Institutional Ethics

As feminist organisations we commit to the following:

  • Advocating for openness, transparency, equality and accountability in feminist-led institutions and organisations.
  • Affirming that being a feminist institution is not incompatible with being professional, efficient, disciplined and accountable.
  • Insisting on and supporting African women’s labour rights, including egalitarian governance, fair and equal remuneration and maternity policies.
  • Using power and authority responsibly, and managing institutional hierarchies with respect for all concerned. We believe that feminist spaces are created to empower and uplift women. At no time should we allow our institutional spaces to degenerate into sites of oppression and undermining of other women.
  • Exercising responsible leadership and management of organisations whether in a paid or unpaid capacity and striving to uphold critical feminist values and principles at all times.
  • Exercising accountable leadership in feminist organisations taking into consideration the needs of others for self- fulfillment and professional development. This includes creating spaces for power-sharing across-generations.
  • Creating and sustaining feminist organisations to foster women’s leadership. Women’s organizations and networks should be led and managed by women. It is a contradiction of feminist leadership principles to have men leading, managing and being spokespersons for women’s organizations.
  • Feminist organisations as models of good practice in the community of civil society organizations, ensuring that the financial and material resources mobilised in the name of African women are put to the service of African women and not diverted to serve personal interests. Systems and structures with appropriate Codes of Conduct to prevent corruption and fraud, and to manage disputes and complaints fairly, are the means of ensuring institutionalized within our organizations.
  • Striving to inform our activism with theoretical analysis and to connect the practice of activism to our theoretical understanding of African feminism.
  • Being open to critically assessing our impact as feminist organizations, and being honest and proactive with regards to our role in the movement.
  • Opposing the subversion and/or hijacking of autonomous feminist spaces to serve right wing, conservative agendas.
  • Ensuring that feminist non-governmental or mass organisations are created in response to real needs expressed by women that need to be met, and not to serve selfish interests, and unaccountable incomegenerating