Watering the Leaves Glossary

Glossary

WATERING THE LEAVES STARVING THE ROOTS THE STATUS OF FINANCING FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS ORGANIZING AND GENDER EQUALITY

by Angelika Arutyunova and Cindy Clark 2013

Glossary the rights guaranteed to women under international human rights instruments and law, as well as through internationally ratified agreements such as Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Women’s rights

women’s rights

would also include the guarantees provided to women within national constitutional frameworks and laws such as equality under law, equal civil and political rights, economic rights such as inheritance rights and equal wages for equal work, and social rights such as equal rights to education and health care.

the process, and the outcome of the process, by which marginalized women become conscious of the root causes of their subordination, construct their own agendas of change, and build their collective power through movements that seek to create fundamental and lasting transformations in both gender and other social power structures.1

women’s empowerment

an approach that brings women together to build their awareness of their rights, help them identify and analyze their problems from a different perspective, frame agendas for action, identify strategies for advancing these agendas, and expand their struggle for gender equality to bring in more women affected by the same issues. This is an approach that seeks to build women’s collective power and collective actions for change, and that builds their understanding and capacity to address the root causes of gender discrimination and social, economic and political exclusion, rather than focusing on individuals or change in the situation of individual women. This is the approach used by women’s rights organizations and movements for several decades throughout the world, and there is growing evidence that it has brought more fundamental, systemic and sustainable change at a societal level, for all women.

women’s rights organizing

organizations formed and led by women and that work intentionally to advance women’s access to their full body of rights, generally using strategies of women’s rights organizing.

women’s rights organizations

A movement is an organized set of constituents pursuing a common political agenda of change (in this case, women’s rights) through collective action.2

women’s rights movements

civil society distinct from government and business, civil society is the aggregate of individuals, nongovernmental organizations and institutions that manifest interests and will of citizens.

the achievement of parity between men and women in rights, resources, responsibilities, opportunities and privileges.

gender equality

is a process of mobilizing the constituency that implicitly benefits from a particular social, economic or political change, organizing the constituency, building a clear political agenda (or change agenda), and preparing the constituency to choose its targets, strategies, and actions to bring about the change they seek.3

movement building

women activists and advocates active in protecting and promoting human rights of other women or marginalized communities, from local to global levels, who are targeted for who they are and what they do. The nature of their work often makes them the subject of attacks, requiring gender-sensitive mechanisms for their protection and support.4

women human rights defenders

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the systematic targeting and killing of women, usually by men, because they are women, and especially women who defy gender norms or roles in any way.

feminicide/femicide

a collective effort to mobilize resources beyond one organization’s fundraising goals. Such efforts can go beyond mobilizing funding as a resource and include strategic partnership among multiple organizations to define collective goals and mobilize resources around those.

collective resource mobilization

a collective approach of women’s organizations and movements to influence the agendas and priorities of diverse funding sectors to catalyze greater resources for women’s rights organizing.

feminist resource mobilization

(not AWID’s but a general definition) defines all building blocks required to bring about a given long-term goal. This set of connected building blocks–interchangeably referred to as outcomes, results, accomplishments, or preconditions is depicted on a map known as a pathway of change/change framework, which is a graphic representation of the change process.

Built around the pathway of change, a Theory of Change describes the types of interventions (a single program or a comprehensive community initiative) that bring about the outcomes depicted in the pathway of a change map. Each outcome in the pathway of change is tied to an intervention, revealing the often complex web of activity that is required to bring about change. A Theory of Change would not be complete without an articulation of the assumptions that stakeholders use to explain the change process represented by the change framework.

Theory of change

organizations or companies that operate on a “for-profit” basis. Their growing role and influence in global development processes demands that we better understand the diversity of actors and the mechanisms of their engagement in development and their

private sector

potential impacts on women’s organizations.

while there is no generally accepted definition of faith-based organizations, they are characterized by having one or more of the following: affiliation with a religious body; a mission statement with explicit reference to religious values; financial support from religious sources; and/or a governance structure where selection of board members or staff is based on religious beliefs or affiliation and/or decision-making processes based on religious values.5

faith-Based organization

1 2

3 4

5

Adapted from Batliwala, Srilatha "Taking the Power out of Empowerment" Development in Practice 17.4/5 (2008) Print.

Adapted from Batliwala, Srilatha, ed. Changing Their World: Concepts and Practices of Women's Movements Toronto: AWID (2008) Web. 7 October 2013. http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/Changing-Their-World ibid

Adapted from the definition provided by the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, Web. June 25, 2013. http://www.defendingwomen-defendingrights.org/about.php

Ferris, Elizabeth "Faith-based and Secular Humanitarian Organizations" International Review of the Red Cross 87.858 (2005): 311-325. Web. 4 October 2013. http://www.ikrk.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc_858_ferris.pdf

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