The Pacific Feminist Fund (PFF) was a collective vision long before it came into being. We have documented this labour of love along the way, and to accompany the recent launch of our inaugural Learning Report, are proud to share with you a timeline of the pathways, elements and partnerships that converged and contributed to our emergence as a regional feminist fund for the Pacific.
The foundational years: 2019-2021
For a dream to become reality – for a journey to occur – one must venture out. And in the venturing, there are well known sea marks, currents and signposts, as well as new experiences to face. One of these signposts was the 2019nscoping study, Where is the Money for Women and Girls in the Pacific? Mapping Funding Gaps, Opportunities and Trends commissioned by Urgent Action Fund Asia and the Pacific (UAF A&P) and Women’s Fund Fiji. This study found that “less than 1% of funding is reaching women’s organisations in the Pacific through direct funding.” A key recommendation was to create a regional women’s fund for the Pacific, which was endorsed at the second Pacific Feminist Forum held in 2019, which brought together over 150 Pacific feminists, LGBTQI+ and women-led organisers at the frontlines.
Our work since 2019 has been about bringing that recommendation to life, and while our vision and purpose was clear, we needed to build our canoe, map the voyage (as best we could!), and set sail away from safe harbours. Sometimes the way forward seemed laid out for us, like kismet, with the ocean opening up and rolling us ever forward. At other times, we floundered and looked to the stars and our own feminist knowledge to chart the way. We were always moving – so that we could create a Pacific feminist fund to support and amplify the work of the Pacific feminist movement.
In 2020, we got to work by setting up two voluntary groups, the Steering Committee and the Advisory Group, each composed of Pacific feminists and women human rights defenders, as well as established feminist funds such as UAF A&P, Women’s Fund Fiji and Women’s Fund Asia (WFA). This happened with start-up funds from Foundation for a Just Society (FJS), initiated by and channelled through PFF’s sister fund, UAF A&P – an existing grantee partner of FJS. These critical start-up funds enabled the hiring of a part time coordinator, commissioning a design document and an options paper for registration. From there, the small but mighty PFF team leveraged a moment in time, where some bilateral funders were pivoting towards feminist foreign policy and recognising the power of directing funding for feminist activism through women’s funds.
In 2021, under the guidance of the Steering Committee and Advisory Group, we undertook a co-creation process by consulting with feminist movements in the Pacific, the Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds, funders and other movements. We consulted on the core building blocks of setting up a regional women’s fund, registration options, and the needs and priorities in the region. This was all taking place against the backdrop of COVID-19, which threw new and unexpected challenges our way, especially being limited to online consultations.
The set-up and funding: 2022
In the Netherlands, the Dutch government made a pivotal investment in a feminist global South-led consortium of four women’s funds called Leading from the South (LFS) and had indicated they wanted to support groups based in the Pacific. WFA was the closest regional partner but was uncomfortable to start funding in the Pacific, particularly because Pacific feminists were working to realise that vision. WFA leadership were already great allies and partners of UAF A&P and Women’s Fund Fiji, so this relationship propelled LFS’ partnership with the nascent PFF, supporting our foundational work. Deepening existing relationships of trust, the New Zealand government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) also stepped up to become the first bilateral funder to commit funding foundational and grantmaking costs. At this point between 2022 to 2023, PFF’s staff team expanded to bring on the first of their two co-leads, a Resource Mobilisation Enabler, Grants Enabler and Strategic Finance Enabler.
As part of the MFAT consultations, the first iteration of PFF’s Theory of Change (TOC) emerged. We wanted to give ourselves space in the TOC to build and strengthen the Pacific feminist movement together and to tell the story together, which is why the first three years – the ‘inception’ phase – focuses on listening and learning. The next two phases, spanning two years, focus more on increasing funding to the Pacific and strengthening the movement. PFF’s role is to support and amplify the work and stories of our grantee partners, and to provide broader context and analysis to situate these stories. We need to be careful with power and foreground care, trust and respect, arriving as people, not power positions. Ultimately, our TOC captures how to put power into the hands of Pacific women, girls and gender non-conforming people – not the fund.
We were learning that Pacific demands and challenges are as unique and expansive as the oceanscape, with many grants needed for a wide variety of different groups spread out over the Pacific islands. Consultations told us that many feminists felt a new approach to fundraising is required for the nature of their work, which attempts to hold the state and other duty bearers accountable for their commitments to women’s and human rights. A regional feminist fund would de-risk donations from a variety of sources and deliver funds to Pacific feminist and women’s organisations and groups. The fund should also create more opportunities for connection in the region, and engage internationally to highlight the needs and priorities of women, girls, and gender non-conforming persons in the Pacific. And crucially, rather than merely responding to the current funding ecosystem, the fund should proactively engage in funding spaces to shape financing currents and flows.
Registration, launch and the first 12 months: 2023-2024
We became a registered Charitable Entity and an Incorporated Trust Board in New Zealand on 22 February 2023 and formally launched at the third Pacific Feminist Forum in May 2023. At the launch, we also released our design document and our visual identity that is inspired by the ocean that unites our island states. Since then, we have co-designed with Pacific feminists our grantmaking approach and learning and accountability framework, conducted a scoping study – and opened our first grant call to identified organisations and groups in the North Pacific. You can read all about this work in our inaugural Learning Report 2023-24.
Since we started the journey to co-create PFF and support the Pacific feminist movement with the flexible funding so sorely needed, the global funding ecosystem for gender justice and women’s rights has suffered some seismic shifts. In just the last few weeks, the United States government – under a Donald Trump presidency – has all but dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and renounced the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. With the US being the largest bilateral provider of Official Development Assistance (ODA), the reverberations of this are profound, particularly in relation to the defunding of programs focusing on women’s rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and LGBTQI+ rights. European bilateral donors have also pulled back on their commitments, with Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the Netherlands all recently announcing huge reductions in ODA.
While this presents obvious challenges, with women’s rights and feminist organisations historically receiving only a meagre amount of ODA (0.13% in 2021), it also highlights that feminist and women’s funds are critical actors. As the resource mobilisation arm of local, regional or global movements, feminist and women’s funds are grounded in and led by movement priorities. Being ‘plugged in’ to the movements makes it easier to respond to a need, or a crisis, finding ways to unlock new resources from an expanding network of funders who understand the power of supporting feminist movements directly.
PFF stands proud and tall as a new addition to the cadre of sister funds around the world, supporting and sustaining the fight for women’s rights and gender justice worldwide. And here in the Pacific, we are strengthening our bonds to support each other with feminist solidarity and communities of care, consolidating the Pacific feminist movement to advance human rights and gender equality in a time of climate crisis.
