About Us
Femena, Rights Peace Inclusion.
Vision
A MENA/Asia region where women, minority groups, and other marginalized populations enjoy equal rights and opportunities, as well as peace, prosperity, and democracy and can organize and shape their future through strong and resilient civil society organizations and feminist movements.
Mission
Femena works with partners to promote gender equality, inclusion and peace; expand civic space; strengthen civil society and WHRD resilience; visibilize the work of WHRDs and progressive feminist movements; and foster solidarity and south-south cooperation in MENA and Asia regions.
Approach
Femena carries out its mission through an interlinked or wraparound approach of advocacy, research, documentation, convenings, and training and by fostering the development of communities of practice. Use of multiple strategies or activities to address particular challenges helps Femena to continually raise critical issues, in multiple spaces and for an array of audiences, increasing impact. Femena’s work is developed through consultation and collaboration with regional partners and WHRD advisors.
The work of Femena is carried out through the following interlinked and wrap-around approaches and activities.
1. Analysis of Trends and Policy
In consultation with partners, Femena provides critical and timely analysis on important trends and issues related to the situation of women, WHRDs and feminist organizing in the MENA and Asia regions. Femena provides this analysis through the publication of statements, reports, thematic issue briefs, country briefs and articles.
2. Documentation
Femena documents innovative and progressive strategies used by feminist movements, through research and development of reports and through interviews with feminist activists. This work is carried out with the aim of ensuring that feminist activists in the region have the opportunity to learn from one another, but also ensuring that the international community understand the innovative approaches feminists have used to promote equality, and prevent violence. Documentation efforts also seek to ensure that progressive feminist movements are not side-lined by the international community as well as regional and national bodies seeking to respond to growing conservatism, increased authoritarianism, conflict and extremism.
3. Fostering Development of Communities of Practice
Femena believes in south-south collaboration, sharing and learning. As such, we seek to convene or provide space for the coming together of feminist activists from the global south and especially the MENA/Asia region. We believe that learning and sharing is most effective when it is focused and provides technical and other forms of support for collaboration or replication. Convenings include, collective analysis and strategizing, training and formation of communities of practice around Femena program areas as well as emerging issues of critical importance in the region. Our convenings and communities of practice are linked with our trends and policy analysis and documentation efforts as well as our advocacy efforts.
4. Advocacy
Femena is committed to providing opportunities for advocacy, in order to ensure that the voices and concerns of women human rights defenders and their organizations/movements are heard at the national, regional and international levels. Femena’s policy analysis, documentation and convening activities feed into advocacy efforts and help define advocacy priorities. Femena seeks to provide opportunities for partners to be present in critical spaces of advocacy at the UN and at international women’s conferences where decisions are made and awareness is raised.