Our Vision and Mission

Our Geographical Scope

Our Programming

About Us

Our Vision

Realising the human rights of women, girls, trans, and intersex people in Asia.

Our Mission

Women’s Fund Asia works to nurture and lead feminist philanthropy in the region; to effectively mobilise resources to support individuals, groups and networks enabling their sustainability; and to strengthen partner capacities, leadership, advocacy and networks in the field.

Women’s Fund Asia is a regional women’s fund, committed to supporting women, girls, trans, and intersex people led interventions to enhance and strengthen access to their human rights. We envision a peaceful and egalitarian region in which women, girls, trans, and intersex people’s participation, leadership, and enjoyment of all their human rights is ensured and secure.

Our core mandate is to support women, girls, trans, and intersex rights groups and activists in Asia, address the non-availability of resources for rights work for these constituencies across the region, and support strategies and interventions designed, implemented and led by women, girls, trans, and intersex people.

We provide fiscal and technical support to our partners, working to advance women, girls, trans, and intersex rights in their contexts. We aim to move towards developing a regional mandate, which is informed by national and sub-regional realities, and is responsive to the rights and needs of individual women, girls, trans, and intersex people.

Notes on our constituencies:

  • WFA acknowledges that there is no consistent and agreed upon definition of “girls.” WFA supports girls at two levels: through directly funding groups led by girls between the ages of 18 to 24, and through supporting work on rights of young women and girls aged 13 and above.

  • “Trans” is used by WFA as a placeholder to cover a diversity of gender identities and forms of gender expressions claimed by people across the region and the world. WFA supports trans rights, including that of transfeminine, transmasculine, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people, amongst other identities.

Our geographical scope includes the following countries in Asia

South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan

Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam

East Asia: Mongolia

Since 2004, Women’s Fund Asia has supported around 200 initiatives in the region, ensuring human rights for a diverse cross-section of women, girls, trans, and intersex people. This support has included technical support along with critical fiscal resources. We also foster effective programme designing and process-oriented strategies, towards rights based work and its sustainability.

Women’s Fund Asia’s programming

  • Promotes and supports the leadership of women, girls, trans, and intersex people at all levels, particularly those who belong to marginalised communities
  • Enables a strong understanding of human rights and the rights-based approach among women, girls, trans, and intersex rights activists and organisations in the region, which will inform programmatic intervention and implementation
  • Triggers greater cross-learning and exchange between women, girls, trans, and intersex rights organisations and activists in the region