On Friday, October 29th, 2021 at 12:00pm, the Center for International Development (CID) continued its Speaker Series with Latanya Frett, President of Global Fund for Women, who discussed the importance of feminist funding as an approach to advancing transformative, grassroots gender justice movements around the world. The event was co-sponsored by the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Traditional international development approaches over the past four decades have advanced movements that drive social transformation, but have done so from a top-down approach that limits opportunities for community representation or diverse leadership at the table. Feminist funds such as Global Fund for Women up-end this traditional development model through their movement-led funding approaches. These approaches allow for local communities and grantees to directly take part in the grantee selection process, shifting power to leaders of organizations to promote solidarity, power, trust, and mutual learning.
The support that Global Fund for Women provides its partners is also holistic, meeting their nuanced needs beyond funding. For example, the Global Fund for Women’s Global South Feminist Tech Fund provides grants for the architecture of feminist technologies that speak to gender justice issues, racial justice, climate justice, and other intersecting issues that arise from a lack of diversity in the development of widespread technologies. Understanding that its partners need more than just funding, Global Fund for Women provides developers with access to board rooms where technologies are being developed, classes, training, and much more, to accelerate social transformation.
The Center for International Development Speaker Series continues on November 12, 2021, with Seema Jayachandran, an Economist and Professor at Northwestern University, who will discuss social norms as a barrier to women’s employment in developing countries. Register here to attend.
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