Publications & Tools

In preparation for our second strategic plan, we reflected on our work to date: what have we accomplished, what have we learned, and how can we use these lessons to plan for the future. To understand the impact of our work, we gathered feedback from grantees, other activists, funders, members of the International Steering Committee (ISC) and Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) and staff.

A resource by Srilatha Batliwala (CREA) and shared by NAMATI – a practitioner’s primer to “understanding power in terms of both power structures and power relations.”
“The purpose of this primer is to sort out the confusion and help us move to a shared understanding of power, so that all of us who are committed to social and gender justice can build our strategies from a more comprehensive, shared definition and analysis of power as it operates in society, regardless of our specific issues or socio-economic, political, and cultural contexts.” Also available in Bengali, Nepali, and Hindi.

The data presented in this fact sheet is for the period December 2020 – November 2021 and has been captured among sex workers in Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe as part of the Hands Off programme. Peer educators, rights defenders, outreach workers, paralegals and sex worker focal points are often one of the first contacted by sex workers after they have experienced violence. These first responders document the cases of human rights violations using confidential and secured tools.

This communications toolkit was commissioned by the Levi Strauss Foundation and written by Leon Mar. It is a resource primarily intended for internal use by individuals and organisations seeking support for sex work-related programs from prospective donors and philanthropic institutions. The messaging contained herein (but not the toolkit itself) is aimed at prospective donors who are either under-informed or misinformed with regard to sex work issues but whose financial support is potentially desirable to advance the human rights of sex workers.

This page intends to provide a guide to the potential resources accessible for sex-workers during the crisis of the COVID-19. It includes potential financial support, best-practice resources and right-based tools.

“This study examines lived experiences of gender-based violence as faced by lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women, transgender people, and female sex workers in Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The study examines how state efforts to exercise control over women’s bodies, combined with patriarchal social systems, result in a wide array of types of violence. As Ugandan feminist lawyer Sylvia Tamale goes on to say in her introduction to the anthology African Sexualities, such systems of control have origins in British colonialism, at which time “A new script, steeped in the Victorian moralistic, antisexual and body-shame edicts, was inscribed on the bodies of African women and with it an elaborate system of control. The instrumentalization of sexuality through the nib of statutory, customary and religious law is closely related to women’s oppression and gender constructions.” Post-independence governments discovered that sexuality could be instrumentalized to suit their needs, too. Over 50 years since colonial power was vanquished on much of the African continent, patriarchal power over women’s bodies and sexualities persists.”

A self-assessment guide for digital emergencies developed by Hivos,
Digital Defenders Partnership, EFF, Global Voices, Front Line Defenders,
Internews, Freedom House, Access, Qurium, CIRCL, IWPR and Open
Technology Fund.

Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline works with individuals and organizations around the world to keep them safe online. If you’re at risk, they can help you improve your digital security practices to keep out of harm’s way. If you’re already under attack, they provide rapid-response emergency assistance. Available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, and more.

The meeting Donor Dialogue: Donor Collaboration to Advance the Human Rights of Sex Workers brought together sex worker activists and donors with backgrounds in human rights, women’s rights, global health and social justice to strategize on the establishment of a formal donor collaboration mechanism to advance the rights of sex workers. A background report was commissioned to examine the current context of sex work and human rights, the range of organizations currently working to advance sex worker rights, and the expectations of the involved donors for the proposed collaboration. Co-organized by Mama Cash and the Open Society Institute’s Sexual Health and Rights Project (SHARP), in collaboration with AIDS Fonds, American Jewish World Service, Global Fund for Women, HIVOS, and the Oak Foundation.

“At CIVICUS, we know that civil society groups, organisations, movements and individual activists around the world constantly face barriers to accessing information on relevant donors and funding opportunities, that?s why we created the Donor Finder!

Donor Finder includes:
List of progressive donors offering funding and non-financial resources to civil society, including small and even informal groups and individual activists.
Simple but complete profiles, organised by geographic region, that will help you identify donors who align with your work and needs.
Annual reviewing and updating to ensure best possible information.
Available in English, French and Spanish.

All featured donors agreed to be listed in this directory. Please check back for updated versions, and email us at if you want to suggest an improvement or recommend a donor we could add to this list.”

Aidsfonds commissioned a sex worker-led study Funding for key populations affected by HIV and AIDS – way off track? through the Briding the Gaps and PITCH partnerships. The study found that sex workers are severely under funded with only 2% of money for HIV programmes targeting them. This is especially alarming as key populations and their partners account for more than half of all the new HIV infections globally. Download the key findings Factsheet or read the full report.

Although originally created in order to develop a common language, and history within the JASS community, we quickly realized the dictionary’s potential as a vehicle for the political act of defining our world based on a distinct feminist perspective – one that recognizes how distortions in social, economic, and political power form the basis of inequality and justice.
Building on the 1st edition, this updated version incorporates the feedback of a number of reviewers within the JASS community. It is built on the collective expertise and experience of JASS’ community of feminist popular educators, scholars, and activists from 27 countries in Mesoamerica, Southeast Asia, and Southern Africa.

“In 2014, the Red Umbrella Fund partnered with Mama Cash and the Open Society Foundations to commission a mapping of global grantmaking for sex worker rights by public and private foundations and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The researchers contacted foundations and organisations working with sex workers to better understand what is being funded and to identify the main gaps.”

Funding needed to end violence against sex workers

A reference brief by OSF that “aims to clarify terms and illustrate examples of alternatives to the use of criminal law as a response to sex work.”

In 2020, Front Line Defenders issued an extensive report highlighting LGBTIQ+ and Sex Worker Rights Defenders At Risk During COVID-19. The release of the report was also documented by journalists, including The Hill. The report found that: “[i]n every country we visited, despite the risk of arrest, sexual violence and surveillance sex worker activists continue to insist on their communities? right to assemble and to exist.”