Annual|Annual Report|Report |2017||2017 Contents Holding| Holding firmfirm 4 An introduction from Mama Cash’s Board Co-Chairs and Executive Director |Grantmaking and accompanimentaccompaniment| 6 • Body portfolio • Money portfolio • Voice portfolio • Opportunity portfolio • Accompaniment portfolio • Spark portfolio Strengthening|Strengthening women’s fundsfunds 27 Influencing|Influencing thethe donor community 30 Special|Special initiative:initiative: Red Umbrella FundFund| 32 Programme|Programme partnerships||partnerships 36 • Count Me In! Consortium • Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action • Women Power Fashion Learning,|Learning, monitoringmonitoring and evaluation 39 |Partnerships andand communicationscommunications 40 Yes|Yes we did!did! 42 Highlights of our 2017 goals and accomplishments Mama Cash’s contributorscontributors inin 20172017 44 Annual|Annual accountsaccounts 2017||2017 45 • Organisational report • Board report • Financial report Credits|||Credits 80 Cover: SERUNI rally on Human Rights Day, Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: Putu Sayoga ISO 9001 2 Annual Report 2017 | Contents Since 1983 Mama Cash has awarded €59,995,622 to women’s, girls’, trans and intersex people’s groups worldwide. We have a |vision |vision. .|| Every woman, girl, trans and intersex person has the power and resources to participate fully and equally in creating a peaceful, just and sustainable world. We’re on a m|ission.||mission. Courageous women’s, girls’, trans and intersex people’s human makes grants to women’s, girls’, trans and intersex people’s rights organisations worldwide need funding and supportive net- human rights organisations, and helps to build the partnerships works in order to grow and transform their communities. Mama and networks needed to successfully defend and advance wom- Cash mobilises resources from individuals and institutions, en’s, girls’, trans and intersex people’s human rights globally. Our |values| lead the way. Embracing| diversity in our organisation and among our Committed to being accountable, to evaluating and commu- partners. nicating the outcomes of our grantmaking, and to sharing what we have learned about engaging in successful social justice Open to bold, innovative strategies; responsive to changing cir- philanthropy. cumstances; ready to take advantage of strategic opportunities; and prepared to share the risks inherent in the work of resisting Determined to make real, lasting improvements in women’s, and transforming oppressive structures and systems. girls’, trans and intersex people’s lives and to inspire others to join us in this work and contribute to it financially. Dedicated to forging collaborative partnerships with donors, grantee-partners, and women’s, girls’, trans and intersex people’s human rights organisations in order to achieve shared goals. Expanding our mission to include intersex people sex characteristics that do not align with simplistic binary definitions of In 2017 we expanded our mission to explicitly include intersex people. male and female bodies. Intersex people are commonly shamed and lied Our grantmaking, accompaniment and other activities will now be more to about their bodies, and subjected to unnecessary surgeries without inclusive of intersex people’s organising, and we will work to influence their consent. Intersex activists are doing vital work – resisting the patriar- other donors to follow our example. Intersex is an umbrella term used to chal sex binary and speaking out against the human rights violations they describe people who are born with genetic, hormonal, genital or other experience. 3 Annual Report 2017 | Mama Cash Marieke van DoorninckDoorninck. Khadijah Fancy.Fancy Zohra Moosa.Moosa |Holding firmfirm An introduction from Board Co-Chairs Marieke van Doorninck and Khadijah Fancy and Executive Director Zohra Moosa ‘Work on women’s political participation or sexuality could get Recognising the importance of feminist digital activism in you killed’. That’s just one of the chilling comments we heard the context of ‘closing space’, we collaborated with the in conversations with our grantee-partners this year. Increased Women’s Rights Programme of the Association for Progressive government scrutiny and restrictions on civil society are a trend Communications (APC) in its four-day event in Malaysia in that we are increasingly seeing around the world. In February October, ‘Making a Feminist Internet’. We supported ten 2017 Mama Cash and Urgent Action Fund convened a group grantee-partners to attend and discuss strategies and oppor- of feminist activists from six different countries where activ- tunities for online organising, as well as ideas for taking back ist organisations are facing repressive political climates. The an increasingly corporate-dominated and highly surveilled groups finalised our groundbreaking research report Standing internet. Firm: Women- and Trans-Led Organisations Respond to Closing Space for Civil Society, one of the first ever to look at Activism in the digital age brings new risks. Digital attacks, this trend with a gender lens. another global trend, are becoming one of the greatest threats facing activists. We also worked with APC during the conven- Despite many differences in the contexts they face, the 12 ing in February to train participants on digital security and build activists present had much in common, including their com- their skills for maintaining well-being, and mental and physical plete conviction, their passion and persistence, and their health. unbelievable power to resist. As another activist said: ‘When they shut the door, we come in the window’. We regularly hear from our partners that funding is drying up, and that closing space contributes to this trend. Activists are These courageous feminists – the group included art activists under increasing pressure to achieve resilience and sustain- from Egypt, environmental and lesbian activists from China, ability, yet there is little funding available which meets their Dalit activists from India, sex worker activists from Russia and needs and addresses their contexts. That is why Mama Cash Uganda – are among the thousands upon thousands around engages in advocacy with other donors to urge all of us to pro- the world who are holding firm and re-shaping the world, vide more and better funding to feminist activists. community by community, country by country, so that some day every woman, girl, trans person and intersex person will With core, flexible and longer-term funding, groups can make have the power and resources to participate fully and equally proactive investments in safety and well-being to keep them- in society. And they are often doing it in the face of real danger. selves and their organisations flexible and healthy, and respond Mama Cash is holding firmly with them. to opportunities and threats as they arise. 4 Annual Report 2017 | Introduction ||Holding firm||firm|| We are pleased to welcome the Bill and Melinda Gates We are very proud to have made a stronger commitment to Foundation’s bold, new commitment to women’s rights groups intersex people’s activism this year, as reflected in the addition and movements, which included a generous three-year €3.9 of intersex people to our mission. Intersex activists are doing million grant to Mama Cash. And we welcome the announce- vital work to challenge the sex binary, and demand bodily ment of the Spotlight Initiative by the European Union and autonomy and respect. Our grantee-partner Intersex Russia, the United Nations. The initiative is a global, multi-year €500 founded in 2017, is working to de-pathologise intersex var- million commitment focused on eliminating all forms of vio- iations, and raise awareness about intersex people and the lence against women and girls. Our advocacy in collaboration human rights violations they experience. Through videos and with our Count Me In! Consortium partners (see page 36) aims articles, Intersex Russia is working to increase the visibility of to ensure that women’s movements and women’s funds will intersex people and to build an intersex community in Russia. be consulted in the design and delivery of this significant new initiative. Like the groups we support, Mama Cash knows that such bold, brave feminist activism works. We ask you to hold firm with While Mama Cash’s vision is ambitiously global, we are also us – and with our activist partners – in advancing the rights of incredibly proud of our Dutch feminist roots. We were thrilled women, girls, and trans and intersex people. to launch a new grantmaking project to support the activism of women, girls, and trans and intersex people in the Netherlands. An advisory committee of local feminist activists helped select the first grants in our brand new ‘Spark’ portfolio. We were also pleased to bring Zehra Kahn, General Secretary of the Home Based Women Workers Federation in Pakistan, to speak in the Netherlands and to build connections with Dutch audiences and raise awareness about the group’s important achievements in securing the labour rights of an estimated five million home-based women workers in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Her visit was part of our Women Power Fashion initiative, funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery (see page 38). A year of transition Mama Cash bid an anticipated farewell to Executive Director The Board was thrilled to announce the appointment of Zohra Nicky McIntyre in May. Under Nicky’s visionary leadership, Moosa as the new Executive Director in July. Zohra had served Mama Cash developed new,