Our Strategy
We recognise that unequal power relations are created and encouraged by legal, political, economic, and cultural systems, but we also believe in their capacity to change. The Issues Affecting Women Programme supports women’s efforts to create this change – to build, lead, and grow strong, vibrant, and influential movements in order to achieve equity and justice. We envision a world where women have the capacity, resources, and opportunity to be safe and free, and to enjoy their human rights.
We:
- Support women-led rights-based services that address violence against women.
- Provide primarily long-term support as an act of solidarity, helping movements to achieve the lasting change needed for us all to thrive.
- Connect organisations and movements, and resource them to learn from each other and work together, to develop knowledge and skills, and to plan, organise, and mobilise.
We also engage with other donors and philanthropic actors to leverage more and better funding to advance women’s rights around the world.
Our Priorities
We support organisations that:
- build capacities, strengthen women’s agency and leadership,and ensure adequate financial resources
- create and maintain safe spacesso that feminist agendas and perspectives are amplified and become more influential
- create and disseminate knowledgeto generate shared agendas and support evidence-based advocacy
- strengthen connections, cooperation, and collaborationwithin the women’s rights movement and with other movements
- mobiliseto strengthen the base and build support across other movements (e.g., environment, health, etc.)
We also aim to enable women who have experienced violence to access their rights and rebuild their lives. To this end, we support organisations that address physical, psychological, and sexual violence against women in the home (domestic violence); at work and in migration (trafficking and exploitation); and in situations of crisis. Our partners provide services that empower women to recover from the trauma of violence. They also seek to reform laws and policies and change norms to prevent violence from taking place.
Our funding principles
We support women’s organisations and groups that:
- adopt a rights-based approach to services and advocacy;
- amplify women’s power and agency as full and equal participants in society;
- employ a holistic approach, taking into consideration various contexts and cultures and addressing root causes;
- promote systemic change by strengthening legal frameworks and holding governments and institutions to account;
- contribute to the broader women’s movement by complementing individual and community action with networking and joint advocacy initiatives;
- build evidence that contributes to best practices and catalyses innovation; and
- work to change behaviour and attitudes to prevent violence.
