The Political Economy of Transnational Activism: Changing Faces, Changing Spaces

• In Event: 50 Years of LGBTQ Scholarship at APSA Mini-Conference: Framing and Accessing LGBTQ+ Rights in Democracies

Abstract

Every other year, the Kenyan organization UHAI-EASHRI gathers over 200 LGBTQ and sex worker activists and funders for the Changes Faces, Changing Spaces (CFCS) conference. UHAI is Africa’s first indigenous fund by and for sex workers and sexual and gender minorities. CFCS is thus a South-led transnational initiative bringing African activists, African donors, and Western donors together. The literature on transnational activism has documented the importance of spaces like CFCS for building and sustaining movements and using them to develop momentum for policy change at the national level (Alvarez 2000). Within queer development studies, scholars have focused on the power dynamics that undergird North-South dynamics, especially around access to resources (Gosine 2018). Despite the growing number of transnational initiatives arising from the Global South, the literature has not adequately theorized the intersection of transnational activist spaces and the development industry. This paper seeks to fill this lacuna by examining CFCS’s role in the political economy of funding. We ask: 1) what is the impact of CFCS upon the relationships between donors and activists? 2) To what extent has CFCS allowed other Southern funders to emerge? 3) How has CFCS affected the types of funding available to African organizations? Answers to these questions will contribute to interdisciplinary conversations around LGBTQ and sex worker rights, development, and South-South collaborations.

Authors

• Janine Clark, University of Toronto, Mississauga

• Julie Moreau, University of Toronto