Urgent Action Fund, as part of women’s rights movements worldwide, supports women's rights defenders working to create cultures of justice, equality and peace. We provide rapid response grants that enable strategic interventions, and participate in collaborative advocacy and research. We are led by activists, inspired by feminism, and strengthened through solidarity.

In 2003, UAF began a collaborative research project for the purpose of refining and improving our Rapid Response Grantmaking program.  Our Research & Publications and Advocacy & Alliance Building programs have developed from this initial project to become an information source for activists, funders and allies in women’s human rights activism.  The studies we conduct are instrumental in UAF’s development as a funder and we remain dedicated to the continued synergy of both programs.

Click here to see a complete list of publications available from UAF

Click here to see a complete list of publications available from UAF-Africa

Each research project undertaken by UAF arises out of our experience as a grantmaker - through the review of our grants and requests, and engagement of our activist Board of Directors, grantees and key advisors around the world.  Grantmaking is also a critical part of UAF’s research methodology, as we focus on certain themes and, in some cases, make experimental or exploratory grants around a particular issue in order to better understand and support women defenders’ work in that area.  Each publication is designed to be used as an advocacy tool in the hands of activists and their allies and is distributed in local languages whenever possible.

UAF is currently engaged in four projects that intertwine to provide us with a detailed and far-reaching understanding of the state of women’s human rights activism in areas of conflict and crisis.  Click on the titles of each project to read more:

Women, Peace and Policy Initiative (WPP)

After supporting women in responding to violence for over a decade, UAF has made the following observations: 1) women need support to engage in “pre-emptive peacemaking” before violence erupts; 2) activists and policy-makers rarely work together to build peace; 3) women facing volatile situations rarely have the opportunity to draw on the collective experience of change-makers who have faced similar challenges around the world. In 2010, UAF launched the Women, Peace and Policy initiative. 

UAF identified two countries poised on the brink of widespread violence, Pakistan and Kenya, and invited leading women’s human rights activists, policy-makers and politicians from these countries, as well as from around the globe, to work together and strategize a non-violent way forward.  The first meeting took place in March in Amman, Jordan. The women shared their struggles and lessons learned from activism and policy-making, developed a common analysis of the conflicts in their regions, and reached across divisions of race, ethnicity, tribe, religion, class and country to form strong relationships and working alliances. Upon returning home, both the Kenyan and Pakistani women formed new coalitions and designed extensive peace-builing projects. Both groups  are currently advocating for peace and increased involvement of women in government decision-making. The next meeting of the Women, Peace, & Policy initiative is planned for mid-November in Rome. 

The Defending the Defenders Project

UAF teamed up with Kvinna till Kvinna in Sweden and the Front Line International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Ireland to document security threats and risks that women human rights defenders experience in contexts of war/violent conflict, religious extremism, repressive or nationalist governments and post-conflict violence. This research culminated in a security strategies report for Women Human Rights Defenders, Insiste, Persiste, Resiste, Existe.

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The Sustaining Activism Project

Based on interviews with over 100 activists, UAF’s publication What’s the Point of Revolution If We Can’t Dance? explores the the creative resilience of activists around the world and the things that affect their ability to conduct their activism in healthy and sustainable ways.

The Sustaining Activism and Defending the Defenders projects represent UAF’s commitment to act on the recommendations made by women activists in our first major publication, Rising Up in Response: Women’s Rights Activism in Conflict (Barry, 2005).  One activist called Rising Up a ‘primer on UN Security Council Resolution 1325’ that she uses to advocate for women’s rights in all aspects of conflict, peacebuilding and reconstruction.

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The Impact of "Counter-Terrorism Measures"/Philanthropy at Risk

This joint project involving Cordaid in The Netherlands, Grantmakers Without Borders and OMB Watch in the US, conducts ongoing monitoring and analysis of post-9/11 counterterrorism policies and their effects on global philanthropy and civil society.

Previous Projects:

Counterterrorism & Charities Fact Sheets

The Global Nonprofit Information Network (GNIN) - launched in March 2007 by Urgent Action Fund, Grantmakers Without Borders, and OMB Watch to foster information sharing focused on counterterrorism measures affecting the nonprofit sector and global civil society - has released seven fact sheets that concisely document how the war on terror hampers charitable activities.

Download the fact sheets

Rising Up In Response

The Sustaining Activism and Defending the Defenders projects represent UAF’s commitment to act on the recommendations made by women activists in our first major publication, Rising Up in Response: Women’s Rights Activism in Conflict (Barry, 2005).  One activist called Rising Up a ‘primer on UN Security Council Resolution 1325’ that she uses to advocate for women’s rights in all aspects of conflict, peacebuilding and reconstruction.

read more

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