Walking into Women Deliver felt strangely hopeful in a geopolitical moment that otherwise feels precarious and pessimistic. Hosted regionally for the first time by the Oceanic Pacific, in Naarm (Melbourne), the world’s largest gender equality conference brought together delegates from across the globe working towards gender justice. Cultural dress filled the conference halls, especially amongst Pacific women and gender diverse delegates, bringing colour, language, and stories into the same space.
The atmosphere throughout the conference was buzzing, but beneath the energy and solidarity, another feeling kept surfacing in conversations: uncertainty. Across panels, side events, and hallway discussions, people spoke about shrinking aid budgets, USAID cuts, and fears about what this would mean for feminist movements and grassroots organisations already operating with limited resources.
One of the strongest parts of the conference was its focus on lived experience and local feminist leadership, particularly across the Pacific. Some of the most impactful sessions were not necessarily the highest-profile ones, but the spaces where activists and organisers spoke honestly about the realities facing their communities.
A particularly moving session explored the ongoing impacts of colonialism across Pacific, Caribbean, and Latin American communities through storytelling and lived experience. Guåhan activist Siobhon Rumurang spoke about the violence and destruction that followed Spanish colonisation. Hearing about the burning of Indigenous canoes after colonisers had initially been welcomed with openness and trust was devastating. It was a reminder of how deeply these histories continue to shape generations. This conversation echoed themes that surfaced repeatedly throughout the conference: the importance of lived experience, community knowledge, and ensuring that the people closest to these realities are supported and resourced.
Throughout Women Deliver, grassroots activists and feminist organisers were incredibly clear about what they needed. Again and again, they called for long-term, flexible funding, fewer administrative barriers, and greater trust from institutions and donors. Activists were not asking for symbolic solidarity; they were asking for resources, stability, and the ability to respond quickly to the realities within their communities.
I also heard from many adolescent girls leading movements and advocacy efforts within their own communities. What stood out was not only how politically aware they were, but how much responsibility they carried. Many spoke about climate disasters, violence, barriers to education, displacement, and shrinking rights. Yet young activists are still often expected to navigate complex grant systems and reporting requirements to access support, while lacking the institutional backing or administrative capacity to manage them.
There was also an honesty about burnout that felt impossible to ignore. Many grassroots leaders are carrying enormous emotional and political responsibility whilst navigating unstable funding, complex reporting processes, and constant pressure to prove the value of their work. It often felt like activists were being asked not only to do the work itself, but to continually justify why the work deserves support in the first place.
Increasingly, conversations about funding became conversations about who gets trusted to make decisions, hold resources, and shape responses within their own communities. What struck me most at Women Deliver was not a lack of consensus. Almost everyone agreed that feminist movements, grassroots organisations, and adolescent girls need more flexible and sustained funding. The harder question, and the one discussed far less concretely, was what those with power are actually willing to change.
One of the few concrete examples of attempts to reduce these barriers came from Plan Australia’s Girls Education & Empowerment Fund, which pools philanthropic contributions and commits to multi-year funding for programs supporting girls’ education. What stood out was not just the funding itself, but the long-term approach and willingness to absorb some of the administrative burden and risk that often prevents funding from reaching grassroots organisations directly.
This felt significant because it moved beyond the language of partnership and into something more practical: trust-based philanthropy. A model where organisations closest to communities are not constantly trapped in cycles of short-term funding applications and reporting processes that consume already limited capacity.
The conversations at Women Deliver made clear that grassroots feminist movements, adolescent girls, and local organisers already know what their communities need. They have been clear for years. The more difficult question is whether those with funding and
institutional power are prepared to back that knowledge with the long-term commitments, flexible funding, and meaningful support needed to sustain the people already leading this work on the ground.
Talia Prime is a campaigns, fundraising, and gender equity professional based in Melbourne with experience across feminist philanthropy and social impact initiatives.
