Isdao
IN 2013, a group of funders and activists came together to propose the creation of a bilingual fund managed and led by West African LGBTQ activists.
The creation of such a fund would not only provide emerging leaders with the tools and spaces they need to build a more effective, inclusive movement for LGBTQ rights in West Africa, but also serve as a much-needed activist-owned platform for social change. It would provide international donors with a safe and trusted mechanism to invest strategically in the region and to ensure their resources were reaching the grassroots with accountability. It would introduce a mechanism through which local strategies could be shared and regional strategies developed collectively, both proactively and in response to crises. Finally, it would provide a point of coordination in a region of Africa where both organizing and donor engagement on LGBTQ rights remains uncoordinated, uneven, and linguistically divided.
The proposed fund would serve not only to drive resources to LGBTQ organizations in the region but also provide emerging leaders with crucial capacity-building and networking support, a safe space for mutual learning and dialogue, and the opportunity to develop their leadership. The fund would place a particular emphasis on support for lesbian and bisexual women and for trans* and other queer-identified and gender-nonconforming West Africans, whose experiences and identities have remained marginalized or invisible within MSM/HIV organizations. It would also give special attention to historically marginalized Francophone activists.