5 Things to Know About a New Fund Responding to Sexual Violence in West Africa

Lifting voices that need to be heard is an important responsibility of philanthropy, especially when those voices are raised against gender-based violence.

According to Françoise Moudouthe, chief executive officer of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), a new fund called Kasa! (exclamation point included) will “honor and boost” the voices of women’s rights champions who’ve bravely spoken out against sexual violence in West Africa for decades, while creating new pathways for collective action.

The new fund, whose name means “speak” in the Twi language of south and central Ghana, will concentrate on supporting the more than 30% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 who’ve experienced sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Nigeria, as well as women in Ghana and Senegal.

Over the next five years, the fund hopes to raise and deploy $10 million to address these silenced and under-resourced issues in a part of the world that’s been particularly impacted by the economic and social consequences of a global pandemic. But make no mistake, the fund’s tackling problems that are global in nature. An estimated one in three women worldwide will experience sexual or physical abuse in their lifetimes—particularly the young.

Here are five things to know about the fund and its work.

Seed funders. Kasa! was launched with commitments totaling $3.75 million from two power funders: the Ford Foundation, which came in at $3.5 million, and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), which pledged $250,000. Kasa!’s work fits within the Ford Foundation’s strategic programming in West Africa, which includes gender, racial and ethnic justice, securing natural resources and climate change. OSIWA—which is one of the many grantmaking entities in the Open Society Foundations network bankrolled by George Soros—acts as both a funder and advocate in the region, employing tools like partnership building and tech support.
Goal-setting. The initial fundraising goal for Kasa! is $10 million over five years, and it’s looking to draw additional support from funders in the violence prevention space, grantmakers who recognize the effects COVID-19 is having on women and girls, and philanthropies that fund gender-based violence efforts as a matter of basic human rights. Olufunke Baruwa, program officer in the Ford Foundation’s West Africa office, said, “There is no greater threat to a woman’s agency than violence.”
Hosted by the first Pan-African women’s fund. The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is a Pan-African grantmaking foundation founded in 2000 that supports local, national and regional efforts to empower, promote and advance women. Grants support women’s organizations that fight harmful stereotypes, promote women as change agents and champion women’s rights. This funding pioneer’s tactics include capacity building as well as supporting initiatives that help catalyze feminist movement building across the continent.
A three-pronged approach. Grants will advance three main goals: prevention, accountability and support for victims. That includes addressing the root causes of sexual violence and mounting advocacy campaigns to support positive attitudes and behaviors around the idea of female bodily integrity, especially among men and boys. Calling sexual violence “a culture, not an event,” Kasa! plans to adopt a long-term strategic approach to ensure that actions have consequences.
One coordinated effort. Grants will primarily go to local organizations, along with a “few key women-led” groups that provide scalable resources and have the capacity for collaboration. The seed funders encourage other donors to rethink their strategies, and adopt a “more comprehensive and coordinated support for [gender-based violence] programming that moves policy to implementation” and sets specific goals and data points on progress.