By Beth Woroniuk, Senior Fellow, Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative
Adequate financing has long been a major barrier facing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Today this funding crisis is in hyper drive.
Historically, women’s organizations in fragile and conflict-affected settings have operated on shoe strong (or non-existing) budgets. Despite global commitments to support these critical organizations, they consistently received less than 0.5% of official development assistance (ODA), with the most recent available data showing a drop in 2021-22. In addition, activists have identified numerous challenges with funding structures: a lack of flexibility, limited core funding, unpredictability, huge reporting burdens, and restrictive eligibility criteria. One women’s organization in Ukraine submitted 7 kilograms of financial and narrative reports to a funder.
With the recent, massive cuts to ODA, this already bleak panorama is now a full-blown crisis. Close to half of women’s organizations in fragile contexts report facing the possibility of closing their doors in the next six months. There is an urgent need for Canada to step up and demonstrate leadership by supporting these organizations and networks with new resources, new relationships, and better reporting.
Progress on WPS objectives depends on the vitality and health of women’s organizations, networks and movements. The initial WPS United Nations Security Resolution (1325), which launched a wave of attention, research, advocacy, and investments, was made possible by civil society advocacy. Women’s organizations hold their governments accountable and push for meaningful action. Women peacebuilders connect communities and deliver emergency supplies. Feminist and LGBTIQ activists build democracy and rights for all.
Yet the ability of women’s rights organizations to carry out these key roles is currently affected by two major global trends: well-organized and well-funded actors seeking to roll back rights and attack LGBTIQ people and funding cuts.
The opposition to women’s rights and the rights of LGBTIQ+ people is long-standing. However in recent years this opposition has taken new forms and gained momentum. A network of organizations is increasingly active in UN entities with the goal of rolling back agreed norms and language. Anti-feminist, anti-choice spokespeople have been invited to testify during committee meetings at the Canadian House of Commons. Extremist groups target schools to restrict girls’ access to education, change what is on the curriculum, and influence educational laws and policies.
For years, members of the WPSN-C have highlighted the low levels of funding going to women’s peacebuilding organizations. We have, time and again, pointed out the importance of these organizations and the urgency of ensuring they are resourced. Yet, instead of improving, the funding landscape is deteriorating rapidly. A recent UN Women survey found that women-led and women’s rights organizations are facing operational crises due to funding cuts. Key findings include:
- 47% of women-led and women’s rights organizations surveyed expect to shut down in six months if current funding levels persist;
- 72% of organizations surveyed have been forced to lay off staff;
- According to the organizations surveyed, the services most affected by funding cuts are gender-based violence prevention and response (67%), protection services (62%) and livelihoods and cash assistance (58%).
In the midst of these challenges, feminist activists continue to look for creative strategies and ways to continue their valuable work. Always innovative, activists in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere will find new ways to advance their much-needed solutions. However, this work is harder, lonelier, slower, more dangerous and takes a higher human toll without international support.
In the last ten years, Canada has contributed to global efforts to fund women’s rights organizations and feminist movements in conflict-affected contexts. The Equality Fund and Women’s Voice and Leadership (WVL) were two flagship initiatives from the early years of the Trudeau government.
The Equality Fund, a member of the international network of women’s funds, provides funding to feminist organizations in the Global South and East. In 2024, they launched a call for proposals for women’s rights organizations as they anticipate and prepare for crises. In addition, the Equality Fund is leading on a new humanitarian pooled fund – the First Response Fund – that will support women’s rights/women-led organizations to respond to both rapid onset and long-standing crises. On International Women’s Day, Global Affairs Canada announced the intention to provide a $10 million contribution to this new fund. A welcome announcement!
The latest available progress report on Canada’s WPS national action plan notes that as of March 2023, there were WVL projects in 12 fragile and conflict affected countries. These initiatives are designed to provide support to women’s rights and LGBTIQ organizations. A phase of WVL initiatives has started, but the website has not yet been updated. The same progress report says that “over the reporting period, 265 local women human rights organizations in FCAS received funding from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).” This is welcome support but it is a tiny grant, generally for one year and a specific initiative. The Global Affairs Canada department report also provides brief project descriptions of WPS initiatives supported by GAC’s Peace and Stabilization Operation Program (PSOPs), but there is no budget information.
Make no mistake. These investments are important and commendable. However they are marginal in the grand scope of Canada’s overall development assistance investments and they provide a miniscule contribution to meet the overall global need, especially in light of the recent ODA cuts. Furthermore, it’s very difficult to understand and track Canada’s WPS investments generally and support for women’s rights organizations in conflict contexts specifically. Reporting on Canada’s WPS National Action is habitually late. We’re still waiting on the first report on the 2023-2029 Plan. Data about what GAC is funding and the impact of these investments are not easily available. As noted by the Auditor General, GAC faces constant challenges in documenting and analyzing the impacts of its gender equality investments.
In light of GAC’s past efforts and the current challenges, here are my recommendations for the new government regarding support for women’s rights organizations in conflict-affected contexts:
- Build on past experiences, meet the current moment, and super charge funding for women’s rights organizations in conflict-affected settings. Use the UN SG’s call to multiply by five direct assistance to women’s organizations in conflict affected countries as an inspiration to establish and meet new and brave targets. The value of these investments is well documented and they should be protected from any future cuts in Canadian ODA.
- Improve the tracking and reporting of Canada’s WPS investments – both generally and support for women’s rights organizations and networks. Invest in learning, catalyzing good practices and achievements.
- Join with other like-minded states to mobilize more and better financing for women peacebuilders, women human rights and LGBTIQ rights defenders, women-led organizations, and feminist movements. Encouraging other funders to support the First Response Fund is one possible step. Canada can highlight the urgent need to fund women peacebuilders during international discussions on financing for development, peacekeeping architecture, UN reform and elsewhere.
- Initiate complementary changes to humanitarian and fragile contexts structures and systems to facilitate the participation by women activists across diplomatic and programming structures.
The upcoming 25th anniversary of the first UN Security Council Resolution on WPS is an opportunity for concrete commitments to reverse these dangerous funding cuts and support vibrant and healthy civil organizations that are essential for meeting the ambitious goals in the WPS agenda, including peace, security, justice and rights for all.
Beth Woroniuk is a co-founder and past chair of the WPSN-C. She has worked on WPS issues for over 25 years in Canada and around the world. She has advised UN organizations, governments, women’s funds and international NGOs. Her research interests include financing for gender equality and feminist foreign policies.
The views in this blog are those of the authors only and do not necessarily represent those of the WPSN-C or its membership.
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