Reform, Rupture, or Reimagination?

Understanding Youth Organizing and What It Means for People in Philanthropy

Graphic by Ghina Prameswari

From Bangladesh to Nepal, Peru to Morocco, Kenya to Madagascar, in every corner of the world, girl- and youth-led movements are taking to the streets, calling out corruption, demanding accountability, and pushing for systems change beyond failed political leaders. In a world facing unprecedented crises, it is girls and young people on the frontlines of humanitarian response, from Sudan to Gaza to Myanmar, delivering direct aid, documenting their own stories, and providing critical infrastructure to local communities. Climate Justice continues to be one of the significant sites for bold youth action and resulted in a landmark ICJ issued advisory opinion underpinning the legal obligation on countries to be held accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions, including through potential reparations.

While we are seeing a spike in protests from Gen-Z hitting the mainstream media, this is not a new phenomena. For millennia, students and young people have toppled authoritarian regimes, illuminated failed governance, and organized in their communities to demand change. The critical impact and wins we are seeing stand on decades of movement organizing. Over the past 10–15 years, we’ve had the privilege of working alongside and funding young feminist and youth movements, witnessing firsthand the creativity, resilience, and collective organizing power of young people.

Why does this matter now?

Youth-led protests are critiquing the status quo, calling out flawed and rigged economic models and systems, and the destruction of our planet. In their very essence, they represent a threat to empire and failed systems, ushering in a spirit of revolution and clawing back public narrative through humor and creativity. They often represent a significant portion of the voting majority, and their organizing illuminates a truth that those in power cannot govern effectively without the support of the people. In response, the strategy from those in power is to undermine their efforts, dismissing them as reckless or painting them as disgruntled, out-of-control youth.

At a time when trust in institutions across the globe is at an all time low and we face some of the greatest challenges of our times, from the climate crisis to rising inequality and pervasive conflict and war, young feminist- and youth-led movements give us hope and an opportunity to reimagine our futures. Funders and decision makers must show up and fund them to win.

Last year, Bangladeshi youth movements took to the streets in large numbers and played a prominent, defiant role in the protests that forced the resignation of the prime minister and the end of a dictatorship. In the past 2 months, Nepal has been caught in one of its most complex political crises in recent history. Gen Z protests, met with violent repression and resulting in lives lost, have led only to an interim government and an uncertain political future.

These fragile moments have been crucial for us as resource activists and feminist funds based here, supporting social justice movements in the region. They offer an immediate call to action, especially for rapid response grantmakers. More importantly, they give us an opportunity to examine these moments and the actors therein, to glean learnings for our larger mission on social justice and human rights. We offer some of them here in the hope that this strengthens transnational solidarity.

Decades of feminist organizing being erased in mainstream coverage.

While these protests are receiving mainstream coverage, two key elements are glaringly absent. One, a feminist analysis of these moments of rupture and subversion. Much of the coverage, particularly photographic, portrays these movements as hyper-masculine — focused on violence, anger, and hundreds of young men in the streets. Yet, from decades of working closely with grassroots movements, we know that accountability and good governance have been central demands of feminist and social justice movements, with young women, girls, and trans youth playing key roles in organizing. This rich tapestry is entirely absent from mainstream coverage. Moreover, by framing these protests as isolated political crises in countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Morocco, and Madagascar, the global phenomenon underlying the failure of political institutions is overlooked, along with the urgent call for radical re-imagination.

Youth mobilizations are complex and layered.

Youth-led protests in each of these countries did not originate entirely from social justice movements. Leftist groups, student political formations, and in some cases NGOs had begun debates that led to the first recorded protest event or a call for a mass mobilization. Not all youth-led protests have been non-violent either. Open, and mostly online mobilization (such as in Discord communities), led to people across all walks of life joining these protests. Across these protests, while the central demand has been to seek accountability on corruption and misuse of funds and power, the means to achieve these ends has been varied.

One commonality across these layers is that not all protestors come from progressive social justice movements. In the Philippines, for example, religious groups also actively participated. Where protests started with progressive groups at the helm, the aftermath has seen the participation of right-wing, religious groups as well, thereby pointing to the ease with which issues such as corruption and lack of accountability from the government can be co-opted by right-leaning, religious groups and partisan politics.

Youth organizers are bold, creative, and intersectional.

They connect across issues, from climate justice, gender apartheid and opposing genocide to reclaiming democracy. What’s needed in these times of poly-crises is a deep understanding of these interwoven realities and a collective determination to push for systemic change. Youth organizers make art to send messages that subvert social media algorithms and censorship. Using tactical frivolity or humor helps draw in people from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, broadening participation in these mobilizations. This is something traditional social justice movements, especially feminist ones, have struggled to achieve. In Myanmar, young people have formed the backbone of resistance against the military coup, with young artists playing a pivotal role in protesting through art. Time and again, youth movements have defied their critics, leading to tangible, positive impacts — whether by dismantling corrupt regimes or catalyzing powerful policy shifts.

Yet, they are often dismissed as mere moments of generational angst or over-dramatic outbursts, rather than recognized as organized movements rallying for complete systemic transformation. Too frequently, these efforts are co-opted by older generations or more established organizations.

The clampdown has been violent and unprecedented.

When young women and girls face a crisis, the impact is often far more severe. They face heightened risks of gender-based violence, sexual violence, and both online and offline hatred. Due to the threat they pose to the status quo, they are frequently directly targeted, with their organizing efforts silenced and criminalized. Many endure arrests, expulsions from school, loss of scholarships, visas, jobs, and limited access to social protection — relying often on families who may or may not support their activism, and may pressure them to quit. In recent years, youth activists have tragically lost their lives while leading mass mobilizations, as seen in Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Nepal.

In Nepal, at least 74 people were killed and more than 2,113 were injured. During the protests in Kenya, more than 120 people were killed and at least 500 injured last year due to police crackdowns on the protests. Many universities are now putting together stated and unstated rules that completely take away the right to protest from students and faculty.

Despite the virality of youth movements, they remain vastly underfunded.

In the past year, the social justice, human rights, and humanitarian sectors have seen drastic funding cuts, with Global Official Development Assistance expected to drop by 62 billion annually from 2026. The landscape of private philanthropy has also shifted in the last 5 years, with many large foundations resourcing girls and young people closing their doors or shifting priorities.

Even before the funding cuts, girls and young people’s organizing was severely underfunded. In 2018, the median income for feminist led organizations was USD 5000, an amount that remains largely unchanged in 2025. Many funding models are ill-equipped to support young feminists, and youth-led movements have long depended on alternative sources of funding. It’s crucial for new actors to collaborate with trusted intermediaries and funds that can reach girls and young people, including feminist and youth-led funds like the Climate Justice Youth Fund.

Ultimately, girls and young people across diverse geographies and issues, from climate justice and democracy to sexual, reproductive health and rights remain under-resourced and unrecognized for their collective leadership advancing rights and justice globally. They are often cast as too controversial, too risky, or at best, seen as cute ‘hope for the future’ with little to offer to the present.

In contrast, young people are funded to win by conservatives.

Youth are a central part of anti-rights organizing strategies and, in contrast, are often vastly funded and supported to succeed. The global backlash against democracy and human rights — funded and led by conservative actors often connected across borders — takes young women, girls, and their organizing power more seriously than progressives, and we do so at our peril.

Anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQI groups actively recruit and mobilize young people as a deliberate tactic, bringing large contingents of conservative youth activists into advocacy spaces like the UN to rally for ‘traditional families’ — excluding the many families that do not fit the mold of cisgender, heterosexual, married couples. Authoritarian regimes also see girls and young women as a threat, going to great lengths to silence, erase, dismiss, or destroy their efforts.

How can philanthropy show up at this moment?

For those in philanthropy — across sectors like Human Rights, Development, Youth, Gender Equality, Humanitarian, Climate, and beyond — these moments of rupture and opportunities for reimagination are crucial in understanding the shifts in pro-democracy movements and mobilization tactics. We offer these insights not only to reflect on, but to embrace and carry into our circles of influence, as we collectively navigate and mitigate this state of permanent crisis.

1. Fund them like we want them to win: Move away from depoliticized approaches and adopt a rights-based funding strategy that recognizes the leadership and agency of girls and young people, seeing them as the political actors of our time. Support the existing infrastructure — such as women’s, feminist, and youth funds — that channels flexible money to young people, and invest in new, alternative resourcing mechanisms. Above all, ensure that young people, especially young women and girls, can lead movements safely and effectively.
2. Draw inspiration to build our own political clarity: Year after year, philanthropic institutions have become more reductionist in their goals. In the pursuit of social change, many have narrowed their focus to single-point impact areas, making their support myopic and disconnected from the larger, more dynamic contexts they operate in. Youth movements remind us that, as systems fail around us, we must make more radical, intersectional calls for systemic change. Our fight for a food-sovereign future — an issue critical for climate funders — is deeply connected to the use of food as a weapon in war. It’s precisely these single-issue agendas that youth movements are urging us to move beyond.
3. Support for what comes next: In the countries where youth movements have recently mobilized, the question of what comes next is ever-present. While these movements have remained politically resolute, their demands have evolved over time. The aftermath of these protests has also led to political instability. Urgent Action Fund, Asia and Pacific continues to receive emergency support requests from marginalized communities in Bangladesh, who cite the growing right-wing religious forces as a key threat to their security and well-being. Against this backdrop, it’s crucial for funders to stay engaged, both during the peaks and in the aftermath of youth organizing. As progressive philanthropists, we must ensure that politically fragile moments are not entirely co-opted by anti-rights and anti-gender forces. We must also support inter-generational, transnational dialogues that help forge a clear political vision grounded in core values like non-violence.
4. Prioritize their protection and care: Support and fund the infrastructure and resources at regional and global levels to mitigate the risks and threats faced by young women and girls. We need holistic approaches that support both the visible and less-visible forms of resistance from these critical agents of change, who have long been under-resourced. Especially in moments of upheaval, access to rapid funding and support for legal, medical, digital, and psycho-social aid is essential to their survival.

This is a pivotal moment in the history of youth organizing, particularly within the global majority. It demands that we — activists, philanthropists, researchers, and policymakers — remain vigilant, learn from these movements, and show up in material solidarity. We must seek alternatives to traditional power-sharing models and seize the opportunity for radical reimagination. Our role should focus on resourcing girl- and youth-led movements — not just in times of acute crisis, but for the long term. Beyond financial support, our responsibility is to build transnational solidarity and hold the line.

As we continue to learn from emerging contexts, we are inspired by the following insightful conversations and discourses. We share them in the hope that they spark deeper discussions moving forward:

• Africa is a Country has a series of powerful writing tracing the re-emergence of youth movements across the world and why they matter. We are especially inspired by Will Shoky’s editorial on how the term “Gen Z protests” is a disservice to vocabulary on dissent and democracy.
• AWID, HRFN and YCJF have compelling evidence on how little goes to feminist and youth movements and why that must change.
• Resurj’s Regional Reflections on social, economic and environmental aspects of sexual and reproductive health and rights from the ground by younger south feminists.
• Civicus launched a recent report from a global study on youth-driven activism that contributes to the growing body of evidence of the impact of youth activism.

Written by Vinita Sahasranaman, Co-lead, Urgent Action Fund Asia and Pacific and Ruby Johnson, Director, Global Resilience Fund, Purposeful / Co-Founder, Closer Than You Think.