Coalition launches to support gender equality & women’s rights in Europe

A coalition has launched to support progress for gender equality and women’s rights in Europe through funding and other support including collaboration and learning.

The Alliance for Gender Equality in Europe brings together local and pan-European civil society organisations and funders to support progress in the areas of gender equality and women’s rights in Europe.

Created by representatives of Foundation CHANEL, the King Baudouin Foundation and the L’Oréal Fund for Women, and hosted by the Network of European Foundations (NEF), it has just completed its first round of funding.

This saw it allocate 13 grants of up to €50,000 to small, frontline organisations in 10 countries across the European Union (Croatia, Belgium, France, Hungary, Latvia, Italy, Spain, Greece, Czech Republic, Germany), distributed equally between Eastern, Southern and Northern Europe.

The grantees were selected by an independent group of gender equality experts from women’s funds, philanthropy, academia, CSOs and the private sector, and specialise in areas including violence against women, health and social protection, access to education and training, access to economic resources, entrepreneurship, and digital divide. Their projects include support services for women victims of domestic violence in Hungary, self-led advocacy from refugee women in Germany, grants to feminist social entrepreneurs in Spain, and the empowerment of Roma activists in Latvia.

Marion Schaefer, Managing Director of Fondation CHANEL Europe, commented:

“One of the lessons learnt from the Covid-19 crisis is that there is a momentum for us all, donors, to work together, to pool resources because collaboration will be essential to solving the social crisis that lies ahead of us. In that sense, the Alliance for Gender Equality in Europe is a philanthropic innovation, increasing for the first-time collaboration for gender equality in the philanthropic sector. We hope this will help building resilient movements and long-lasting change.”

In addition, the Alliance is developing a learning platform to share knowledge with donors, women’s organisations, support networks and other stakeholders, including the public and the media. It also aims to produce research, with which it hopes to influence policy initiatives.

The Alliance believes it is the first collaborative effort of its kind in Europe. It is currently seeking other partners, aiming to attract donors that are not currently giving in this historically under-funded field in Europe with the ultimate goal of enabling a just society for all.

Picture by Anna Shvets on Pexels