Global Governance
In a world where not enough women reach the ranks of government, an integral component to achieving WEDO’s mission is supporting and empowering women to get involved in decision-making spheres. WEDO works to accelerate women’s participation in national and local political office worldwide. In particular, WEDO champions strong women who can effectively occupy political positions and advance policies that promote women’s rights locally, nationally, and internationally.
Additionally, we work to advance the creation of robust institutions and mechanisms within the international UN system, ensuring that it is consistently and coherently effective in advancing women’s rights. WEDO is proud to work with a wide range of partners on these efforts – including UN, government and civil society representatives.
Find out more about our governance initiatives by clicking on the categories above, or see the latest news posts below!
The Latest Global Governance News
New UN Global Sustainability Panel Report Advocates People-Centered Sustainable Development
“People are at the center of our vision of sustainable development.”
Today, January 30th 2012, the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability released its final report Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing. The Panel, launched on August 9th 2010, has spent the last few months conducting consultations with an array of Government, civil society and private sector experts aimed to “formulate a new vision for sustainable growth and prosperity, along with mechanisms for achieving it.” [See WEDO's input at March 2011 GSP Interactive Panel]. Their efforts reflect the long term vision set out in the 1987 report of the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), entitled Our Common Future, and better known as the Brundtland Report. However, Resilient People, Resilient Planet, attempts to address why 25 years after the Brundtland Report, sustainable development has not become a practical reality. The report concludes with 56 recommendations which outline “concrete proposals in three key areas: empowering people to make sustainable choices, working towards a sustainable economy, and strengthening institutional governance to support sustainable development.” The Panel hopes that these recommendations can feed into the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), as well as other inter-governmental processes.
NEW Brochure: “Empower Women, Impact Climate”
If climate change policies are going to be effective, women have to be at the negotiating table. Established in 2009 by WEDO, the Global Gender Climate Alliance (GGCA), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with the support of the Government of Finland, the Women Delegates Fund (WDF) supports the participation and leadership of women at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations.
“Empower Women, Impact Climate” details the stories of four amazing participants in the WDF.
Women’s Major Group speaks out on the Rio+20 Zero Draft
“The zero-draft fails to raise our enthusiasm, it lacks ambition, concrete proposals for global instruments necessary to address the shortcomings of the last 20 years, concrete targets and time lines and funding mechanisms. The emerging crisis of climate change increases the urgency for an outcome document that reflects the urgent need for environmental justice.
Many women’s lives and livelihoods suffer from the current injustices. We feel that the sections 1 and 2 should strongly voice the failure of the neo-liberal system, where corporate interests have priority over human lives – and should acknowledge that small adjustments are not enough. A major paradigm shift is necessary.”
WEDO Calls for Reform and Revitalization for RIO+20!
The Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)[2] is closely following progress toward the Rio+20 conference, with an eye on aspects that will protect women’s rights and advance gender equality and sustainable development. It is from this perspective WEDO makes the following comments on the Zero Draft.
Technical Background Documents for CSW56
The Commission on the Status of Women will hold the fifty-sixth session of their multi-year program, February 27th to March 9th 2012 at the United Nations in New York. The priority theme for this meeting is the Empowerment of Rural Women. Some key points of discussion will include agriculture, productive resources and financing, infrastructure, natural change resource management, climate adaptation and policies on rural development.
In preparation for 2012, UN Women in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) convened at an Expert Group Meeting…
