Twenty million dollars for the world's women! In September 2005, the Global Fund for Women exceeded our $20 million goal of the Investing in Women Campaign. Through the support of thousands of donors from around the world, the Investing in Women Campaign has created two new ways to change women's lives.
The Legacy Fund is the largest endowment in the world dedicated exclusively to women's rights. The Legacy Fund will ensure the Global Fund's ability to support women worldwide for decades to come.
The Now or Never Fund is a unique initiative enabling the Global Fund for Women to respond to intensifying attacks on women's lives and human rights around the world. Beginning in 2004 and continuing through 2009, the Global Fund for Women is infusing $2 million each year into the international women's rights movement with strategic grants.
Through the Now or Never Fund, the Global Fund for Women has already supported the efforts of 92 women's organizations in 53 countries with grants totaling more than $2.2 million, to address the urgent crises confronting women today. This is in addition to annual grantmaking of $5.7 million.
Select Now or Never Grantees:
Mujer y Salud en Uruguay (Woman and Health in Uruguay)
Montevideo, Uruguay
$60,000 Now or Never Grant
The Uruguayan women's organization, Mujer y Salud spearheaded the advocacy campaign that led to the passage in Uruguay's House of Representatives of the "Defense of Reproductive Health" bill, an unprecedented bill legalizing abortion.
While the bill did not make it through the Senate, it has paved the way for major reproductive health reform in Uruguay. The Global Fund for Women is supporting Mujer y Salud's redoubled efforts to ensure a woman's right to choose in Uruguay.
African Women's Millennium Initiative (AWOMI)
Dakar, Senegal
$50,000 Now or Never Grant
The African Women's Millennium Initiative (AWOMI), of the African Women's Network for Fighting Poverty, is working to ensure the participation of African women in policy and decision making processes regarding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs, developed by the United Nations and adopted by world leaders in 2000, inform the allocation of international and national resources in eight policy areas including poverty alleviation, educational and health attainment, and gender equality
AWOMI is training women in policy formulation and advocacy around poverty reduction strategies; and, creating and strengthening information networks between rural women and national women's organizations, and international global poverty and debt reduction campaigns.
Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation
Sofia, Bulgaria
$30,000 Now or Never grant
After years of advocacy, the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation achieved a landmark victory in the struggle against domestic violence in Bulgaria. On March 16, 2005, the National Assembly of Bulgaria adopted the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence, implementing programs to prevent and prohibit violence against women.
The Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation is currently coordinating the Women's Human Rights Training Institute, to "build the capacity of young lawyers from Central & Eastern Europe & the Former Soviet Union to conduct litigation on women's rights issues." Through the two-year project period, 19 young lawyers from Macedonia, Romania, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Georgia (among them several Global Fund grantees) meet every six months for week long training seminars about laws and litigation relating to women's reproductive rights, employment discrimination, and violence against women.
Center for Egyptian Women's Legal Assistance (CEWLA)
Cairo, Egypt
$41,500 Now or Never Grant
Working primarily with poor rural women, the Center for Egyptian Women's Legal Assistance (CEWLA) works to raise legal awareness of women's rights, and campaigns to change discriminatory laws in Egyptian legislation.
CEWLA's initial work on female circumcision and the training of lawyers and civil society associations led to work on other forms of violence against women, such as honor killings. After conducting a major study on the prevalence of honor killings and the media's representation and sensationalizing of such crimes, CEWLA organized the first conference to address this issue publicly in 2001.
CEWLA is now working to raise awareness about the various forms of violence against women among civil society organizations, journalists, lawyers, and the general public. The group hopes that an open dialogue on this issue will lead to the eradication of violence against women in Egypt.
Mano River Women's Peace Network (MARWOPNET)
Freetown, Sierra Leone
$40,000 Now or Never Grant
The Mano River Women's Peace Network, representing 100 predominantly women-led organizations from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, was established in 2000 to ensure that women, the primary victims of war, were central to peace negotiations and strategies to maintain long-term security in a region plagued by more than 10 years of civil and sub-regional conflict.
MARWOPNET played a critical role in securing the peace accord between the Liberian government and the rebels, following failed attempts by both sides to maintain a cease-fire. MARWOPNET is currently engaged in coordinating peace talks in neighboring Cote D'Ivoire, and promoting peace building at the sub-regional level.