Middle East and North Africa

Focus Areas

The OSI Women's Program believes women’s rights activists in the Middle East and North Africa should have a platform to develop their own advocacy strategies around important human rights issues. In collaboration with the OSI Middle East & North Africa Initiative, the Women's Program has been working to map the landscape for more effective women’s rights grantmaking in the region. Through providing grants via intermediary partner organizations, the goal is to increase women’s participation and access at all levels. Support and partnerships with the Global Fund for Women, Mama Cash, and V-Day Karama have helped increase attention to women and strengthened the work of women’s human rights organizations across the region.

A partnership with V-Day Karama (which means “dignity” in Arabic) has made it possible to create a network of activists from nine countries who are developing anti-violence strategies particular to the realities of women in the region.  The network focuses on strategizing around the causes and effects of violence across key areas such as health, politics, education, religion, law, and media.

The Women's Program has been working to amplify women’s voices and connect groups to the international policy level for advocacy around women’s human rights issues. In partnership with V-Day Karama, the program organized a delegation from Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia to attend the 51st Session on the Commission of the Status of Women in New York in 2007.  The delegation participated in NGO events and made an intervention in a high-level panel, calling on governments to implement Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, particularly in Iraq; raise the minimum legal age of marriage to 18; ensure women’s and children's right to citizenship; and implement commitments enshrined in the Declaration to End All Forms of Violence Against Women, including improving legal procedures for women victims of violence.

In 2003, the Women's Program began a multiyear grant to support grantmaking by the Global Fund for Women in the Middle East and North Africa.  Through this grant, the Global Fund for Women has considerably increased its funding in the region, in areas such as violence against women, legal rights and reform, advocacy, and marginalized populations.