Count Me In! is a consortium of feminist funds and movement builders dedicated to creating a gender-equal and just world. Women, girls, and non-binary, gender non-conforming, trans and intersex people – too often excluded and silenced – are demanding their right to be counted in.
Our work is driven by those facing multiple forms of discrimination and structural exclusion, including Indigenous and rural women, sex workers, lesbian and bisexual women, women with disabilities and women living with HIV. We focus on eliminating gender-based violence and advancing economic justice, ensuring that all women and girls can reach their full potential.
The Count Me In! consortium powers feminist movements fighting for their rights. The women and girls at the heart of our work are leaders, activists and changemakers, driving transformation in their communities and beyond.
For CMI! “women and girls” refers to women and girls and anyone who faces sex or gender discrimination such as non-binary, gender non-conforming, trans and intersex people. ‘Structurally excluded women and girls’ are those facing multiple, intersecting injustices, including but not limited to: women and girls with disabilities, sex workers, and lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ) women and girls.
Our goal is to empower strong, autonomous feminist movements that can hold political leaders, societal actors, and donors accountable, ensuring they recognize, protect, and fulfil the human rights of all women and girls.
The Count Me In! consortium formed in 2014, with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Our unique consortium brings together feminist funders and international women’s rights organisations with the financial and political resources to power feminist movements around the world.
Over the last decade we have been providing the scaffolding needed by feminist movements so that they can remain strong and resilient, even in times of crisis. We do this by reaching, connecting, providing funding and tailored support, and amplifying the voices of women’s rights organisations (WROs)* and women human rights defenders (WHRDs)**. CMI! believes that better resourced, coordinated, and resilient movements bring about sustainable change.
Across the world, efforts to roll back women’s rights are accelerating at an alarming pace, fuelled by democratic backsliding and rising opposition to gender equality. The need for the sustained support of movements has never been more urgent.
In 2023 we commissioned a mid-term review of our 2021-2025 partnership with the Dutch Government to evaluate our progress. It was conducted by the Feminist Collective, an independent team of feminist evaluators from the Global South. 142 partner organizations participated in assessing the effectiveness, relevance, and long-term impact of CMI!.
What did they find?
The review highlighted several key areas where CMI! had a significant impact.
CMI! has a model that is proven to work effectively at scale for structurally excluded women, girls to prevent and counter gender-based violence and promote economic justice.
CMI! focuses on three core strategies to drive impact —Money, Movements, and Making Change. The review found that these have been crucial in helping feminist movements resist these threats and push back against authoritarian governance.
The evaluation found that by bringing the insights, strategies, concerns and challenges of structurally excluded women and girls into global advocacy spaces, CMI! has facilitated increased buy-in among donors, including bilateral donors. This has supported the overall agenda of CMI!’s work.
< Case study 1 > In 2017, when the Spotlight Initiative was announced – a €500 million EU and UN programme to eliminate GBV – CMI! brought the voices of millions of activists from Global South to the table. As a result of CMI!’s fierce advocacy, WROs influenced global-level Spotlight decision-making. As a result, women and girls were included in Spotlight implementation, and funding modalities became more inclusive and accessible.
CMI! provides the needed capacity building and tailored resources e.g. Toolkits & analyses to 1) Equip and strengthen their activism and advocacy; 2) Provide for security needs in moments of violence; 3) Build relationships among movements to enable more coordinated and mutually-supportive agendas.
< Case study 2 > In 2016, Indigenous activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated for opposing a dam that threatened her community. CMI! amplified global outrage through media coverage (e.g. The Guardian) and pressured funders to act. As a result, Dutch and Finnish development banks withdrew their financing from the project. Berta’s murder also sparked action. CMI! launched “Behind the Scenes of Extractives: Money, Power & Community Resistance”. This toolkit is widely used across the world.
As efforts to roll back women’s rights continue to accelerate, the need for collective action is more critical than ever. To continue supporting feminist movements globally, we are seeking new funding partners for the next phase of CMI!’s work. Join us in creating a world where every women and girl is counted in to reach their full potential.
To find out more about CMI! contact: Gemma Graham, Count Me In! Partnerships Lead, [email protected]
Also check out resources below documenting our impact:
CMI! is a collaboration of eight organisations – working together in 26 countries and supporting thousands of women’s rights organisations and women human rights defenders to bring positive change in their context. This has enabled us to catalyse and be part of many wins in human rights and women’s rights over the last 10 years. We have a lot of stories to tell – stories that we are proud of. Count Me In! impact brief captures some of these key impacts of CMI!’s collaborative work.
In the last decade, CMI!’s work with partners in 26 countries have created many positive changes in asserting economic justice and eliminating gender based violence. These changes often happened in different levels and in different scales. From creating safe space for queer activists to supporting women human rights defenders in resisting harmful multinational extractive projects, our collective work has real impact on the lives of people, especially in the lives of structurally excluded women and girls. Below you can read some of the published stories of change of such impact our collective work created:
From March to October 2023, the Count Me In! consortium embarked on a mid-term review (MTR). The Feminist Collective, an independent team of feminist evaluators based in the Global South, conducted the MTR to assess the contribution of the CMI! programme in achieving its goals, and analyse and articulate the effectiveness, relevance and sustainability of the programme. The MTR also explored ways that CMI! can adapt and improve its strategies, and includes recommendations to strengthen CMI!’s learning agenda, as well as insights into how CMI! can best leverage its strategic partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Click to read CMI! Annual reports below:
Change is invariably catalysed by those who experience injustice and know what needs to change. Women’s rights organisations and women human rights defenders are the drivers of social, economic and political change. Yet women’s rights organisations are severely underfunded: only 1% of gender equality funding from international institutions and governments goes to autonomous groups led by women.
Count Me In! partners and members channel resources directly to women’s human rights defenders, civil society organisations and movements. We lobby governments, multi-lateral donors and global funding initiatives to ensure that money is specifically allocated to women’s rights organisations and to women human rights defenders. Since its founding in 2015, CMI! has supported 789+ initiatives in 32 countries with €19.5 million euros.
While looking back at the decade of the Count Me In! consortium, we asked colleagues from member organisations about the work they are proud of. Here are a few stories of concrete impact of our work. More videos will follow.
