Press release – The Francophone Feminist Alliance, a new initiative to strengthen the participation of Francophone feminists in international decision-making spaces
Paris, October 7, 2024 – At the 2024 Francophonie Summit, the creation of the Francophone Feminist Alliance was announced. Coordinated by Equipop, the Fund for Women in the Mediterranean (FFMed) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), this alliance will bring together Francophone feminist activists from around the world. Its goal is to strengthen their participation in "multilateral" spaces, i.e., international negotiation and decision-making processes.
Currently, French-speaking feminist activists face numerous obstacles in making their voices heard, such as insufficient funding, a lack of space for coordination and training, and language barriers. In a context of declining rights for women and LGBTQIA+ people, and in the face of extremely well-organized and well-funded ultra-conservative movements, it is imperative to support organizations and activists who defend their rights and human rights in general. French institutions and associations are pursuing the same goal. The joint discussions held over the past few months, particularly in the context of the “feminist diplomacy” policy adopted by the French government several years ago, have now resulted in the creation of the Francophone Feminist Alliance. With funding from the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, through a mechanism of the French Development Agency, amounting to €5 million over three years, the Alliance's activities will begin in January 2025. The Alliance will be coordinated by Equipop, the FFMed, and the FIDH, three civil society organizations that have placed support for feminist associations and movements at the heart of their mission and are already engaged in ongoing advocacy in this area. For many years, they have served as a link between associations and activists and institutional bodies, particularly those involved in women's rights and gender equality. This expertise will therefore be leveraged to make this initiative a powerful tool for the rights of women and LGBTQIA+ people, within the French-speaking world and beyond.
Media contact for Equipop: Louise Pluyaud – Communications Officer – louise.pluyaud@equipop.org / +33 (0)6 82 05 25 20
About: Equipop Equipop, a feminist international solidarity association, works to improve the rights and health of all human beings, including sexual and reproductive rights, without any discrimination based on sex or gender. Equipop promotes feminist values and places a gender-based approach at the heart of its work. FFMed The Fund for Women in the Mediterranean (FFMed) is a feminist fund that, since 2008, has been committed to strengthening the women's movement in all 21 countries of the Mediterranean basin, to end the inequalities suffered by women and girls and bring about lasting change. The FFMed acts on four levels: providing financial support to small local women's associations; contributing to the training of the next generation of the women's movement; offering spaces where feminist associations can exchange ideas, unite, and act together; and representing women's associations before major institutions and advocating for larger budgets to be allocated to them. FIDH The FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) is an international human rights NGO. It brings together 188 national human rights organizations in 116 countries. Since 1922, the FIDH has been committed to defending all civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
