Bridging the funding gap for women’s rights organisations: Canada's support through the Equality Fund

Abstract

Women’s rights organisations (WROs) are crucial in advancing gender equality and reducing poverty by tackling intersecting discriminations and empowering women. However, they continue to be significantly underfunded, especially grassroots women’s organisations in developing countries. To address these gaps, Canada supports the Equality Fund, which applies an innovative financing model to create long-term, sustainable and flexible funding for women’s rights organisations and feminist movements worldwide. Notable examples of impact include policy-level advocacy and community-based responses in Saint Lucia, Honduras, Tanzania, and Mexico.

This content is part of TIPs In Practice series on poverty and inequalities developed in collaboration with the Development Co-operation Report 2024: Tackling poverty and inequalities through the green transition. 

Challenge

Women’s rights organisations (WROs) and feminist movements play a central role in advancing gender equality and reducing poverty. They do this by influencing policies, laws and social norms, holding governments accountable, transforming power dynamics and empowering women economically. They also provide vital community programmes and services. Despite this, less than 1% of ODA (USD 631 million) earmarked for gender equality is provided to these organisations. Smaller, informal and unregistered groups, especially those addressing multiple forms of oppression, receive even less. In 2017, only 0.42% of foundation grants were allocated to women’s rights organisations. To address these funding gaps, Canada supports the Equality Fund, which channels long‑term, core and flexible funding to underfunded global grassroots women’s organisations and movements in ODA-eligible countries.

Approach

Gender equality is at the core of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. In alignment with the policy, in August 2019, Canada contributed CAD 300 million to establish the Equality Fund Initiative.

The Equality Fund aims to create sustainable and predictable grant funding for WROs in ODA-eligible countries. Four grant-making streams provide flexible long-term funding:

• Catalyse: direct funding to WROs and feminist organisations

• Activate: funding to feminist funds that then on-grant to local and grassroots organisations

• Prepare, Respond and Care: direct funding to WROs and feminist funds working in conflict-affected contexts

• Connect: funding to networks, coalitions and consortia.

It sustains this core funding mandate through:

• Feminist philanthropy and fundraising: Embracing a trust-based philanthropy model, the Fund connects feminist leaders with global philanthropists, engaging institutional and individual donors to create sustainable funding channels for the future. This includes key partnerships, such as the GBP 33 million from the UK government.

• Gender-lens investing (GLI): The Equality Fund’s investment strategy aims to generate returns for onward allocation in grants to WROs through mission-aligned gender-lens market investments. In March 2023, the gender-lens investing toolkit was released, encompassing Investment Criteria, Intersectional Investment Guidelines and an Investment Theory of Change. One example of a gender-lens impact investment made by the Equality Fund is the Cross-Border Impact Ventures’ Women’s & Children’s Health Technology Fund, initiated in 2021, which addresses the healthcare needs of women and children

• Policy advocacy: The Equality Fund leverages global governmental relationships by advocating for policy changes to secure more flexible and reliable funding for women’s rights organisations.

Results

• Increased grant making to feminist movements across the world: As of March 2024, the Equality Fund Initiative has granted CAD 56 million directly and indirectly (the latter via on-grants from women's funds) to 1 134 women’s rights and feminist organisations in over 100 countries, including those at local levels. In 2023-24, CAD 30 million was disbursed in grants.

• Feminist advocacy to drive change in policies and laws: As of May 2024, grantee partners have contributed to 25 legal and policy changes towards gender equality. In March 2022, Saint Lucia passed its first Domestic Violence Act following advocacy efforts by the feminist group Raise Your Voice Saint Lucia. The Centro de Derechos de Mujeres in Honduras was key in the bill allowing the use of emergency contraception in March 2023.

• Increased ability of women’s rights organisations to respond to compounded crises: The funds from the initiative have been used to address a range of issues including locally driven emergency responses for refugees by FemFund, violence and police brutality against LBTQ women in Tanzania, and health services for asylum seekers and sex workers in Mexico.

Lessons learnt

The Global Affairs’ Formative Evaluation of the Equality Fund initiative revealed that:

• Access to funding: By employing multiple financing channels and injecting capital the Equality Fund reached diverse organisations that lacked access to traditional funding. While the core, flexible and multi-year support suited women’s rights organisations’ needs, grantees stressed the importance of increased investments in convening and connecting partners.

• Redistribution of resources to support locally led development: By strategically redistributing resources to historically underfunded women’s rights organisations in developing countries, the Equality Fund's model shifts power and resources to self-led organisations. This positive example of feminist locally led development contributed to the capacity building of women’s rights organisations and feminist organisations, creating a multiplier effect in reaching more vulnerable women and driving change in their communities.

• Holistic and intersectional approach to empowerment: Feminist organisations use intersectional analysis to prioritise vulnerable and often overlooked communities. By addressing gender equality holistically, encompassing gender-based violence, reproductive and sexual rights, and property rights, they empower women to participate in economic activities, ensure more equitable access to resources and thus contribute to poverty reduction.

• Sustainability of the initiative: The returns from the gender-lens investment fund ensures a sustainable funding source for global grant making. This independent and durable channel of resources reduces the reliance on the shifting agendas and priorities of donors and funders, allowing for a long-term perspective.

Further information

Global Affairs Canada Equality Fund Initiative evaluation (forthcoming).

Government of Canada, Project profile — Equality Fund: Sustaining Funding to Women’s Organizations in Developing Countries, https://w05.international.gc.ca/projectbrowser-banqueprojets/project-projet/details/p008157001.

Equality Fund, Annual Report 2022/2023, https://inmotion.equalityfund.ca/

Equality Fund website: https://equalityfund.ca/

OECD resources

OECD (2024), Development Co-operation Report 2024: Tackling poverty and inequalities through the green transition, OECD Publishing, Paris, (forthcoming).

OECD (2018), OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Canada 2018, OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264303560-en.

OECD (2001), Poverty Reduction, The DAC Guidelines, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264194779-en.

To learn more about the Canada’s development co-operation: 

OECD, “Canada”, in Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/aa7e3298-en. 

See more In Practice examples from Canada here: https://www.oecd.org/development-cooperation-learning?tag-key+partner=canada#search.