Katie Whipkey

🤔 Could global development research be more than just study—an act of transformational solidarity? Join us for *Curated Conversations: Rethinking Global Development through Solidarity*—an interactive dialogue that challenges how we think about and engage with global development. In conversation with Alison Buckler, Keetie Roelen, Rajasvini B. and Kavita Nandini Ramdas. 👉 Find out more and register: https://lnkd.in/efHK-x3Z #CuratedConversations #GlobalDevelopment #TransformationalSolidarity #InteractiveDialogue #July6Event #CSGD

Feminist foreign policy is only as strong as the knowledge it's built on, the movements it resources, and the voices it genuinely includes. This is what we discussed in Madrid when we hosted a panel at the Civil Society Forum ahead of the V Ministerial Conference on Feminist Foreign Policy. We worked through three interconnected questions. Here's what we heard. 1.⁠ ⁠TRANSLATING RESEARCH Decolonizing research doesn't automatically make it just. "Decolonized research can also be incredibly extractive" when local elites adopt progressive language without shifting power. Lina Abou-Habib (she/her/hers) And researchers too often enter communities to publish and advance careers without accountability to the people they claim to represent. "Imaginative politics”, or taking seriously the creativity of activists under repressive conditions, offers a different model. Mona Tajali 2.⁠ ⁠FUNDING THE KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITY 60% of feminist organizations have changed their own priorities to align with funder strategies; meanwhile, three anti-rights organizations received more than double the total funding of more than 1,100 feminist groups combined. Faith Mtema -Macheke Even grants explicitly designed to be women-led get undermined when the work doesn't match funders' expectations. Letting local organizations lead has to mean something when it becomes concrete. Aapta Garg 3.⁠ ⁠DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION AND RESOURCE JUSTICE FFP commitments made by one government can be reversed by the next. Without communities of practice to hold gains in place, progress is fragile. Arlene B. Tickner And changing the labels ('Global South', 'Majority World’) without changing who participates and on what terms is not enough. The challenge is always epistemic: "who is participating, with which resources, and who is represented on whose terms." María Paulina Rivera Chávez Read our full event summary and closing commitments in the attached document. With thanks to our panellists and co-sponsors: The Asfari Institute for Civil Society & Citizenship, Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), African Feminist Collective on Feminist Informed Policies, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), the Azadi Network (Negin Shiraghaei), Katie Whipkey, Isabel Hernandez Pepe #FeministForeignPolicy #FFP #GenderJustice #FeministFPSpain2026 #PEFMadrid2026 #PolíticaExteriorFeminista #5FeministFPConference

Ahead of the 5th Ministerial Conference on Feminist Foreign Policy in Madrid, our Co-Executive Director, Faye Macheke convened with feminist and women’s rights organizations at the #CivilSocietyForum challenging whether feminist foreign policy funding systems genuinely support movement transformation. Citing our 2024 'Where is the Money?' report, Faye reminded everyone of the reality that 60% of feminist groups feel pressured to align with funders’ political strategies, while 90% report insufficient funding for their movement agendas. The disconnect between funding requirements and the organizing realities on the ground is critical. Feminist foreign policy must move beyond superficial declarations of commitments to fundamentally redistribute decision-making power to grassroots movements, transforming from mere feminist branding into practical and structural change. Watch the full recording of this conversation here: [ https://lnkd.in/eSCRAZ4w ] 💡 Check out the ‘Where is the Money?’ report & data snapshots visiting www.awid.org/witm

VOCAL participated in the #VMinisterialConferenceofFeministForeignPolicy in Madrid with the aim of understanding where the discourse is going and contributing to shaping it. Ahead of the Ministerial Conference, VOCAL hosted a #CivilSocietyForum panel on power and knowledge in feminist foreign policy, drawing attention to the unequal power relations that determine whose expertise is recognised, whose experiences inform policy, and whose perspectives remain at the margins of feminist foreign policy debates.   At a moment when feminist agendas are under increasing pressure and funding for feminist organisations is shrinking globally, Spain convened governments, civil society, and experts to discuss not only the achievements of FFP but its future in a deeply contested world. The willingness to open space for conversations on #militarism, #sexualreproductiverights, financing and #masculinities within feminist foreign policies reflects the importance of this moment.   However, the conference also made visible what still needs to change. Fewer governments signed the political declaration than in previous editions. Concrete commitments were largely absent from the room. Civil society remained underrepresented across panels and, when present, was too often given insufficient time to speak. The plurality of knowledges must be recognised, which means that research produced in the Majority World and emerging from grassroots feminist movements needs to be part of the conversation. As our executive director, María Paulina Rivera Chávez, urged, it is about epistemology, not geography. True engagement between governments and civil society, the kind that changes the terms of the conversation rather than managing participation within pre-existing ones, is still to come.   This is the deeper challenge for FFP, as it must be analysed not only by its implementation or by the number of states that have adopted it, but by the epistemology in which it is built: who designs it, who it is directed to, and who it has yet to reach. #Intersectionality is not about adding identities beside gender. It is about confronting embedded structures of oppression. The terms of participation must change, and resources must follow principles. #Accountability must be real and consistent, as FFP cannot be a framework that governments invoke selectively while remaining silent on Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan, Congo, Yemen, Western Sahara, and every context where people are living under occupation, colonialism, and violence.   As VOCAL, we will continue to work toward a #decolonialapproach to foreign policy: producing research that centres knowledges from the Majority World and grassroots feminist movements, advocating for the redistribution of power and resources, demanding accountability that is coherent and without exception, and pushing to change the very terms in which these conversations take place. Liberation, for us, is always an opening. Rosebell Kagumire Katie Whipkey

🎉 Excited to share that my new article, co-authored with Katie Whipkey, is out today in Intelligence and National Security Journal ➡️ "Dangerously Provocative: Co-optation to Undermining of Women's Groups by U.S. Intelligence Agencies" From the early 1900s through the 1970s, the FBI and CIA didn't treat all women's groups the same—they co-opted some, passively watched others, actively infiltrated more radical ones, and worked to dismantle groups they deemed most threatening. The pattern wasn't random. It tracked ideology, tactics, membership, and perceived ties to Communist or dissident movements. We theorize a "Utility-Threat Spectrum" of intelligence engagement and trace it through four case studies spanning first and second wave feminism: the Committee of Correspondence (co-optation), NOW (passive surveillance), radical Women's Liberation Movement subgroups (active surveillance), and Sojourners for Truth and Justice (undermining). A key finding: in every case, agencies failed to uncover the foreign Communist influence they claimed to be looking for, but engagement escalated anyway. Women's groups were targeted not for what they were doing, but for what they symbolized: a challenge to the patriarchal status quo embedded in national security structures. 🔗 Free eprint link (first 50 readers): https://lnkd.in/gWMEerUC 📺 Stay tuned: Book-length version now under review with Georgetown University Press! 📘 University of Pittsburgh 📙 University of Pittsburgh School of Public and International Affairs

At the #CivilSocietyForum ahead of the 5th Ministerial Conference on #FeministForeignPolicy in Madrid, as VOCAL we co-convened a conversation that asked some uncomfortable questions. Who gets to define legitimate knowledge in FFP? Who gets funded to produce it? Who shapes policy agendas? And who remains excluded from both? At a moment when feminist language is increasingly adopted while feminist movements remain chronically underfunded, and when participation often reproduces existing hierarchies, what is presented as “inclusive” can easily end up reproducing the very exclusions it seeks to address. If feminist foreign policy is serious about #transformation, it must do more than expand participation. It must confront #power. It must rethink who produces #knowledge, who receives #resources, and whose experiences and expertise are considered legitimate. Our proposal was to re-distribute power, re-imagine the terms of participation, understanding the majority world from an epistemological and not geographical perspective, and use translation as a political methodology of listening, understanding and sharing different form of knowledge One piece of feedback we received repeatedly was that the session felt "radical", we take that as a compliment! A huge thank you to our co-sponsors, speakers, participants, and those whose tireless work we amplify who could not be with us in Madrid for bringing intellectual rigor, political courage, and a willingness to challenge assumptions. Look forward to a session summary soon! Check out the recording if you missed it in person:    in Spanish: https://lnkd.in/ezX7eQBy in English: https://lnkd.in/enyy7R_X Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) African Feminist Collective on Feminist Informed Policies International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) The Asfari Institute for Civil Society & Citizenship Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) #AzadiNetwork ; Lina Abou-Habib (she/her/hers) Faye Macheke Aapta Garg María Paulina Rivera Chávez Mona Tajali Arlene B. Tickner Katie Whipkey Rosebell Kagumire Isabel Hernandez Pepe

No se pierdan ni un solo momento del Foro Oficial de la Sociedad Civil, que se celebra HOY tanto en Madrid como #enlínea, antes de la 5.ª Conferencia Ministerial sobre Política Exterior Feminista. Sigan la conversación en directo de 9:00 a 17:00 (CEST) a través de YouTube: ▪️ Español: https://lnkd.in/ezX7eQBy ▪️ English: https://lnkd.in/enyy7R_X Les deseamos mucho éxito a todas nuestras organizaciones aliadas de la Red Global de Socios para la #PolíticaExteriorFeminista, que compartirán sus conocimientos, perspectivas y recomendaciones a lo largo de la jornada. Esperamos seguir de cerca estos importantes intercambios. 🔎 Más información sobre el Comité de la Sociedad Civil aquí: https://lnkd.in/eUKW_JkV #FeministFPSpain2026 CREA Elles du Sahel Equal Measures 2030 Human Rights Watch La Coordinadora de Organizaciones para el Desarrollo Prospera International Network of Women's Funds The Asfari Institute for Civil Society & Citizenship Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - WILPF

⏳ 7 días para la V Conferencia Ministerial de #PolíticaExteriorFeminista. 🤝 Foro de Sociedad Civil: 1 de junio. 🌍 Conferencia: 2–3 de junio. Un encuentro global para transformar los compromisos en acción. Más info: https://lnkd.in/eRH4-mwt   #FeministFPSpain2026

It started with lunch in Seoul. 🪷 Seven women from different corners of the world had just stepped off a panel on decolonizing #feministforeignpolicy - a panel where a Palestinian flag sat at the center of the table, a clear statement about whose lives and struggles must be visible in global debates. Instead of parting ways, they walked to lunch beside Bongeunsa Temple. Something shifted during that lunch. Why return to isolated efforts and separate corners? The question pointed somewhere larger. An eighth joined them -  a young woman not yet out of her teens, Sarah, who offered a name for what was becoming: #VOCAL - Voices of Collective Action for Liberation. Since then, our circle has grown. Rosebell joined soon after, strengthening the foundation we built that day. Feminist foreign policy has gained momentum in recent years. But its thinking has been dominated by elite, Western institutions. The voices carrying the deepest knowledge — those most shaped by the policies under debate — have too often been sidelined. We’re here to help change that. VOCAL is a transnational organisation of feminist thinkers, activists, and practitioners from the Majority World. We translate, analyse, and advance feminist foreign policy on our own terms — rooted in #decoloniality, #intersectionality, and #care. Power shared. Policy shaped by those at the margins, not apart from them. Let’s be #VOCAL. Follow our journey here and on our website https://www.vocalffp.org/ 🌱 Kavita Nandini Ramdas Diana E. Chacón Farah Faizal María Paulina Rivera Chávez Dr.Yasmine Hasnaoui Katie Whipkey Rosebell Kagumire Isabel Hernandez Pepe Sarah Didi