Our world is in crisis.

There are more intersecting crises in the world today than we have ever witnessed. The rise of authoritarian, extremist, and fundamentalist governments has increased, and political emergencies, militarism, conflicts and civil wars amplified. Significant climate crises and disasters have multiplied while climate change deniers’ privilege corporate profit over our future generations. And when global and regional health crises and infectious disease outbreaks arise, such as Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19, many governments are ill prepared to respond and carry out repressive responses that repudiate human rights. Finally, the vast majority of humanitarian aid is top-down and rarely put in the hands of impacted communities — 94% of relief aid flows to international NGOs and only 0.4% goes to local and national groups. This model is broken.

If we are to survive and thrive, we need a radically transformative and coordinated response grounded in intersectional feminist principles that center justice, healing, and liberation. And as we grapple with the concurrent crises in Haiti, Afghanistan, Lebanon and beyond, we needed to speak out louder than ever before about our radical approach.

Feminist Alchemy: Building a World Beyond Crisis is a collective of 14 feminist funds from around the world, with the support of the international network of women’s funds, Prospera. As a community of practice, we share knowledge and best practices to strengthen our institutional capacity and impact during crisis, and we aim to leverage our expertise and networks to influence and transform the global humanitarian sector.

Read the full article about the intersectional feminism approach to humanitarian aid at Global Fund for Women.