Girls Fund

Young feminist leaders and movements, including girls and adolescents, in East Africa are making significant strides toward driving social change. They are leading change across a wide range of social and gender justice priorities and movements, including education, violence, economic empowerment, governance, health, inclusion, and others. However, research findings indicate that these movements face challenges with under-resourcing, lack of visibility, and marginalization due to unfavorable legislative environments, shrinking civic space, and inequality regimes within the social change ecosystem. The historical legacy of colonialism, race, caste, class, ableism, ageism, and gender are still pervasive, depending on the context. In addition, young feminist movements, institutions, and girls and young feminists themselves face immense backlash from conservative forces.

In October 2022, with Support from the Ford Foundation, three feminist organizations: Akili Dada (Kenya), Msichana Initiative (Tanzania), and MEMPROW (Uganda) produced a report on; Young Feminist Movement Building in East Africa: A Study on the Work of Young Feminists in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The study showed that YFOs are organizing around different issues across the region ranging from disability rights, mentorship, economic justice, psychosocial and mental support for women and girls amongst others. There also barriers hampering the efforts of YFOs including limited funding, limited organizational development capacity, limited intergenerational or movement focused work, and lack of community support for feminist organizations. The study recommended better and more accessible funding for YFOs.

Around the same time, the East African Girls and Young Feminist Learning Initiative was being set up. In 2023-2024, with funding from Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, the East African Girls and Young Feminist Learning Initiative made some experimental grants to groups of girls and young feminists in East Africa. The initiative also reviewed research and reports on the resourcing of the mentioned groups in the region to learn and provide forward-looking strategies for funders to better resource girls.

EAGYFF is an outcome of these processes. It takes on the learnings from the YFO study and the one-year experimental grantmaking and feedback from girls and young feminists through the East African Girls and Young Feminist Learning Initiative. It was seeded by Ford Foundation and Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. This pilot phase of the Fund is hosted by the CIVFUND. It is committed to creating a framework that enables YFO leadership of the fund and building an entity that would further the efforts and leadership of girls and young feminists in East Africa.

Goal

The East Africa Girls and Young Feminist Fund (EAGYFF) aims to resource girls and young feminists in East Africa so they can grow and build their initiatives while contributing to movement building.

Core Principles of the Fund 

1. Inclusivity and Intersectionality: The fund will recognize and prioritize the importance of creating a non-hierarchical space that includes all young feminists from diverse backgrounds, ages, experiences, and identities. The fund will aim to embrace intersectionality by understanding and addressing how various forms of oppression, such as gender, socio-economic status, sexuality, and ability, intersect and impact young feminists' lives.  

2. Collective, Participatory, and Intergenerational: The fund will aim to encourage and support young feminists in taking leadership roles in their communities and driving their agendas, fostering solidarity and participatory decision-making processes, and supporting skills for intergenerational dialogues and collaboration.  

3. Grassroots and Locally Driven: The fund will prioritize grassroots organizing efforts that are led by and centered around the needs and interests of local communities. The fund aims to support initiatives deeply connected to the contexts and realities of young feminists. These institutions may currently be outside the “donor funding system.”  

4. Learning: The fund will prioritize documentation, learning, and knowledge sharing to move toward impact and strengthen learning in the ecosystem.   

5. Sustainability and Long-term Support: The fund will support grassroots young feminist organizing. The fund aims to adopt a long-term perspective by supporting initiatives that offer immediate impact and contribute to lasting and transformative change within local communities and on a larger scale.   

6. Accountability and Transparency: The fund will maintain accountability and transparency in its operations. The fund aims to establish clear and transparent procedures for grant applications, selection processes, and fund allocations. 

Expected Outcomes

1. Strengthened young feminist and adolescent girl networks, coalitions, and alliances for diverse young feminist leaders that build their collective power across regions and movements toward impact.  

2. Elevated leadership of diverse young feminists, including adolescents, in various movements and spaces using an intersectional approach.    

3. More narratives that amplify storytelling by diverse young feminists and bridge communications and advocacy strategies for heightened impact.   

4. Increased learning and knowledge in the ecosystem, including the greater exchange of best practices, research, and lessons learned among young feminist organizers and funders.