Global Fund for Women Grants $1.89 Million for Gender Justice

We all know the proverb about giving a man a fish versus teaching him to how to fish, but perhaps it's time to update this old saying to reflect what happens when you teach a woman to fish. While a man who has been taught an income-generating skill may feed himself for a lifetime, a woman with the same knowledge feeds herself and her community. For this reason, Global Fund for Women have granted $1.89 million in financial support to women-led organizations in 67 countries, for a total of $8.5 million this fiscal year. While the dollar amount may pale in comparison to the recently announced, billionaire-backed Giving Pledge, the social justice sentiment behind their grantmaking is firmly intact. I spoke to Christine Ahn about the need for foundations that take a global and grassroots approach to funding.

Why is it important to focus on philanthropic support for women?

We’ve found that when women have access to resources, are healthy, and have the opportunity to contribute to their families’ well being, they flourish – and so does everyone around them. Not only do we believe that women’s human rights and dignity are key to the advancement of any global agenda for social, economic and political change, we believe in practicing this through our grantmaking, which is premised on the assumption that women know best what to do about the challenges facing their communities. In our 23 years of existence, we’ve seen how improving women's rights and increasing their access to technology, education, political participation, and economic autonomy not only enables women to be a powerful force for change, but is the single most effective strategy for a more peaceful, prosperous, and equitable world.

What work does the Global Fund for Women support?

We support a broad range of women’s organizations working on education, reproductive justice, increasing women’s political participation, environmental and economic justice, and building peace and ending gender-based violence. We provide support to women’s groups working at the international level — like using UN Security Council 1325 to ensure that women’s groups have seats at the peacemaking table — down to the grassroots, community level, and we prioritize women’s groups that are essential to the women’s movement; pioneers pushing the margins to advance women’s rights, such as LGBTQI groups; ando women’s groups that represent historically marginalized communities, such as indigenous women and women with disabilities.

How is the economic crisis affecting funding of women's rights work?

The economic crisis is impacting nonprofits and philanthropy in the United States, which will gravely impact women’s rights work worldwide. Although the full extent of the impact continues to unfold, one thing is clear: women and children will be hit hardest because they have fewer economic resources, are subjected to higher rates of violence, and are often the ones responsible for caring for children, the elderly, and the sick in their families. It is well known that investing in women isn’t just about gender equity for equity’s sake, and it is crucial that philanthropic and government money be judiciously used to advance women’s rights, particularly during this economic hardship.

One key lesson of this financial crisis is that the economic systems that govern our lives and the well being of the planet are not sustainable. This is illustrated by growing inequality within and between countries; chronic food shortages; pollution of our air, soil, and water; and the rising sea levels and the earth’s temperature. If we know now that investing in women’s leadership produces healthier families and communities, then we better quickly mobilize philanthropy, individual donors, and governments to ensure that women’s groups are thriving in this period of crisis, not shrinking.

Photo credit: Global Fund for Women