Association For Women's Rights In Development
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The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), formerly the Association for Women in Development, is an international feminist membership and movement support organization committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women's human rights. It was established in 1982 as a U.S.-based association originally focused on promoting dialogue on
women in development Women in development is an approach of development projects that emerged in the 1960s, calling for treatment of women's issues in development projects. It is the integration of women into the global economies by improving their status and assisting ...
issues among academics, policy makers and development professionals, a scope that has since broadened. Among the prominent people who were involved with AWID from the 1980s were pioneering feminist economist
Marilyn Waring Dame Marilyn Joy Waring (born 7 October 1952) is a New Zealand public policy scholar, international development consultant, former politician, environmentalist, feminist and a principal founder of feminist economics. In 1975, aged 23, she bec ...
. AWID stands for a progressive
intersectional feminism Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...
and has a broad and inclusive human rights focus, working for marginalized genders and other groups. It coordinates the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs), a collaborative project with over 20 other NGOs including
Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization
, that aims "to monitor, analyse, share information and do collaborative advocacy on .. anti-rights initiatives threatening international and regional human rights systems" from a feminist perspective. The co-executive directors are Faye Macheke, a Pan-African feminist, and Inna Michaeli, a feminist queer activist and sociologist. AWID is funded by
UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity charged with working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is charged with advocating for the righ ...
, various government development agencies and a number of progressive donors, including
Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...
,
MacKenzie Scott MacKenzie Scott ( Tuttle, formerly Bezos; born April 7, 1970) is an American novelist, philanthropist, co-founder of Amazon, and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos. As of May 2025, she has a net worth of US$35.9 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionair ...
and the
Sigrid Rausing Sigrid Maria Elisabet Rausing FRSL (born 29 January 1962) is a Swedish philanthropist, anthropologist and publisher. She is the founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, one of the United Kingdom's largest philanthropic foundations, and owner of ''G ...
Trust.


Activities

AWID was founded in 1982, toward the end of the
United Nations Decade for Women The United Nations Decade for Women was a period from 1976 to 1985 focused on the policies and issues that impact women, such as pay equity, gendered violence, land holding, and other human rights. It was adopted December 15, 1975, by the Unite ...
, as a U.S.-based association focused on promoting dialogue on
women in development Women in development is an approach of development projects that emerged in the 1960s, calling for treatment of women's issues in development projects. It is the integration of women into the global economies by improving their status and assisting ...
issues among academics, policy makers and development professionals, i.e. staff in the large development organizations. A dynamic network of women and men around the world, AWID members are researchers, academics, students, educators, activists, business people, policy-makers, development practitioners, funders, and more. The former executive director of AWID was Lydia Alpízar Durán, with
Myrna Cunningham Kain Myrna Kay Cunningham Kain is a Miskito feminist, indigenous rights activist and medical surgeon from Nicaragua. She has participated in political-social processes linked to the struggle for the rights of women and indigenous peoples in Latin Amer ...
as board president. Since the turn of the century AWID worked to become a more global and less US-centric organization, centering voices from the south and voices of marginalized groups. AWID's 2005 forum "We cannot change the world without changing ourselves" challenged the gender binary and centered transgender identities and rights. AWID's 2016 forum in Bahia, Brazil, "Feminist Futures: Building Collective Power for Rights and Justice" featured 1800 participants, many of whom had taken part in the preceding "Black Feminisms Forum". Since 2016 the organization has been led by Hakima Abbas and Cindy Clark as Co-Executive Directors, with American feminist author
Charlotte Bunch Charlotte Anne Bunch (born October 13, 1944) is an American feminist author and organizer in women's rights and human rights movements. Bunch is currently the founding director and senior scholar at the Center for Women's Global Leadership at ...
joining as board president. Formerly headquartered in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, the organization now has offices in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
and
Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
and staff working across the globe. A policy brief, ''Illicit Financial Flows: Why we should claim these resources for gender, economic and social justice'', was issued to explain stricter financial regulations which would replace corporate privileges against the people and planet. In that, initial policies to support feminist and gender justice organizations were also recommended to influence relevant decision-making and to involve policy-makers, not limited to mentioning potentially complement bodies as well as those existing engagement and positions. AWID has received funding from
UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity charged with working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is charged with advocating for the righ ...
and its predecessors, several government development agencies and development banks, the
Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...
, the
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
, the
Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
, the
Sigrid Rausing Sigrid Maria Elisabet Rausing FRSL (born 29 January 1962) is a Swedish philanthropist, anthropologist and publisher. She is the founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, one of the United Kingdom's largest philanthropic foundations, and owner of ''G ...
Trust and other organizations. In 2021 AWID received a $15 million donation from progressive philanthropist
MacKenzie Scott MacKenzie Scott ( Tuttle, formerly Bezos; born April 7, 1970) is an American novelist, philanthropist, co-founder of Amazon, and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos. As of May 2025, she has a net worth of US$35.9 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionair ...
. A notable member is the feminist economist Dame Marilyn Waring, who became involved with the association upon leaving parliament and who served on its board from 2008 to 2012.


Observatory on the Universality of Rights

AWID coordinates the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs), a collaborative project with over 20 other NGOs, that aims "to monitor, analyse, share information and do collaborative advocacy on ..anti-rights initiatives threatening international and regional human rights systems" from a feminist perspective. OURs' working group includes
Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization
, the
World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...
,
Muslims for Progressive Values Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) is a grassroots human rights organization founded and incorporated by Zuriana (Ani) Zonneveld and Pamela K. Taylor in 2007. Headquartered in Los Angeles California, MPV has chapters around the United States ...
and other organizations.


Focus area

AWID works on issues of gender justice and women's human rights worldwide through supporting women's rights advocates, organizations and movements, granted by the Channel Foundation since 2011 with initial travel grant program for the "12th AWID International Forum on Women's Rights and Development: Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice" which was held in Istanbul, Turkey, in April 2012. The organization has been focusing its work around five priority areas: Resourcing Women's Rights,
Economic Justice Economic justice is a component of social justice and welfare economics. It is a set of moral and ethical principles for building economic institutions, where the ultimate goal is to create an opportunity for each person to establish a sufficie ...
, Challenging Religious Fundamentalism, Women Human Rights Defenders, Young Feminist Activism. The global membership with over 7000 members consists of both individual and institutional, coming from 180 countries. AWID supports LGBTIQ rights and opposes the
anti-gender movement The anti-gender movement is a global phenomenon that opposes concepts often referred to as "gender ideology" or "gender theory". These loosely-defined terms are commonly used by the movement to critique a range of issues related to gender equ ...
, and has described trans-exclusionary feminists as "trojan horses in human rights spaces" that seek to undermine human rights; AWID said that anti-trans activity is "alarming," that "the 'sex-based' rhetoric misuses concepts of sex and gender to push a deeply discriminatory agenda" and that "trans-exclusionary feminists (...) undermine progressions on gender and sexuality and protection of rights of marginalized groups." In 2023 AWID published the open letter "There Is No Place for Anti-Trans Agendas in the UN," endorsed by 550 feminist NGOs.


References


Publications

* * * - publication between 1995 and ca.2005 *


External links


Official siteAWID Young Feminist Wire site
{{Authority control Women's rights organizations International women's organizations Organizations established in 1982