Gender Justice Movement
Moving in Feminism with Adolescent Leaders in Action
- Adolescent Girls
- Gender Justice
- Youth Leadership
- Adolescent Girls
- Gender Justice
- Youth Leadership
Cameroon
Moving in Feminism with Adolescent Leaders in Action (MIFALI) is a new and growing collective that is pushing for solutions to the challenges girls face in Cameroon and fighting for a seat at the table in conversations about their rights and lives.
Adolescent girls in Cameroon face multiple levels of prejudice based on their age and gender, and many have other intersecting identities—such as ethnicity, sexuality, or disability status—that further amplify these vulnerabilities. At the same time, girls in Cameroon—and all over the world—have bold ideas, immense organizing power, and deep expertise in the issues that affect their own lives.
The MIFALI movement was activated in December 2019 when a group of girls came together for a sexuality education program hosted by Global Fund for Women grantee partner Women for a Change, Cameroon. As they made their way through the program, the girls found that they had similar experiences and frustrations with rampant age- and gender-based discrimination in their daily lives. They decided to launch their own initiative aimed at amplifying girls’ voices and leveraging their expertise to solve the problems that they understand best.
“We have to create our own spaces, claim that space, and influence it to the fullest.”Liz LumParticipant in the MIFALI movement and member of Global Fund for Women’s Adolescent Girls Advisory Council
MIFALI is now an exciting emerging movement that includes girls, young women, and adolescent boys from different cultural and class backgrounds. They are mobilizing young people across Cameroon in innovative, intergenerational, and intersectional ways.
For example, after the US Consulate denied girls’ visas to participate in a UN meeting on women's rights, the young activists of MIFALI took to social media to shed light on the injustice and make sure their voices were heard on girls’ education, sexuality, and leadership.
MIFALI is an example of how girls are increasingly visible in feminist movements, leading the charge on issues from climate justice to sexual and reproductive rights. Girls are bold and authentic leaders today and will carry movements forward for decades to come. Global Fund for Women is proud to stand with the young leaders of MIFALI as they work towards transformational change.
Adolescent Girls Advisory Council
In April 2021, Global Fund for Women’s Adolescent Girls Advisory Council began supporting the MIFALI movement with the first ever adolescent-led, peer-to-peer training on participatory grantmaking. Participatory grantmaking is the process of putting decision-making power directly in the hands of those impacted by funding decisions. This groundbreaking collaboration enabled young activists to come together to hone their feminist leadership skills and turn their ideas into transformative action. Meet our Adolescent Girls Advisory Council.
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MIFALI members at a training on participatory grantmaking facilitated by Global Fund for Women’s Adolescent Girls Advisory Council
$0.02
Globally, less than two cents of every foreign aid dollar goes to programs for adolescent girls.
Source: World Bank
50%
At least half of young feminist organizations globally were founded in the last ten years.
Source: FRIDA via AWID
Across the globe, young people, and particularly adolescent girls, are leading revolutionary actions and demanding change—through protesting, organizing, marching, and movement building. But girls and girl-led movements remain underfunded and under-resourced. That’s why Global Fund for Women is more committed than ever to shifting power and resources to girl- and youth-led movements like MIFALI.
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