Grant to monitor the rise of anti-gender politics in Africa

Dr Awino Okech, Professor of Feminist and Security Studies and Founder and Director of the Feminist Centre for Racial Justice at SOAS, has received an Open Society Foundations (OSF) grant worth $400,000. The fund will help pioneer a framework for tracking the growth and evolution of anti-gender movements across Africa.  

Over the last five years, scholars and activists have observed the influence of global anti-rights networks operating across the African continent, evidenced through conferences, policies and laws on “African family values” and a reversal of gender and sexuality rights. 

The OSF grant will allow for further evidence-based advocacy, deepen understanding of the changing landscape of anti-gender politics, and support more informed responses by researchers, activists and policymakers. 

I am honoured by the confidence OSF has shown in the work of the Feminist Centre for Racial Justice as evidenced by this new support.  

Professor Okech said: “I am honoured by the confidence OSF has shown in the work of the Feminist Centre for Racial Justice as evidenced by this new support.  

“This pilot project will contribute to advocacy and transformational change efforts by social justice movements across the African continent by putting data at the centre of their work." 

Professor Okech will also lead work on developing and piloting a Feminist Resistance Index, a groundbreaking tool designed to map, analyse and make visible the strategies, resilience and impact of feminist organising across the continent, as part of the Movement Data Lab initiative. 

This pilot project will contribute to advocacy and transformational change efforts by social justice movements across the African continent by putting data at the centre of their work.

The Feminist Centre for Racial Justice brings together fields of enquiry that have developed in parallel: feminist theories on power, protests and change, studies of diasporas, critical race theories and migration studies. Its approach is anchored in a research, test and reflection cycle that is central to how synergies between research and movement-building are built and become evidenced. 

The Open Society Foundations work in regions across the world, using grant giving, research, advocacy, impact investment, and strategic litigation to promote dignity and civil rights.