Association for Women's Rights in Development

The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is an international membership organization that aims to strengthen the effect and influence of women's rights advocates, organizations, and movements internationally. AWID was founded in 1982. Its members include both men and women who are researchers, activists, students, academics, business-people, policy makers, development specialists, and more. AWID offers both individual and institutional memberships.

The association is a multigenerational, creative, future-orientated feminist organization whose work aims to build knowledge and understanding of the trends and institutions undermining women's rights and the appropriate strategies to address them; create capacity building measures for and with women's rights advocates, organizations, and movements; build alliances across differences based on age, gender, sectors, social movements, regions, issues, and communities; and influence international institutions and actors to strengthen their approaches to advance the rights of women worldwide.

AWID has divided its work into strategic programs and initiatives, including Challenging and Resisting Religious Fundamentalisms, Where Is the Money for Women's Rights?, Building Feminist Movements and Organizations, Women's Rights Information, Influencing Development Actors and Practice for Women's Rights, the Young Feminist Activist Program, and the AWID Forum. The association is a global organization with offices in Toronto, Canada; Cape Town, South Africa; and Mexico City, Mexico. The staff and board of directors are international. Although its work is aimed at empowered women all over the world, the main efforts of AWID are targeted toward the rights of women in the global south and eastern and central Europe. AWID works are published in English, Spanish, and French, as well as Arabic to a lesser extent.

Funding for AWID is provided by a number of foundations and government agencies, including ActionAID International, the Canadian International Development Agency, Cordaid, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Global Fund for Women, Hivos, Irish Aid, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Open Society Institute, Oxfam America, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Novib (Netherlands), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the United National Development Fund for Women. In the United States, AWID is registered as a 501(c)(3) organization and is classified as a public charity under section 509(a)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code.

AWID produces an annual report. An electronic copy of the latest report is available on the association's Website at http://www.awid.org. AWID also publishes and provides a wealth of information and resources regarding women's rights on the site. Every three years, the association hosts an international forum at which women's rights activists from around the world gather. The most recent forum-the association's 11th-titled “The Power of Movements,” was held in Cape Town in 2008.