Overview
Practices and processes of many mainstream funders (target-driven, projectized, competitive, transactional) risk undermining or destroying the very characteristics that underpin strong feminist movements (adaptability to context, collaboration, diversity, long-term, resilient, political).
However, the chronic under-resourcing of feminist movement-focused work means there is a real need to learn and demonstrate responsible ways for mainstream funding to support work in this space.
Power Up! focusses on increasing power for women and girls through movement-based work. It is underpinned by the principle that the best people to make transformational change are constituents of feminist movements that are rooted in, reflective of and made up of those most affected by the issues being addressed.
AT A GLANCE
Timeframe:
3-5 years (September 2019 – present)
Funded partners:
17
Value:
£7.7 million
Location:
Some partners are implementing their project across Sub-Saharan Africa and/or South Asia
Goals
Power Up! is about shifting embedded power relationships and patriarchy over the long-term through strengthening/supporting the capacity and infrastructure for collective, collaborative action to maintain pressure and use opportunities as they arise.
Through this programme we fund feminist movement-related work (Land Rights, LBTQI+ Rights, Labour Rights, Indigenous Women’s Rights/Power, Targeted Policy Work, Sex worker Rights, Movement Building) and provide support to organisations to act in more movement-related ways – collaborating, creating collective tissue, thinking about voice and power, long-term visions rather than projectisation.
Power Up! is also an opportunity to reflect and learn about all elements of the programme, from its design, to the use of available funds, from how we support the connective tissue around and between the various funded partners, to how we develop open relationships with the organisations we support, and ensuring our reporting structures and processes are suitable to the work and approaches undertaken by the Power Up! cohort.
PU - Current Funded Partners
Current Funded Partners
We are partnering with the following organisations, to implement the work on the Power Up fund:
Women in informal Employment Globalizing and Organising
International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
Vidyanikethan
Pastoral Women's Council
Womankind Worldwide
Creating Resources for Empowerment and Action (CREA)
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
WoMin, African Gender and Extractives Alliance
Read more
FRIDA: The Young Feminist Fund
End Violence Against Women Coalition
Urgent Action Fund Africa (UAF-AFRICA)
Partner voices
“The experiences of oppression, and of tackling it, provide essential anchoring evidence for these activists and the broader movements to argue their positions.” (Strengthening Constituency Leadership – Learning Brief)
“It’s about naming the power we hold, and mitigating it by building the strategy together; always creating spaces for sharing and learning – real recognition of different skills in the team and different knowledges in the team – about how you construct the relationship and work together.” Samantha Hargreaves, WoMin (Feminist principles on Power in Funded Partners – Learning Brief)
“Women activists and women’s rights organisations and movements strengthen their own power and influence by naming, recognising and addressing the impacts of the broader political and patriarchal contexts on their personal lives and organisational cultures" (Self- and Collective care to strengthen movements – Learning Brief)
“Feminist governance means identifying all of the spaces that shape an organisation’s strategic direction and accountability and then interrogating where power lies and how it is exercised." (Feminist Governance – Learning Brief)
“We say to women aspiring for our support in getting elected, that if we provide that support, then you have to be accountable to the women’s movement agenda.” Sakhile Sifelani Ngoma, Women in Politics Support Unit, Zimbabwe (Supporting election of women and holding them accountable – Learning Brief)
“Women’s movements are committed to continual learning in order to ensure that the time, resources and emotional energy they put into their strategies is having the strongest possible impact in promoting the rights of their constituents.” (Evaluating our work through a power lens – Learning Brief)