Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) is a women-led international membership network of women and men professionals that provides expertise to assist agriculture and natural resource management organizations strengthen women’s leadership and mainstream gender into their internal structures, programs, projects and policies.
WOCAN was established in 2004 with the objective to address three major gaps that emerge from the knowledge and experiences of sustainable and rural development processes. These are:
- policies regarding gender within the agriculture and natural resource management sectors,
- roles of professional women in implementing policy objectives for rural women’s empowerment and gender equality within these sectors, and
- organizational barriers that obstruct women from realizing positions of leadership and influence to take on such roles.
Our Vision
It is our vision that organizations engaged in agriculture and natural resource management fully recognize and support the roles and leadership of women farmers, environmental managers, professionals and decision makers, leading to an equal distribution of responsibilities, rights, benefits and power between women and men in management of natural resources to achieve sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
Our Mission
Our mission is to build the leadership of women in agriculture and natural resource management for organizational transformation for gender equality through an innovative approach of partnering with motivated professional and rural women. WOCAN's global network of members provides skills in agriculture and natural resource management technologies, gender mainstreaming, organizational change, negotiation, policy and decision-making, participation, advocacy and women's leadership to secure women's equal access to and control of resources and benefits to improve the livelihoods of rural people.
Our Objectives
WOCAN's objective is to contribute to processes of organizational change, or the institutionalization of gender perspectives in NRM-related organizations by supporting women to act as facilitators of change by:
- Supporting women through (a) confidence building, (b) leadership and communication training, (c) sponsorship to participate in organized events, and (d) promotion of research, activities and best practices oriented toward rural women.
- Advocating for causes related to gender equality and natural resource management at local, national, regional and international levels.
- Promoting partnerships at different levels of the society to address the goals of this network.
- Providing financial assistance and supporting activities directly in line with the first three objectives of the network.
Learn More
The following 20 minute video describes WOCAN's approach to organizational transformation for gender equality by linking rural women to professional women to build synergistic partnerships for empowerment, food security and poverty alleviation through its project in Nepal.