By Sagal Abas

Advocacy is often portrayed as loud, visible, and easily identifiable. On the other hand, radical, transformative influencing demands that we look beyond those with access to a stage or microphone. In the Global South, women human rights defenders and grassroots actors influence in countless forms—visible, invisible, informal, formal, behind the scenes, or public. What unites it all is their commitment to dismantle patriarchal systems, gender inequality, resisting all forms of oppression, and reimagining new future possibilities. In the last 25 years of WPS agenda, women human rights defenders have demonstrated what are these various forms of feminist resistance can look like. Learning from these can help us reimagine what advocacy and influencing can be in future. This October marks 25 years since the adoption of UNSCR 1325 and the launch of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. While there has been progress in creating awareness on the urgency of women’s rights and protection, especially during times of conflict, deep inequalities and access to resources remain a huge barrier.

Power continues to shape and influence those who have the privilege to speak, participate, access resources, and care.Women-led organisations in the Global South, those most burdened with frontline work, have consistently called for decolonising feminist discourse. It is time to recognise them!

Feminist influencing in complex environments

Feminist influencing led by women of colour and gender-nonconforming individuals operates in some of the most complex environments, responding to conflict, climate change, and humanitarian crises.

The direct impact on them and their close relationship with affected communities allows them to create holistic interventions and understand key issues to advocate on, thus contributing to extraordinary and transformative long-term impact.

Feminist leadership extends far beyond Global North headquarters or high-level donor forums. It is rooted in grassroots realities: the behind-the-scenes organising of safe houses in Yemen for human rights defenders under attack; the coordination of Somali women activists using online spaces to raise awareness of violations against women and girls; and the networks of Sudanese women, at home and in the diaspora, exchanging information and sustaining resistance.

As first responders, women’s rights defenders and practitioners rarely have the time or resources to pause, care for themselves, or strategise. Every moment is consumed by responding to a complex gender crisis or worrying about their safety.

For grassroots defenders, opportunities to join a national policy debate or international advocacy spaces are rare. If they are not dealing with multiple forms of crisis- civil war, climate disasters, it is the chronic funding shortages, shrinking civic spaces, and direct threats to their safety that prevent participation.

IMatter: Reclaiming the WPS Agenda from the Global South

The IMatter women’s rights campaign was launched in 2019, amid escalating global conflict and growing attacks on women’s rights. It has since become a global solidarity movement uniting women, girls, LGBTQI+ individuals, and gender non-conforming people—particularly those living during and after crises.

From Ecuador to DRC, Sudan, Somalia to Yemen, the campaign works with feminist and frontline actors from the Global South and North. Its focus is to support those who bear the brunt of conflict and crisis, amplify their efforts, advocacy, and ensure they narrate their own experiences. Despite global commitments under the Grand Bargain to redirect resources to national and local CSOs, particularly those led by women and marginalised communities, the gap between promise and action remains significant.

Towards Decolonising WPS

Recognising these structural barriers,  IMatter campaign has been able to support some of its partners with advocacy needs. This has made possible diverse forms of influencing, from the Hear My Voice creative social media campaign that amplified grassroots women and girls’ participation and narratives, to our current decolonising WPS advocacy mobilisation led by partners in Yemen, Nigeria, and Kenya calling for radical transformation and institutional commitment to national action plans on the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Over the last few years, IMatter has been working towards decolonising the WPS agenda—ensuring that those most affected by conflict and crisis lead the way in shaping feminist futures. It has created online spaces for inter-exchange of learning, knowledge and information amongst global south partners, provided flexible grants, amplified the visibility, participations of women’s rights organisations, and put forward grassroots gendered recommendations and demands.

As part of the IMatter campaign , we define decolonising as taking back resources, power, and voice from systems that were never designed for us. The goal is to ensure that the agenda for Women, Peace, and Security is shaped by those bearing the greatest responsibilities and to value the various forms of feminist resistance, whether they take place informally, publicly, or behind the scenes. By doing this, we put the forefront of our imagination towards inclusive, just, and genuinely transformational futures.

In the closing of IMatter 2024 WPS symposium, which brought together a diverse range of Global South activists and peacebuilders to reflect on the agenda, our partners spoke with urgency and clarity. They called for a demilitarised, flexible funding mechanism, directing resources straight to women’s rights organisations. Only then can organisations respond quickly to crises, and re-imagine a truly decolonised WPS agenda.  This would be WPS agenda that not only centres participation and protection, but also guarantees equal access to reflection, rest, care, and joy.