Urgent Action Fund

Over the course of the grant period, the Urgent Action Funds have responded to numerous crises facing women and non-binary HRDs and their movements, including the COVID-19 pandemic and various conflicts. In total, the Urgent Action Sister Funds awarded 1,053 grants to WHRDs from 2019 to 2023 with Sidas support. In 2023, they balanced response to prolonged crises, such as in Sudan, Nicaragua, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, while responding to worsening crises in countries like Ecuador, Türkiye, Syria, Uganda, and Myanmar. In 2023, UASFs awarded 302 grants rapidly meeting the needs of women and non-binary HRDs in 69 countries with Sida resources. The Urgent Action Sister Funds total collective grantmaking, (including grants resourced through Sidas support) amounted to 1,715 awards to women and non-binary HRDs, their groups, and networks in 121 countries for a total of more than USD $11.8M. The Urgent Action Funds continue to support grantee partners in the most difficult and restricted contexts. In total 88% of their grants supported women and non-binary HRDs located in countries with significantly constrained civic space (including countries identified as Repressed, Obstructed and Closed by the Civicus Monitor). Thematically, they particularly supported grantee partners working on issues including womens and LGBTQI rights broadly, economic justice and labour rights, environmental and climate justice, gender-based violence, sexual health and reproductive rights, and democracy, political rights and participation, among other issues. They supported women and non-binary HRDs and their groups with security and protection, relocation from dangerous situations, collective and community care, advocacy, convenings and trainings, legal assistance and more. The UASFs have further been monitoring states with elections, plugging into movement networks to know early as threats to women and non-binary HRDs start to increase. WHRDs are especially impacted by overlapping crises and emerging threats to democracy, as they are the first to support their communities no matter the situation - while also facing State repression, community violence, and a decrease of resources. UASFs further continued to provide critical collective care support for women and non-binary HRDs and their groups, part of it integrated into over 50% of the rapid response grants and and part of it via convenings and other kinds of actions co-created with other human rights defender actors. Each of the Urgent Action Sister Fund have further continued to develop its capacity to provide rapid response grantmaking, while taking as point of departure the perspective of their target groups, the women and non-binary HRDs. UAF for Feminist Activism have streamlined its grant making process and built in an automated sanctions list control that enables them to conduct sanctions checks across multiple governments and multilateral sanction data lists, including European Union sanctions, allowing for more efficient processing of grant payments. In addition they are working on additional language accessibility for Arabic and Russian-speaking applicants. UAF Africa have focused more on staff security and well-being as contexts they continue to operate in are increasingly challenging. The crises on the African continent, the sensitivity of its data and the emotional and physical demands of the Funds work required them to institutionalize a specific collective protection and care policy. They updated their internal Security and Care plan and established a Security and Care team to address staff needs. An internal security and care plan increases the Funds capacity to respond to emergencies. UAF Asia & Pacific have been testing a new open-source secure grant making system management platform designed to receive and manage applications for funding. They have also developed its grant making applicant scheme to make it more accessible for some of its target groups, for example by adding the option to note location in a dependent territory of another State, etc for applicants. UAF Latin America & the Caribbean have worked on its methods to learn and reflect together with its partners in order to follow closely when new laws or rules in certain countries may impact funding flows to grantee partners so that the grant making system is well adjusted to navigate such challenges and can uphold accessibility to those in most critical need. UASFs have also increased their advocacy with women and non-binary HRDs in philanthropic and policy spaces, which has become increasingly important as actors in opposition to democracy and gender equality continue to strengthen their efforts to influence these platforms. Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism focused its advocacy efforts alongside defenders on developing a report and toolkit against reprisals often faced by activists when they testify in venues such as the UN Security Council or Human Rights Council. The reprisals include experiences of digital surveillance and smear campaigns, violence that targets the well-being of activists organizations, loved ones, and communities. The reprisals toolkit is a resource for activists facing reprisals as well as a tool that defenders can use for advocacy targeting donors, policy makers, and international institutions. Through the concrete examples and comprehensive intersectional feminist analysis the report provides, the capacity has been strengthened of both Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism and activists to advocate with donors and policy makers to better prevent and address reprisals - which is part of the greater backlash. Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism have together with partners through the Spotlight Initiative, conducted shared advocacy aimed to shift the funding culture and practices of the UN, EU, and other funders, to ensure that financing reaches Frontline feminist movements. The advocacy work have led to the integration of Spotlight members key recommendations in the European Union Civil Society Investment which have contributed to increased awareness and willingness to shift funding modalities and for example channel more funds though women's rights funds. The involved CSO's have also managed to establish stronger connections with representatives from the EU and the UN as a result of the initiative, which has resulted in increased knowledge and information sharing around these topics between the feminist movement and key norm-setting donors and actors.

Expected results UAF Sister Funds support the work of WHRDs in the areas of security and well-being, advocacy, and access to convening spaces and solidarity networks. By fostering these capacities, the shared goals of the UAF Sister Funds include sustained resilience and efficacy of the feminist movements that WHRDs lead and their success in changing laws, policies, and social norms to realize equity and justice for all.   The objectives of the intervention are; Objective 1: UAF Sister Funds provide increased and more accessible resources, through rapid response grant-making, to support and protect WHRDs Goal 1 Each UAF Sister Fund maintains a 24/7/365 open, accessible, and secure application process for WHRDs. Goal 2 Each UAF Sister Fund awards rapid security and opportunity or resourcing resilience grants to WHRDs that are more responsive to WHRDs needs. Goal 3 Develop shared learning and aligned frameworks for the security and well-being of WHRDs. . Objective 2: Advocate in partnership with WHRDs in philanthropic and policy spaces to foster an enabling environment for the defenders we support Goal 1 Each UAF Sister Fund undertakes learning, listening, and capacity-building activities to create space for and gather perspectives of WHRDs. Goal 2 Each UAF Sister Fund undertakes and/or supports regional or international advocacy with WHRDs. Objective 3: Build alliances and partnerships in which WHRDs are consulted, respected, and celebrated Goal 1 Joint UAF Sister Funds participation in selected philanthropic and human rights policy spaces.. Objective 4: Strengthened alignment across the UAF Sister Funds community to increase the communitys collective movement impact and resilience for WHRDs Goal 1- Strong alignment in coordination of the program