Gender equality remains an urgent priority, especially as the global push for rights encounters widespread resistance and backlash.
The theme for 2025’s International Women’s Day “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment” called for the need for action to ensure equal rights, opportunities, and power for all, advocating for a feminist future where no one is excluded. This year also marked the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which provided a groundbreaking global blueprint for advancing women’s and girls’ rights. Since its adoption, this framework has driven progress in legal protections, access to services, youth engagement, and challenging outdated social norms and stereotypes.
Yet, challenges such as violence, discrimination, and economic inequality remain.
In the face of a global funding crisis and slow progress on gender equality, Co-Impact, a collaborative of philanthropists committed to advancing gender equality worldwide, is driving transformative change for millions of women and girls.
The Gender Fund drives this effort.
The U.S. $1 billion initiative is designed to dismantle systemic barriers and elevate women’s power, agency, and leadership across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
It extends beyond simply funding projects, as it transforms systems and empowers the people closest to the problems to generate sustainable, lasting change. Women-led, locally rooted organizations in these regions receive large-scale, long-term funding from the fund. This flexibility enables local partners to choose strategies that create meaningful and enduring impacts in their communities. Co-Impact rejects the idea of imposing externally dictated methods, believing that solutions are best devised and implemented by those closest to the issue, often women themselves.
As a result, local communities are empowered and gender equality is strengthened.
In her reflection on International Women’s Day, Mary Wandia, the Co-Impact Director for Africa discussed the $1 billion Gender Fund and the promising approaches across Africa to improve health, education, and economic systems. To make systemic change, she urged collective action and challenged societal norms. She also spoke about the need to accelerate action toward gender equality as the 2024 Global Gender Gap Report estimates that it will take 134 years to achieve parity.
On International Women’s Day, we reflect on gender equality progress and challenges. Could you tell us what this day means to you personally and how it contributes to the discussion of women’s rights?
This year’s theme is about accelerating action. This resonates with me because we are far behind when it comes to achieving the objectives set by the global community. The most significant step forward in recent history is the adoption of the Beijing Action Platforms – the world’s first blueprint for advancing women’s rights. And that was 30 years ago. The 2024 Global Gender Gap report published by the World Economic Forum estimates that, at the current rate of progress, it will take 134 years to reach gender parity.
Despite the multiple crises we are facing – from climate-related challenges, the threat of pandemics, and armed conflicts, to high unemployment rates, we should not delay action on gender equality. In fact, ensuring that our actions unlock the potential of women and girls can be the successful drivers we need to turn the tide on most of these crises.
As a leader in this space, what drives your commitment to gender equality?
Growing up, I witnessed firsthand the discrimination of girls who were denied education opportunities. Changing a biased and unjust system became my calling. I don’t see this as a job but as a commitment to using my career and the opportunities that I have had, to be a champion for gender equality. My work allows me to open doors and use my voice to advocate for a world where one’s path is not determined by their gender, but rather by their inherent dignity and rights as a human being.
In light of the global funding crisis and slow progress on gender equality, how does Co-Impact’s $1 billion Gender Fund address the challenges in Africa?
The Gender Fund is one of the most ambitious responses to a chronic lack of funding dedicated to women and girls living in key regions around the world, including in Africa. With this Fund, we are offering funders a once-in-a-generation opportunity to join forces to achieve impact at scale. The resources of the fund are deployed to support locally-rooted, predominantly women-led organizations that have the expertise and relationships needed to deliver sustainable change. We work with them to make sustainable improvements to health, education, and economic systems that can reach whole populations but become embedded over time, multiplying impact.
Concretely, our partners are working to strengthen primary healthcare systems in countries like Ghana and Kenya. We support initiatives working to keep girls in school and improve completion rates in Tanzania and Zambia. We also partner with organizations tackling sexual harassment in institutions of higher learning.
When it comes to economic empowerment, our partners support women’s access to financial services, credit, and business capital, enabling greater participation in economic activities. They help address barriers to formal employment and entrepreneurship, particularly for women in agriculture, informal trade, and small businesses. We also support leadership development initiatives, ensuring that more women have opportunities to lead in government, business, and civil society.
How do you hope the Gender Fund will inspire others to take action?
Through the Gender Fund and Co-Impact’s model more generally, we have proven that it is possible to create large-scale, sustainable change in the gender equality space when resources are deployed methodically. There are three big areas that we hope will inspire action.
First, focusing on advancing women’s leadership and gender equality across health, education and economic opportunity is the most effective way to deliver impact. These three issues are central to human welfare and a thriving future. Second, putting locally-rooted partners in the driving seat ensures that we support those best placed to solve the issue – including women. This is why we put such a big emphasis on women’s agency. And third, tackling inequalities is a complex task. Complex tasks require collective action. Collaborative funding models are the best response to ensuring we can deliver the long-term, flexible funding that these organizations need to change systems.
It is estimated that only 1% of global funding for gender equality reaches women’s organizations. How will the Gender Fund ensure that resources are directed towards the most pressing needs?
We are proud to be supported by a vast network of over 50 funders coming from all parts of the world. We draw from their diverse perspectives and experiences as well as the evidence generated through our collective work to ensure that we constantly learn and stay in tune with where the world is going.
Beyond this global community, we also ensure that local relevance is at the core of our model. Our grantmaking in Africa is led by a local team. We identify, fund, and support organizations that are rooted in the African context and have a deep understanding of the issues at stake. We have full confidence in the ability, knowledge and experiences of our local partners, and provide the flexible support they need to tackle the root causes of inequality and create deep and lasting change.
As the Director for Africa at Co-Impact, what is your vision for the Gender Fund, and how do you see it transforming systems to advance gender equality in the region?
We have made good progress and are persevering in our objective to raise more funding to meet the Gender Fund’s goal of U.S.$1 billion by 2030. Having this clear roadmap allows us to bring more funders on our journey and help them recognize the importance of investing in women’s power, agency, and leadership at all levels, from the household and community to the highest levels in key sectors, institutions and government.
Research shows that equitable systems cannot be achieved without gender equality and gender equality itself cannot exist without women having the required voice, agency, and power within existing systems. The Gender Fund’s ambition is to be a critical driver in creating a strong ecosystem of well-resourced, African organizations advancing systems change, advancing gender equality and women’s rights for generations to come.
What are the key barriers preventing gender equality from advancing at the pace we hope for, especially in the African context?
Funding is often cited as the most significant barrier, but it’s not just about the availability of funds. We need to ensure that the right kind of funding reaches the right types of organizations. For Co-Impact, this means securing more flexible funding for locally rooted, predominantly women-led organizations.
We also need to challenge the current narrative around competing priorities, whereby gender equality is seen as less urgent than in other areas such as economic development. Gender-based inequalities are not a secondary issue. They undermine both social and economic development indicators. Society will never be at its full potential if it continues to exclude half the world.
And lastly, we critically need to overcome pervasive norms and narratives on women’s place in society and their ability to lead. We need to support initiatives that promote women’s leadership in key fields such as law, economics, and politics – where they can make the biggest impact.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, what message or call to action would you like to share with individuals, organizations, and governments working toward gender equality?
– For individuals: Look at what you can do within your power to empower women because change starts with you. Accelerating action towards gender equality should not be seen as a woman’s duty. It should be everyone’s mission because it benefits all of society.
– For organizations: Especially those on the frontlines of championing gender equality – your work matters. Invite them to go beyond addressing the symptoms and focus on tackling root causes to make all systems work for everyone, especially women and girls.
– For governments: Progress without women and girls is not possible because they constitute at least 50% of your population. Unless we invest in their empowerment and equality, then you will not realize your development goals.
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