Civil society and women’s rights organisations

ISF operating model is structured around long-term development projects that are implemented by local partners, including NGOs, community-based organizations, and women’s businesses such as cooperatives and other commercial networks. ISF selects partners in competitive processes based on thematic expertise, community knowledge, and organizational capacity. It prioritizes women-led and women’s rights organizations.

ISF dedicates six to nine months for joint project planning with partners. This allows ISF and its partners to develop community-driven initiatives, align strategies, and develop robust implementation plans. Partners have the primary responsibility for planning, implementing, and monitoring the projects, which is crucial for sustainability, as it ensures that the identified challenges and solutions are grounded in community participation and ownership.

ISF supports its partners to become experts in their fields, enhancing their capacity to benefit their members and society at large. Recognizing that the long-term impact and sustainability of ISF’s programme depend on partner capacity, ISF allocates funds for capacity building and co-learning initiatives, such as training, exposure visits and targeted consultancies. The initiatives are based on comprehensive capacity assessments and capacity building plans developed jointly with the partners.

ISF promotes mutual capacity sharing to find gender transformative and context-specific ways to improve the rights of women and girls and trains partners on prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual and gender-based harassment. Throughout the partnership, ISF helps partners in results-based management (RBM), while assisting them in developing internal procedures and systems that will enhance project effectiveness. Strengthening communication and advocacy skills is also central to ISF’s efforts to reinforce the voice of the civil society.

To strengthen partners’ resilience, ISF assists them in identifying funding opportunities and creating convincing fundraising initiatives. It aids in proposal development (even when not a main or co-applicant itself) and supports networking and relationship building with potential donors and partners. It also provides capacity building on financial management, including accounting, budgeting, and compliance. It supports improving risk management systems, internal controls, procurement processes, and developing transparent administrative and human resource management practices. ISF provides trustworthy and safe platforms to manage grants: Microsoft Teams for performance reporting and document archiving, and QuickBooks for budgeting and financial reporting.

ISF boosts cooperation and learning among partners through quarterly coordination meetings and joint annual performance workshops. These serve as platforms for jointly identifying challenges and best practices. In addition, ISF establishes regular management meetings with partner management teams to increase strategic cooperation. This enables ISF to hear directly from partners, while providing opportunities for partners to influence ISF strategies and vice versa.

Lastly, ISF emphasizes localization of aid. The following criteria have been used to guide planning and budgeting for the 2026-2029 programme: 1) locally recruited field staff should represent at least half of total personnel count; 2) country budgets should be minimum 70% of the total programme budget; 3) LDC countries should be at least two thirds of the country budgets; 4) project budgets (including grants) should be at least 70% of the country budgets; 5) administrative budget in Finland should not exceed 10% of the programme budget; and 6) personnel costs in projects should not exceed 25% of the project budget.

ISF recognizes that expanding local women’s rights movements is crucial for promoting gender equality and addressing deeply rooted sensitive issues, such as FGM. To achieve this, ISF engages with various civil society groups, including girls’ clubs, community-based women’s support groups, traditional women’s groups (Shirkas), women’s self-help groups (SHG) and community committees and councils in Ethiopia. In Kenya, it works with women’s community-based organizations and village loan and savings associations. In Somaliland, it supports girls’ clubs, SHGs, male ally and youth groups, traditional women’s groups (Hagbad), and community committees.

Since 2023, ISF has successfully implemented a financial support to third parties scheme (FSTP, also referred to as sub-granting) in Kenya to boost a local movement against VAWG. By channelling resources to dedicated formal and informal community groups and activists, ISF has stimulated community-led solutions and innovations that are culturally relevant. The capacity-building and collaboration efforts, which are central to the process, have strengthened the resilience of the grantees, equipping them to mobilize additional resources and sustain long-term change.

ISF will scale up the scheme into a regional initiative that includes Somaliland and the Somali region in Ethiopia. It will also expand the thematic focus to include livelihood initiatives, for example on women’s role in circular economy. Through the scheme, small grassroots organizations, informal groups, and activists can apply for grants up to €10,000. Each cohort typically comprises around ten grantees. Grantees can apply for subsequent grants, making the scheme an incubator for new long-term partnerships with ISF. ISF will also identify and accelerate the most promising initiatives by offering larger partnerships (1-2 years, as of 2028) and by connecting grantees with other funding sources.

Grantees are selected by a local Selection Committee, consisting of ISF staff and partners. Local partners also play a major role, together with external advisers and ISF staff, in providing mentorship to the grantees throughout the capacity building phase, helping grantees refine their planned actions and maximize synergies. This approach allows grantees to utilize and add value to other ISF programme activities. For example, in Kenya, grantees have conducted campaign activities during the Muungano Gender Forum community sessions. In Somaliland, mobile caravans will provide similar opportunities.

ISF aims to be a leading expert driving change and providing ways for the Finnish public to support women and girls globally. ISF raises awareness of gender equality challenges and fosters understanding of global development cooperation. ISF focuses on advancing women’s rights in East Africa by engaging the public to support global solidarity and by driving political advocacy for these goals.

A central and cross-cutting principle of ISF’s communication in 2026–29 is transforming how the African continent is portrayed in public discourse. ISF will highlight the continent’s diversity and dismantle colonial rhetoric. Central to this approach is finding new ways to engage partners, activists, and programme participants, while exploring effective means to amplify their voices. For the Finnish public, ISF aims to raise awareness on global gender equality challenges and provide meaningful ways to support women’s rights through four main approaches:

Firstly, ISF aims for more multi-actor collaborations in communications and campaigning since it creates parallel audiences, fresh angles, and a sense of unity in and between civil society. Secondly, ISF will focus its communication efforts where they yield the best results. While social media has been a major platform in the past, its cost-effectiveness and engagement have declined. ISF will remain active on Instagram and TikTok, leveraging their potential to connect global gender equality issues with public interest while staying updated on digital trends and enhancing audiovisual capabilities. At the same time, ISF will explore new ways to engage audiences. Priority will be given to newsletters, which attract a more stable and action-oriented audience. Additionally, ISF will share its expertise through events, webinars, and opinion pieces.

Thirdly, following the two former points, ISF will put more effort in engaging the public in meaningful action, such as petitions, webinars, events, and pledges. ISF wants to play its part in creating a sense of solidarity and act as a platform to support women’s rights. The global education materials on climate change adaptation, which has proven popular among schools, will also be updated. Fourthly, media relations are key in gaining visibility for ISF’s work and themes. Media relations are handled with a mix of personal pitching and wider press release distribution. In addition, ISF will participate in an NGO-media cooperation development project with the Vikes Foundation.

In addition to reaching out to the public, ISF engages in political advocacy to influence Finnish development policies and funding. The objective is to ensure adequate development funding for women and girls; integrate gender perspectives into Finnish development and foreign policies. ISF primarily operates as part of broader networks. It is a founding member of Fair-Trade Finland and the Finnish Somalia Network, and a member of Fingo (umbrella organization for Finnish development NGOs). Through Fingo, ISF also advocates at the EU level. Regarding the 2027 parliamentary elections in Finland, ISF will form strategic alliances to promote its advocacy agenda. It also participates in forums related to VAWG and sexual and reproductive rights in Finland, such as the FGM seminars organized by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

While ISF supports local women’s rights groups in its operational countries, it also seeks to bridge the voices and concerns of women’s rights groups from the Horn of Africa to Finnish and EU-level forums. To promote a more just world, ISF advocates for global tax justice, corporate sustainability standards, and climate actions and funding that includes the most vulnerable people, especially women. ISF also follows the planning of Finland’s Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) programme and, when relevant, enhances women’s inclusion in national and regional tax system discussions.