XOESE Le Fonds pour les Femmes Francophones
Togo
Collective power thrives with shared space and connection. Francophone women’s rights and young feminist activists are at the forefront of change, but rarely have space to meet as a movement. In the past, the meetings they did have access to were often led in English, forcing these dynamic activists to participate as “spectators.”
Now XOESE, a feminist fund that resources women’s rights activists in Francophone countries of the Global South, is changing that. In 2021, it hosted the first-ever International Francophone Forum—a turning point in the history of the Francophone women’s movement that offered space for women’s rights and young feminist activists and organizations from across the French-speaking world to meet and connect. For one of the first times, “Francophone women activists felt united by a strong bond of belonging to a movement they were proud of.”
The highly successful conference focused on movement building, rooted in “the belief that collective action, generative power, and connectedness are essential to breaking down systemic barriers to gender justice and women’s rights.” The energy is infectious. Now one of the most common questions XOESE receives is: When can we all meet again? It is planning a second forum for 2023.