LGBTQI organisations around the world are working tirelessly to defend our communities and campaign for lasting change. Yet in recent years, cuts to foreign aid and the deliberate targeting of LGBTQI activists and their organisations have put increasing pressure on our movement.
Due to the cuts to foreign aid over the past year, many of GiveOut’s grant partners have reported programme closures and staff layoffs, all while struggling to cover even their most basic costs. At the same time, political leaders and other anti-LGBTQI actors are branding LGBTQI organisations in some regions as ‘foreign agents’ and claiming that they are undermining traditional values. This is deepening an already hostile political climate.
In this context, strengthening our movement is vital, so it can survive funding cuts and turn the tide against anti-LGBTQI discourse and legislation.
Around the world, GiveOut’s grant partners are ensuring that LGBTQI organisations are better equipped to advocate for their communities and are properly resourced so they can continue serving them. From flexible funding to tailored skills training and resource sharing, here is how our partners are doing exactly that.
Equipping organisations with the tools to advocate for change
Recognising that familiar advocacy methods are no longer enough against weakening democracy and organised opposition throughout the Western Balkans and Turkey, LGBTI Equal Rights Association (ERA) is designing initiatives that the movement needs to survive in the long term.
As part of this support, ERA has delivered advocacy skills training to its members across the region, including a two-day session in Montenegro for organisations it supports, equipping them with the tools to advocate on behalf of their own communities.
Outside of training sessions, ERA is also working on producing research, designed as a shared resource members can use in their own campaigns. One example is ERA’s research on gender-based violence against lesbian, bisexual, and queer women, which produced country-specific policy briefs translated into four languages. This research was designed not only to inform ERA’s own advocacy but to help partner organisations identify where existing policies and protections fall short in their own countries, giving them an evidence base they would otherwise lack the resources to produce alone.
Recognising that activists themselves are also under strain, ERA provides grants for psychosocial support and anti-burnout initiatives, acknowledging that a movement’s capacity depends as much on the wellbeing of the people behind it as on the strength of its organisations.
Knowledge sharing across borders
Many organisations around the world hold a wealth of knowledge and skills, built up through first-hand experience of what works and what does not in advocacy. Sometimes the challenge is simply finding spaces where they can share this with other organisations.
To address this need, The Commonwealth Equality Network (TCEN) delivered a series of in-person peer-to-peer training sessions across its Africa and Asia regional convenings. More than 50 members took part across five sessions, covering topics the members themselves had identified as priorities. These included resource mobilisation, to build members’ ability to secure and diversify funding; international advocacy, to strengthen engagement with global human rights mechanisms and donors; and organisational management, covering the internal systems and governance needed to sustain their organisations.
Every participant reported that their capacity to advocate for LGBTQI rights had increased as a result, and those at the Africa convening went on to produce a Call to Action, presented directly to ministers and senior government officials.
The Network has also begun connecting organisations with each other more directly. Its new member exchange and mentorship programme matches members who have a specific learning need with members who already hold that expertise, through in-person exchanges, virtual mentorships, and peer-to-peer learning sessions.
For TCEN, strengthening the movement means recognising that its members already hold much of the knowledge and expertise the movement needs, the role is simply to create the space and structure for that knowledge to be disseminated across borders.
Resourcing that goes beyond funding
Although skills training and knowledge sharing are important ways to build capacity and strengthen our movement, resourcing, whether financial or otherwise, is crucial in ensuring that organisations can not only sustain their work, but strengthen their organisations themselves to better serve their communities.
But this support must be flexible, giving organisations the autonomy to decide where that funding will have the greatest impact, whether it be to strengthen their internal practices, develop organisational strategies, or simply to keep the lights on.
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus (ASC) is reframing local support for organisations through what it calls ‘accompaniment’. For ASC, this includes identifying shared goals, sustaining relationships beyond project timelines, and continuously finding ways to support beyond funding.
One example of this is the support ASC provided Tagoloan Gender Advocacy Group (TAGAD), a newly created local organisation in the Philippines. With flexible funding, TAGAD for the first time was able to review its strengths, weaknesses, and core principles, as well as create their vision for the future. From there, the organisation developed its own strategic priorities, and through ongoing conversations with ASC, decided to form an Advisory Committee of senior activists it could turn to for guidance going forward. This organisational strengthening has built TAGAD’s ability to better advocate for its own community, which in turn will lead to better support for LGBTQI people in the region.
For ASC, resourcing partners this way is not simply about funding. It is about trusting organisations to know their own priorities, and giving them the flexibility to act on that knowledge.
An interconnected approach
While movement and capacity building is its own distinct area of work, it does not sit in isolation, and its impact reaches far beyond that. When an organisation is properly resourced and has the capacity it needs, it can produce research that fuels political advocacy, use the law and courts to advance LGBTQI rights, use artivism and storytelling to change hearts and minds, and respond quickly when crisis hits.
Ensuring our movement has the funding, internal structures and skills it needs is therefore vital.