Renewed Women’s Voice and Leadership - South Africa

This project is part of Canada’s Renewed Women’s Voice and Leadership (WVL) Program. It supports local and regional women’s rights organizations (WROs) lesbian bisexual transgender queer and intersex plus (LBTQI+) groups and feminist networks working to promote the rights of women and girls and advance gender equality in developing countries. It provides multi-year core funding and rapid responsive funding strengthening institutional capacity and bolstering feminist alliances as WROs and their networks are critical change agents. The Program continues to respond to the globally recognized and significant gap in funding and support for WROs and movements worldwide. It recognizes that those groups working at intersecting forms of discrimination and in crisis- and conflict-affected countries are funded even less. The Renewed WVL Program includes enhanced support for WROs LBTQI+ organizations and women human rights defenders working in crisis- and conflict-affected settings and a more intentional approach to reaching structurally excluded groups. This includes but is not limited to LBTQI+ communities women and girls with disabilities Indigenous women and girls and young feminists. The project implemented by Gender Links supports approximately 50 rights-focused organizations across South Africa. The project helps them improve their structures programming and capacity to deliver quality services in order to advance the rights of women girls and gender non-conforming individuals.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved management and sustainability of local women’s rights organizations in South Africa; (2) enhanced performance of women’s rights organizations’ programming and advocacy to advance gender equality and empower women girls and gender non-confirming individuals; and (3) a strengthened intersectional women’s movement.