2015 in Review: Working for Justice & Peace

WEDO is happy to have shared the triumphs and challenges of 2015 with all of you. In 2016, together, may we continue to create change by challenging injustice at all levels, promoting women’s human rights, and realizing equality on a healthy and peaceful planet.

• Advocates successfully lobby for strong references to gender equality and human rights in draft negotiating text for the new climate agreement in 2015. (More)

• WEDO supports training for hundreds of women activists attending CSW59 on how to effectively advocate
  for policy changes within the UN and international policy arena. (More)

• Fellows at WEDO launch work on women, climate change and sustainable cities at key event in NYC. (More)

• WEDO organizes inputs of women’s rights advocates into the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in Sendai, Japan. (More)

• The Women and Gender Constituency, in cooperation with hundreds of women advocates, releases its first joint position paper on what a ‘gender-just’ outcome under the UNFCCC would look like. (More)

• WEDO Climate Finance Fellow, Kashmala Kakakhel, tracks progress under the Green Climate Fund, asking whether the GCF is ‘ready to serve climate-vulnerable communities’. (More)

• In July, WEDO and a coordinating group of feminist organizations and women’s alliances launch ‘The Women’s Global Call for Climate Justice’, demanding ‘system change, not climate change’ at COP21 and beyond! (More)

• The Women’s Major Group. of which WEDO is an organizing partner, funds participation of over 100 women advocates to various negotiations for Post-2015, as well as the CSW, FfD, HLPF, and COP21. With support from the Hewlett Foundation, 85% of the funded participants come from the global South. (More)

• WEDO‘s Juliana Velez, contributes to a two-day strategic workshop on “The Way Forward: A Caring and Sustainable Economy.” (More)

• September brings the launch of a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which though not wholly transformative- are made more just, inclusive and effective via the tireless work of the Women’s Major Group. The WMG hosts a ‘Feminist Forum’ in parallel to the UNGA to discuss ways forward in 2016 and beyond. (More)

• In September, in partnership with The Women’s Global Call for Climate Justice,WEDO launches a global call for art. The contest generates over 70 submissions from across 6 continents. On November 11th, WEDO announces the six female artists and winners of the climate justice poster design contest: Juliette Delorme, Nela Meriguet Martínez, Jeramy Turner, Josephine Ferorelli, Vanessa Cardenas and Maya Bhardwa. (More)

• With support from Finland, Iceland and the Netherlands, in partnership with the GGCA, WEDO supports 23 women from the global South to attend 5 meetings of the climate negotiations in 2015 as part of their national delegations via the Women Delegates Fund, as well as hosts two technical training sessions for women delegates. (More)

• Through a new program with support from the Oak Foundation, Mobilizing Women for Climate Justice, WEDO supports over 20 women advocates from across 8 regions to the final four meetings of the UN climate negotiations in 2015, to ensure women’s voices and demands were central to the climate process. (More)

• Two key publications are released at the COP21 in Paris, Roots for the Future: the Landscape and Way Forward on Gender and Climate Change (More) & Gender-Just Solutions for Climate Action: The Women and Gender Constituency (More)

• WEDO mobilizes, organizes and advocates for a just climate agreement across two weeks in Paris at COP21. While the outcome is no where near as strong as hoped, the movement for climate justice has been emboldened, and women are at its center. This movement has given flight to our work, and gives us strength to take on the pressing challenges we have ahead. (More)

We are unstoppable, another world is possible.