Equipop has been expanding its support for feminist movements year after year. In French-speaking West Africa, Equipop provides several types of support tailored to the needs of feminist activists and organizations: provision of financial resources; provision of technical resources; support for forums for sharing experiences and knowledge; support for collective action.
According to AWID, women's rights organizations receive only 0.13% of official development assistance (ODA), and only 0.42% of foundation grants go to women's rights projects (see: Where is the money for feminist organizing?, AWID, 2021). However, providing substantial funding to feminist movements is a powerful way to advance gender equality.
Meeting the funding needs of feminist movements
In this context, Equipop has been working for several years to contribute to the funding needs of associations and activists whose main actions are aimed at defending women's rights. It has therefore set up project-based funds. The aim is to provide them with secure and flexible funding in line with a feminist approach to financing. This translates, among other things, into:
▶ limiting competition between feminist organizations by issuing restricted calls for expressions of interest;
▶ developing strategic and trusting partnerships based on regular dialogue between the organizations supported and Equipop;
▶ facilitating access to funding tailored to the different needs of feminist organizations, including their operating costs.
Furthermore, while the lack of legal recognition of feminist organizations in their countries—either because they encounter difficulties in completing the administrative procedures to obtain legal status or because they choose not to formalize their status—is generally a major obstacle to their access to funding, this is not a limiting factor for Equipop. Indeed, an organization's capacity to act does not
does not depend on its legal status. Furthermore, the most important thing for Equipop is the organization's ability to engage in a process of transforming power relations between women and men.
At the same time, Equipop monitors funding opportunities that could benefit feminist organizations and, depending on their needs, can support them in their applications when calls for projects are issued. This work requires constant dialogue with donors. The latter have funding and accountability requirements that often limit the implementation of the principles on which we wish to base our financial support. Although complex, this dialogue is also a lever for us to participate in the evolution of partnership frameworks with the main donors, whether private or public.
Struggles are collective: strengthen ties!
In addition to financial support, Equipop works to facilitate links between its various partners and allies around the world, particularly in West Africa. With this in mind, Equipop contributes to various collective initiatives.
Equipop regularly mobilizes more than 80 feminist activists from eight West African countries in various collective discussions, mainly online, ranging from the preparation of international events to reflection on opportunities related to feminist movements, debriefing, and reaction to national news. In this spirit of strengthening ties and exchanges between feminists, on the occasion of the Femmes et Climats festival organized by Empow'her in Niger, At the beginning of 2022, Equipop had the opportunity to host a "Feminist Power Zone."This space for exchange during the festival was designed and implemented with a collective of around sixty feminists from West Africa, who were able to work online to plan several highlights. Over two days, five feminists appointed by the group attended the festival and led debates and working sessions on sisterhood, women's political power, and the history of feminist movements in Africa. Upon their return to their respective countries, they organized feedback sessions with their fellow activists. Equipop was also able to organize, in collaboration with the RJFAO and other activists in the country, online exchanges to debrief and better understand current events related to women's rights in certain countries in the region, such as the legalization of safe abortion in Benin. To explore certain key themes in greater depth, Equipop also organized several online conference sessions. "French-speaking sororities", bringing together several feminist experts from different French-speaking areas to offer an opportunity for reflection and the joint development of feminist thought.
At the same time, Equipop also supports the building of links between feminist activists and women and girls in their respective countries. A regional initiative, developed jointly with feminists from eight countries, has been launched to organize feminist discussion caravans. The aim is to create spaces for women and girls, particularly those who are marginalized (rural women, women with disabilities, women from working-class backgrounds, women who are uneducated or have dropped out of school, women working in the informal sector, etc.), to talk about their concerns, difficulties, priorities, and needs in terms of rights. These caravans will take place in 2022.
Several principles have emerged from these collective feminist experiences that guide Equipop's support for collective action:
▶ sisterhood
▶ intergenerational links
▶ transnational links
▶ links between different economic backgrounds
It appears that pooling energies is crucial, both to strengthen the political aspect of feminist struggles and to collectively protect activists from the violence that threatens them individually.
Working with the imagination: collaborating with figures from the cultural and artistic world
The use of cultural media (cinema, podcasts, theater, dance) to deconstruct sexist stereotypes and politicize feminist issues is something Equipop has been interested in for several years. Reflection on how women can reclaim the gaze on themselves ("female gaze") in art and fiction is also an important factor in social change.
With this in mind, Equipop is increasing its collaborations with actors and actresses in the cultural sphere who are interested in feminist issues. After an initial collaboration with the Cotonou International Women's Film Festival, Equipop has repeated this type of partnership with several festivals and cultural events in the region. These partnerships take various forms: strategic discussions on the direction of events, provision of financial resources to enable feminist activists to participate, participation in panels on topics related to Equipop's expertise, and technical support for communication on social media and with the media.
These actors in the cultural sector are also seeking to build closer ties with so-called traditional feminist activists. Equipop is helping to bring them together, as well as with people involved in gender issues in the cultural sector. With this in mind, Equipop participated in the Festival Films Femmes Afrique, organized in Dakar, and in a discussion on the opportunity to create a network of women's film festivals.
