IWDA’s Founders
International Women’s Development Agency was created in Melbourne, Australia, in 1985 by three founding members: Ruth Pfanner, Wendy Poussard and Wendy Rose. Wendy Poussard was the first Executive Director, while the other founders volunteered their time as members of the Committee of Management for over 5 years to establish IWDA.
IWDA was formed “because women were virtually invisible as planners and managers of development programs”, as Wendy Poussard stated, and in recognition of the fact that women do less well than men as a group in every country.
From the start, IWDA has taken a different approach to development. The development projects that IWDA supports are devised and implemented by women who live and work in the communities themselves, helping to ensure relevance and effectiveness. As an organisation committed to women’s human rights and women’s political and economic empowerment, we seek to lead by example, showing how development is done better and outcomes improved when women are involved and the barriers to their participation are consciously identified and addressed.
Today, IWDA focuses on Asia and the Pacific. Currently we have project partnerships in Cambodia, East Timor, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thai-Burma border, Vanuatu and Vietnam.
