Research compendium examines current funding impacts on women's organisations

The international Association of Women's Rights in Development (AWID) has published a three part compendium of new research examining the current funding landscape and actors impacting on women's organisations.

Beyond Investing in Women and Girls: An in-depth look at the funding landscape for Women's Rights and the powerful impact of resources in the hands on Women's Organizations aims to support and build women's collective power for change and advance women's rights. An outline of the three parts follows:

Watering the Leaves, Starving the Roots is authored by Angelika Arutyunova and Cindy Clark. This report examines the funding landscape for women's organisations based on results of a survey of more than 1,100 women's organisations around the world. The report discusses key funding trends, and provides an updated analysis of how funding sectors support women's rights and equality.

The report finds that while support for individual women and girls (the "leaves") is growing, this has had little impact on the funding situation for the sustained collective action by feminists and women's rights organisations (the "roots"). The report identifies three major trends impacting significantly on the funding landscape. These are:

• "The presence of women and girls as a priority - at least a rhetorical one - in nearly every funding sector and in the mainstream.
• The upsurge of a diverse array of private sector actors in development financial and philanthropy; and
• Corporatization and specifically, its impact on development agendas and financing."

New Actors, New Money, New Conversations: A Mapping of Recent Initiatives for Women and Girls is authored by Julia Miller, Angelika Arutyunova and Cindy Clark. Building on the above report, Watering the Leaves, Starving the Roots, this report discusses the role the corporate sector and other actors are playing in shaping related funding discourse and practice. The report provides some visible trends impacting women and girls and offers considerations for women's rights organisations interested in influencing and engaging with these trends.

The report finds that private sector involvement in development is likely to be a lasting trend that will have an important impact on the financial sustainability of women's rights organisations in the future. It is therefore vital women's rights organisations are able to understand this trend to inform careful, critical engagement to influence the agendas and approaches of these actors.

Women Moving Mountains: The Collective Impact of the Dutch MDG3 Fund is authored by Srilatha Batliwala. This report demonstrates the aggregate impact of women's organisations which received funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ MDG3 Fund. The report analyses results from 78% of the grantees demonstrating the reach and change possible when women's organisations working to build collective power for change receive resources.

The Fund-supported initiatives reached 165 countries in seven continents/sub continents and 15 regions of the world.  The report lists the "big mountains moved" and the "top ten achievements" made possible by the Fund. The report also discusses why the Fund was effective, highlighting the unique advantages of:

• Large size of grants enabled work expansion/greater outreach
• Supported core work and shaped organisational processes
• Flexibility in issues/strategies supported and allowing change along the way
• Three year duration helped achieve more, provided sustainability
• Enhanced credibility, helped leverage other grants