Social justice as an idea is embedded in our acknowledgement of the deprivation,
exploitation, and marginalisation of large populations. It underscores the obligation of
humanity worldwide to respond to and correct this injustice. Social Justice welds
together the goals of social development and human rights. It demands moving beyond
addressing the visible manifestations of inequality and discrimination; it seeks to unpack
and resolve underlying causes, thereby ensuring equality and non-discrimination for
those most affected by deprivation.

Resource justice is located in the same narrative as social justice. There is enough data
to demonstrate that there is rampant inequality and discrimination in accessing
resources for social justice agendas. Factors such as location, language, and the level
of information available to communities trying to raise resources for their work, play a
significant role in determining access to resources. Most importantly, it includes the
focus/interest of the funders themselves. The dynamics of power inherent in the giving
and claiming of resources cannot be overemphasised.

How do we understand resource justice?
The core methodology that feminists centre their work around is "process", or ways in
which things are done or even understood. This means engaging with questions such
as what is the action, who is taking it, towards whom, who is wielding power- in terms of
visible action, and those behind these actions. it? And of course, what is the injustice
that we are seeking to address?

Therefore, feminists as part of global, regional, and local social justice movements,
bring not only a critical reading of power but also their commitment to applying a
consistent lens of power analysis to the table. We ensure consistent engagement with
any concept we build so that there is a continuous response to both external and
internal contexts. So not just calling out the injustice, but unpacking it to reveal the
deeper inequality and discrimination, and the rationale for these, that manifest in the
injustice.

When we speak to and of resource justice, we have to have a live and continuous
process of identifying ways in which power is being wielded to include or exclude
voices, issues, communities, and people, who are wielding the said power and to what
effect? While we all stand for decolonisation and shifting of power, wearing the lens of
resource justice implies, clarity on the process of decolonisation, and the ways in which

it will be brought into practice. We have to be clear about the result we want from the
shifting of power, with a focus on both the process and the result.

Resource justice is not the injustice of victims and perpetrators, it is a claim of the
process of consistent recognition of inequality and discrimination, a persistent effort at
challenging them and striving for equality and non-discrimination. As with all feminist
solutions, it is an ongoing living process, which is the solution in itself, rather than giving
a one-size-fits-all type of answer that solves injustice at once.

The role of women’s funds in realising social justice agendas
The roots of women’s funds are strongly embedded in the experience of discrimination
and inequality faced by feminist-led organisations, working on feminist issues. In the
earlier days of establishing women’s funds, the focus was on looking for resources for
women’s groups led by women – resources that were sustainable, adequate, and
available. The funds often saw themselves as “intermediaries”, or groups that raised
money to support grassroots women-led groups and collectives. Fortunately, as they
moved forward with their mandate of engaging with and challenging the status quo of
resource allocation, they also identified themselves as “champions for resource justice”;
speaking from a space of right to the resources required to fulfil the feminist agendas;
“claiming” rather than “asking” for the same. Women’s funds have also moved the
needle from ensuring resources to support sub-national work undertaken by feminist
leadership, to resourcing feminist movement building from the grassroots to global
organising.

In doing so, the integration of a rights-based approach into their grant-making strategies
has been critical to their mandate. The origin of the rights-based approach is rooted in
the feminist principles of equality, non-discrimination, and intersectionality. It centres on
the understanding of self-led processes, which challenge power relations between and
amongst communities, ensuring the voice and agency of the deprived, marginalised,
and exploited. Prospera (https://prospera-inwf.org/) - the international network of
women’s funds has put in over 25 years in building this fundamental work principle, with
the required innovations for each member as they work in their own contexts.

The inequality and discrimination in the way resources and aid flow for feminist-led
organising continue to be a complex issue. Funders continue to prioritise large
international groups that “work with” and “work for” “women’s communities”; in the name

of scale and outreach. There is little evidence available to prove the impact of either, on
the ground.

In the last two decades, women’s funds have fully embraced their mandate of seeking
justice in the world of resource mobilisation and grant-making. They are challenging the
status quo in the ways and the rationale of resource flow. In building the case for
resource justice, women’s funds acknowledge the power of resources in agenda setting;
and the need to engage with resource allocation so that it shifts power in the service of
transformatory agendas. In their role as resource mobilisers for feminist movements,
women’s funds seek to claim and direct resources to women-led, grassroots
movements. As such, they are not the owners of the resources, but rather the
custodians who raise money to advance the agendas of the movements they serve, and
redistribute it through transparent grant-making processes.

In claiming resources,  women’s funds question the role of funders in the decision-
making of where the money should land. The communities are the experts of their own
situation. However, as feminists, they well understand that this has to be bulwarked by
normative, universal standards, standards of human rights; and that power analysis has
to be applied every time in the process of allocating resources and agenda setting.

Resource justice incorporates many elements, both in mobilising resources and in
grant-making. In addition to who is claiming the resources and what will be done with
them, it includes the process of analysing how power and privilege are understood by all
stakeholders -funders, claimants, and implementers.

Transparency cannot be used to decimate safety for the recipients. Confidentiality has
to be a tool for ensuring protection and minimising risk, rather than invisibilising the
ownership of the work. The philanthropic community can draw learnings from how
women’s funds undertake their work, and how they value the processes that strengthen
resource justice, rather than standing on the work of their partners, claiming a co-
creation that minimises the ownership of the latter.

It is not a surprise that the case for resource justice is being built by feminists as it is
they who know best that it is not the destination that one reaches, but a journey that one
undertakes which is equally important. The more we engage with injustice and
inequality, the more we can build a wider gaze that understands the underlying causes

and solutions of marginalisation and voicelessness. The lateral and vertical dimensions
of issues we want to address become clearer as we move forward in transforming our
world. The espousal of resource justice is not merely a challenge to the power status
quo between those who give and those who receive; it is, infact, a declaration of a
commitment to ensuring resources serve the movement agendas as a core issue of
exercising and claiming human rights.
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Women's Fund India | Support women and trans* people led interventions and
organisations.Women's Fund India | Support women and trans* people led interventions
and organisations.
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"Social justice as an idea is embedded in our acknowledgement of the deprivation,
exploitation, and marginalisation of large populations. It underscores the obligation of
humanity worldwide to respond to and correct this injustice. Social Justice welds
together the goals of social development and human rights. It demands moving beyond
addressing the visible manifestations of inequality and discrimination; it seeks to unpack
and resolve underlying causes, thereby ensuring equality and non-discrimination for
those most affected by deprivation.
Resource justice is located in the same narrative as social justice."