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Women and girls around the world are demanding and creating systemic change and a sustainable future for all. We need collective power to attain a just future – we need you.
Overview
For decades, feminist activists around the world have raised their voices to organize for climate justice and influence climate policy. WEDO has worked over its 30-year history to bring feminist and environmental justice analyses into—and center the voices of frontline and grassroots women’s rights advocates and leaders in—climate policy spaces.
At the global level, WEDO works within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—an international environmental treaty negotiated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 and the predominant space for multilateral action to address the climate crisis. WEDO also actively follows the Green Climate Fund, created under the UNFCCC.
WEDO’s Gender Climate Tracker website and mobile app, and our work to support women negotiators through the Women Delegates Fund, also provide critical resources for advocates to link gender equality and climate efforts at the country level.
How We Engage
WEDO is part of, and a co-focal point for, the Women’s and Gender Constituency (WGC)—one of the official observer groups to the UNFCCC processes.
In this role WEDO often provides technical expertise from a gender and justice perspective in a variety of ways, including through providing collective strategizing spaces; writing interventions and submissions; and providing capacity strengthening to negotiators, as well as key government and civil society stakeholders.
Research & Technical Support
Since 2009, as a part of ongoing efforts to enhance women’s voice and leadership in climate change policy-making, WEDO has tracked the participation of women delegates on national delegations to the UNFCCC—across countries, regions and as
Heads of Delegations.
WEDO maintains the Gender Climate Tracker website and mobile app, a platform that provides the latest data and resources to understand and track progress toward integrating gender equality mandates into climate policy at global and national levels. The platform can be used to search across UNFCCC decisions to find specific references to gender equality; explore gender in countries’ national climate commitments, including NDCs; and upload resources on gender and climate change.
The GCT also features an analysis of the original and updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which shows that the new and updated NDCs are referencing women and gender more frequently, though the robustness of that integration varies widely. These analyses are shared with National Gender and Climate Change Focal Points (NGCCFPs) as part of WEDO’s ongoing offering of tools and resources to support them in their roles.
Advocacy and Communications
Working alongside the WGC, WEDO advocates to integrate gender equality issues, perspectives and demands into the UN climate negotiations, as well as across climate change decision-making, policies and planning. In our role as WGC co-focal point, WEDO represents the constituency in meetings of the Boards and Bodies of the UNFCCC, and engages in bilateral relationship building with Member States.
In 2017, our collective efforts contributed to the adoption of the first UNFCCC Gender Action Plan (GAP). The UNFCCC then adopted the enhanced Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWPG) and Gender Action Plan (GAP) in December 2019. Moving forward, WEDO continues to monitor progress toward the GAP and push for its full implementation. Learn more about the GAP here.
WEDO helps lead and create the infrastructure for collaborative communications campaigns in the lead-up to key global policy moments. Prior to and during the climate summits, WEDO typically leads on traditional and digital communications plans for the WGC.
Training & Capacity Strengthening
WEDO, in collaboration with the Women and Gender Constituency, creates the materials for and hosts preparatory sessions throughout the year, as well as in advance of global policy moments. For example, WEDO has provided trainings for the WGC advocacy network on the basics of the UNFCCC, gender equality under the UNFCCC, and key thematic issues such as climate finance.
Enhancing Women’s Participation and Leadership
Recognizing a need to support the participation and leadership of women in the UN climate negotiations, WEDO’s Women Delegates Program (WDF) aims to sponsor Party delegates, particularly from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), to participate in UNFCCC convened meetings and negotiations. The WDF provides ongoing support to participants via travel grants, capacity strengthening on technical issues related to the negotiations, and advocacy and networking opportunities.
