The International Women's Program promotes the advancement of women's human rights, gender equality, and empowerment as an integral part of the process of democratization. The program uses grantmaking and programs to promote and protect the rights of women and girls around the globe, particularly in places where good governance and respect for the rule of law have been weakened or destroyed by conflict. The program aims to strengthen institutions that are responsive to and inclusive of women and to create conditions that allow women to control their own political, economic, and social development.

Activities focus around three primary objectives: reducing discrimination and violence against women, strengthening women's access to justice, and increasing women's role as decision-makers and leaders. The program pursues these objectives through a combination of strategies including grantmaking, advocacy, capacity building, organizing meetings and exchanges, and building coalitions.

In conjunction with other Open Society Foundations programs, and local partners and grantees, the program has been involved in activities across the globe including helping groups that provide legal aid to women affected by conflict in Iraq, sponsoring efforts to advance women's rights legislation in Lebanon, and assisting the monitoring of national war crimes trials involving sexual violence against women in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Geographical Coverage

The International Women's Program has limited its focus for the next two years to the following countries: Nepal, Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Iraq, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The program will continue to support organizations in Tajikistan, Burma, Cambodia, and Lebanon at a lower scale.

The program supports initiatives of regional or multicountry scope with the objectives of supporting women’s rights advocates sharing experiences, strategies and best practices; creating international, regional and subbing regional initiatives and networks; and promoting access to information.