This article was first published in "Voices Rising" Vol.2, No.2, the magazine produced by The Women's Program of the "International Council for Adult Education" of Canada. The Women's Program's goals are "to promote and carry out popular education and participatory research, with a commitment to strengthening local progressive movements, international solidarity and feminist practice." In April, 1990 ICAE decided to move the coordination of The Women's Program to the third world within a year, so it is based temporarily out of the ICAE Secretariat, 720 Bathurst Street, Suite 500, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2RA.
Introduction
The Women's Program undertook an organizational review in 989. At that time, the Program was in a financial crisis. Thus, an important part of the process involved assessing current policy towards funding women's programming and networks within international agencies. Through discussions with both funders and other women's groups and networks, it became clear that the same funding crisis we were facing was also being faced by many women's organizations around the world as agencies' policies towards women arc changing. The potential result of these changes is that even less money will be made available to projects specifically targeted at women in this coming period; agencies w ill exert more control over the kinds of initiatives that are supported and it will be even harder for new groups to break into the "international funding" arena. We felt it important not to tackle the problem merely as a question of survival for our office or the Women's Program; the issue of women's groups' dependence on government and aid funding where accountability exists in one direction (from us to funders) and control in another (by funders over what work is or is not appropriate) is a political issue.
As a modest contribution to this process we are sharing some of what we have learned in order to promote further sharing and discussion among groups in the network. The following excerpts are from two primary sources: the Women's Program Organizational Review, published in January 1990; and presentations given at a public forum, "Up In Alms: Women's Organizations Internationally Confront the Funding Crisis", which we organized in Toronto to coincide with the meeting of our Advisory Committee in November 1989.
Our aim is to contribute to a critical awareness and collective analysis of the funding crisis. The material that follows raises more questions than it answers. In spite of international trends that affect all of us, it is clear that there are important differences in our experiences, depending on the region we're working in, whether we are working at the local, regional and international level, and our histories with funding agencies. We need to know more about these differences and similarities. And we need to know more about the contexts in which different funders are operating, since development agencies, church organizations, private foundations and NGOs have different contingencies, possibilities and limitations. Our strategies for action and alliance need to be more precise and thoughtful if we are not only to survive but to find more effective ways to work for women's empowerment and to build strong movements for women.
What can be done and how can we work in ways that will help one another, rather than accepting the dynamic of competition which the funding crisis imposes on women's groups? We are well aware that many donors are also struggling to find ways to effectively support progressive initiatives. Most important is to begin a dialogue that can facilitate a constructive move toward resolving this critical situation in a way that advances out commitment to women's struggle for equity, social justice and democracy. In order to do this, we as women's groups need to be clear about our needs and concerns, and able to share with others in an open dialogue rather than confronting each other as competitors for a shrinking pot of money.