15th International AWID Forum
Disability Rights Fund at the 15th International AWID Forum
The AWID International Forum is both a global community event and a space of radical personal transformation. A one-of-a-kind convening, the Forum brings together feminist, women’s rights, gender justice, LBTQI+ and allied movements, in all our diversity and humanity, to connect, heal and thrive.
1) Nothing Without Us: Promoting the Leadership of Women with Disabilities in Advancing Environmental Justice and Climate Action
Date: Monday 2 December 2024
Time: 2.30 pm – 3.45 pm Room: 111C
Organizers: Disability Rights Fund (DRF), Global Greengrants Fund (GGF), Women’s Environment & Development Organization (WEDO)
Co-moderators: Dwi Ariyani (DRF), GGF (TBD)
Speakers:
- Karla Maria Henson, Life Haven Center for Independent Living, Philippines
- Dwi Suka, Center for Improving Qualified Activity in Life of People with Disabilities (CIQAL), Indonesia
- Bhawana Majhi, National Indigenous Disabled Women Association-Nepal (NIDWAN), Nepal
- Alexandria Gordon, Women’s Environment & Development Organization (WEDO)
Accessibility: Captioning, International Sign interpretation, English-Bahasa Indonesian interpretation
Women and girls with disabilities are among the most affected by climate change, yet their voices are often overlooked in climate mitigation, adaptation efforts, and decision-making processes. This session aims to bring together a diverse group of climate advocates to foster collaboration, remove barriers to participation, and amplify the leadership of women with disabilities in advancing environmental justice. We will explore strategies for overcoming challenges, addressing advocacy gaps, and enhancing collective action across disability, youth, feminist, Indigenous, and climate justice movements to drive impactful climate solutions.
2) Intersectional Approaches to Care: Advancing the Rights and Dignity of Women with Disabilities in Building Transformative and Inclusive Care and Support Systems
Date: Tuesday 3 December 2024
Time: 4.15 pm – 5.30 pm Room: Ball Room 3
Organizers: Disability Rights Fund (DRF), Center for Inclusive Policy, International Domestic Workers Federation, Oxfam International, with the support of the Global Alliance for Care (GAC)
Co-moderators: Myroslava Tataryn (DRF), Yara Tarabulsi (GAC)
Speakers:
- Rina Prasarani, Indonesian Association of Women with Disabilities (HWDI)
- Maria Antonella Pereira, Center for Inclusive Policy (CIP)
- Bonang Escalona, International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWFED)
- Ekaete Judith Umoh, AWID
- Hadeel Qazzaz, Oxfam International
Accessibility: Captioning, International Sign interpretation
This strategy session will address critical gaps in the current discourse on care by bringing together a diverse group of women and gender-diverse individuals from across movements to collaboratively advocate for rights-based, gender-responsive, and disability-inclusive solutions. The care economy has gained significant global attention, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the feminist movement playing a key role in engaging governments, UN entities, and other stakeholders to advance gender equality. Despite this progress, the perspectives of those most affected by care and support, especially women and girls with disabilities, are often missing. This exclusion overlooks the fact that women and girls with disabilities often occupy dual roles as both providers and receivers of care and support, resulting in a limited understanding of their unique challenges. As a result, existing policies may prioritize the needs of care providers while compromising the rights, dignity, and autonomy of those requiring support. This session aims to bridge this gap by fostering dialogue to reshape care and support systems that center inclusivity, collective liberation, and cross-movement collaboration and solidarity among disability, feminist, youth, older persons, and migrant communities.
3) Connection Circle: Resourcing Disability Justice
Date: Wednesday 4 December 2024
Time: 2.30 pm – 5.30 pm
Place: Disability Justice Space or Resource Mobilization Hub- TBC
The feminist funding ecosystem, given its myriad challenges for both feminist movements and funders alike, tends to separate and isolate movements from funders, and creates uncomfortable power dynamics for both sides. The Connection Circles are envisioned as a space for movements and funders to come together, andbuild deeper understanding around specific intersecting political agendas around resourcing, and connect more substantively through candid conversations about accessing funding, exchanging ideas and using this space to co-conspire.