Forum 08 in Review AWID’s 11th International Forum on Women’s Rights and Development The POWER of Movements November 14–17, 2008 | Cape Town, South Africa about this publication From November 14-17, 2008, close to 2000 women’s rights activists from 144 countries came together in Cape Town, South Africa, to discuss The Power of Movements. This compilation examines Forum 2008’s approach, impact, and achievements as well as areas for improvement to build an even stronger, bolder Forum 2012. It presents a snapshot of some of the discussions and activities that took place over the four days of the Forum. It includes transcripts from each of the daily plenaries, as well as excerpts and reports from some of the most popular breakout sessions. We’ve also included personal testimonials as well as other reflections and writings on the forum itself. And of course, as much as possible, we’ve tried to include photos and images that capture some of the tremendous energy, passionate debate, and principled solidarity that is a hallmark of AWID forums. We hope that this resource will contribute to sharing some of the big ideas that came out of the forum and, at the same time, remind you that you are not alone, that the power of women's movements is making a difference, all around the world. Please enjoy. We hope to see you at Forum 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey! Table of Contents Please click on the links below to read each section of the publication Report on AWID’s 2008 Forum, “The Power of Movements” 1. Introduction . .5 2. In what did we succeed? Forum Achievements . .8 3. Where can we improve? Critical Lessons & Insights . .12 4. Looking Forward: The 2012 Forum . .15 Plenary Sessions Plenary 1: Women Organizing and Transforming the World . .17 Plenary 2: Making Our Movements Stronger: A Look Inside . .32 Plenary 3: The Contexts of our Organizing . .48 Plenary 4: The Future of Movements . .60 Young Feminist Activism and Intergenerational Relationship Building . .68 The FTX (Feminist Tech Exchange) at the forum . .72 Breakout Sessions The ABC’s of Movement Building: What, Why and How . .76 Addressing Legal Discrimination and Promoting the Equality of Women in Iran: The Case of the One Million Signatures Campaign . .80 Art as Advocacy: The One in Nine Campaign . .84 Building a Queer and LGBT women movement in the Arab world . .85 Feminist – No “ifs”, Not “buts”! – Mobilizing Feminist Activism in Africa . .90 New Insights on Religious Fundamentalisms . .96 The NGOization of Women’s Movements and its Implications for Feminist Organizing . .100 Pop Culture with a Purpose . .105 Sex Workers Meet Feminism . .109 We Have Wasted our Time Pushing for Women in Decision-Making Positions . .113 Women’s Empowerment – What do Men Have to do with it? . .119 Publication Credits Editor: Caroline Sin Transcripts: Irma Molina, Kathryn White, Fernanda Yanchapaxi, Katie MacDonald, Cayley Taylor, Lia Brewer, Jessica Bokhout Photography: Khumo Ntoane and Briget Ganske Portraits: Gabrielle Le Roux Design: Claman Chu Thanks also to Lina Gomez, Sarah Rosenhek, Bailey Duller, Anna Turley, Sanushka Mudalier, Jessica Bokhout, Cindy Clark and Lydia Alpizar for their contributions and assistance at different points with this publication. © 2009 Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) 4 The POWER of Movements HIGHLIGHTS OF AWID’S 11th INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND DEVELOPMENT Report on AWID’s 2008 Forum, “The Power of Movements” 1. Introduction For AWID, the opportunity to organize a major international wanted to look at how we might organize and mobilize forum on Women’s Rights and Development links to the more effectively. We also wanted to firmly resist the core of our mission by responding to the urgency to increasing pressure on women’s organizations to move promote stronger and more coordinated engagement and away from movement building to project-oriented action by women’s rights advocates, organizations and approaches that focus on delivering so-called ‘concrete’ movements to more effectively advance women’s rights. or easily quantifiable outputs and services. We wanted to The selection of “The Power of Movements” as the create a space for women to re-focus on strategies that theme for AWID’s 11th International Forum on Women’s build collective power to challenge the roots of gender Rights and Development in November 2008 responded to discrimination and other forms of social exclusion and our belief that building collective power is key to advancing oppression. We recognized the risk in this approach: in the feminist agendas, as well as our experience that this face of so many contextual challenges and setbacks, to process does not happen on its own - we need to make it focus on ourselves might seem a luxury we can scarce happen. Diverse women’s movements and women’s afford. However, we believe that it is precisely because of organizing have played a key role in the achievements the challenging context that creating space for discussion related to women’s rights and gender equality worldwide. and strategy development was and continues to be an One part of the analysis that drove our selection of the urgent task, in order to strengthen our organizations and Forum theme was that women’s movements in many movements as a means to build collective power towards places and contexts around the world have been ‘holding a more just world. the line’ in the last several years, making limited progress in some areas and feeling hard-pressed to adapt strategies The Forum was designed with the hope of advancing the to an increasingly adverse context. This suggests the need following six outcomes: for women’s rights activists to urgently rethink how we work together and who we work with. iGreater understanding of what movement building is, For example, we see significant successes of indigenous why it’s important, and what we can do to strengthen women’s movements in recent years, but in spaces with movement building processes mainstream feminist activists, their advances are not commonly recognized as part of our common cause. Thus ii Significant steps to overcome the fragmentation within AWID’s aim was to place a broad diversity of activists at women’s movements, focusing in particular on issues the center of the Forum agenda so that participants would of diversity and inclusion. be pushed to look to the varied array of experiences and expressions of women’s organizing, and through that iii Advancing conversations and thinking among diverse recognize the broader possibilities for alliance-building. women’s rights advocates on elements of a shared While a rich array of feminist and women’s organizing political agenda (that is, an agenda to transform processes and movements has emerged in the last power relations, broader than a particular issue or decade, there have been limited spaces to discuss their identity). implications or to think about what other processes we could create or learn from. iv Expanded strategic alliances with other social With this Forum, we purposefully aimed to turn the movements, connecting in particular with women’s lens inward: on ourselves, our organizations, our strategies rights advocates within these movements. and our ways to go about building collective power. We FULL AUDIO TRANSCRIPTS OF SELECTED FORUM SESSIONS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT www.awid.org 5 Report on AWID’s 2008 Forum, “The Power of Movements” vSignificant visibility and engagement of young women The circumstances under which the Forum took place in key debates and strategies of women’s movements, were less than ideal for AWID with the absence, due to contributing to more effective multi-generational serious illness, of our Executive Director, Lydia Alpízar movement-building. Durán for four months preceding and during the Forum. Yet the AWID staff, Board and members of the vi The revitalization (meaning having participants leave International Planning Committee worked together very with a renewed sense of commitment and energy, effectively to organize a successful Forum. inspiration, as well as new allies, strategies, and ways After analyzing a range of information collected about of thinking and acting) of women’s organizations and the Forum and participant experiences, it is clear that the movements generally but also very particularly in AWID Forum created an inclusive space for diverse Africa, the region where the Forum was held. expressions of women’s organizing and also contributed to opening up or advancing several sensitive internal To craft the Forum agenda, AWID drew on the debates—on NGO-ization, competition, power dynamics experience and insights of the 31 members of our within women’s movements—that are critical for our International Planning Committee to help us select sessions organizations to address head-on. Also, the 2008 AWID and frame the plenaries. With their guidance, we aimed to Forum is remembered as a space that contributed to ensure a diverse offering to match the diverse interests of positioning multi-generational movement-building on the participants. Session themes covered economic and social agenda of many women’s organizations, their allies, and rights, education and culture, sustainable development, donors. Naturally, many questions remain, but feedback multigenerational organizing, overcoming fragmentation we have received affirms that the Forum made a useful and alliance-building, constituency-building, organizational contribution, expanding possibilities for alliances and strengthening, sexual rights and reproductive rights, HIV collaborative action. and AIDS, communications and technology, violence against The opportunity to bring close to 2,000 diverse women, conflict and post-conflict/peace-building. We aimed women’s rights activists together is all too rare and the to build the Forum as a feminist space, valuing the relevance stakes are high for ensuring that a Forum is a good use of individual women’s stories and experience as part of the of resources—both financial and human—on the part of broader collective process of constructing knowledge.