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Across Africa, women’s rights organizations are providing critical services to survivors of violence, mobilizing communities, generating evidence, defending hard-won rights and holding institutions accountable. They are doing this in contexts shaped by conflict, displacement, economic uncertainty, shrinking civic space and growing backlash against gender equality.
Yet the organizations closest to women and girls remain among the least resourced.
This urgent contradiction was at the centre of the Third Regional Dialogue on Feminist Funding for Women’s Movements, convened in Nairobi by UN Women, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls and partners under the European Union-funded Advocacy, Coalition-Building and Transformative Feminist Action to End Violence against Women and Girls Programme.
The Dialogue brought together 83 participants from 15 countries across East, Southern and West Africa, including women’s rights organizations and networks, feminist funders, governments, United Nations agencies, development partners, philanthropy, regional institutions and private sector actors.
A clear message emerged: ending violence against women and girls requires more than additional funding. It requires financing that shifts power, strengthens feminist movements and responds to the realities of organizations working closest to affected communities.
From funding gaps to feminist infrastructure
Participants painted a stark picture of the current funding landscape. Women’s rights organizations continue to operate in environments where demand for their work is growing, while funding remains limited, unpredictable, short-term, and often difficult to access. Photo: UN Women/ UNTF Purity Kiarie
Women’s rights organizations are essential infrastructure for justice, peace, democracy and sustainable development. They often provide the first response to survivors, sustain advocacy during crises, challenge discriminatory social norms and protect civic space.
However, many continue to operate with limited, short-term and highly restricted funding. According to AWID’s 2025?Where is the Money??report, the median annual budget for feminist and women’s rights organizations and movements was only USD 22,000 in 2023. OECD data also shows that women’s organizations have received less than 1 per cent of official development assistance for gender equality.
This underfunding has direct consequences. It limits organizations’ ability to retain staff, maintain survivor services, protect activists, strengthen institutional systems, invest in evidence and plan beyond short project cycles.
Participants therefore called for feminist funding to be recognized as an investment in the systems that keep women and girls safe and enable communities to advance justice and accountability.
From commitments to financing accountability
The Dialogue also emphasized that policy commitments must be matched by budgets, implementation and accountability.
Participants identified gender-responsive budgeting, stronger public financing for ending violence against women and girls, co-financing with development partners and formal partnerships with civil society as critical pathways for sustainable national investment.
They also called on donors and development partners to reduce bureaucratic barriers, simplify compliance requirements and expand flexible, multi-year and core funding. Funding should include resources for organizational resilience, digital and physical security, rapid response, coalition-building, leadership development, evidence generation and self and collective care.
Accountability must be mutual. Funders should be accountable for whether resources reach grassroots and marginalized groups, while funded organizations should be supported to document results, strengthen learning and demonstrate how their work improves the lives of women and girls.
Building a wider feminist financing ecosystem
Participants called for a diversified financing ecosystem that brings together public resources, feminist funds, philanthropy, development finance, community-rooted models and accountable private sector investment.
Innovative financing can help expand available resources, but participants stressed that new approaches must remain grounded in feminist and rights-based principles. Private sector engagement should go beyond charitable contributions and address corporate leadership, governance, worker protection, investment practices and accountability for preventing violence.
The Dialogue also called for resources to reach rural women’s groups, disability-led organizations, youth-led movements, community-based organizations and groups working in conflict-affected settings. These organizations are often excluded by complex application processes, strict eligibility rules, high co-financing requirements and reporting systems designed for larger institutions.
A collective agenda for action
The Nairobi Dialogue concluded with a shared commitment to advance more accessible, flexible, predictable, multi-year and core funding for women’s rights organizations and feminist movements across Africa.
Participants also affirmed the need to strengthen solidarity across movements, public institutions, donors, feminist funds, regional networks and private sector actors, while protecting civic space and ensuring that women’s rights organizations shape the decisions that affect their work.
The outcome is both practical and political. Funding feminist movements is not a charitable add-on. It is a necessary investment in ending violence against women and girls, protecting rights and building stronger, more accountable societies.
When feminist movements are resourced, women and girls are safer, survivor services are stronger, advocacy is sustained and communities are better equipped to resist backlash and drive lasting change.
Key takeaways
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN Women - Africa.
