IWDA Strategic Plan 2025

IWDA resources diverse women’s rights organisations primarily in Asia and the Pacific, and contributes to global feminist movements to advance our vision of gender equality for all.

We are pleased to launch our Strategic Plan 2025 which will guide our work to defend and advance the rights of diverse women, girls, trans and gender-diverse people.

Download the IWDA Strategic Plan 2025

The plan solidifies IWDA’s third way between the models of women’s funds and international development NGOs as we remain committed to resourcing the work of diverse women’s rights organisations, enabling them to be more effective by providing support that goes beyond money, and making our own contributions to feminist movements through advocacy knowledge creation and translation.

The 4S Framework

With this plan, we are going further than we ever have to further the decolonisation of our work and practices as we strive to become the best we can be at partnerships across the Majority and Minority World.* Building on the 3S Framework we launched in our Strategic Plan 2020-2023, this plan introduces a new fourth S to allow us to better understand and leverage our locational power so that we know when to:

STEP UP and use our power to leverage resources and access for women’s rights organisations, and make our own contribution to feminist movements.

STAND WITH feminist movements in solidarity and amplify the work of Majority World actors.

STEP BACK when others are better placed to take the lead.

SIT WITH uncertainty, embrace communal learning and deep listening, and accept that time is needed to collectively discern the best course of action.**

The Strategic Plan sets out three goals, five strategies and eleven objectives to guide our work.

GOAL 1
Resource and contribute to resilient and vibrant feminist movements, primarily in the areas of power, leadership and civic space and freedom from violence.

Resilient and vibrant feminist movements are critical to defending and advancing the rights of diverse women, girls, trans and gender-diverse people. This will move us towards achieving our vision of gender equality for all.

IWDA is part of the global feminist movement and contributes to progressive change towards gender equality while engaging in cross-movement solidarity with disability inclusion, LGBTQIA+, anti-racism, First Nations Justice and climate justice movements. We also resource others in the movement, primarily women’s rights organisations in Asia and the Pacific, to do their work.

GOAL 2
Promote systemic change towards gender equality for all

Progressing change towards gender equality for all requires transformation of the formal and informal structures that underpin inequality including resources, laws and policies, norms and exclusionary practices, and individual consciousness.

IWDA contributes to systemic change through our own knowledge creation and advocacy which seeks resource, produce and encourage uptake of feminist and decolonial knowledge to transform discourse on gender equality, and by resourcing the work of others in the movement. We collaborate with feminist movements and other strategic partners, adding our voice to collective efforts towards systemic change and gender equality for all.

GOAL 3
Build a resilient and relevant feminist organisation

To be an effective ally, IWDA must be resilient and able to withstand financial shocks, with a strong organisational culture that promotes wellbeing and diversity. This includes furthering disability inclusion in our work and within our organisation, striving to become an explicitly anti-racist feminist organisation and advancing First Nations justice in Australia.

We must sharpen our capabilities for intersectional feminist and decolonial analysis  to ensure that we continue to be relevant to the women’s rights organisations we support and the broader feminist movement.

* IWDA chooses to use the term ‘Majority World’ in place of ‘global south’, ‘developing world’ or ‘third world’, and ‘Minority World’ in place of ‘global north’, ‘developed world’ or ‘first world’. This is a political choice, as using this language demonstrates that ‘global south’ populations and cultures are in the global majority, thereby challenging the problematic hierarchies implied by other commonly-utilised terminology.

** “Step Up, Stand With, Step Back” is an adaptation of the framework proposed by Shirley Walters and Shauna Butterwick in their 2017 publication, Moves to Decolonise Solidarity Through Feminist Popular Education. “Sit with” was added to the framework based on feedback provided to IWDA by Alfred Deakin Professor and Chair in Race Relations Yin Paradies.