A closely related feature of the Fund was the diversity of issues and strategies it was willing to support, and most importantly, the flexibility to allow strategic shifts when they became necessary. Here are some illustrations of why this flexibility and diversity mattered:
Box 11: The power of flexible funding Karama: [T]he substantial [size of the grant] helped us [to] sustain the vision, be confident, flexible and responsive as our partners’ needs changed and shifted during and after the Arab uprisings.
Casa de la Mujer: [T]he openness and solidarity of the people at the MDG3 Fund and the Ministry let us make the necessary adjustments to take care of risky and emergency situations to protect women’s lives and integrity.
Gender Links: The MDG3 funding laid the foundation to scale up Gender Links’ local government and media programmes, enabling us to work in 143 councils and set the platform to expand to 300 councils in total.
The Huairou Commission: [I]t allowed our members to focus on aspects of women’s empowerment and gender equality which they prioritized – leadership, collective organizing, resource sovereignty, accountability and responsiveness of government and institutions.
FGHR: [T]here were fewer conditions attached to this grant [as compared to others]; the administrators understood the need for flexibility, particularly when supporting advocacy work.
OWFI: [T]he Fund’s support of our core work gave us a break from continuous and exhausting fund-raising. According to OWFI's Director, Yanar Mohammed, “When part of our premises was bombed, and our radio station could not function for a while, we knew we would be able to mobilize the resources needed to replace the equipment from our growing number of local and global supporters. We also knew that the Fund managers in the Ministry would understand and support our recovery plan”.34
AWID: [W]ith the flexible support from the MDG3 Fund, and after our board and staff concluded our Midterm Strategic Plan Review, we were able to launch a completely new program to respond to the clear trend of increased violence against women human rights defenders.”
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