The Fund for Haitian Women (FHW), led by the Haitian Women’s Collective (HWC), has officially launched with the ambitious goal of raising one million dollars by April 2026. As the first feminist fund in the Caribbean, FHW seeks to promote gender justice, women’s empowerment, and sustainable development in Haiti. The initiative comes at a time when women and girls in the country face significant challenges, including the absence of reliable public safety nets, rising gender-based violence, and persistent social and economic inequalities.
Haitian women have long endured the consequences of political instability, civil unrest, and weak public institutions. Despite billions of dollars in international aid over the past fifteen years, development efforts in Haiti have often failed to deliver meaningful, lasting change. Since 2023, gender-based violence has increased by nearly 50 percent, while over 60 percent of women and girls have been forcibly displaced. They continue to experience poor maternal health outcomes and high rates of cervical cancer—the worst in the Latin American region. The HWC calls for international donors to recommit to equitable and compassionate funding that strengthens locally led initiatives rather than top-down programs.
Human rights and feminist organizations have recently urged Haiti’s transitional government to uphold the constitutional and legal rights of women and girls, emphasizing the need for gender-sensitive policies. They stress that Haitian women urgently require both emergency aid and long-term support—ranging from prevention of gender-based violence and access to reproductive health care to psychosocial and economic empowerment services. The HWC has also been vocal about curbing the influx of U.S.-made firearms, highlighting the importance of anti-militarism and respect for Haitian sovereignty in foreign policy.
Over the past six years, worsening violence and political instability have severely strained local organizations, forcing them to operate with minimal funding. Despite their crucial role in crisis response and peacebuilding, women-led organizations continue to receive only a fraction of global philanthropic resources. Black women and girls, in particular, receive less than 0.35 percent of all foundation giving. In Haiti, only three percent of USAID’s $2.8 billion in grants and contracts from 2010 to 2022 went to local organizations. Recent U.S. funding freezes and global aid cuts have placed many Haitian women’s groups at risk of closure.
The creation of the Fund for Haitian Women is the culmination of three years of HWC-led grantmaking and consultations with Haitian feminists, community leaders, and development experts. Supported by partners such as MADRE, the New York Women’s Foundation, Fondation Chanel, Mama Cash, and the Imago Dei Fund, FHW is rooted in feminist values, trust-based philanthropy, and local leadership. The fund aims to strengthen the capacity of women-led organizations often excluded from traditional funding structures, providing them with flexible, multi-year grants to design and implement their own solutions.
The FHW focuses on three core priorities: offering flexible feminist funding, accelerating women’s leadership through capacity-building and collaboration, and scaling innovative, locally driven programs that uplift communities. Even before the official launch, the Haitian Women’s Collective had distributed over $200,000 in grants and emergency support, enabling girls to stay in school, expanding access to reproductive health services, and responding to gender-based violence. With the launch of FHW, Haiti’s women’s movement takes a major step toward reshaping the country’s development landscape—grounded in sovereignty, solidarity, and gender equality.
