Co-founder, 2012; Strategic Advisor
W4GF is a global movement of advocates – now some 200 in all countries – focused on achieving gender equality in all of the programmes and policies of the Global Fund
Women4GlobalFund (W4GF) is a movement, a network of women and gender equality advocates who share a deep commitment to ensuring that Global Fund programmes are gender-transformative to meet the rights and specific priorities of women and girls in all our diversity. W4GF is a dynamic global platform that was created in 2013 to the ensure that gender equality is central to the Global Fund. The early focus was to support gender equality advocates to understand the transition from the rounds-based system to the new funding model and took steps to ensure that women meaningful participated in key decisions to move the Global Fund forward. At that time, the only Global Fund guidance on gender was the Gender Equality Strategy (GES) and research by the founders of W4GF found that the GES was poorly implemented in many countries. W4GF advocated for the GES action plan to support gender-sensitive and transformative programmes that would address underlying vulnerabilities faced by women and girls, and took steps to support advocates to understand the Global Fund and to enhance gender equality at all levels. More about our history is available here.
W4GF’s vision is to live in a world where gender equality is advanced through the Global Fund – one of the world’s most important finance mechanisms for HIV, TB and malaria. W4GF is designed to empower women to participate in decision-making at global and national levels, to ensure diverse voices influence how money is spent to achieve the greatest impact in communities, and to hold the Global Fund accountable for the impact of spending that will advance gender equality.
W4GF’s Mission is to catalyse the power of women to create a world where women in all our diversity are respected as key partners in decision making around how resources are dedicated to achieving the greatest impact in HIV, TB and malaria programmes, as well as community and health systems that meet the rights and needs of women and girls in all our diversity
In addition to the core movement building, the W4GF Secretariat is guided by three objectives to sustain a platform for women in all their diversity:
- Objective 1: To ensure Global Fund policy, processes and investment support the achievement of gender equality and human rights at all levels.
- Objective 2: To support and strengthen strategic strategy and engagement of women and gender equality champions at national levels to influence the Global Fund at all levels.
- Objective 3: To ensure accountability and critique of Global Fund investments. Supporting women in implementing countries to effectively influence national processes by tracking Global Fund supported programmes and services to inform stronger programming for women and adolescent girls and young women.
W4GF is a space to mobilise more action to so that the Global Fund resources go where they are most needed and where they will change lives.