IWDA’s Professional Practices
Introduction:
The International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) is a non-profit, Melbourne-based organisation, and Australia’s only development organisation that focuses entirely on gender equality. Their aim is to progress women’s rights, and their primary service is sourcing funds and financially resourcing diverse women’s organisations, mainly in Asia and the Pacific. They do this in a way that goes beyond money, by also facilitating collaborations between partner organisations, sharing knowledge and creating tools, and advocating for action in the western world. They are mostly funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and they redistribute to their partners. Their outreach has an impact worldwide, especially in the Asia/Pacfic region, (through their partnerships and contribution towards strengthening women’s movements and gender equality. This report will cover a brief history, the organisations, vision and purpose, the professional standards they abide by, and the services they deliver.
The history of the organisation
IWDA was founded by three Australian women in 1985. What about. One of them, Wendy Poussard, said she was “sick of committees and talking… I wanted action”. they launched their first program, providing health care training to women in the Philippines and the following year received their first grant for the first paid staff, becoming recognised by Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) the peak body for international aid organisations in Australia. The organisation grew quickly, and by 1989 they 31 programs across Africa, Central and South America, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. One innovative early program was an exchange program where workers in femninist organisations from Thailand, Laos Papua New Guinea, and Australia could work in partner organisations in other countries to gain experience and share knowledge. IWDA has a key role preparing the Australian Government for the 4th Annual United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, which created a powerful roadmap for global women’s rights policy. In 1999, they launched the “16 days of activism” that continues in November each year in Australia. (IWDA ref for https://iwda.org.au/who-we-are/our-story/#:~:text=IWDA%20and%20our%20research%20partners,poverty%3A%20the%20Individual%20Deprivation%20Measure.)
The organisation have been influential in developing legal and policy reform in Melanesia, and have developed extensive gender sensitive tools and research support for the Australian Research Council and DFAT (same IWDA ref). In the last decade, their grant income increased steeply, and they now have 194 partners in 36 countries (IWDAa 2020).
Vision and mission:
IWDA’s vision is to achieve gender equality for all, and their purpose or mission is to defend and advance the rights of diverse women and girls. They are committed to working together with partner organisations and with the governments to ensure that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) number 5 ‘gender equality’ is met by 2030. To do this, they focus on several pillars: advancing women’s leadership and participation, strengthening women’s safety and security, accelerating women’s economic empowerment and advocating for systemic change.
IWDA setting:
IWDA is a non-profit organisation, receiving 37% of their funds from DFAT A further 31% comes from other grants (from private organisations and governments), For example, under Funding Leadership and Opportunity for Women (FLOW) the Netherland Government funded a 14.2 million grant to that program for 5 years, 2016–2020. The remainder of their funds comes from donations and gifts.
Most of this money is spent on resourcing existing programs in developing countries (78%), but they also spend 12% on fundraising and 10% on administrative costs and accountability.
Professional Practices:
IWDA is an active member of ACFID and is committed to upholding the ACFID the values of accountability, transparency, respect, effectiveness, equity, and cooperation (ACFID https://acfid.asn.au/content/values). IWDA’s new Strategic Plan 2020–2023 (IWDA,https://iwda.org.au/assets/files/IWDA_StrategicPlan_202023_web.pdf) emphasises the ACFID quality principles. For example, IWDA ensures that they take a feminism (commitment 2.3, ACFID Quality Principles), accountability, collaborative (5.2, 5.3), and transformative (3.2) approach towards their partners, supporters and the diverse women they work with.
Equally, as a member of the Fundraising Institute of Australia (FIA), they are also guided by the FIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
IWDA ensures they uphold their roles in leadership and as an expert in the field of gender and feminism as development practice, and make sure their work is evidence-led. For instance, they share information regarding the governance structure (conduct 3.2), as well as key policies (conduct 3.6), legal status, organisation purposes, descriptions of significant programs, policy papers, reports and press releases (Conduct 6.1a), all formal agreements with others organisations (conduct 6.3) and records of the environmental impact of their activities (IWDA 2020b).
The 2020 Strategic Plan has a new focus: the ‘stand up’, ‘stand with’ and ‘step back’ framework as an approach to decolonising their work in the development sector. This means they will use their position of power as citizens of a developed country to leverage resources and access for women’s organisations with less privilege (Stand Up), amplify and and show solidarity with women’s activists from the global south (Stand With) and step back when others, particularly non-white women from developing countries, are better placed to take the lead (Step Back). Although this is not an official set of professional standards, it is a powerful framework which will guide the organisations practice moving forward. They want to be respectful and understanding towards their partners and stand by whenever a diverse women’s organisation needs them for support (Walter, Butterwick 2017).
Service Delivery:
The new IWDA Strategy 2020 to 2023 demonstrates the diverse range of the services they deliver with their partners around the world which aim to achieve their three goals.
Their primary gooals is to resource and contribute to a resilient and vibrant feminist movement, mainly in the areas of power, leadership and civic space, freedom from violence, and gendered climate justice’.
Their strategy (strgy1) of achieving this goal is to resource diverse women’s rights local organisations especially in Asia and Pacific with money, skills and access. Along with (strgy2) strengthening movements, and convening in the region and globally to advance gender equality. IWDA provides funding for actors in women’s movements around the world, so they can access the resources they need to support the movement. For instance, they provide resources such as funding directly with diverses organisations in the solomons to strengthen their movements.
The second goal is to ‘promote systematic change towards gender equality’ in using two strategies to achieve it. Those strategies (strgy3) are “transforming discourse on gender equality through knowledge creation and (strgy4) translation; and leverage their location power for advocacy and influence.” IWDA will use their expertise to add their voices, use their platform and location to feature the interrelation between Australia and globally as part of the collective efforts towards systemic change. For example, they share new ideas from other partners’ experiences with other partners.
“Build a resilient and relevant feminist organisation” is the third goal of the organisation. They are using strategy five “to ensure their own organisational sustainability, wellbing diversity and feminist practice”. IWDA is working to make sure their (local) organisation is financially resilient with a diverse income base and navigating a shifting economic landscape. For example, they capacity build the local organisation to maintain strong financial management and sustain a diverse income.
IWDA delivers their services through resourcing, convening, transforming, leveraging and sustaining to advance gender equality.
Conclusion:
As an organisation which works with many partners in many countries, IWDA demonstrates the diversity of community development work and gender activism. To ensure this diverse work remains focused and coordinated, they are guided by their vision, purpose, foals, and new strategic policy. To ensure their work remains ethical, they abide by the ACFID quality principles and the FIA Code of ethics and professional conduct , as well as the “Stand up, Stand with Step Back” approach, and by their goals and purpose. These professional standards and overarching guidelines help them to ensure they continue to effectively and ethically provide resources to partner organisations around the world, both financially and in the form of knowledge and networks, as they strive towards their vision of a world where women’s rights are fulfilled.
References:
Australian Council for International Development “Code of Conduct” viewed 7 August 2020, https://acfid.asn.au/good-practice-toolkit/quality-principle-4-quality-and-effectiveness
Fundraising Institute Australia “Principle and Standards of Fundraising Practice” viewed 7August2020, https://acfid.asn.au/sites/site.acfid/files/resource_document/Code_of_Ethics_and_Professional_Conduct_Fundraising-Institute-of-Australia.pdf
International Women’s Development Agency (a), “Our History” viewed 6 August 2020, https://iwda.org.au/who-we-are/our-story/
International Women’s Development Agency (b) “Accountability and Transparency” viewed 6August 2020, https://iwda.org.au/who-we-are/accountability/
International Women’s Development Agency © “Strategy Plan 2020–2023), viewed 7 August 2020, https://iwda.org.au/assets/files/IWDA_StrategicPlan_202023_web.pdf
Walte. S, Butterwick, S 2017, ‘Moves to Decolonise Solidarity Through Feminist Popular Education’ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316115556_Moves_to_Decolonise_Solidarity_Through_Feminist_Popular_Education
