Focus on Feminism
On November 18, 2024, over 70 network partners of the Governance Fund from 10 countries met at the GIZ Representation in Berlin to discuss how feminist approaches can promote development and democracy. For the first time, Feminist Development Cooperation (EZ) was the focus of a Governance Fund network meeting. The reason for this: Without equality, there is no development and no democracy. Anti-feminist and anti-democratic movements are gaining momentum, and violence against women and girls is increasing worldwide.
It is about power or rather the redistribution of power, said keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Awino Okech, Professor at SOAS (London) and Director of the Feminist Centre for Racial Justice. The participants of the Governance Fund network meeting agreed: equality is not just about 25% or 30% of the power, but 50%, as Werner Gatzer (State Secretary at the BMF, retired) put it. The implementation of gender-sensitive policies faces much resistance in practice, as Dounia El Fakiri from Morocco (Chief of Staff at the Prime Minister's Office) pointed out. Power recognizes very quickly when it is challenged, as Kah Walla put it.
Prof. Dr. Awino Okech emphasized how urgent it is to not only promote feminist approaches but feminism itself. In times when populists win elections with anti-feminism and discredit female scientists and social science research fields, it is urgently necessary to empower women to demand a fair distribution of power. Building networks to bring feminists into important positions is a way to achieve a fairer distribution of power.
In the subsequent panel discussion, Prof. Dr. Herta Däubler-Gmelin (former German Minister of Justice), Oby Ezekwesili (former Nigerian presidential candidate), Fadia Kiwan (President of the Arab Women Organization), and Elene Rusetskaia (Women's Information Center in Georgia) discussed how it is possible that we are still not further along after so many years of fighting for equality and what we can do against the current backlash. The panelists also shared personal experiences in dealing with power in their fight for equality. Herta Däubler-Gmelin pointed out that much has been achieved since the 1950s: Today, 60% of students in Germany are women, and more and more women are judges. This leads to completely different attitudes. Movements that want to bring women back to home and hearth must be fought. Particularly in Africa, Oby Ezekwesili said, the young people, women, and new technologies are the most important drivers of progress. Fadia Kiwan emphasized how important it is that men are also feminists and that women and men fight for justice together. Elene Rusetskaia reported how difficult her work has become since the new government in Georgia restricts and censors it.
Finally, representatives from the current partner countries of the Governance Fund - Tanzania, Nigeria, Georgia, and Laos – informed the attendees about their work with the Governance Fund regarding more representation of women, more rights for women, and more resources for women.
The Governance Fund makes experiences from German politics and administration available worldwide by bringing decision-makers from partner countries together with their German peers from politics, science, and administration on behalf of BMZ.
