Building Hope

Against Backlash, With Solidarity: RoWL Launches “Building Hope”

At a time when women’s rights are increasingly challenged across Central and Eastern Europe, the Romanian Women’s Lobby (RoWL) is launching the project “Building Hope during Critical Times for Women’s Rights,” implemented in partnership with the Network of East-West Women (NEWW) – Poland and the Bulgarian Platform of the European Women’s Lobby. The initiative is funded through the MASF 2025 – Membership Support Regranting Scheme of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL).

The growing backlash against gender equality—manifested through coordinated attacks on the Istanbul Convention, reproductive rights, feminist civil society and the broader human rights framework—remains one of the most pressing challenges in the region. Through this project, RoWL and its partners aim to create a shared space for learning, solidarity and collective action, strengthening the ability of women’s organisations to respond effectively to this hostile environment.

At the heart of the project is a jointly developed feminist curriculum, which will be piloted with member organisations in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. The curriculum includes five key modules:

• Reclaiming Public Discourse — feminist communication and counter-narratives;
• Documenting and Exposing Backlash — typologies, early warning signs and analysis tools;
• Strengthening Feminist Civil Society — resilience, collaboration and alliance-building;
• Hope as a Strategy — hope as a political tool and resource for mobilisation;
• From Courts to Campaigns — using European legal frameworks (including the EU Directive on VAW and the Istanbul Convention) for feminist advocacy.

The project will host three national events in Bulgaria, Romania and Poland, bringing together EWL member organisations for peer-learning sessions, comparative exchanges and coordinated responses to shared challenges.

Building Hope aims to equip women’s organisations with the tools, knowledge and solidarity needed to navigate an increasingly difficult context and to continue defending women’s rights in the face of growing backlash.

🔹Co-funded by the European Union through the CERV – Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme, as part of the EWL Membership Support Regranting Scheme 2025.

🟪 This project is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

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Feminist Resistance in Times of Backlash: Final Reflections from the “Building Hope” Project

“Backlash does not strike us by accident. It is a calculated offensive—one that tests the limits of every organisation and of our movement as a whole. When we respond together, we respond with the strength of a community that refuses to be silenced.”
(Shared during the Iași event)

1. Backlash: A Growing and Complex Reality in Central and Eastern Europe

Across the region, the anti-gender movement has expanded at a pace that has surprised even those who study it closely. Opposition to gender equality, women’s rights, comprehensive sexuality education, the Istanbul Convention and democratic principles no longer appears sporadic or fragmented—it is coordinated, international, well-funded and strategically targeted.

Backlash takes many forms:

• attacks on women’s rights NGOs
• disinformation and delegitimisation campaigns in the public sphere
• legislative attempts to restrict reproductive rights
• contesting the European framework on violence against women
• political pressure on democratic institutions

In this context, women’s organisations face multiple pressures simultaneously: shrinking civic space, political hostility, limited resources and the need to respond rapidly to coordinated hostile narratives. This is precisely where the need for a shared space of learning, analysis and solidarity emerges.

2. A Shared Framework for Three Different Realities: Romania, Bulgaria and Poland

At the three project events—Burgas/Ravda (Bulgaria), Iași (Romania) and Krakow (Poland)—participants shared a common reflection:

“We face similar problems, but the context and intensity differ. Understanding these nuances is essential for building effective strategies.”

While each national situation is unique, the common patterns were unmistakable:

• attacks on the Istanbul Convention
• declining or restricted funding for women’s rights organisations
• barriers in access to justice for victims of violence
• anti-gender rhetoric amplified by political actors
• online polarisation and pressure on civic space

Without transnational dialogue, these dynamics remain isolated, leaving organisations more vulnerable. The project created the conditions necessary for comparison, understanding and collective thinking.

3. How the “Building Hope” Project Responded

Funded through the MASF 2025 – Membership Support Regranting Scheme, and implemented by the Romanian Women’s Lobby (RoWL) in partnership with NEWW – Poland and the Bulgarian Platform of the EWL, the project developed a shared feminist framework for understanding and counteracting backlash.

At its core stands a co-created feminist curriculum, structured around five modules:

• Reclaiming Public Discourse — feminist communication and counter-narratives
• Documenting and Exposing Backlash — typologies, analysis tools and case studies
• Strengthening Feminist Civil Society — resilience, collaboration and trust-building
• Hope as a Strategy — hope as a political tool and resource for mobilisation
• From Courts to Campaigns — using European legal frameworks for feminist advocacy

These modules were brought to life during three national events attended by 80 participants from more than 30 women’s organisations across the three countries.

4. What We Learned: Tangible and Intangible Results
a) A shared understanding of backlash

Participants identified recurring patterns and recognised that they are not facing these pressures alone.

b) Strengthened organisational capacities

The curriculum provided concrete tools for communication, documentation, advocacy and mobilisation.

c) Reinforced transnational solidarity

An informal support and knowledge-exchange network emerged among women’s organisations in RO–BG–PL.

d) Increased public visibility

A communication campaign generated more than 10 public materials shared across EWL networks, including on RoWL’s website.

e) A replicable feminist model

The curriculum can be adapted and reused by other national coordinations within the EWL ecosystem.

5. Conclusion: Hope as a Political Strategy

“Hope becomes political when it is built collectively—when it relies on knowledge, solidarity and shared purpose. In the face of backlash, hope is our form of resistance and reconstruction.”

Perhaps the most important outcome of the Building Hope project is this: it showed that feminist solidarity is not simply an aspiration, but a practical, necessary and deeply transformative force. Through collective learning and shared commitment, women’s organisations in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland have demonstrated that resistance is possible—and that hope is not a feeling, but a strategy.