Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)

Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WED) is a non-profit organization currently based in New York, near the "United headquarters. With its global partners, WEDO initiatives encompass climate change, corporate accountability, UN reform, and women’s political participation and leadership.
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<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_mission"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Mission</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_history"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">History</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_activities"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Activities</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_campaigns"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Campaigns</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#w_national-climate-change-advocacy-project"><span class="tocnumber">4.1</span> <span class="toctext">National Climate Change Advocacy project</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#w_gender-and-climate-finance"><span class="tocnumber">4.2</span> <span class="toctext">Gender and climate finance</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#w_corporate-campaigns"><span class="tocnumber">4.3</span> <span class="toctext">Corporate campaigns</span></a></li>
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<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_sources"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Sources</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_see-also"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li>
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<h2 id="w_mission">Mission</h2>
WEDO’s mission is to empower women as decision makers to achieve economic, social and gender justice, a healthy, peaceful planet, and "Universal for all. Through our programs on Economic and Social Justice, Gender and Governance and Sustainable Development, WEDO emphasizes women’s critical role in social, economic and political spheres.
<h2 id="w_history">History</h2>
WEDO was established in 1990 by former U.S. Congresswoman Bella Abzug (1920-1998) and feminist activist and journalist Mim Kelber (1922-2004). In 1992, WEDO organized the World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet, bringing together more than 1,500 women from 83 countries to work jointly on a strategy for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Since then, WEDO has built on that experience by mobilizing women’s participation to advance women’s perspectives at the UN and other forums. Throughout the 1990s WEDO played a key leadership role to ensure that gender was included in the outcomes of major UN conferences.
<h2 id="w_activities">Activities</h2>
At the core of WEDO’s mission is the recognition that women’s empowerment and gender equality are key levers of change. WEDO works by:
<ul>
<li>striving for a better world through coordinated political action to improve women’s lives.</li>
<li>advancing women’s rights by building broad alliances with women’s groups and other human rights and social justice allies.</li>
<li>conducting and applying ground-breaking research to create global policies that support women’s rights.</li>
<li>connecting global policy work to local and regional advocacy efforts carried out by partners in the global South.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="w_campaigns">Campaigns</h2>
WEDO has three main areas of activity: climate change, governance, and corporate accountability. Below are some examples of recent campaigns.
<h3 id="w_national-climate-change-advocacy-project">National Climate Change Advocacy project</h3>
WEDO has been developing partnerships with civil society organizations and governments in four developing countries as part of a National Advocacy Project to deliver real results for women on the ground. Combining awareness raising and advocacy at the national and local levels, the project seeks to advance gender in policy-making and activity implementation, as well as government accountability to global agreements on equality.
<h3 id="w_gender-and-climate-finance">Gender and climate finance</h3>
WEDO challenges the dominant approach to climate change that prioritizes market-based solutions over human rights-based policies which seek to protect the most vulnerable. By documenting the key economic dimensions of climate change policies and processes and their implications for women, WEDO advocates for climate change financing that is gender sensitive.

Working with partners in Africa and Asia to produce case studies and to develop a platform to impact key global processes, WEDO is also analyzing the major market-based approaches to climate change mitigation, including large-scale bio-fuel production and carbon trading, from a gender perspective. The WEDO MisFortune 500 web resource reports on corporate profiteering.
<h3 id="w_corporate-campaigns">Corporate campaigns</h3>
WEDO’s campaign for women’s labor rights in Nike-contracted factories began in 2008. Since the early 90s Nike has been pressured by activists and media for sweatshop conditions and labor rights violations in its supply chain, where women comprise 80-90 percent of workers.
<h2 id="w_sources">Sources</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.wedo.org/">www.wedo.org</a></li>
</ul>
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<h2 id="w_see-also">See also</h2>
<ul>
<li>"Women</li>
<li> </li>
</ul>
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