On 27 September 2023, SRHM hosted a webinar to launch the special issue of the journal “Donor Funding for SRHR Advocacy”. We were joined by more than 100 participants from all over the world. The panelists discussed effective resource mobilization to build and advocate for SRHR movements, providing overviews and insights from their work published in the special issue.
While recent efforts in building and funding the SRHR movement have examined funding streams and donor perceptions, there is a lack of consistent attention to funding patterns that address the unique challenges associated with advocating and building SRHR. The dynamic, uncertain, and long-term nature of advocacy and movement-building efforts raises critical questions about how funding is understood and implemented.
The SRHM Journal special issue, “Donor Funding for SRHR Advocacy”seeks to explore the funding assumptions and processes for SRHR advocacy and movement building and to initiate a dialogue between different stakeholders about how SRHR funding can best support advocacy efforts and movement building.
Speakers
Alex le May
Head of Learning Innovation and Partnership, Amplify Change
Alex le May has been working with AmplifyChange for 9 years, during which time the fund has awarded 1225 grants and received more than 10,000 proposals from local civil society, mainly in Africa and South Asia. She currently leads the Learning Innovation & Partnership department, developing learning communities among AmplifyChange grantee partners and supporting local civil society organizations to gain recognition for their impact and expertise.
Alex shared highlights from his paper on ‘Is there an alternative to grant funding for sexual and reproductive health advocacy? Research the Income Base of Amplify Change Beneficiaries”
Presentation by Alex le May
Lisa Lamont Adams
Disability justice activist
Lisa Adams is a disability and gender justice expert with over twenty years of leading disability justice programming, cross-sectoral advocacy and non-exclusive grants internationally, working with governments, activists, social justice organisations, donors, UN agencies and human rights institutions. A key part of her work has been engaging feminist activists with disabilities and their allies in sexual and reproductive health justice, intersectional movement building, and intersectional research.
Lisa spoke on ‘Forgotten by donors: a call to action by disabled people for disability justice in sexual and reproductive health rights funding’
Presented by Lisa Adams
Sanjana Gaind
Director of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships
Asian Women’s Fund
Sanjana, is Director of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships at Women’s Fund Asia. She leads the fund’s work advocating for increased and improved resources for feminist movements in Asia. In her work on gender, sexuality and bodily autonomy, she has worked to integrate creative methodologies such as sports, film, theater, etc. to promote the SRHR of all people. Sanjana is currently based in Goa, India.
Sanjana shared her experiences with Women’s Fund Asia on ‘Shifting Paradigms through Feminist Funding’
Dr. Barbara Klugman
Strategy and evaluation professional
(Dr.) Barbara Klugman is a South African independent strategy and evaluation practitioner. She was deeply involved in the advocacy that won many sexual and reproductive rights policies in South Africa and worked for some years as the Ford Foundation’s International Sexuality and Reproductive Health Program Officer.
Barbara shared from her commentary “Effective Social Justice Advocacy: A Theory of Change Framework for Evaluating Progress – Reflections on the Ground Since Its 2011 Publication”
Presented by Barbara Klugman
Mediator
TK Sundari Ravindran
SRHM Senior Editor
TK Sundari Ravindran is currently a Principal Visiting Fellow at the United Nations University’s International Institute for Global Health. She holds a PhD in Applied Economics and served for twenty years as Professor of Public Health at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum. She has been a researcher and activist for almost four decades. She was founding co-editor of Reproductive Health Matters (now Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters). Sundari is a founding member of CommonHealth, a National Coalition for Reproductive Health and Safe Abortion (India). She has also been associated with the Rural Women’s Social Education Center (RUWSEC), a grassroots women’s health organization in Tamil Nadu since its inception in 1981.
