WEDO

WEDO stands for Women's Environment and Development Organization, a group that was established in 1990 byf ormer U.S. Congresswoman Bella Abzug and feminist activist and journalist Mim Kelber. WEDO has since been a leader in organizing women for international conferences and actions. In 1992, WEDO organized the World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet, which got involved more than 1,500 women from 83 countries who worked together on a strategy for the UN Conference on Environment and Development.

The end result was Women’s Action Agenda 21, an outline for a healthy and peaceful planet that was the basis for introducing gender equality in the official UNCED final documents Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration. This was an amazing feat that immediately launched WEDO as one of the top organizations for international women’s rights.

Today, WEDO recognizes that policy commitments alone are not enough to improve women’s daily lives. That is why WEDO is collaborating more deeply with Southern partners on implementing global policy gains at the national level and holding governments accountable to their commitments on women’s rights.

At the core of WEDO’s mission is the recognition that women’s empowerment and gender equality are key levers of change. They strive for a better world through coordinated political action to improve women’s lives and advance women’s rights by building broad alliances with women’s groups and other human rights and social justice allies. They conduct and apply ground-breaking research to create global policies that support women’s rights. Also an important thing they do is connect global policy work to local and regional advocacy efforts carried out by partners in the global South.