Our Past
Champions of women’s rights since 1990, we build coalitions of feminist leaders to advocate for gender- and environmental-justice policies.
“WEDO grew out of a friendship. Bella [Abzug] was mainly a peace activist, and I had been in the ecology movement since the days of the Chipko Movement in the 1970’s. As we met at UN conferences over the years, it became clear that women’s voices were missing in the sustainability agenda, even though at the grassroots level, women were leading the struggle to protect forests and rivers, biodiversity, and land. To bring together the diversity of women from across the world working on ecological issues, we organized a public hearing in Miami (the Women’s World Congress for a Healthy Planet), and WEDO was (formally) established after that.”
A History of Advocacy
From the beginning, our goal has been to place feminist leaders at the center of policy discussions related to gender equality and environmental justice. We drew advocates from around the world to advocate collectively for gender-just policies.
Key Advocacy Wins
For over 30 years, WEDO has driven collective global advocacy and feminist leadership to promote and protect human rights, gender equality, and the integrity of the environment with the goal of creating a just and healthy planet for the benefit of everyone.
Women’s Action Agenda 21
As a result of our strategic and collaborative lobbying by WEDO, all outcome documents of the Earth Summit included specific gender equality issues and recommendations for strengthening women’s participation in decision-making processes — most notably in Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration.
A Foundation for Reproductive Rights
We led the women’s caucus at the UN Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. In the final outcome, governments committed to a 20-year plan to increase investment in women’s reproductive and sexual health, ensure universal primary education, and promote secondary education for girls.
Beijing Platform for Action
We organized the Linkage Caucus at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The resulting Beijing Platform for Action included a groundbreaking section on integrating gender and environmental advocacy. The platform became a cornerstone for global efforts to achieve gender equality and sustainable development.
Rights-based Climate Agreement
We worked alongside Indigenous Peoples, trade unions, youth and environmental groups to ensure language on gender equality and human rights in the Paris Agreement.
UNFCCC Gender Action Plan
We advocated with partners towards the adoption of a gender action plan under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to accelerate implementation of gender mandates across mitigation, adaptation, and support.
Results: African Women and Girls Demands for COP27
At COP27 in 2022, African girls’ and women’s activists gathered from all five regions of the continent launched a set 27 specific demands that must be addressed. While not all of the demands have been met we have seen progress in women’s representation, leadership and participation; adequate, accessible, affordable, flexible, and human-rights-centered climate finance; and expanded women’s access to and control over land, productive resources, and debt-free, flexible funding for ecological agricultural production.
