Category: Publications
Preventing Violence against Women: A Primer for African Women’s Organisations
Preventing Violence against Women: A Primer for African Women’s Organisations
Why this primer?
This primer provides an overview of key terms, trends, approaches, and evidence used to frame violence against women (VAW) prevention programming. It is designed to strengthen programming, advocacy, and research for evidence-based violence against women prevention in Africa. We hope that it will both contribute to individual learning and promote collective knowledge on VAW—enabling organisations and groups to engage more meaningfully in VAW prevention programming, advocacy, research, and activism.
Who is this primer for?
This primer is intended for African women’s organisations, African women’s funds, and allied philanthropic actors to broaden their understanding of the trends in the rapidly evolving field of VAW prevention. The primer also serves to increase the participation of African women’s organisations, researchers, activists, and programme developers in advancing evidence-based work on VAW prevention grounded in feminist politics.
Ultimately, it is our hope that this primer supports African women’s organisations to take the lead on VAW prevention programming, innovations, implementation, and advocacy.
HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PRIMER
Annual Report 2018: Deepening Roots
Annual Report 2018: Deepening Roots
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Deepening Roots is a report on our achievements, learnings and growth in 2018. We strongly believe in the power and potential of African women to shape our own destinies and this report is a testament to all the growth work that continues to guide our cause. The report has been structured across three major themes: growth, reflection, and learning. Each theme captures the ways that AWDF implemented our strategic vision in 2018. We stay committed to
supporting a range of African women’s organisations to live out their visions of justice and freedom for all African women. As we continue to reach upwards and outward in our feminist journeys, we also remember to dig deeper and more intentionally into the values that root us to do this work. We hope
you enjoy reading as much as we enjoyed growing, reflecting and learning in 2018.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL REPORT ENGLISH VERSION
TO READ THE FRENCH VERSION, PLEASE CLICK HERE
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L’enracinement (Deepening Roots) est un rapport sur nos réalisations, nos apprentissages et notre croissance en 2018. Nous croyons fermement au pouvoir et au potentiel des femmes africaines à forger nos propres destins; et ce rapport est un témoignage de toutes les activités qui ont marqué notre croissance et qui continuent de guider notre cause.
Le rapport a été structuré autour de trois principaux thèmes: croissance, réflexion et apprentissage. Chaque thème représente les voies par lesquelles notre vision stratégique a été mise en oeuvre par l’AWDF en 2018. Nous demeurons engagées à notre volonté de soutenir un éventail d’organisations de femmes à accomplir leur vision de justice et de liberté pour toutes les femmes africaines. En poursuivant notre engagement à la cause féministe vers les sommets et l’extérieur, nous nous rappelons également de puiser profondément et de manière plus intentionnelle dans nos valeurs qui nous lient à ce travail qui nous passionne tant.
Nous espérons que vous trouverez du plaisir à lire ce rapport tout comme nous avons été heureuses de croître, de réfléchir et d’apprendre en 2018.
CLIQUEZ ICI POUR LIRE ET TELECHARGER LE RAPPORT
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Bread and Butter #2: Advancing Resources for Rural Women Farmers
Bread and Butter #2: Advancing Resources for Rural Women Farmers
From 13-15 September 2018, the African Women’s Development Fund convened activists, scholars, researchers and policymakers to build a thoughtful, progressive and transformative vision for the Future of African Women and the Economy under AWDF’s Economic Justice and Security thematic area. This convening investigated the various ways that African feminists are engaged in critique, analysis and the re-visioning of African economies to provide justice and security for African women. The convening is part of a larger movement-building process and ongoing conversation around resourcing African women’s economic justice and security at AWDF. The Bread and Butter series is a multifaceted knowledge production project that springs out of the convening, reflecting AWDF’s commitment to providing feminist analysis of African women’s organising. The article below is the second Article of the series.
Bread and Butter Article 2: Advancing Resources for Rural Women Farmers by Sylvia Nalubega
Women are the primary food producers globally. Within the continent of Africa, 57% of total female
employment is within agriculture. The continent’s future of food security in the face of climate change will be largely centered on the resources afforded rural women farmers. However, gender inequality perpetuates biases in resources allocated to rural women farmers and their communities. ARUWE understands that the future of food security depends on a holistic, rightsbased approach to addressing gender inequality. Central to expanding the economic opportunities for rural women is access to financial services. In this article, Sylvia Nalubega (ARUWE Uganda) provides a case study analysis of ARUWE’s work, demonstrating how rural women’s access to
finance is a necessary component in securing food on the continent. ARUWE Uganda champions
rural women and supports their movement as they advocate for their rights to financial resources.
For the full Article please click the link below:
Statement from the Participants of AWDF’s 2018 Economic Convening on the Future of African Women and the Economy
Statement from the Participants of AWDF’s 2018 Economic Convening on the Future of African Women and the Economy
At the end of 2018’s AWDF’s Economic Convening the participants composed a statement. This statement from the participants of the convening, outlined their priorities and recommendations for securing African women’s economic futures.
Please click HERE to read the statement
The Bread and Butter Series: Growth for Whom? A Pan African Feminist Reflection on Macro Level Economic Policies
The Bread and Butter Series: Growth for Whom? A Pan African Feminist Reflection on Macro Level Economic Policies
The first article in our Bread and Butter series was written by Crystal Simeoni from the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), convenors of the African Feminist Macroeconomics Academy. The article provides a feminist reflection on current neoliberal macro level economic policies in Africa and how they affect women’s lives. The writer argues that current definitions of women’s economic empowerment are too narrow to offer impactful strategies. This follows from increasing analyses that, in as much as Africa’s economies grow, so does inequality between her people. Simeoni argues that current neoliberal macroeconomic frameworks will continue to exacerbate the problem.
Please click HERE to read the article.
African Women’s Economic Futures Convening : Statement on African Women’s Economic Justice
African Women’s Economic Futures Convening : Statement on African Women’s Economic Justice
On September 13th – 15th, 2018, AWDF convened 27 activists, academics, development workers and knowledge producers to strategise and prioritise African women’s economic futures. This convening culminated from AWDF’s fourth strategic plan Shaping the Future, and the accompanying Futures Trends Analysis Report which highlighted the socio-economic implications of anticipated trends in Africa for women and girls. Over three (3) consecutive days, we had extensive conversations, workshop and group activities that helped us build sound advocacy strategies for African women’s economic futures. As an institution committed to resourcing African women’s movements, AWDF believes that this convening was the first step in a journey to better support future-oriented strategies to engender African women’s economic justice and security.
Bread and Butter is the post-convening knowledge series which aims to document the dynamic, critical and radical perspectives of African women thinking about their economic futures. The expression “bread and butter” refers both to the ways in which individuals come to sustain themselves usually through paid work and individuals’ practical, every day needs and concerns.
We begin our Bread and Butter series with a statement from participants of the convening, outlining our priorities and recommendations for securing African women’s economic futures.
The statement was drafted during the convening and finalized a few weeks after by the Drafting Group. Each participant contributed their own expertise to produce a holistic approach to the issues and concerns presented. While the statement attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis and list of recommendations, we encourage other African feminists to expand and operationalize this statement, with proper citation of the original statement. We hope that you find the statement useful to your own strategies.
Please click HERE to read the statement
In Bloom: AWDF Activity Report 2017
In Bloom: AWDF Activity Report 2017
This year, AWDF set the stage for our new strategic plan Shaping the Future (2017-2021). It was a year of significant expansion in our budget, in our programming and also growth in our staff team as we began our planned scale-up in contributions in the world of African feminist philanthropy. Under our new strategic plan, AWDF has a threefold aim of resourcing African women’s organisations and movements to promote, protect and realise women’s human rights, amplifying African women’s rights, concerns and resourcing agendas; and sustaining AWDF as a financially secure, effective and well governed feminist philanthropic organisation.
To read our activity report in full, click the link below.
The Journey of Building Positive Networks, a Profile of Herschelle Milford, CEO of Surplus People’s Project
The Journey of Building Positive Networks, a Profile of Herschelle Milford, CEO of Surplus People’s Project
When Surplus People’s Project’s CEO, Herschelle Milford, was invited to participate in the African Women’s Development Fund’s CEO Forum on Leadership and Governance in 2015, it would be the start of a journey of growth that would build networks with feminist leaders across the African continent. At the time, Milford said her “biggest drawback has always been my struggle with self-confidence and public speaking”. Milford represents an organisation that envisages a transformed and just society and stands in “solidarity with radical social movements in struggles for pro-poor agrarian transformation for food sovereignty”.
SPP research conducted in 2009 indicated that land reform and food security strategies were not well integrated in South Africa and these policies have not paid sufficient attention to the patriarchal structures which limits women’s access to productive land. South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world with a Gini coefficient of about 0.65 and there are constant struggles to ensure that the poor have access to land and resources. SPP’s discussions with women across the Western and Northern Cape – where the organisation operates — have identified inequality in food, violence against women, women’s access to land, unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse as critical issues. SPP recognises that while there is a general challenge to have more South Africans gain access to the land, that challenge is greater for women.
To this end, the SPP works with social movements and communities helping them to amplify their agrarian struggles. “Generally, I am a selfdriven person and set high expectations for myself,” noted Milford. “A positive attribute has always been my leadership style that emphasised inclusivity, transparency and shared accountability.” The Nairobi intervention, however, focused on individual skills — starting early with yoga before moving on to three full day sessions that included board governance, media training, personal care, resource mobilisation and feminist engagement.
Planting a seed, a profile of Lorato Moalusi Sakufiwa
Planting a seed, a profile of Lorato Moalusi Sakufiwa
When the African Women’s Development Fund invited Lorato Moalusi-Sakufiwa to the CEO Forum’s Leadership and Governance programme, a Capacity Building initiative, it would plant a small seed that would bear fruit over a broad reach of the organisation’s programmes. “For me gaining leadership skills and then leading this organisation so that, in turn, it can start building the capacity of other organisations, was a big impact,” said MoalusiSakufiwa. “There was value in being in a partnership with the leadership programme because we were able to support the leadership of other organisations.”
Moalusi-Sakufiwa is the director of the Kagisano Society Women’s Shelter in Botswana and, in 2013, the organisation received USD 20,000 from the AWDF, under their Women’s Human Rights thematic area, in order to keep the organisation’s shelter running through the provision of adequate bedding, cooking utensils and improved safety measures. The Kagisano Society Women’s Shelter was established in1998 in response to violence against women (VAW) in Botswana. Their vision is to be a leading organisation for ending violence against women in the country. The shelter does so by providing temporary shelter, counselling, community education and outreach, and completing advocacy on critical issues connected to the security of women.
Read the rest of her story below:
Building Organisational Resilience. Profile of Wangechi Wachira, Executive Director of Centre for Rights Education and Awareness
Building Organisational Resilience. Profile of Wangechi Wachira, Executive Director of Centre for Rights Education and Awareness
In 2013, the Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness (CREAW) in Kenya was facing closure. Nearly 5,000 cases affecting women that CREAW was overseeing were still within the legal system but the organisation — like many in the country — was in the midst of a funding crisis. CREAW is a national, women’s human rights nongovernmental organisation based in Nairobi, whose vision is “a transformed and just society”. Its mission is to champion, expand and make real women’s human rights with programmes grounded in core values of integrity, professionalism, passion, innovation, and synergy. It is headed by leading woman’s activist, Wangechi Wachira. CREAW’s relationship with the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) started in 2007 when another leading women’s organisation and grantee partner, FEMNET, suggested the organisation apply for funding for their women’s programmes.
“By the time we started the relationship around 2007, Kenya was going into a general election. AWDF funded a programme that worked to support women to be able to participate in decision-making processes,” recalled Wachira. “Before the election, things were fine but after the elections, things went south. We were able to play a role in peace building during that process. We went back to AWDF and said that women had come out in big numbers to vote but in the aftermath, women had been abused and violated. We wanted to go back to the communities and document the stories of the women we had worked with,” she explained.
“The country has made a lot of strides since 2007. In 2010, Kenya passed a Constitution and women were able to push for their issues at a constitutional level. Since then a lot of laws have been passed that deal with the issues of women. What remains, however, is to make sure that they are finalised, implemented and that the relevant government institutions take responsibility for them to be enacted,” said Wachira.