A MISSING BRICK FOR SUSTAINING WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS

A MISSING BRICK FOR SUSTAINING WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS

Flexible Institutional Funding for Local Women’s Organizations

Institutional Funding is essential to local women’s organizations’ survival and their ability to respond to changing circumstances and contexts, to strengthen their organizational capacity and learning, which ultimately enhances their impact.15 It also “facilitate(s) greater predictability of resources and financial sustainability allowing women’s organizations to stay focused on programmatic priorities and plan more effectively,” especially when it is flexible and multi-year.16 This is particularly helpful for local organizations working in complex and changing environments, such as conflict and crisis settings.
As women’s organizations’ work contributes to peace and security in their communities, offering institutional funding means supporting their existence and mission to widen democratic spaces, enhance accountability and protect human rights and peace. As such, institutional funding has to be considered as a grant in support of an organization’s mission, focusing on long-term social changes, rather than a specific project. It intentionally delivers resources to feminist groups and movements, allowing them to determine their own needs and recognizing them as the agents and drivers of transformative change.