For over 30 years, we’ve worked at heart of the feminist movement. We are much more than an intermediary between donors and grassroots women’s rights organisations. We recognise our privilege and history as an organisation based in the Global North. We use our position to advocate for changes to policies and mobilise funds internationally, while championing and centring the priorities of our partners. 

Anti-racism is intrinsic to how we work. We are deepening and extending our decolonisation work, diversifying decision-making and reimagining power relationships & accountability.  

What does this look like in practice?   

As an organisation, we are deliberate on moving from paper to action by daring to confront our own structures, mindset, and blind spots. While we realise that this is a challenging journey, we are keen on embracing uncomfortable truths, having difficult conversations, and acknowledging our weaknesses as we forge on.    

The road to structural change is not a journey we can walk alone. We are working with experts, organisations and individuals who specialise in anti-racism and decolonisation, together navigating historical practices to dismantle racism. This requires constant learning and as a feminist organisation we have rolled out regular sessions to unpack topics around colonialism, racism, and true solidarity with the movement.  

Co-creation has been key in the execution of our anti-racism pledge together with staff, partners, and trustees. We have strived to ensure that the pledge is owned by everyone and captures our shared aspirations and vision.  

We have launched two flexible funds – Her Voice Fund and Movement Strengthening Fund to power grassroots movements. When it comes to our partners, we strive to share power and share risks, value partners’ expertise and together, build a decolonised, feminist future. 

In our policy and advocacy work, as feminist practice, we emphasise our support role. This includes sharing space and power intentionally when engaging and working alongside partners. For example, in the development of reports and research, flexible funding, how we provide programme and project support, how we show up to key policy and advocacy spaces such as CSW67, the African Commission on People and Human Rights (ACPHR) and Feminist Republik. 

We worked on developing and implementing a Funding Charter to ensure that our fundraising and our financing is anti-racist, shares power with partners rather than competing with them and that our fundraising materials don’t perpetuate stereotypes that portray people in the Global South as victims or without agency. For example we decided not to apply for a grant and encouraged our partners to apply directly so we wouldn’t be competing with them for funds and we worked to convince existing funders to move their project based giving towards flexible and long-term funding – so partners can decide how to use the funds. 

We will continue to re-evaluate and develop new ways of working that are more aligned with a transformative justice approach and feminist values. We hope that our decolonisation and anti-racism work over the coming years will enable us to be part of a movement towards systemic healing, justice and a more equitable world. Because as we know, there is no gender justice without racial justice.  

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Our commitment to an anti-racism pledge was inspired by the global anti-racism movement following the tragic killing of George Floyd in 2020.  As an organisation, we are deliberate on moving from paper to action by daring to confront our own structures, mindset, and blind spots in tackling racism in all its forms. While we realise that this is a challenging journey, we are keen on embracing uncomfortable truths, having difficult conversations, and acknowledging our weaknesses as we forge on. 

How’s our progress been so far?

Co-creation has been key in the execution of our anti-racism pledge together with staff, partners, and trustees. We have strived to ensure that the pledge is owned by everyone and captures our shared aspirations and vision. Tracking progress on a quarterly basis is central to measuring how we are meeting our goals whilst also adjusting our plans where necessary. We do this deliberately with our staff and board. 

The road to structural change is not a journey we can walk alone. We are working with experts, organisations and individuals who specialise in anti-racism and decolonisation, together navigating historical practices to dismantle racism. A deliberate shift in culture is the unseen benefit that will trigger the biggest changes in systems and processes. This however requires constant learning and as a feminist organisation we have rolled out regular sessions to unpack topics around colonialism, racism, and solidarity with the movement. 

We have also institutionalised the anti-racism pledge. This includes structural change across the organisation from HR, fundraising, communications, advocacy, and programming to be reflective of our commitment and put it into practice.   

A hard look in the mirror

Challenging racism requires a hard look in the mirror with the realisation that meaningful change is slow and progressive and will not take place overnight. Implementing our anti-racism pledge has also had its fair share of challenges, but we are also determined to learn and share this knowledge with like-minded individuals and organisations. 

First, the difficult appreciation that the speed of change can be too slow. We have had to remind ourselves that transformational change takes time and requires a lot of resilience. 

Secondly, time is essential and should be planned for to review, change, and test as we juggle this with existing priorities. Time can easily be overlooked as a factor in living up to our promise especially in engaging our partners as we implement change. 

Thirdly, organisational change is personal – we have had difficult conversations whilst creating a safe space where people can move from discomfort to collective change. 

Lastly, we are embracing learning from our failures. We often question the language we use and reflect on the processes we are implementing. 

‘’It is my hope that in sharing these experiences we will encourage our friends and allies to be bold in sharing their journey in challenging racism and decolonising all our practices and ways of thinking.’’ 

You can listen in to Disha’s conversation on Spotify with Kate Bird and her co-host Charmaine McCaulay from the Development Hub UK. 

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