Women's Voice and Leadership - Sri Lanka

This project is part of Canada’s Women’s Voice and Leadership Program which supports local and regional women’s organisations and networks that are working to promote women’s rights and advance women’s empowerment and gender equality in developing countries. This is done by supporting activities building institutional capacity and promoting network and alliance-building as women’s rights and feminist organizations are critical agents of change. The Program also responds to the globally recognized significant gap in funding and support to women’s rights organizations and movements around the world. This project is implemented by The Asia Foundation. It provides multi-year funding to approximately 15 to 20 women’s rights organizations that represent vulnerable and marginalized women and girls in Sri Lanka. Project activities include: (1) providing fast responsive support to organizations for discrete activities and short projects to enable timely and strategic responses to unforeseen events and to pilot innovative ideas; (2) building the capacity of organizations; and (3) supporting network and alliance-building between organizations.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved management and sustainability of local women’s rights organizations in Sri Lanka; (2) enhanced performance of women’s rights organizations’ programming and advocacy to advance gender equality and empower women and girls; and (3) increased effectiveness of sub-national and national women’s rights platforms networks and alliances to affect policy legal and social change in Sri Lanka.