The International Women’s Program supports initiatives that seek to:
- strengthen legal frameworks and enforcement mechanisms that focus on women’s rights;
- build civil society’s capacity to hold governments accountable to implement laws that promote and protect women’s rights; and
- increase women’s capacity to understand and assert their rights.
The International Women’s Program has limited its current focus to the following countries: Nepal, Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Iraq, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The program will continue to support organizations in Tajikistan, Burma, Cambodia, and Lebanon at a lower scale.
The program supports initiatives of regional or multicountry scope with the objectives of supporting women’s rights advocates sharing experiences, strategies and best practices; creating international, regional, and subbing regional initiatives and networks; and promoting access to information.
The mission of the International Women's Program of the Open Society Foundations is to use grantmaking and programmatic efforts to promote and protect the rights of women and girls in priority areas around the globe where the principles of good governance and respect for the rule of law are absent or destroyed because of conflict. The program seeks to promote the advancement of women's rights and gender equality in law and practice, and the empowerment of women to ensure participation in the democratic processes.
The program is not accepting unsolicited proposals at this time. To submit a brief funding inquiry, please email women@opensocietyfoundations.org with the organization’s name, a one-paragraph description of the organization, a one paragraph description of the project, list of countries that will benefit, amount requested and project period. If the funding inquiry meets program funding criteria, we will contact you to request a full proposal.