This issue of the journal Development reports on the 11th Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) International Forum held in South Africa in November 2008, a feminist space where over 2,000 women's rights activists from around the world came together to discuss the power of movements. The issue aims to capture a range of articles on women’s organising in rights and social movements from the grassroots to United Nations (UN) level. Contributions, largely from women’s movements in the South, according to the AWID, include a range of issues around identity politics, fundamentalism, sexuality, women’s rights organising, gender-based violence, and HIV and AIDS.

Articles touch on specific studies of women’s movement organising around the issues above as well as economic inequality, differential gender impacts of health and environment, gendered culture, and social oppression. The journal’s message is that in these times of crisis it is crucial to underscore the links among sexuality, racism, gender-based violence, and social and economic justice.

Contents include:

Upfront:

• "Editorial: Women’s Global Organizing: Celebrations and Cautions, Wendy Harcourt
• The Power of Movements, Geetanajali Misra
• Feminism’s Coming of Age: Celebrating diversity and power, Srilatha Batliwala

Thematic Section: Transforming Our World

• Southern Feminist Movement Building: A matter of difference, equality and transformative leadership, Tesa Casal de Vela and Mira Alexis P. Ofreneo
• Through the looking glass: Process and power within feminist movements, Jessica Horn
• Building Feminist Movement through ‘The Wings of the Butterfly’ Project (Las Alas de Mariposa), María Suárez Toro and Margaret E. Thompson
• Multigenerational Movement Building - What’s Next?, Sanushka Mudaliar
• Birthing and Growing the African Feminist Forum, Ayesha M. Imam

Dialogue: Building Feminist Organizations

• Beyond NGO-ization?: Reflections from Latin America, Sonia E. Alvarez
• Women’s Organizing in Ghana since the 1990s: From individual organizations to three coalitions, Dzodzi Tsikata
• Struggling for Survival and Autonomy: The Impact of NGO-ization on women’s organizations in Bangladesh, Sohela Nazneen and Maheen Sultan
• The European Romani Women’s Movement: The struggle for human rights, Rita Izsák Dalit, Jahnvi Andharia
• Against All Odds: The women’s movement in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Homa Hoodfar and Fatemeh Sadeghi-Givi
• Building a Grassroots Based Movement: GROOTS Kenya, Awino Okech

Local/Global Encounters: Movement Building in Context

• Disability Issues are Women’s Issues, Mijoo Kim
• Activism to Counter Gender-based Violence and HIV and AIDS: Overcoming obstacles to movement building in Papua New Guinea, Lina Abirafeh
• Mobilizing for Social Change in Muslim Societies Amidst Political Turmoil and Conservatism, Julian Lee
• The Korean Women’s Trade Unions, Namhee Park
• Working for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Central and Eastern Europe, Wanda Nowicka
• FIRE: Making sure women are part of the picture, María Suárez Toro

Book Shelf: Presents the books launched at the AWID Forum 2008

Window on the World: The networks of women around the world participating at the AWID Forum 2008

Who’s Who: Lists contacts of authors

Last Word: Women Speaking Out at the AWID Forum 2008"

AWID Resource Net Announcements on May 13 2009.