Community Voices Blog
This is a space for all members to share their insights on topics related to human rights and grantmaking.
Displaying All Posts (162)
September 12, 2017
Lessons from a Frequent Conference Flyer
By Merrill Sovner, Research Fellow, Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at The Graduate Center, City University of New York I had the pleasure of attending three conferences of international philanthropy and funder support networks in 2017, at a time when it felt the world had changed around us. While the conferences represent three different… Read more
September 12, 2017
Political Actors in a Political Context
By Maíra Junqueira, Deputy Executive Director at Brazil Human Rights Fund For me, as a Brazilian woman, who has attended the Human Rights Funders Network Conference three times, it was very important to see and to be part of a specific section on Brazil, especially at this delicate moment that the country is going through,… Read more
August 9, 2017
How Funders Can Support Nonviolent Action Amid Crackdowns
Originally published on the U.S. Institute of Peace blog on July 27, 2017. Dr. Maria Stephan, Senior Advisor of the Program on Nonviolent Action at the U.S. Institute of Peace, explores how movements succeed with broad-based, local backing. When China’s national legislature passed a landmark bill in December 2015 outlawing domestic violence, it was the result of an… Read more
August 9, 2017
Reflections from the Human Rights Funders Network 2017 New York Conference
By Nyambura Gathumbi, Programme Manager at Hivos East Africa Last week, I spent time in spaces that I really liked. Mainly because we were discussing issues that are very dear to me but also getting to interact with some of the most inspiring people within the human rights movement globally. What I liked most about… Read more
June 21, 2017
What Strengthening Human Rights Has to do With Challenging Inequality
Originally published on the Ford Foundation Blog on May 22, 2017, Martín Abregú, from the Ford Foundation reflects on the implications of their identification of inequities as the central focus of their grantmaking. In the two years since the Ford Foundation identified inequality as the central focus of all our grant making, I have been… Read more
April 25, 2017
Collective Power of Inclusion
Originally published on the Disability Rights Fund blog on April 10, 2017, Catherine Hyde Townsend of Wellspring Advisors reflects on the challenges and opportunities for supporting women and girls with disabilities. In September of last year, thousands of women gathered in Bahia, Brazil for AWID’s women’s rights forum to celebrate the collective power of women… Read more
April 7, 2017
Closing of Environmental Civil Society Space: Strategies for Support on the Frontlines
Peter Kostishack of Global Greengrants Fund reflects on the anniversary of Berta Cáceres’ murder and shares effective strategies for supporting environmental rights defenders on the frontlines. The 2016 murder of Honduran river-protection activist, Berta Caceres, received international media attention, but her story is only the tip of the iceberg. Other appalling cases include the murders… Read more
April 6, 2017
Fighting West Africa’s Ebola Outbreak: What Lessons Can Human Rights Funders Learn from the Response?
John M Kabia, Program Officer for West Africa at the Fund for Global Human Rights, shares lessons for human rights funders following the experiences of local civil society and human rights organizations during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. It’s been over a year since the WHO officially declared the end of the Ebola… Read more
March 27, 2017
How “Advancing Human Rights” Can – and Can’t – Support Academic Research
Merrill Sovner of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, discusses the divide between philanthropy practice and scholarship in light of IHRFG and Foundation Center’s latest Advancing Human Rights research. The International Human Rights Funders Group and Foundation Center recently published Advancing Human Rights: Update on… Read more