This flexible funding is a game-changer for small organisations. We have acquired an office and retained dedicated staff.”
Bina Maseno, Executive Director, Badili Africa
How the Women's Rights Fund works
The Women’s Rights Fund provides multi-year, flexible funding to grassroots organisations so they can invest in their own priorities.
This marks one of Oxfam’s first deliberate commitments to devolve more resources and power to grassroots organisations and become a better partner. It is part of Oxfam’s new strategy to change the way that we work. It is inspired by Oxfam’s longstanding work with women’s rights organisations, and our research report, A Leap of Faith.
How does it work?
The Women’s Rights Fund (WRF) currently works with ten small grassroots women’s rights organisations in Kenya and Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), supporting approximately 13,000 people a year.
WRF partners work on a range of women’s rights issues (e.g. political participation, domestic violence, access to healthcare). All are registered organisations known to Oxfam and/or our existing partners.
Areas of focus
The Women's Rights Fund has three main areas of focus:
Grants to Partners
Each partner receives a grant of £60,000, split over three years. The use of the grant is entirely at the partner’s discretion, with minimal conditions beyond legal compliance.
Organisational Development
All partners are supported to work with Oxfam staff on bespoke sustainability plans for their organisation. This could be in the shape of direct support from Oxfam (such as fundraising and campaigning training) or enabling access to other sources of support.
Emergency Support
The Women's Rights Fund has a small funding pot to support partners in times of emergency, such as armed conflict or disease outbreaks.
What happens next?
At the end of the 3-year cycle, the Women's Rights Fund supports the transition to a non-financial relationship with partners by inviting them to join the WRF organisations' group. This includes taking part in training and networking opportunities, accessing mutual support from other WRF members, providing visibility and references for their work and sharing funding opportunity alerts.
As one set of partners completes their 3-year funding cycle, new partners are invited to join the WRF for a new cycle of funding.
Funding permitting, we are looking forward to expanding the Women's Rights Fund to more countries from 2024.
To find out more about the Women’s Rights Fund, please contact womens_rights_fund@oxfam.org.uk.