This project is titled The Young Feminist Pluriverse based on the metaphor of ‘a feminist pluriverse’.
We borrow this metaphor from the Zapatista indigenous women’s movement in Mexico and Latin American based sociologists.
A pluriverse is ‘a world where many worlds fit’.
With this metaphor, the project makes a strong statement about how financial and non-financial support can enable each group to become precisely who they are, celebrating differences rather than promoting a standardization of what feminist organising might feel or look like.
Since 2012, FRIDA has funded diverse young feminist groups across the Global South using feminist principles of flexibility and participatory decision-making; funding innovative emerging groups, most of which had never before received institutional funding and building relationships with young feminist groups based on trust and friendship. Many of these groups work in restrictive and regressive contexts, face backlash and yet continue to carry out initiatives which address the power imbalances and rights violations in their diverse manifestations locally and beyond. Despite all of their work, the impact of young feminist organising is often still not recognised, and their work continues to be underfunded.
FRIDA conducted this research project because very little is known about the evolution and experiences of young feminist groups and to further contribute to the evidence base on the value of providing quality (long-term, core, flexible) funding to emerging young feminist led groups. For FRIDA specifically, this served as an opportunity to reflect on the theories, principles and approaches which inform our work.
It is our hope that it inspires and informs support models and funding for young feminist organising globally, particularly so at this time when COVID 19 has disrupted funding and has necessitated a change in how young feminists organise, resist and catalyse change.
Working with Recrear and What Took You So Long, we embarked on a feminist research journey throughout 2019 and early 2020, conducting 5 learning visits with long term FRIDA grantee partners. During these visits, we captured in their own words the journeys their groups have been on, the role funding has played in their journey, and the type of support that has nurtured their groups and supported them to catalyse change in their communities.
The following 5 groups were visited:
- Reflexión y Acción Feminista (RAF), Mexico
- Helping Hand, Georgia
- Women’s Health and Equal Rights Initiative (WHER), Nigeria
- Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights (SAHR), Global (visited in Morocco)
- Fe-Male, Lebanon
From this research journey we share with you the
following:
Reflections from all 5 Groups
The video captures reflections from all 5 groups on their relationship with FRIDA. Click on the image to view the video.
Videos of Each Group
To capture the energy, reflections and ideas of the young feminist activists themselves, we created a short video from each of the 5 learning visits. The videos highlight their work and the way in which their relationship with FRIDA has supported their growth and initiatives.
Click on the links below to view the videos:
(Videos by: What Took You So Long)
The full narrative report
A majority of the report is made up of 5 case studies from the 5 visits. The report explores in depth the way continuous, flexible financial and non-financial support influences the growth and evolution of young feminist organizations and groups (YFOs). In addition, it includes reflections on the types of change young feminist groups have catalysed and recommendations for funders.
Read it all at once or case by case, there’s a lot to learn from each group’s experiences.
The summary report
