Organized by XOESE the Fund for Francophone Women, 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 to it?” This event will bring together key leaders of the French-speaking women’s movement from around the world. It will be a space to meet, connect, exchange, re-energize and strategize on innovative ways to work together beyond our differences to strengthen our movement.
The majority of countries in the French-speaking area have in common the 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 interhuman relations. Patriarchy is predominant there and results in unequal power relations between men and women, adults and young people which have resulted in domination and discrimination exercised by the former and hampered the promotion 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 the slums of the suburbs. And like everywhere else in the world, they face multiple gender issues.
Organizations and networks of Francophone women and young women trying to address these issues have very similar issues 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 not movement building. Efforts to strengthen the movement therefore face many challenges, including difficulty in accessing funding and internal conflicts among activists.
Through the activities of this forum, the goals we want to achieve are:
Contribute to the strengthening of the Francophone women’s movement by creating the space for them to meet, forge alliances and strategize on the practical way of working together,
Celebrating our achievements as a movement,
Strengthen solidarity and sisterhood among Francophone activists and their organizations,
Encourage intergenerational, cross-sector and intersectional collaboration within the movement.
Strengthen the active commitment of Francophone activists to work together towards a common goal.
Develop strategies to solicit more and better philanthropic resources for Francophone women’s initiatives and organizations.
Through the activities of this forum, the goals we want to achieve are:
Contribute to the strengthening of the Francophone women’s movement by creating the space for them to meet, forge alliances and strategize on the practical way of working together,
Celebrating our achievements as a movement,
Strengthen solidarity and sisterhood among Francophone activists and their organizations,
Encourage intergenerational, cross-sector and intersectional collaboration within the movement.
Strengthen the active commitment of Francophone activists to work together towards a common goal.
Develop strategies to solicit more and better philanthropic resources for Francophone women’s initiatives and organizations.
Through the activities of this forum, the goals we want to achieve are:
Contribute to the strengthening of the Francophone women’s movement by creating the space for them to meet, forge alliances and strategize on the practical way of working together,
Celebrating our achievements as a movement,
Strengthen solidarity and sisterhood among Francophone activists and their organizations,
Encourage intergenerational, cross-sector and intersectional collaboration within the movement.
Strengthen the active commitment of Francophone activists to work together towards a common goal.
Develop strategies to solicit more and better philanthropic resources for Francophone women’s initiatives and organizations.
The Agenda of the Forum will be drawn up and finalized by the Organizing Committee. Each part of the Agenda will be designed in an interactive way to ensure that participants can actively contribute to the Forum and are not mere spectators.
Practical workshops (training on developing a resource mobilization strategy, institutional communication strategy, etc.)
Round tables (exchanges between a panel, presentation, debates around a theme, etc.)
Interactive sessions (exchanges open to the public)
Demonstrations and tests of digital tools
Open innovation activities (space for discussion and improvement of digital or other tools, etc.)
Reflection activities on the future of the movement
Artistic activities (storytelling workshop, film-debate, film screening, painting, music, etc.)
Relaxation activity (stretching session, zumba, self-massage etc.)
Fun activities (team building game, icebreaker, mime game).
etc
Anyone interested in the forum can propose a session lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. A call for proposals is available here.
In order to be able to offer an unforgettable experience worthy of feminists, an organizing committee has been set up. This entity has several missions, mainly to provide strategic advice on the conceptualization and organization of the Forum and on its anticipated results.
The Organizing Committee (OC) is made up of ten key French-speaking feminists representing geographic and thematic diversity and with proven experience in different sectors. It supports the XOESE secretariat in the design, planning and organization of the Francophone Forum.
The duties of Committee members include:
Provide strategic advice on the conceptualization and organization of the Forum and its anticipated results;
Support the development of strategic partnerships to support the Forum, in terms of funding, participation and post-Forum advocacy;
Ensure that all Forum processes incorporate an intersectional and intergenerational approach: during the preparation and organization phases, as well as when developing its outcomes and follow-up plans;
Ensure the link and consistency between the Francophone Forum and the action coalitions of the Generation Equality Forum;
Provide strategic support for the implementation of the Forum’s communication strategy, in particular by publicly promoting the event within their networks and platforms and with their donors/partners.
Provide strategic support for the implementation of the innovative and technological aspects of the Forum through optimal use of social media, while maintaining a good level of communication with activists and groups with limited access to the internet;
Provide advice on and support resource mobilization for the Forum;
Mobilize the enthusiasm and participation of leaders of women’s, young women’s, girls’ and LGBTIQ groups in the Forum
The Organizing Committee meets once a month virtually via teleconference to plan and monitor preparedness activities.
Discover the profile of the nine feminists making up the organizing committee:
About the groups of these representatives
XOESE, The Fund for Francophone Women 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 activists and organizations of women and young women to advance the rights of women, young women and girls, their economic empowerment and the equality between the sexes in the French-speaking countries of the Deep South. And its objectives are to:
Financially support the implementation of initiatives promoting the rights of women, young women and girls;
Strengthen the institutional capacities of women’s and young women’s organizations;
Encourage and support innovative initiatives to empower women’s and young women’s organizations.
For more information about XOESE, please visit the website.
Mama Cash was the first international fund for women in the world. Mama Cash mobilizes resources from individuals and institutions, provides grants to autonomous feminist organizations and helps to create the partnerships and networks necessary to defend and effectively promote the human rights of women, girls, transgender people and intersex people around the world. Mama Cash believes that giving the right support to collective action by intersex and transgender people, girls and women will bring about profound social and environmental change – which we urgently need for a just and fair world. joyful. For more information about Mama Cash, please visit: https://www.mamacash.org/fr/.
The Association of Disabled Women in Madagascar is a free, independent and democratic association of national scope which aims to promote the empowerment of women with disabilities and their development in all areas, as part of the fight against poverty.
She will thus be responsible for coordinating, representing and finding solutions to the problems of women with disabilities throughout the national territory.
Gender in Action is a network of organizations and individuals that support gender mainstreaming in development. The network (2003) then the association (2009) have to promote the consideration of inequalities between women and men in development policies and programs in the French-speaking world.
The Francophone Network for Gender Equality is about promoting North-South and South-South exchanges, sharing and initiating discussions on gender equality, the fight against discrimination and violence against women.
