About
The member funds began meeting annually in 2000, when the first meeting was hosted by Tewa, in Nepal. The network meetings provide opportunities for peer learning, mentoring, information sharing, professional development, coordinate activities and strategies. The meetings will now be held on a biennial basis. this is the edited copy…
History of INWF
This brief outline of the history of the INWF has been compiled using various articles, minutes and reports of meetings of the INWF as well as from articles presented by Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi and Ellen Sprenger.
Eight years ago Mama Cash, a Netherlands-based international women’s fund, hosted a milestone event with its overseas and domestic partners as part of its fifteenth anniversary celebrations in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The idea was to develop strategies for building the women’s funding movement globally. During the three days of discussions, it became clear that women’s funds are significant strategic social change agents, in particular in developing and transitional countries but also in the global North.
In the early 1990’s only a handful of women’s funds were in existence. Two were relatively well-known internationally: the US-based Global Fund For Women founded in 1987 and Mama Cash founded in 1983.
There were also funds outside of North America and Western Europe where women were succeeding in pioneering funding foundations for women and by women. One of these was Semillas (meaning seed) based in Mexico which was founded in 1990 by a group of Mexican feminist activists and encouraged and supported by the Global Fund for Women.
Five years later Rita Thapa from Nepal set up TEWA, a women’s fund committed to raising money locally and internationally to support poor women in Nepal.
By 1998 many more women’s funds had been established: Nirnaya (India), Angela Borba Fund (Brazil), African Women’s Development Fund (Africa-wide) and WHEAT Trust (South Africa).
However for those sitting around the table in Amsterdam in 1998, it became evident that a network was needed which would harness, develop and share the ideas and energy of these emerging funds. So in January 2000 at a meeting hosted by TEWA in Kathmandu, Nepal, nine of these women’s funds came together and established the International Network of Women’s Funds (INWF). Since then meetings have been hosted by these women’s funds annually.
Semillas hosted the meeting in 2001 in Oaxaca, Mexico which was attended by seven women’s funds and where the criteria for membership were agreed upon. In 2002 the meeting was hosted by Nirnaya in Hyderabad, India. At this event, at which there were twelve funds present, the first Steering Committee was elected. The members also agreed on a program for learning and exchange and on the organisers for the next event.
The African Women’s Fund organised the next event in Accra, Ghana (2003). At this meeting the members decided to employ the services of a Network Convenor and the membership criteria were confirmed. During the 2004 meeting organised by Angela Borba Fund in Rio de Janeiro, Argentina, the members confirmed their affiliation process and an Executive Committee was elected representing the regions.
These annual meetings provided opportunities for peer learning, mentoring, information sharing and professional development. In addition the Bylaws of the Network were confirmed and the INWF statement and purpose were defined.
The INWF appointed the first Co-ordinator in 2003 and established an office in Mexico, funded by Global Fund for Women and Mama Cash. During 2004 the members elected an Executive Committee with representation from all the regions and Co-Chairpersons Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi and Emilienne de Leon. The Executive Committee developed a good working relationship enabling it to negotiate the first ever donors outside of the Network.
It has been decided by the membership to host meetings on a biennial basis with the next membership meeting to be held in the Ukraine in 2007. The network currently has 22 members including the Women’s Funding Network (WFN). All members contribute to the funding of the INWF.
Together with the Women’s Funding Network (WFN) which brings together all the US-based domestic women’s funds as well as women’s funds working around the world, the INWF provides a critical space for learning and strategy development.
Many INWF members are also members of WFN and by working together with the WFN Secretariat are benefiting greatly from the WFN’s fundraising training programme and capacity building tools. Members of the INWF are also working with WFN to adapt existing WFN tools for their use by the INWF.
A key difference between INWF and WFN is that INWF members are either based in developing and transitional countries or they are based in the global North with however at least half of their grant making going to women’s groups in the South.
During 2005 the first regional meetings of the INWF were held.
The Asian Region meeting, attended by Her Fund (Hong Kong), Mongolian Women’s Fund, MONES, Nirnaya (India), TEWA (Nepal) was held in Mongolia.
The Africa Region met in Ghana and took the opportunity to celebrate the fifth birthday of African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) with fellow regional members Women’s Hope Education and Training Trust (WHEAT) and Urgent Action Fund.
The European Women’s Funds convened their meeting in Kiev, the Ukraine, which saw the coming together of the Filia Foundation (Germany), Mama Cash (Netherlands), Ukraine Women’s Fund (Ukraine), Reconstruction Women’s Fund (Servia and Montenegro), Slovak-Czech Women’s Fund (Czech Republic).
The Latin American Region did not travel to one place but met via a conference call and made contact at various international meetings. The members are: Angela Borba (Brazil), American Women’s Fund (Nicaragua), Collective Fund Alquimia (Chile) and Semillas (Mexico).
Fortunately the Funds of North America and Western Europe, Global Fund for Women, Mama Cash and Astrea Foundation have been able to attend some of the regional meetings and continue to support the mobilising of members at regional level.
Other funders of the INWF are DOEN Foundation and NOVIB.
Three new members have applied for membership.
During 2006 the INWF recruited an Executive Director, Tina Thiart, and established a new office. In August 2006 a new Board was elected: Ana Criquillion (Chairperson), Janaki Shah (vice Chairperson) and Marketa Hronkova (Treasurer).
The following is a list of our Board members and fiscal sponsor:
- Chairperson
- Name: Ana Criquillion
- Organization: Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres
- Address: De la Rotonda El Gueguense 4 cuadras abajo, 1c. al lago<
- Managua, Nicaragua
- Vice-Chairperson
- Name: Janaki Shah
- Organization: TEWA
- Address: P O Box: 11 Lalitpur, Nepal
- Treasurer
- Name: Marketa Hronkova
- Organization: Slovak-Czech Women’s Fund
- Address: Borivojova 105, Prague,
- 130 00, Czech Republic
- INWF Secretariat, Executive Director
- Name: Tina Thiart
- Organization: INWF
- Address: P O Box 538, Simon’s Town
7995, South Africa
- Fiscal Sponsor
- Name: Dale Needles
- Organization: Global Fund for Women
- Address: 1375 Sutter Street, Suite 400
- San Francisco CA 94109
