Donor Dialogue: Donor Collaboration to Advance the Human Rights of Sex Workers

OSI's Sexual Health and Rights Project and Mama Cash organized a meeting in Amsterdam for sex work activists and 10 donor organizations to define parameters and establish next steps for a donor collaboration to further the human rights of sex workers.

A background report commissioned for the meeting examined the current context of sex work and human rights, the range of organizations currently working to advance sex worker rights, and the expectations of the donors involved for the proposed collaboration. The report also highlighted the array of human rights violations faced by sex workers around the world, and some of the innovative and effective ways that sex workers and sex work activists are responding to these challenges.

Panel discussions at the meeting emphasized the need for donors to provide core support to sex worker-led organizations and ways to create capacity building and networking opportunities for sex worker rights organizations and activists.

Participants prioritized the following three areas for donor collaboration:

• Strengthening the sex worker rights movement.
• Building linkages with other movements.
• Promoting leadership within the donor community for supporting initiatives to further sex worker rights.

The participants established working groups for each of the priority areas to develop more concrete next steps for collaboration prior to the next meeting in 2010.