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Our Story

The Resilience Fund for Women in Global Value Chains was born out of cross-sector collaboration and a desire for collective action to drive systemic change. When COVID-19 struck in early 2020, devastating the lives and livelihoods of millions, many businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments channelled critical resources into emergency relief initiatives. The Fund’s founding partners wanted to go further, and set out to design and fund a mechanism to tackle the deeper, systemic challenges underlying the profound and pressing needs of women during the pandemic.

More than any other group, women have lost jobs, wages, and health care services, shouldered increased caregiving burdens, and endured greater risk of violence, including domestic abuse. The pandemic has undermined women’s autonomy and well-being, eliminating many hard-fought gains achieved over the past decades. These setbacks have been particularly evident in global supply chains, where women make up the majority of the workforce.

BSR, the United Nations Foundation’s Universal Access Project, and Women Win/Win-Win Strategies began conversations with brands, including the Gap Foundation and PVH, about forging a collective and innovative response to these issues. The Fund’s design was an interactive process that drew on the expertise of Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds and the Global Fund for Women, and has grown to include the H&M Foundation, The VF Foundation, the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation, Avery Dennison Foundation, lululemon, and Amazon.

The resulting Fund builds on emerging practices in philanthropy to invest in local women-led organizations, adopt democratized and participatory processes, emphasize learning, and shift the power dynamics between funders and grantees. In doing so, the Fund seeks to redefine what is possible in corporate and foundation giving through pooled investments.