.org if you have specific questions around AWDF’s engagement at the conference.
We have an opening for a Finance Officer
We have an opening for a Finance Officer
Do you have experience in financial management and are you ready to develop your competencies and contribute to strengthening the financial health of AWDF? Do you have strong analytical and accounting skills? Are you able to provide timely and accurate financial reports and procedures including cash management, payroll, budgeting and financial disbursement? Do you have experience in carrying out effective due diligence for grantee partners?
If this is you, apply for the position of FINANCE OFFICER.
Job Summary
Reporting to the Finance Manager, the Finance Officer is required to support the achievement of the financial management objectives of the organisation in line with the organisational strategy. The Finance Officer will be responsible for the financial operations of the organisation and ensure timely and accurate financial report and practises including cash management, payroll, participating in audits, budgeting, transaction monitoring and financial disbursement. As part of the specific duties described below, the Finance Officer will have additional responsibility for due diligence work related to programmes and operational portfolios.
To apply, please follow this link
Closing date for application: Monday, 12th June 2023
Exciting vacancies for African Feminists!
Exciting vacancies for African Feminists!
The African Women’s Development Fund is inviting applications for two vacancies in our Programmes team. If you’re a highly motivated and innovative individual who is passionate about women’s rights in Africa, excited about African feminisms and embrace African women’s diversity, we’d love to hear from you. We have openings for the following positions:
Programme Manager – Impact and Learning: Responsible for leading and supporting the overall implementation of the AWDF impact and learning strategy. The role will design and implement processes and systems that embed evidence-based decision making and the ability to understand, learn and adapt to increase AWDF’s collective impact. The role drives and champions strategic and organisational learning, monitoring and evaluation working in collaboration across teams. It will also lead all aspects of the Impact and Learning function including budgeting/financial management, leadership and staff development, policy development and strategic planning.
Please follow this link to apply for the position of Programme Manager – Impact and Learning
Programme Specialist – Agency and Resilience: Working in close collaboration with colleagues in the “Nurturing” cluster, the A&R Specialist will focus on unlocking the agency of African women’s rights and feminist activists, leaders, organisations, collectives and movements so they flourish and are impactful. The role will be responsible for leading the re-imagining and implementation of AWDF’s new strategy work with African women’s rights and feminist organisations, collectives and movements working for gender justice in Africa.
Please follow this link to apply for the position of Programme Specialist – Agency and Resilience
Closing Date for applications is 6th June 2023
The AWDF Story: An African Feminist Journey
The AWDF Story: An African Feminist Journey
More than two decades after the birth of Africa’s first women’s rights and feminist grantmaking organisation, the African Women’s Development Fund is taking a look back at where we have been in order to chart the way forward into our future.
It gives us great joy to share with you the story of our Journey, which draws on the motivations, memories and wisdoms of many people. Our founders, staff past and present, grantee partners, donor partners and friends have all lent their voices to weave this beautiful narrative of how far we have come.
Since the mid-1990s when Joana Foster, Hilda Tadria and Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi first came together to ideate a women’s fund with African women at the centre, AWDF has remained committed to supporting African feminist movements because we know the power that they hold.
We’re proud of our journey and our impact in the last two decades, and we’re looking forward to more years of African feminist magic.
Follow the #AWDFjourney on our website and on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn as we share more about the story of our origins and growth, and share your own recollections of AWDF under the hashtag.
Download the full story here.
We have a vacancy for an Intern
We have a vacancy for an Intern
We’re looking for a dynamic feminist who is passionate about women’s rights in Africa and embraces African women’s diversity and innovation, to join our team as Agency and Resilience Intern (Short-term).
Job Summary
The work of the Agency & Resilience team focuses on strengthening the organisational capacities of grantee partners through (but not limited to) planning and delivering training events. The AR Intern will support the team to plan and coordinate activities related to the unit’s training events. The internship will last for a period of 6 months.
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Gender, Women’s Rights, Organisational Development, Development/social work or any related discipline.
Excellent written and spoken English and French.
How to Apply:
Qualified and interested persons should send a cover letter via https://awdf.simplicant.com/jobs/48662–agency-and-resilience-intern/detail indicating their relevant skills and experience and CV of not more than 3 pages. Subject line should indicate the position being applied for.
Applications for the vacancy should reach AWDF no later than Friday 28th April 2023. Due to our limited capacity, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for additional information and interviews.
In line with AWDF’s Mission, qualified African women are encouraged to apply.
Capacity Building Consultancy Openings for African Feminists
Capacity Building Consultancy Openings for African Feminists
For the last decade AWDF has complemented its grant making support with capacity building activities to ensure that women’s rights organisations who receive grants from AWDF have the right skills sets, support and capacity to sustain their women’s rights work and organisations in Africa. AWDF applies different methodologies including feminist coaching and skills training in its capacity building activities and these have produced effective results over the years.
We are currently planning our Capacity Building training events for the year, and we are looking for high calibre professionals to support in the design and delivery of the following:
- Financial Management: Download TOR here
- Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning: Download TOR here
- Resource Mobilisation Strategies: Download TOR here
- Communications and Effective Advocacy: Download TOR here
- Rapporteurs: (On Hold)
While bilingual (English & French) professionals are preferred for these consultancies, candidates who can deliver the training in either English OR French are encouraged to apply. Fluency in Arabic would be an advantage.
For more details and mode of application, please click on any of the links above and download the Terms of Reference.
CLOSING DATE: 31st MARCH 2023
Call Consultants – Feminist Entities Mapping
Call Consultants – Feminist Entities Mapping
We are looking for consultants to support our programmes teams in mapping and partnering different entities within the movement including: individuals; non-formal/emergent non-traditional actors & collectives; CBOs & NGOs; and national/regional partners & networks working at scale.
AWDF believes that for the African feminist movement to thrive and endure, and be impactful, different types of organising are key. To help us to better serve these movements, we want to deepen our understanding of their key issues, trends, priorities and aspirations and how we can best be responsive to them.
If you are committed to feminist principles, have a good knowledge of the different entities in the African feminist movement and understand the ecosystem in which these entities work, we’d love to hear from you.
Please click here to download the Terms of Reference for more details and mode of application.
Closing date is 16th March 2023
We’re Hiring: Director of Partnerships & Philanthropy
We’re Hiring: Director of Partnerships & Philanthropy
The African Women’s Development Fund is hiring our first ever Director of Partnerships and Philanthropy. To fill this position, we are looking for an African feminist with significant experience in resource mobilisation, donor relations, strategic partnerships and philanthropic advocacy, as well as senior management.
How to Apply:
Qualified and interested persons should send a cover letter indicating their motivation, relevant skills and experience and a CV of not more than 3 pages with application for the position being applied for indicated as the subject line via this link:
https://awdf.simplicant.com/jobs/47615-director-of-partnerships-and-philanthropy/detail .
Applications for the vacancy should reach AWDF by Monday, 27th February, 2023. Due to our limited capacity, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for additional information and interviews. In line with AWDF’s mission, qualified African women are encouraged to apply.
Job Location
AWDF House, Accra – Ghana or work remotely from any African country where you have the legal right to work from.
Awareness to Accountability; 30 years of 16 Days of Activism
Awareness to Accountability; 30 years of 16 Days of Activism
By: Martha Sambe, for African Women’s Development Fund
On April 29th, 2021, a 21-year-old Iniubong Umoren left home in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom, Nigeria, for a job interview. She never returned alive. At 4:29 PM that day, Iniubong’s friend sent out the first of several distressed tweets calling for anyone to help her friend, who she believed was in trouble.
Devastatingly, Iniubong was later found in a shallow grave within the family compound of Uduak Akpan, the young man who was eventually convicted of raping and killing her. Sixteen months later, a judge sentenced Akpan to death by hanging.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence, mostly at the hands of an intimate partner. In sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of violence against women (VAW) by an intimate partner is about 33%, described as the highest in the world.
During the initial global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this violence intensified to such an extent that experts began to speak of the “shadow pandemic”. For example, a study describing VAW across Africa in 2020 reported a 48% increase in East Africa during the lockdown. Similarly, according to the study, the Central African Republic saw an uptick of about 69% in reported injuries to women and a 27% increase in rape. Meanwhile, South African police also recorded a 37% increase in Gender-Based Violence (GBV) cases within the first week of April 2020. And in Nigeria, reported cases increased by 149%, a figure drawn from 23 out of 36 states.
A History of Violence
For 31 years, the world has marked the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign from November 25th to December 10th. The campaign has provided a platform for concerted efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls. However, the origin of the movement goes farther back than is often mentioned. It was originally inspired by events in the Dominican Republic, when revolutionary sisters Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal were killed on 25th November 1960 by the authoritarian regime they opposed.
Twenty years after their deaths, in 1980, the first International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Latin America was declared. Then in June 1991, the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) and participants in the first Women’s Global Institute on Women, Violence and Human Rights called for a global effort against GBV and, in 1999, the United Nations formally declared November 25th the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women worldwide.
The Band-aid Treatment
More than 30 years after the first 16 Days of Activism, the world does not seem much safer for women and girls. According to the UN, crimes of Violence Against Women (VAW) are still the most under-reported, as well as being the least likely to end in convictions.
Nigeria’s conviction rate is evidence of this unfortunate phenomenon. In 2021, out of 5,204 reported cases of VAW, less than 1% of offenders (i.e. fewer than 52 perpetrators) were convicted. South Africa records a similarly low rate as 4,058 cases of GBV were reported in 2020, but only 130 convictions were made.
Needless to say, the speedy and decisive response in Iniubong Umoren’s case is not the norm. It was a rare victory spurred by the viral news of Ini’s disappearance, attracting attention from local and international press. This is not unusual; the more viral a case of VAW goes online, the quicker lawmakers and enforcers tend to act to lay the matter to rest. This trend also played out with the BBC Sex for Grades Documentary; less than a year after it premiered, the Nigerian Senate created and passed legislation against sexual harassment in institutions of higher education.
While these victories should be recognised, strategies for ending GBV need to go beyond reactionary approaches, which work only in rare cases. For example, it is known that GBV occurs due to gender-based inequalities, which often reflect an inherent power imbalance in favour of men, one that characterises many patriarchal cultures worldwide. Consequently, a reactionary approach to ending GBV tackles symptoms rather than the problem of inequality itself.
From Awareness to Accountability
The early years of the 16 Days campaign saw concerted efforts towards raising awareness about GBV. These efforts have proven successful, with the campaign now carried out across 180 countries worldwide, reaching 300 million people. After 27 years of raising awareness, in 2018, the founding organizations declared that subsequent 16 Days of Activism would focus on increasing accountability for VAW and eliminating all forms of discrimination underscoring gender-based violence.
A necessary step towards achieving this is ensuring that GBV is situated within the larger context of gender inequalities, thus providing a basis for a proactive stance. This intervention can look like providing support for the creation, implementation, and strengthening of legal and policy frameworks that address VAW while helping to bridge the gaps between law and practice through the creation of accountability mechanisms. Advocates and governments must strengthen the legal and policy frameworks which address VAW, and bridge the gaps between law and practice by enforcing accountability mechanisms. Since causal factors of VAW are often interconnected, interventions must be multi-institutional and multi-sectoral in their approach. Actors from the health, justice, education and security sectors all have roles to play in creating and implementing prevention-focused interventions.
Such work is already being done on the continent. For example, the ‘1-in-9 Campaign’ demands legal accountability and sustainable structural change through lobbying for the transformation of legal frameworks so that women and girls who report GBV can access justice. In addition, the campaign rightly acknowledges that ending VAW must include ending all other forms of oppression that impact women’s access to equality because all gender-based inequalities come from the same belief that women are subordinate to men.
Similarly, the Kenya Sex Workers Alliance (KESWA) is demanding accountability via a multi-sectoral approach that centres the safety and rights of sex workers. KESWA supports universal access to health services, including HIV services, and raises awareness through focus group discussions, social media campaigns, sensitization meetings and themed talks on gender-based violence. Furthermore, they work with the Kenyan police to influence a change in attitudes and foster accountability within the institutions.
At a regional level, the South African Development Community (SADC) developed a Regional Strategy and Framework of Action for Addressing Gender-Based Violence in 2018. As part of its key strategic actions to prevent GBV and protect survivors, the SADC has agreed to pursue accountability by ensuring that perpetrators are prosecuted and maintaining a culture of zero impunity by strengthening the legal and judicial systems. Similarly, provisions have been made to equip security personnel and increase their accountability for conducting evidence-based investigations and providing quality service delivery in GBV prevention and responses.
Getting it Right
As we commemorate 16 Days of Activism this year, I long for a future where women do not have to take out a few days to campaign against violence. But until then, we must broaden our activism beyond reactionary strategies that achieve justice for specific victims while thousands of others remain silenced. We also must recognize that VAW has a sociocultural basis. Thus, to make women and girls truly safe, we must create effective multi-pronged interventions that tackle inequality and oppression at the root.
Martha Laraba Sambe is a writer, researcher and intersectional feminist who believes none of us is free until we are all free. This article was produced as part of the African Women’s Development Fund’s (AWDF) 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign, themed ‘Empowered People Taking Strategic Action to End VAW.’