“Fund us like you want us to win,” “If you cannot give more, give core” and #giveusourmoney are only a few of the growing catchy statements we have heard over the past year. It refers to the urgent need to fund feminist movements and women’s rights organizations at scale, in recognition that these movements play a crucial role in defending and strengthening democracies for ALL. This rings especially true when anti-gender conservative forces and public (and private) budget cuts are the order of the day in the focus countries of Walking the Talk (Netherlands, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and the EU). How has the consortium responded since the start of the Walking the Talk program in August 2023?

Deep listening and the “fun fight” approach

We’ve spent significant time having candid conversations — both internally within the consortium and externally with a variety of key stakeholders across the Minority and Majority World. Deep listening and soul searching are what unlocked the principle of a “fun fight”. We are obviously being serious and evidence-driven in our advocacy and engagement, but also adhering to the feminist principle of radical joy, which is so important in these trying times. It is why we co-organized a community festival and feminist pub quiz during the Shaping Feminist Foreign Policy conference in the Netherlands, a feminist bingo during the Commission on the Status of Women as well as for the women Dutch candidates for European Parliament. Creating an intimate, creative, and fun space to enhance belonging while discussing sensitive issues and concocting ways forward seems like a perfect recipe!

Introducing the Walkie-Talkies

The “fun fight” approach is also how we came up with the Walkie-Talkies concept – now six feminist experts strong globally – and twelve youth Walkie-Talkies in the UK. Rather than going for a conventional Steering Committee, we wanted to develop a body that helps us steer and enrich the program’s strategy internally but also has an external accountability role to provide the reality check, one of the principles of a Feminist Foreign Policy. Admittedly, the learning curve has been high but the reality check provided by Mexican Walkie-Talkie Dinorah Arceta on the Mexican Shaping Feminist Foreign Policy (read her blog in English or Spanish) illustrates that we are on the right track.

A conference to fund feminist futures

And if we are not at the table, or on the menu, we create our own party altogether! This philosophy stems from the world of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and plays a key role in our advocacy and engagement strategy towards the Summit of the Future (where Restless Development and others are organizing a Feminist Future Festival) and the Financing for Development process, our key focus for the coming year. The first preparatory meeting for the Financing for Development process, held in Ethiopia, already demonstrated the need for this approach as there were too few women at the table and even fewer gender equality commitments on the menu!

In May 2025, two months before the high-level Financing for Development conference takes place in Spain, the consortium is organizing Financing for Feminist Futures. During this event, 200+ stakeholders will demonstrate that a different world is within reach with the support of a Common Ask Framework – a collaborative document outlining the financial resources needed to achieve gender equality goals. A key component of Financing for Feminist Futures will be to present and share the findings created by 13 research projects. These projects were selected from an overall pool of 120 proposals submitted as a result of our Call for Papers published in early June. We will launch a conference website sharing the 13 projects as well as announcing a Call for Sessions soon.

Creating a fly-wheel effect and weaving the feminist tapestry is about ensuring that the whole is bigger than the sum of our parts. It not only applies to the consortium’s way of working, but to the entire feminist ecosystem. In our humble view, it is the only way to make “Fund us like you want us to win”, “If you cannot give more, give core”, and #giveusourmoney a reality!