On Thursday, June 24th, 2021 the EDGE Gender Justice Initiative hosted the first Co-Creation Circle. Facilitated by Aleyamma Mathew (Collective Future Fund), Anna Spurek and Morgan Janowicz (Green REV Institute) the conversation focused on analysing the role of conservative and populist governments in perpetuating gender based violence all over the world, and the role that philanthropy should have in uplifting the work of social justice movements fighting against it.

We started our meeting with a presentation from Aleyamma, who provided a global perspective on the role of conservative governments, including an overview of the work that her organization is doing to target gender based violence. As a foundation, the Collective Future Fund brings together social justice movements, survivors of gender based violence, and donors in a process of collective healing, and works to mobilize those actors in shaping a collective future free from all forms of patriarchal violence. Their grantmaking aims to center the power, voice, and leadership of movements working to end violence and who admittedly are best placed to envision and implement solutions. Since the organization was created they have been able to support almost 200 organizations working at the intersections of safety, healing, resilience and resistance in the midst of the pandemics of lack of racial, gender and economic justice.

If you want to get in contact with the Collective Future Fund and get to know more about their work, feel free to reach out to Aleyamma at aleyamma@collectivefuturefund.org.

The second part of the conversation was led by Anna and Morgan from Green REV Institute, an organization working at the intersection of gender and climate justice and based in Poland.

With populism having taken the form of an organized, well-functioning corporation with its own third sector, media, strong funding, and army of lawyers, the response to this crisis must be different. Different from past strategies. Different because it covers all aspects, including the climate crisis, otherwise we risk that issues related to the green transition will be taken over and used by populists. According to GreenRev Institute, the answer is new activism through systemic actions, involving young women in watchdog and advocacy activities, teaching how to build new structures, teaching how to connect the dots and build relationships. Collaboration and networking, creating alliances, umbrella organizations, empowerment and synergy is the strategy to solve problems inclusively. The new leadership is a leadership that does not assume one hero but an army of effective people who through cooperation will be able to create structures, be pro-European and open-minded.

If you want to connect with Green REV Institute, go ahead and reach out to Morgan at morgan@greenrev.org.

The next Gender Justice Initiative meeting, taking place end of August/beginning of September will be focused on mapping who’s part of the Gender Justice Initiative and exploring the possibility of a mapping project. We hope you can join us!