Womankind’s approach to partnership
Women’s rights organisations and activists are the driving force of the feminist movement. They are how movements are built, supported, and grow. Womankind forms long-term partnerships with diverse women’s rights organisations based on feminist principles of solidarity, shared understanding, inclusion, collaboration and self- and collective care.
We stand in solidarity with partners in delivering and resourcing their missions, united in our commitment to creating a more just and inclusive world. We co-create space for diverse women and groups to come together as one to demand meaningful change.
At the same time, Womankind acknowledges our historical and current position of power and privilege as a funder based in the global north which affords us both access and influence. As such, we take an intersectional feminist, anti-racist and decolonising approach to our partnerships. We recognise our positionality while actively seeking to shift and share power by strengthening women’s movements and bridging between our partners and resources, decision-makers, and political spaces that we may have access to and are relevant to their work and realities.
Our collaborations with partners can take many forms. While they can entail the transfer of resources, they may also focus on other areas where we can leverage our collective power and achieve more by working together to strengthen feminist movements, for example through advocacy and shared learning.
Who are our partners?
Womankind aims to establish long-term, trust-based relationships with partners, in line with Our Feminist Future, our strategy to 2030. We take an intersectional approach to partnership, building strong relationships with diverse partners to maximise the impact of our resources.
We partner with feminist organisations, networks and coalitions which are:
- Created and run by and for women and girls and in which women and girls in all their diversities are the principal decision-makers, implementers and participants;
- Share our commitment to ending gender inequality and strengthening feminist movements;
- Located or working cross-regionally in one or more of Womankind’s focus countries.
Our partnership principles
Our partnership principles underpin and define how Womankind engages in our partnerships with others. They lay out both the values and commitments we seek to uphold and the concrete actions we will take to ensure our partnerships are strong, inclusive, mutually beneficial and based on relationships of trust and respect. They also detail the commitments and actions we ask of our partners, and how we intend to work together.
Across our partnerships, Womankind will:
Power and positionality
- Acknowledge our organisational and individual power and positionality and the colonial legacy of the UK and international aid and development sectors. Actively seek to decolonise our partnership practice and challenge the intersecting systems of oppression that continue to discriminate against women, girls and people of all genders;
- Recognise the power held by Womankind as a funder based in the global north. Share power with our partners by listening to and centring the needs, experiences, and expertise of feminist movements, organisations and networks based in the majority world;
- Connect partners to the decision makers and decision-making spaces we have access to so that they can directly engage with and challenge those in positions of power;
- Use our positionality to break down barriers and challenge injustice, identifying and acting on opportunities to leverage our power and influence to push back on oppressive and onerous practices, dynamics, and requirements in our sector and those that fund it;
Intersectionality
- Take an intersectional approach to partnership that honours and prioritises the lived experience and expertise of our partners and the women with whom they work;
- Support movements, organisations and networks facing exclusion, marginalisation and barriers to access (to participation, resources, political power, etc.), especially those which are governed, directed, and/or led by historically marginalised communities;
- Draw on the diversity of feminist movements to inform our work, ensure complementarity, and support women’s agency and collective action;
Wellbeing and Collective Care
- Recognise the importance and political nature of feminist self- and collective-care and prioritise and resource it throughout our own work and in our collaboration with partners and allies;
- Develop ways of working together with our partners that respond flexibly to their needs, contexts, and priorities and centre solidarity. These may reflect how a specific project will be managed or how we work together more generally throughout our partnerships;
Transparency and Accountability
- Ensure transparency with and accountability to our partners regarding how Womankind makes decisions and allocates resources;
- Identify and jointly manage any risks associated with our partnership and take action to share the burden of risk, limit unintended consequences, and mitigate backlash and violence;
- Hold ourselves and our Womankind colleagues accountable for upholding our commitments to anti-racism, decolonisation and power-sharing, in line with our anti-racism pledge and code of conduct;
Learning
- Facilitate, invest and actively engage in mutual and collective learning spaces with and among our partners.
- Invite, welcome, and action feedback from our partners and allies regarding how we are upholding these principles
