About Us › Background

The Feminist Policy Collective (FPC) was formally set up in February 2019, following a national consultation co-organized by NFI (National Foundation for India), OXFAM, UN Women, IWWAGE-LEAD at Krea University (Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy), and SAHAJ (Society for Health Alternatives) with the support of a core group of feminists. The FPC membership was largely associational in nature.

This group had been working together as a collective since June 2018, and organized a consultation in February 2019 to discuss ways of transforming the gender responsive budgeting framework and make a difference in the way policy and finance could change gender relations. This effort brought the group together, and helped establish the FPC.

Vision and Mission

FPC's vision is of transforming the policy and financing agenda to achieve women's rights and gender equality. It seeks to achieve this through its mission of:

  • Establishing platforms for dialogue and learning to strengthen linkages between activism, advocacy, administration and academia to influence local, national and global policymaking priorities
  • Creating knowledge for informing policy formulation, implementation and monitoring, centering women's voices from the ground
  • Taking forward key policy recommendations with the State for advancing women's constitutional rights in the context of the above
  • Building partnerships with like-minded organisations and networks, including with International and UN Agencies.

Membership

The initial group of the FPC is comprised of a mix of individual researchers, academicians, policy advocates and feminist organisations, as well as UN Women. FPC as of now has 12 member organisations namely, CBGA, CRSD, ICRW, IWWAGE-LEAD at Krea University, JAGORI, MAKAAM, NFI, NIRANTAR, OXFAM, SAHAJ, UN Women, ASTHA/BARC with nine individual members namely, Aasha Kapur Mehta, Dipa Sinha, Jashodhara Dasgupta, Julie Thekkudan, Ritu Dewan, Sarojini Ganju Thakur, Subhalakshmi Nandi, Suneeta Dhar, Vibhuti Patel who do not represent any organization.

The Steering Committee with the Co-Conveners have worked on FPC membership guidelines, setting up criteria for membership as well as the process for inclusion of new members – both individual and organizational members.

Ways of Working

Steering Committee and Co-Conveners

In April 2020, a Steering Committee (SC) of nine members was selected by members of the FPC to guide the functioning of the FPC. The criteria for selection involved members' willingness to volunteer time and expertise for the work of FPC and respond promptly to ensure effective implementation of FPC activities. The tenure of the current Steering Committee shall be for two years (i.e. 1st May 2020 – 30th April 2022). Out of the nine members, three have been chosen by the SC on a rotational basis to play the role of Co-Conveners. Currently they are Jashodhara Dasgupta, Sona Mitra and Ritu Dewan.

Working Groups

For closer engagement of all members of the FPC, four thematic working groups (WGs) have been formed. The groups are to collaborate for creating knowledge, for informing policy formulation, implementation and monitoring, centering women's voices from the ground, and collectively undertake the necessary dissemination and advocacy to carry forward key policy recommendations with the State.

Non-Members

As an independent collective, FPC welcomes organizations and individuals who are currently not members to engage with us on the various thematic areas identified by the FPC working groups. We anticipate this engagement through various mechanisms:

  • Knowledge generation, co-creation and sharing;
  • Capacity development of stakeholders playing a role in advancing the agenda on gender transformative financing and policymaking;
  • Convening stakeholders to facilitate dialogues that are representative of the needs and demands of vulnerable and marginal groups and advocating for their rights; and
  • Policy engagement processes and collaborating on public policy processes to inform the design and implementation of policies and programmes at the national and sub-national level.

Please write to feministpolicy.india@gmail.com to know more about how FPC can work with you.

Support to FPC

Support for appointing a Coordinator has been provided by various member organisations at different times. Member organizations namely, NFI, UN Women, IWWAGE-LEAD at Krea University and CBGA have for long provided technical support to the FPC Coordinator.

Currently CBGA (Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability) is providing the fiscal hosting of the Secretariat with UN Women funding the position of Coordinator.

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