Women's Fund Asia (WFA)

Women’s Fund Asia is a regional women’s fund, committed to supporting women and trans* people led interventions to enhance and strengthen access to women’s and trans* people’s human rights. They envision a peaceful and egalitarian region in which women’s and trans* people’s participation, leadership and enjoyment of all their human rights is ensured and secure. Their core mandate is to support women’s and trans* rights groups and activists in Asia, address the non-availability of resources for women's and trans* rights work in the region, and support strategies and interventions designed, implemented and led by women and trans* people. They provide fiscal and technical support to their partners, working to advance women’s and trans* rights in their contexts. They aim to move towards developing a regional mandate, which is informed by national and sub-regional realities, and is responsive to the rights and needs of individual women or trans* people. Vision Realising the human rights of women and trans* people in Asia. Mission Women’s Fund Asia works to nurture and lead feminist philanthropy in the region; to effectively mobilise resources to support individuals, groups and networks enabling their sustainability; and to strengthen partner capacities, leadership, advocacy and networks in the field. Their geographical scope includes the following countries in Asia: South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan South-East Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam East Asia: Mongolia Since 2004, Women’s Fund Asia has supported around 200 initiatives in the region, ensuring human rights for a diverse cross-section of women and trans* people. This support has included technical support along with critical fiscal resources. They also foster effective programme designing and process-oriented strategies, towards rights based work and its sustainability. Women’s Fund Asia’s programming - Promotes and supports the leadership of women and trans* people at all levels, particularly those who belong to marginalised communities - Enables a strong understanding of human rights and the rights-based approach among women and trans* rights activists and organisations in the region, which will inform programmatic intervention and implementation - Triggers greater cross-learning and exchange between women’s and trans* rights organisations and activists in the region HISTORY Their journey began in 2004, when they were launched as South Asia Women's Fund to support women's human rights activists, groups and networks in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. From 2004-2017, they supported over 200 initiatives and 30 feminist lawyers (between 2013-2017), supporting initiatives with grants worth over $3 million to issues ranging from right to mobility, access to justice, labour rights, autonomy and sexual rights, young women’s leadership, and environmental justice. In 2016-17, they initiated the process of expanding their mandate to the rest of Asia, and increased their outreach from 5 to 18 countries. After an intense process of review and consultations, they seized their new identity and were relaunched as Women's Fund Asia on 8th March 2018!