Since its creation, the Mediterranean Women's Fund has been committed to strengthening the women's movement in all the countries of the Mediterranean basin.
Its purpose: to contribute in a concrete and ambitious way to improving the status of women.
To fight against inequality and violence, and to defend their rights and liberties, are among the many challenges that women must face.
In the Mediterranean region, from one shore to another, from one country to another, and from one culture to another, the settings vary but the struggle remains the same. Everywhere, women are collectively committing themselves to building a society that is more equitable and harmonious. Courageous and inspired, they are a force driving societies towards greater social, economic and political equality and justice.
Aims
The Mediterranean Women's Fund supports the activities of women working to change the Mediterranean region by:
funding women's associations to provide them with the material and human resources to take action;
strengthening the capacities of young women leaders to enable them to better mobilize their strengths and use their creativity to construct a more just society;
gathering together organizations to provide them with a space to discuss, unite and act together; and
speaking up to major institutions to advocate for larger and more accessible grants for women's associations.
Goal
For Mediterranean women's organizations to have the concrete means to act, unite and make themselves heard, the Mediterranean Women's Fund pulls together the necessary resources and tailors its support to the specific needs of each group. By amplifying their voices and their movement, it allows these associations to become a force of change for the emancipation of women.
Between 2011 and 2013, we began to supplement this financial support by organizing strategic reflection meetings. We felt that spaces for discussion, in the form of local or regional gatherings that could pave the way for setting up networks of women's associations, were essential to reinforce and strengthen the equal rights movement.
In 2013, we created the Feminist Training in Collective Intelligence (FTCI) program. We did so out of the conviction that associations need to be well managed, capable of developing their activities, and have members who are confident about their abilities. Another reason was that the strategic reflection meetings had demonstrated the importance of learning to work together. In the beginning, we had no inkling that we would be inventing a revolutionary tool. The effects of the FTCI program are powerful and exponential, for each participant individually, and for the fight for equality as a whole, across the Mediterranean region.
Since 2016, we have conducted and participated in several studies to bolster our arguments before major organizations. We are working alongside feminist funds and organizations to advocate for the women's movement to be funded by a greater number of private foundations and institutions, with greater awareness of the issue of gender equality, and by a greater number of individuals, male and female, who already support the cause.
The MedWF's activities are guided by a code of ethics based on principles of equality, secularism, respect for people and the environment, and commitment to peace. It draws on the tools of international law regarding human rights, as well as on the holistic view of society articulated by the global women's movement.