Advocacy

Ms. Meena Bilgi, Core Associate, WOCAN participated in FAO Regional Consultation on Policy and Programmatic Actions to Address High Food Prices in Asia Region, 9-10 March 2011 and in the CSO-FAO Joint Planning and Team Building Meeting in Asia Region held on 11-12 March 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Prepared by ENERGIA, Earth Day Network, Global Forest Coalition, VAM, WOCAN, WEDO and WECF, March 2011. Women's Major Group position paper in preparation for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2012.

The FAO is currently undergoing a major reform process. Years of underinvestment and marginalisation by the international community and disagreements between member states have weakened its role and reduced its capacity to fulfil its distinctive mandate. The FAO provides information, knowledge and advice to governments and the international community on tackling food insecurity, supporting agriculture and managing natural resources.

On Behalf of Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN), Action Aid International, Oxfam International, the Huairou Commission, Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PANAP) and la Plateforme Paysanne du Niger (PFPN).

This report is a briefing of the conference that was held in Nairobi from 30th May to 2nd June, 2011 at Red Court Hotel, Kenya. The conference goal was to inform and re-energize the struggle for women's land rights as a fundamental human right and the basis for women's empowerment and protection. It brought together diverse international and national institutions; governments, civil society organizations, varied experts from varied disciplines and grassroots organizations.

Last March 9th, 2011 Alexandra Spieldoch represented WOCAN in the UN Human Rights Council - Session 16 "Women - Right to Food, Food Security, Food Sovereignty". Session was held at the Palais des Nations UN Human Rights Council. 

Prepared by ENERGIA, Global Forest Coalition, WOCAN and WECF, on February 20, 2011. A 'green' economic system must promote social equity. A truly sustainable "green economy" would involve economic development that takes place within the limits of nature, and ensures a fair distribution of resources among all countries and social groups- as well as between men and women. Social equity and environmental justice must remain at the heart of sustainable development, and the outcomes of the Rio+20 UN conference in 2012.

WOCAN sponsored the participation of Manohara Khadka from Nepal, to COP 16 in Cancun. This article includes reflections of "change" and "REDD+" from a gender perspective.

Esther Penunia from Philippines was sponsored by WOCAN and ANEC, Mexico for attending COP 16 in Cancun. This report includes her reflections.

The Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) has put forth a compilation of the Gender Equality language integrated into the Cancun Agreements, 2010. There are eight gender equality references across seven sections of the Cancun Agreements, as well as in COP-adopted decisions for the subsidiary bodies including the Least Developed Countries Expert Group, the New Delhi Work Programme and the Nairobi Work Programme.

On Monday, December 6th, former President of Ireland and human rights activist Mary Robinson convened a side event entitled "Women Leaders on Climate Change".  This event brought together a group of high-profiled women leaders in the climate change arena including: Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC; Ambassador Patricia Espinosa, Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of COP16/CMP6;  Lykke Friis, Minister for Climate Energy and Gender Equality of Denmark ; Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, Coordinating Minister for Heritage of Republic of Ecuador; and, Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action.

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) is a network of feminist scholars, researchers and activists from the economic South working for economic and gender justice and sustainable and democratic development. DAWN provides a forum for feminist research, analyses and advocacy on global issues (economic, social and political) affecting the livelihoods, living standards, rights and development prospects of women, especially poor and marginalized women, in regions of the South. Through research, analyses, advocacy and, more recently, training, DAWN seeks to support women's mobilization within civil society to challenge inequitable social, economic and political relations at global, regional and national levels, and to advance feminist alternatives.

The Goal of the Project was to mobilize women and men professionals to transform agriculture and natural resource management organizations so that the roles and leadership of women as farmers, environmental managers, professionals and decision makers are fully recognized and supported, in order to assure the equal distribution of responsibilities, rights, benefits and power for rural women to improve their lives, reduce poverty and practice sustainable development.

Video on Who Feeds the World? prepared by The Hunger Project and shown at the ECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) preparatory meeting, WOCAN, IFAD, FAO and The Hunger Project co-hosted at the UN on April 22, 2010.

The enclosed document is advocacy training module that builds on WOCAN's past experience as the Organizing Partner for Women for the UN's Commission for Sustainable Development.

In her speech, Linda Nghatsane concludes that Women are the face of agriculture globally in developing countries. They have been feeding families for centuries while men were away from home as migrant workers.

Working Session of the Network of Women Agriculture Ministers and Leaders Final Agenda

This is a Sustainable Development Issues Network (SDIN) and Stakeholder Forum (SF) special issue on CSD 17. The editorial staff invited representatives from all the nine major groups to write about their experience at CSD 17, what was important to them, what made it a success, or what was less satisfying. This publication contains their analysis and stories.