Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation: Implications for Policy

and Practice
Workshop, 3-4 February 2013 Jakarta, Indonesia

Indonesia untuk Kemanusiaan Proceedings compiled by: Devi Leiper OMalley

Introduction

This paper is based on the proceedings of a two day workshop in February 2013, Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation: Implications for Policy and Practice, convened by Indonesia untuk Kemanusiaan (Indonesia for Humanity, IKA) in collaboration with Kamala Chandrakirana, Member of the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women in Law and Practice (the Working Group). Focused specifically on the context of Indonesia, the meeting brought together women human rights defenders and social justice activists as well as representatives from grantmaking organizations and donor institutions. Two recent events set the stage for this convening. 1 First, the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Korea in 2011 saw a rise in the participation and recognition of civil society as independent development actors. Second, the release of Mala Htun and S. Laurel Weldons research reinvigorated many womens organizations by presenting hard evidence that an autonomous feminist movement is the critical factor for creating progressive policy change for women.2 Presentations explored the resource landscape for womens human rights and how Indonesian civil society has adapted its resource mobilization strategies to changing contexts. Several local Indonesian organizations were profiled to demonstrate both successful and unsuccessful cases of resource mobilization. Discussions covered ethical, ideological, and practical dilemmas faced by womens activist organizations in the changing context. Concluding recommendations were directed at womens movement actors themselves, donors, and states. These recommendations were also intended for the Working Group, which will prepare an annual report on the parameters of states international obligations on human rights related directly to discrimination against women but also to the enabling environment needed to combat discrimination.

IKA. Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation: Implications for Policy and Practice. Terms of Reference. Jakarta, Indonesia. 4-5 February 2013 2 See Mala Htun and S. Laurel Weldon. August 2012. The Civic Origins of Progressive Police Change: Combating Violence against Women in Global Perspective, 1975-2005, American Political Science Review, Volume 106, Issue 03, August 2012, pp. 548-569.

 Mobilizing resources in todays world Changing sources, discourses, and available resources This next round of target-setting will be notably different given geopolitical changes in the international community that is no longer dominated by the Global North and/or West. Several countries or groups of countries are playing more critical roles such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, (commonly known as BRIC nations), South Africa, Venezuela, Iran, and the European Union. In addition to nation-states, the rise of the multilateral development banks (MDB) is also having an effect. Indeed, they are becoming the largest source of development finance in Asia next to the Japanese government. 3 These financial institutions are governed by different rules and structures than those for traditional development agencies. These new players not only bring new inputs for development finance, but also new approaches, for better or for worse. After many years of advocacy and debate, development discourse is shifting to measuring development beyond metrics of Gross Development Product (GDP) towards measurements of human rights such as health, good governance, gender equality, and environmental preservation. Alongside this shift, actors are currently engaged in influencing the post-2015 framework from revitalizing old debates that influenced the first Millennium Development Goals to incorporating lessons learned from the past fifteen years. Despite new narratives, development and poverty reduction is still largely conceptualized in very linear logic models; many the convening participants have had their fair share of dealing with the heavy bureaucracy and lack of coordination of large donors. In spite of the positive moves, many activists are still wary of the negative impacts of neo-liberal economic policies that are still being propagated globally.4 Furthermore, governments like that of China, are less invested in ensuring development agreements are guided by the universal human rights agenda. In addition to new players, there are enthusiastic debates on how to find alternative sources of development funds. One example is the call for a Tobin tax that is a tax on global financial transactions as a feasible source of development finance.5 Another example is the discussion on how to reduce tax avoidance in developing countries as a domestic source of development finance. 6 Lastly, there is increasing attention to the potential of remittances coming from overseas migrant workers. To complete this picture, global aid has fallen in recent years as a result of the economic crisis. Indeed,

Soentoro, Titi. MDBs as resources of Social Transformation. Aksi! Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. February 2013 4 Ibid. 5 Bahagijo, Sugeng. Development Aid and Indonesia: More Challenges. Less Opportunities. International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013. 6 Ibid.

major donors aid fell by 3% in 2011, the first drop since 1997.7 Moreover, aid has rarely been allocated equitably along gender lines, and continues to follow this pattern. Convening participants agreed that gender mainstreaming has often been reduced to ticking a box, and women-specific programming was still needed alongside mainstreaming. AWID reports that womens rights organizations saw their funding support decrease in donors efforts to mainstream gender into other programs.8 Womens Funds Some Key Opportunities for Resource Mobilization Since the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness 2005, advocates have promoted womens funds as a channel for distributing funds effectively to womens rights organizations. 9 The International Network for Womens Funds currently lists forty-six members in thirty-four different countries. As highlighted by the Development Assistance Committees Network for Gender Equality, womens funds can: provide a range of grant amounts from USD 500 to USD 20,000; support core expenses rather than just project- related costs; and link more closely with grassroots groups that may be small, organized in non- traditional structures, and marginalized from mainstream spaces.10 Furthermore, womens funds have greater capacity to attract individual donors and promote local philanthropy. For example, HER Fund in Hong Kong created the 88 Days Campaign to raise funds to end violence against women between International Human Rights Day (December 12) and International Womens Day (March 8). HER Fund encourages donors to give cash gifts in multiples of eighty-eight or with the numbers 88 since it is also a lucky number in the local culture. 11 Womens funds are demonstrating their capacity to absorb larger amounts of funds, particularly from bi- and multilateral aid institutions. 12 This is seen in the case of the Dutch Foreign Ministrys Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW) Initiative, a successor to the Millennium Development Goal Three Fund (2008-2011), which will distribute 70 million Euros between 2012-2015. The FLOW Fund awarded grants to several womens funds, including Global Fund for Women, Central American Womens Fund, and Urgent Action Fund for Africa.13 Womens funds are also playing an important role in mobilizing more than just financial resources. Alongside its grantmaking, most womens funds place significant emphasis on supporting capacity- and movement-building. One example is the Community of Practice (CoP) initiated by Mama Cash and Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres to support girls activism. This CoP will involve research, platforms for

OECD. Development: Aid to developing countries falls because of global recession. 4 April, 2012. http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/developmentaidtodevelopingcountriesfallsbecauseof globalrecession.htm 8 Alpizar, Lydia, Cindy Clark, Sarah Rosenhek, and Veronica Vidal, with inputs from Lucia Carrasco. Context and Trends Influencing the Funding Landscape for Gender Equality and Womens Organizations and Movements. AWID. February, 2010. 9 Leiper OMalley, Devi. You Get What You Give: Womens Funds and Giving Circles. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013. 10 OECD. Gender, Equality, Womens Empowerment, and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness: Issues Brief 3. Innovative Funding for Womens Organizations. DAC Network on Gender Equality. July 2008. 11 Leiper OMalley, 2013. 12 Ibid. 13 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. FLOW Projects. Retrieved 28 February 2013. http://www.flowprogramme.nl/Public/AboutFlowPage.aspx?id=5

womens funds and activists to learn from each other, and forums for young women activists to exchange skills. 14 Busan High Level Forum: Negotiating aid effectiveness for civil society and womens human rights The 2011 Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, gave a clear indication of the current constellation of development actors; new donor countries and the private sector were active participants in the deliberations, as well as parliaments and local governments.15 In addition, the Busan HLF-4 marked a significant turning point for CSOs when for the first time, marked recognition was given to civil society as a development actor with negotiating power in these high level deliberations.16 Historically, civil society organizations (CSOs), including womens rights organizations, have mostly bore witness to high-level discussions and agreements since CSOs are not signatories to the PD, and are often excluded and marginalized from the discussions and agenda. To counter this, CSOs have continually organized side events to assert their significance and contribution to development. Two major documents represent CSOs organizing around development effectiveness. First, the Istanbul Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness was unanimously adopted at the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness in September 2010 in Istanbul Turkey. The Istanbul Principles are the result of extensive consultations with thousands of SOs in more than seventy countries and sectors. The Istanbul Principles set the foundation for the second major document, the Siem Reap CSO Consensus on the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness, adopted in June 2011 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The Busan Outcome Document acknowledged CSOs as development actors and their own commitment to support CSO effectiveness. However, the Document still focused essentially on engagement between governments.17 When there was mention of the Istanbul Principles and the Siem Reap Consensus, it focused heavily on transparency and accountability of CSOs rather than collaboration and equal partnership.18 Overall the document maintains a focus on poverty reduction and economic indicators rather than rights and justice. When it came to gender equality, more substantial gains are yet to be had. During the HLF-4 a panel discussion was hosted by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Former U.S. Secretary of State, and Kum-lae Kim, Koreas Minister for Gender Equality and Family, and moderated by Michelle Bachelet, Former Executive Director, UN Women. This initiated the The Busan Joint Action Plan for Gender Equality and Development (Joint Action Plan). But according to Association for Womens Rights in Development (AWID), consultation on the plan with womens rights organizations was highly unsatisfactory as it came at a very late stage with too tight deadlines to facilitate appropriate consultation.19 Consequently, womens rights organizations released a formal position statement to the Joint Action Plan, urging states to increase funding to womens rights as well as make substantial financial commitments to the
Leiper OMalley, 2013. This is the fourth such forum on aid effectiveness, preceded by meetings in Rome (2003), Paris (2005), and Accra (2008). 16 AWID. A Feminist Perspective on the Busan 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and Its Outcomes, 2012. 17 Scanlon, Megan McGlynn. Busans Implications for Funding of Social Transformation Work. STATT. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation: Implications for Policy and Practice. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013. 18 Scanlon, 2013. 19 AWID, 2012.
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advancement of womens rights.20 To be sure, the Outcome Document does recognize the importance of gender equality and empowerment of women, grounded in country priorities. To this end, governments agreed to: a) Accelerate and deepen efforts to collect, disseminate, harmonize, and make full use of data disaggregated by sex to inform policy decisions and guide investments... b) Integrate targets for gender equality and womens empowement in accountability mechanisms, grounded in international and regional commitments c) Address gender equality and womens empowerment in all aspects of our development efforts, including peacebuilding and statebuilding. 21 In addition, the Document encouraged the diversification of development financing. This includes taxation, domestic resource mobilizaiton, private investment, aid for trade, philanthropy, non- concessional public funding, and climate change finance. However, there is no mention of the need for funding of CSOs or WROs for that matter and there is no mention of guaranteeing funding for sensitive womens rights issues such as sexual and reproductive health rights.22 Ultimately, it must be remembered that the Busan Outcome Document is not legally binding, only voluntary. Despite the failures of the HLF-4 identified by WROs, it is still worth acknowledging the small gains and increasing moral leverage for: 1) increasing recognition of CSOs that could lead to increases in funding; 2) CSO-led data collection, analysis, and planning; 3) realization of the benefits of longer-term, rights- and movement-based funding as well as institutional support; and 4) donor attention to enabling environments for CSOs such as freedom of speech laws, tax codes, and private sector support of philanthropy. Where is the data on resources for womens humans rights? Data and research on funding for womens human rights has been scarce, but the need to close this information gap is increasingly recognized by activists who inevitably feel the pressure of insufficient resources.23 AWID launched the Wheres the Money for Womens Rights in 2005. According to AWIDs website, The initiative aims to build in-depth knowledge on resources mobilization and to increase the effectiveness of womens rights groups in raising and accessing funds, as well as influence donor agencies to commit more and better funding for womens rights and gender equality. AWIDs preliminary results from its latest global survey in 2010 show a range of stagnant and changing trends: Median income groups surveyed is fairly small. The median annual income in 2010 in AWIDs sample was $20,000. While medians have doubled since 2005, the researchers find that growth is being driven by small organizations to begin with that is organizations with incomes of
For more information read the Womens Organizations Position Paper on the The Busan Joint Action Plan for Gender Equality and Development available at: http://awid.org/Library/Position-on-the-proposed-Busan-Joint- Action-Plan-on-Gender-Equality-and-Development 21 OECD. Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. December 3, 2012. Retrieved 20 February, 2013. http://www.aideffectiveness.org/busanhlf4/images/stories/hlf4/OUTCOME_DOCUMENT_-_FINAL_EN.pdf 22 Scanlon, 2013. 23 Real, Mary Jane. Trends and Impacts of Overseas Development Aid on Womens Movements. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013.

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$5,000 or less. In total, the combined income of these womens organizations was approximately $106 million USD. This total amount is often compared to World Visions annual budget, which in 2010 was $1,041 million USD.

Looking at where the money is coming from, the largest proportion of funds come from bilateral agencies and private and public foundations. Womens organizations report that they place increasing importance and energy into deriving funds from individual donors, membership fees, and income- generating activities, but looking at the chart _ the amount generated from theses sources is still small compared to the traditional sources of funds. A final statistic from AWIDs survey is that of financial security. Sadly, most womens organizations live month to month: even though the survey was conducted in the last quarter of the calendar year, only 13% of organizations had secured all the money they needed for the next year. While womens funds are playing a more significant role, aggregate data and databases on the state of womens funds are still lacking. Where there is research, it is currently concentrated on womens funds in the United States.24 Another significant piece of research is Rights and Resources: The effects of External Financing on Organizing for Womens Rights by Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay and Rosalind Eyben.25 This report studied the effect of international aid on womens rights organizations, specifically in Ghana and Bangladesh. The research finds that in the pre-funding era groups were founded on loose, informal structures and relied extensively on their founders, on voluntary time of a handful of people, and on consciousness raising and networking in communities.26 Following the success of the Beijing Womens Conference in stimulating global interest in womens rights, groups in both case countries went through a process of institutionalization, which had negative and positive implications. On the one hand, staff members were hired to complete regular essential tasks, financial reporting was regularized, and monitoring and reporting structures were developed. On the other hand, organizations became more expensive to run as voluntarism declined, programmes expanded and hired staff had to be paid.27 The authors also highlight the debate as to whether international aid financing led to a decrease in autonomy for womens organizations, as donor needs at times appeared to supersede the needs of the organization and community. Moreover, evidence showed that there was increasing homogenization of agendas and mobilization strategies based on donors perspectives and demands. In addition, while womens rights organizations gained increased access to significant sums of money for programs, financial sustainability did not automatically follow. Indeed, financial insecurity became a fact of life for womens groups, especially as donors and their priorities changed frequently. 28

Ibid. Ibid. 26 Mukhopadhyay, Maitrayee and Rosalind Eyben. Rights and Resources: The Effects of External Financing on Organising for Womens Rights. Pathways of Womens Empowerment, Royal Tropical Institute. 01 November, 2011. Pg. 21. 27 Mukhopadhyay and Eyben, 2011. Pg 41. 28 Mukhopadhyay and Eyben, 2011.
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Experiences of resource mobilization from civil society organizations in Indonesia

National trends in resource mobilization Convening participants came from local, national, and international civil society organizations involved in different activities including grantmaking, capacity-building, and service-provision. CSOs in Indonesia have faced a range of funding challenges and are impacted by global changes in funding trends. CASE STUDY Convening participants acknowledged that Indonesias rapidly changing image as an economic miracle and the leading democracy in Southeast Asia is a game changer when it comes to development. In just fifteen years after International Monetary Fund crisis, Indonesia is now listed as one of the worlds largest economies. As a member of the G20, Indonesia is becoming less reliant on foreign aid and has increasing potential to mobilize domestic resources. The Indonesian government is currently working with the World Bank on multi-million dollar project aimed at increasing tax payer compliance and tax administration efficiency. Furthermore, Indonesia itself is playing a larger role in distributing its own foreign aid to other countries through Kerjasama selatan-selatan, or South-South Cooperation.29 Compared to ten years ago, the influence of international donors is decreasing. This is due to falls in the amount of overseas development assistance, as well as to changes in rhetoric. In 2011, net official development assistance to Gross National Income ratio for Indonesia was only 0.1 per cent.30 The signing of the Jakarta Commitment signified a shift in the relationship between Indonesia and foreign donors from an aid model to a development partnership.31 What this means is greater emphasis on national ownership for the Indonesian government, and decreasing leverage space for foreign governments. Civil society is concerned of the negative implications of this shift whereby the government has more authority over incoming funds and proposed initiatives and donors are practicing alignment with the government rather than partnering directly with civil society and movement actors.32 Opportunities and challenges in mobilizing resources from state institutions Some CSOs were founded on clear partnerships with foreign agencies, and consequently were able to develop steadily due to the consistent financial support that was given in exchange for delivering services and programs. For example the national civil society organization, Yappika, acted as an agent of the Indonesia-Canada Forum, which dispersed funds from Canada to more than one hundred organizations across Indonesia over a ten year period. During this time it was able to strengthen its capacity building programs and expertise on national advocacy. When political turnover in Canada led to a decline in bilateral cooperation with Indonesian CSOs, Yappika was able to withstand the budgetary impact by marketing its programs and services to other agencies. In particular, Yappika was able to serve as consultants using the tool Applied Civil Society Index to measure the strength of civil society. Yappika gained expertise in the application of this tool having applied it previously with the United
Bahagijo, 2013. World Bank. Net ODA Received (% of GNI). 2013. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/DT.ODA.ODAT.GN.ZS 31 Ellmers, Bodo, Eurodad, and Kris Vanslambrouck. Jakarta Commitment: Indonesia and development partners sign agreement to increase aid effectiveness. European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad). 22 January 2009. http://eurodad.org/3256/ 32 Bahagijo, 2013.
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Nations Development Program and AusAid. As Yappikas programs and tools received increasing recognition from others, agencies like The Asia Foundation hired Yappika to assess its partner organizations in Indonesia.33 Another example is Kemitraan The Partnership for Governance Reform, which was established as a project of the United Nations Development Program to promote good governance at all levels of the Indonesian government. From these beginnings, Kemitraan was able to develop into a prominent organization managing high-level relationship and engagement between UNDP, Indonesian government, and civil society organizations. It currently manages a multi-million dollar budget and provides regranting services to several foreign development agencies. Due to the need to maintain a close relationship with the Indonesian government, Kemitraan admits it must be cautious in how it engages with civil society groups that may criticize or protest the government. 34 Convening participants also raised the question of how groups like Kemitraan that manage national funds are attempting to be transformative, when it comes to funding decisions, practices, approaches, and procedures. Nevertheless, dependence on foreign funds comes with many risks and many CSOs that were founded independently have struggled more to navigate changing funding trends and sustain financial and human resources. This was definitely the case with small womens rights organizations such as Yayasan PULIH. Yayasan PULIH experienced a period of growth after it established an office in Aceh following the 2004 tsunami. During this time, PULIH received several grants international funders such as USAID, ICCO, and the Ford Foundation. Most of these grants were given in the context of post-disaster recovery, and money for PULIHs programs were often cross subsidized to provide services to poor communities.35 However, PULIH regularly dealt with the challenge that funds were never directly dedicated to services, making delivery inconsistent. Furthermore, institutional funding for staff members was insecure. PULIH considered asking for a professional service fee to clients, but knew its organizational identity rested on being an institution that offered services for low-income clients. PULIHs lack of human resources became more severe as it did not have enough professionals with the high-level of skills needed to deal with the types of cases it received, while simultaneously did not have enough money to pay highly- qualified workers.36 When it comes to raising funds from the State, convening participants discussed a range of experiences, opportunities, and challenges. Komnas Perempuan, the National Womens Commission, has had its ups and downs working with the Indonesian government when it comes to financial sustainability. The general public often believes that Komnas Perempuan derives most of its funding from state budget, but in reality, more than half of its income comes from foreign funds. KP has found that relying on the state budget makes it vulnerable to changing financial and political trends, such as the global economic
Fitri, Fransica. From the Perspective of a National Civil Society Organization on Capacity Building. YAPPIKA. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013. 34 Supomo, Sita. CSO and Aid Effectiveness. Presentation. Kemitraan. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013. Jakarta, Indonesia. 35 Poerwandari, Kirsti. Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation: Experience of Yayasan Pulih and LBH Apik Jakarta. Presentation. Yayasan Pulih and LBH Apik. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013. 36 Ibid.

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recession. Moreover, in relying on the state for a significant proportion of its own funding, it is often confronted with the challenge of walking a fine line when critiquing the government policies and representatives. Despite the challenges, state funds still present opportunities. Both Kemitraan and Indonesia untuk Kemanusiaan (IKA) are involved in Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Mandiri (PNPM) Peduli, a government-led, multi-donor trust funded, and World Bank managed poverty-reduction program aimed at marginalized groups. PNPM Peduli provides grants to national and local civil society organizations across Indonesia working with marginalized communities. For IKA, the decision to access PNPM Peduli was grounded on the fact that it was a capable enough organization that could and should access the funds on behalf of its transformative agenda. In the most compelling example, IKA redistributed some of its grants to groups that have historically experienced gross human rights violations at the hands of the State itself. Facing structural violence and stigma, these groups are less able to access public benefits. Furthermore, CSOs working with these groups have often focused only on civic and political rights, and are unable to focus on essential socio-economic rights. In this case, IKA decided to use PNPM Peduli funds to provide resources to these communities without needing to press the government to acknowledge its involvement in gross human rights violations.37 In addition to funds, IKA has also been the opportunity to influence some internal processes, gain new relationships and learn valuable lessons. In particular, IKA (and other CSOs) have been able to make a substantial argument for changes in the heavy-handed procurement policies of World Bank. These policies have often hindered civil society groups effectiveness and are not designed for small-scale projects such as purchasing goats for a few families in a small indigenous community, since typically, the World Bank would require at least three bids before a purchase is approved.38 Diversifying beyond the traditional resource mobilization strategies For better or for worse, the lack of available resources has led many womens rights organizations to try different methods of resource-mobilization beyond traditional grant writing. Convening presentations on this topic were most inspiring as participants were able to reflect on the strategies of others and discuss advantages and disadvantages, as well as applications in different contexts. The story of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) demonstrates the significance on friend-raising in order to achieve social change. Specifically, ICW decided rebrand itself by changing its approach, language, colors, and logo to disassociate itself with its historical image of being a scary, hardline anti-government group. Using art, music, and social media technology, ICW was able to garner public support like never before. It strategically held summits and focus groups, drawing on filmmakers, musicians, artists, teachers, students, and other professionals to design campaign materials, slogans and strategies.39
Wusari, Anik. Assessing Government Development Program For The Poor And Marginalized. IKA. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013. 38 Ibid. 39 Sari, Illian Deta Arta. On organizational strategies for resource mobilization. ICW. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013.

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One of ICWs greatest achievements is its role in defending the Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK), the Corruption Eradication Commission, in 2012. Thousands of activists participated in demonstrations against the threatened arrest of a KPK investigator by Indonesias National Police. Twitter, Facebook, online petitions on Change.org, as well as SMS text messaging were key to spreading the word and garnering support for this campaign. 40 Convening participants praised ICWs success but at the same time asked questions about the sustainability and optimization of the groups rapid growth since it now operates on a significant overhead budget for more than thirty-staff just for fundraising. Meanwhile, Komnas Perempuan took a more institutional approach in trying to mobilize resources by partnering with IKA in 2003. As a national organization, KP was hard pressed to meet the demands of supporting multiple issues and groups, while simultaneously covering its own operating costs. Together, KP and IKA initiated Pundi Perempuan, a dedicated fund for womens crisis centers in Indonesia. As part of the Pundi Perempuan initiative, IKA has created and tested several different resource-mobilization strategies, presenting three of them at the convening. First, IKA discussed how it invited local artists and art students to donate their work for a fundraising auction. This experience brought to light the balance between awareness raising and fundraising when IKA found that many artists did not understand many of the concepts of violence against women.41 It ultimately raised the question of whether increased donations necessarily translate into social change. IKAs second example is a revolving fund, which is currently being tested with local womens organizations at the village level. One of the organizations using the revolving fund concept is SPEK-HAM (Womens Solidarity for Humanity and Human Rights) from Central Java. SPEK-HAM does not believe there is only one formula to support women survivors of violence. Instead, it organizes women into support groups and helps facilitate their own resource mobilization strategies. The revolving fund helped to support one SPEK-HAM group to buy and rear their own livestock, which was identified as one key input to village womens own livelihoods and ability to become financially independent and less vulnerable to violence.42 Lastly, the most successful of IKAs fundraising activities was a partnership with BodyShop Indonesia, where a proportion of sales profits from certain ambassador products went to support IKA campaigns and issues. Representatives of IKA described this activity as easy and fun; especially due to the teamwork and support they received from the BodyShop. In total, IKA was able to raise approximately 600 million rupiah and this successful campaign has encouraged IKA to approach other corporate partners. However, as IKA continues to engage with the private sector, it is learning more about how to maintain its own autonomy, image, and mission. Sadly, some individuals representing businesses do not appear as deeply committed to social change when engaging with human rights organizations and

Sari, Illian Deta Arta. On organizational strategies for resource mobilization. ICW. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013. 41 Maesaroh, Siti. On organizational strategies for resource mobilization. Komnas Perempuan. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013. 42 Sucianingsih, Maria. On organizational strategies for resource mobilization SPEK-HAM. Presentation at Workshop for Development Aid, Gender Equality and the Politics of Resource Mobilization for Social Transformation. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 2013.

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foundations, but rather more interested in gaining better public relations with a wider market for products. 43 Major discussions and findings On average, womens organizations operate with relatively small funds, have weak financial stability and are highly dependent on bilateral and multilateral donors. In the meantime, in terms of donor allocations, womens organizations receive a very small percentage of the total ODA funding available. National mechanisms and machineries for womens rights are chronically under-resourced and vulnerable to major cuts during situations of budget crisis. In particular, womens legal aid and crisis centers are losing crucial resources financial and human and cannot keep up with the demand for their services. On the one hand, it can be argued that it is the States responsibility for providing these critical services to half of its population. On the other hand, it is unfair to discount the high quality services and leadership of women crisis centers and organizations. Yet these groups are still marginalized from major policy decisions, and large foreign aid money for gender equality is increasingly channeled through the State before it trickles down to civil society. The issue of autonomy was raised several times since in negotiating relationships with private sector groups, foreign donors, and state institutions there are several challenges in maintaining autonomy for womens groups. Especially when womens groups become over reliant on the state or foreign donors for funding, goals, reputations and influence can be coopted. Indeed, as funds are increasingly filtered, it is more and more difficult to know the source of funds. Groups may be against the practices of one corporation or the foreign policy of one government, yet find themselves accepting resources through an intermediary. Furthermore, the ultimate mission of social transformation can be stalled, if not forgotten, when short-term objectives and targets predominate over long-term and sustainable changes. Violence against women has been the defining issue of the womens movement. More than ten years after the Domestic Violence Bill was passed in Indonesia, there are still challenges to be overcome and gains to be had. Still, womens organizations have been so focused on this essential aspect of their work that they have risked having less meaningful engagement with larger issues of development and political economy.

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Maesaroh, 2013.

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Recommendations 3 2 1 5 4 1

Recommendations for the womens rights movement The womens rights movement needs to: a) understand better the diversity of experiences in mobilizing resources and its impacts; b) define its own autonomy and identify the various means to achieve and sustain this; c) develop clear indicators of effectiveness and accountability; and d) identify strategies, mechanisms, instruments and tools to ensure its autonomy leads to an increase in its transformative capacity. CSOs, including womens organizations, should develop development watch initiatives at the local, national and trans-national levels, that track womens access to development budgets. Womens rights organizations should interrogate its feminist methodologies and analyses to advance womens strategic interests in multiple sites of the struggle for justice and human rights for all, and explore the need for a paradigm shift in response to the changing world. Advocates of gender justice and womens rights need to actively produce a broad range of multi-disciplinary feminist knowledge based on grounded empirical studies and participatory documentation processes to renew and strengthen its capacity to effectively engage in multiple spaces of struggle. National mechanisms and machineries for womens rights need to advocate for the sustainable resourcing of womens organizations and services, including their own. Recommendations for institutional donors States should create an enabling environment, through political, legal, financial measures (including taxation policies), for the establishment, growth and sustainability of independent funding for social transformation, including womens funds. Traditional and emerging donor countries should increase the proportion of ODA funds allocated to achieve gender equality and womens empowerment, including to support independent south-south cooperation among CSOs, based on a coherent and responsive approach and establish effective mechanisms to ensure transparency in their use. States need to integrate the sustainable financing of womens legal aid and crisis centers into its overall policy on access to justice and service delivery in order to ensure the gender- responsiveness of government policies and budgets. Donor institutions should create special initiatives to support capacity building for sustainable fund raising and resource mobilization by CSOs.

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