The Oxfam Feminist Fellowship
Call for Applications
Oxfam Global Gender Rights & Justice Meeting Johannesburg Nov 2023
Oxfam South Africa (OZA) is excited to announce the launch of its first Feminist Fellowship Programme.
Do you want to contribute to gender justice by building feminist movements, community and practical actions? Applications are now open for applicants to the inaugural cohort of the Oxfam feminist fellowship.
If you can answer yes to these three questions below, this fellowship programme is for you:
- Are you an activist, an artist, a techie, a community organiser or a practitioner for social change?
- Do you have an idea to solve a pressing social problem?
- Are you interested in learning about and crafting feminist futures?
Location: South Africa
Character: This is NOT an employment opportunity, it is a learning process
Time: Over 12-18 months, with 3-5 day block releases over this period, interspersed with online activity
Costs: None
Fellowship Scope
Fellowship themes will explore a range of topics across four broad thematic areas:
- Being an intersectional feminist, with a core focus on feminism as a movement and driver of social change.
- Feminist economies, looking into what a post capitalist and post neoliberal feminist economy would look like.
- Feminist advocacy, drawing on a power analysis we understand the various points of interest and/leverage for feminists to advocate for policy changes and influence those with decision-making power.
- Organising feminist movements, narratives and feminist futures, a look at strategies and approaches to organising around express feminist alternatives.
Within these we focus on:
- Women in global supply chains
- The gendered impact of climate change
- Social reproduction and care work
- Sexual and reproductive health rights
- The LGBTIQA+ backlash
- Digital technologies and AI
Delegates at Oxfam Just Energy Transition Event at the Alternate Mining Indaba, Cape Town, March 2023
Fellowship Support
A critical component of the fellowship will entail the provision of dedicated support for fellows over the period of the ‘taught’ fellowship. Support extends from building feminist communities, through to building partnerships, offering mentorships and providing seed funding for a successful collaborative initiative.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for the Oxfam Feminist Fellowship, applicants must meet the following criteria:
- Be a citizen and/or resident in Southern Africa
- Be a feminist activist in your own expression of this
- Have a strong commitment to women’s rights, labour rights and building just economies
- Have a willingness to bring and share creative and innovative ideas for creating feminist alternatives
- Have a willingness to work collaboratively and in a community of likeminded individuals
- A commitment to teaching others and giving back
- Be available to commit to the fellowship on a part basis for a period of 12-18 months
- Have reliable access to the internet and be proficient in using productivity tools (Microsoft/Google Workspace, Zoom, etc.)
- Be social media savvy
- Be open and willing to learn, unlearn and relearn!
Preference will be given to applicants who express an interest in understanding intersectional approaches or who are already working through intersectional approaches.
Joint applications are also welcome. If you wish to submit an application with another person, please feel free to do so.
Timeline
The fellowship will run over 12-18 months, including an extended time period for those fellows emerging with a successful initiative. This period will include face-to-face, virtual and ‘back-in-community’ learnings.
- Applications open on 1 December 2023
- Completed applications due by 16 January 2024
- Interviews with selected candidates 5-7 February 2024
- Selected fellows announced at the end of February 2024
- Fellowship begins in March 2024
