Is Global Funding Reaching Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and Local Community Women?

In response to the dearth of data on funding for women and the need to support international advocacy promoting direct funding to IP, ADP, and LC women’s groups and organizations, the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) initiated a bottom-up research effort to build a baseline for measuring funding levels reaching community women on the ground and assess the extent to which existing grants and funding mechanisms are considered fit-for-purpose by recipient organizations. For the exploratory phase of this research, RRI invited the Women in Global South Alliance (WiGSA) to contribute and a total of 17 national and regional-level WiGSA member organizations participated. The research consisted of a literature review of over 40 online publications from ODA and philanthropic organizations on funding for climate change, gender equality, and sustainable development; 8 in-depth interviews; a survey of 13 organizations; and a discussion session with 15 WiGSA members.

This brief presents the preliminary results of our research. It includes an exploratory analysis of the current state of global data on funding for women’s groups and organizations and an examination of women’s strategies and journeys to acquire funding. The quantitative data presented here is indicative of the trends and key issues needing consideration in a future larger-scale study. The exploratory research phase will be complemented by an in-depth pilot analysis with three WiGSA organizations in 2025.