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Organized by XOESE the Francophone Women’s Fund, the International Francophone Forum will take place on a virtual platform from November 23 to 26, 2021 on the theme: “Strengthening the Francophone Women’s Movement: How can we contribute?” This event will bring together key leaders of the Francophone women’s movement from around the world. It will be a space to meet, network, exchange, re-energize and strategize on innovative ways to work together across our differences to strengthen our movement.
The majority of the countries in the Francophone space share a colonial heritage and its vestiges, including the French language. Most of their legal texts are derived from those of their former colonizers and include the same discriminatory provisions against women, young women, girls and LGBTIQ people. Their populations experience very similar realities: underdevelopment, poverty, forms of organization, and inter-human relations. Patriarchy is predominant and is reflected in unequal power relations between men and women, adults and youth, which have led to domination and discrimination by the former and hindered the advancement of the latter.
The living conditions of women, young women and girls are generally very difficult, especially for those living in rural areas and in suburban slums. And like everywhere else in the world, they face multiple problems related to their gender.
Francophone women’s and young women’s organizations and networks that try to address these issues have very similar problems in terms of capacity, organizational models and practices. They are generally small in terms of organizational capacity, intervention and access to funding. Most of the limited funding available is for projects and is not focused on movement building. Efforts to strengthen the movement therefore face many challenges, including difficulty accessing funding and internal conflicts among activists.
Through the activities of this forum, the objectives we want to achieve are :
The activities of the Forum will be proposed by the participants wishing to organize sessions, they will be in several formats among others:
In order to provide an unforgettable experience worthy of feminists, an Organizing Committee was established, which had several missions, most importantly to provide strategic advice on the conceptualization and organization of the Forum and its anticipated outcomes.
The Organizing Committee (OC) was composed of nine key Francophone feminists representing geographic and thematic diversity and with proven experience in different sectors. It supported the XOESE Secretariat in the design, planning and organization of the Francophone Forum.
The functions of the Committee members include:
The Organizing Committee met once a month virtually by teleconference to plan and follow up on preparatory activities.
Find out more about the nine feminists on the organizing committee:
The Forum took place on the Somaaro platform and offered a virtual space where different activities of the Forum were animated.
The XOESE Fund chose to create an exhibition space on the platform to allow organizations with a booth to highlight their work and achievements to the XOESE FORUM audience.
Each exhibition stand had :
A personalized reception area
A virtual exhibition space with materials and resources in different formats (video, pdf, jpeg)
A chat function allowing participants to dialogue with the organization holding the booth directly by chat or video;
A representative from your organization to meet and greet participants who visit your booth.
An administrator account to set up the space at your convenience.
A gateway to the organization’s social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.)
The 15 exhibiting organizations at the XOESE FORUM
| N° | Organization | Organization type | Country of headquarters |
| 1 | XOESE (Le Fonds pour les femmes Francophones) | Women’s International Fund | Togo |
| 2 | Mama Cash | Women’s International Fund | Pays-Bas |
| 3 | AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development ) | International Organization | Canada |
| 4 | SOFEPADI (Solidarité Féminine Pour La Paix et le Développement Intégral) | National Organization | RD Congo |
| 5 | MUSODEV (Association pour la promotion des femmes par les TIC ) | National Organization | MALI |
| 6 | SF2D-S (Solidarité Femmes pour un Développement Durable des Savanes) | National Organization | Togo |
| 7 | FFC (Fonds pour les Femmes Congolaises) | National Women’s Fund | RD Congo |
| 8 | FJS (Foundation for a Just Society) | Women’s, Girls’ and LGBTQI International Fund | Etats-unis |
| 9 | Amazone Advisor | Consulting Agency | RD Congo |
| 10 | AFHAM (Association des Femmes Handicapées de Madagascar) | National Organization of Women with Disabilities | Madagascar |
| 11 | UFFO (Union des Femmes Francophones d’Océanie) | Women’s networks, young women | Nouvelle Calédonie |
| 12 | ROFAF (Réseaux des Organisations Féminines d’Afrique Francophone) | Women’s networks, young women | Togo |
| 13 | RENAFES (Réseau National des Femmes Travailleuses du Sénégal) | Women’s networks, young women | SENEGAL |
| 14 | Soutenons-Nous MUKA MA MA JUNA | National Organization | Niger |
| 15 | RAFAD ( Réseaux des Associations des Femmes en Action pour le Développement) | Women’s networks, young women | Togo |
XOESE, Le Fonds pour les Femmes Francophones is a feminist foundation of public utility created on September 1, 2015 and based in Lomé, Togo.
Its mission is to mobilize financial, material and human resources in order to reinvest them in the initiatives of women’s and young women’s activists and organizations to advance women’s, young women’s and girls’ rights, their economic empowerment and gender equality in the Francophone countries of the Global South. And its objectives are to: (1) To financially support the implementation of initiatives promoting the rights of women, young women and girls; (2) To strengthen the institutional capacities of women’s and young women’s organizations; (3) To encourage and support innovative empowerment initiatives of women’s and young women’s organizations.
Mama Cash was the first international women’s fund in the world. Mama Cash mobilizes resources from individuals and institutions, makes grants to autonomous feminist organizations, and helps build the partnerships and networks necessary to effectively defend and promote the human rights of women, girls, transgender and intersex people around the world. Mama Cash believes that giving appropriate support to the collective action of intersex and transgender people, girls and women will bring about profound social and environmental change – urgently needed for a just and joyful world.
Foundation for a Just Society advances the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people and promotes gender and racial justice by ensuring that those most affected by injustice have access to the resources they need to develop leadership and solutions that enable them to transform the world.
L’Agence française de développement (AFD) finances, supports and accelerates transitions to a more just and sustainable world. Climate, biodiversity, peace, education, urban planning, health, governance…: our teams are involved in more than 4,000 projects in the French overseas territories and 115 countries. In this way, we contribute to France’s and the French people’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Fonds égalité, brings flexible, abundant, and unrestricted funding to feminist movements, and connects feminist leaders with a global community of philanthropists committed to the collective power of women, girls, and transgender people around the world.
