WEDO 20+: At-a-glance
Support WEDO 20+
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Celebrating those who have helped make the organization what it is today – and those who will help shape its future!
This year marks some significant milestones for WEDO. Not only are we celebrating our 20th anniversary, we are preparing for the anniversary summit of the 1992 Earth Summit (UNCED), Rio+20 in 2012. Having emerged to specifically influence those historic negotiations, WEDO helped ensure women’s perspectives and gender equality positions were secured in two key final documents of that conference, Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration. Twenty years later, and with another conference ahead, we at WEDO are celebrating the work and individuals who got us here – and looking forward together as we move along the Road to Rio 2012!
Over the next year we invite you to join us as we look back– this page will serve as an archive for WEDO’s 20 years of advocacy. We will be updating old publications, unearthing old photos, and paying tribute to our founders and other great women leaders.
Revisit our Publications:
WEDO has been a source of information and motivation leading to changes in how women’s rights, participation, leadership, and role in the environment are understood. To celebrate this work, each month we will highlight a past WEDO publication in a post called “In Our Library”.
Spread the Word:
Follow our updates throughout the year on Facebook and Twitter, and join in the conversation! Tweet a quote or share a memory, and remember to use the #WEDO20 hashtag!
Share Your Stories:
Calling all those who have been involved with WEDO to share your stories/photos/memories over the past 20 years! Email us at WEDO20@wedo.org. We’d love to hear from you!
Donate:
Support WEDO on the Road to Rio and beyond! WEDO 20+ is about looking ahead and ensuring, as an organization, WEDO can build upon the foundation laid over the past 20 years and continue to advocate for women’s rights and promote women’s leadership in all spheres. Donate $20, $200, $2000, and help us get to $20,000 by 2012!
Explore WEDO's History
WEDO’s Holiday Wish List
Happy Holidays from the WEDO family to yours!
While we celebrate our achievements in 2011 we are already planning for 2012- a year with some very significant milestones such as Rio+20 and WEDO’s 20th Anniversary! As we’ve been busy working hard in different parts of the world, our technology needs at home have been neglected the past few years. This holiday season, we’ve constructed a “WEDO Wishlist” which will help us in achieving our goals in 2012!
Women on the forefront at the Earth Summit ’92 in Rio. A personal journey by Irene Dankelman
Thinking of about 20 years ago, I really feel privileged to have been part of the movement that shaped a gender perspective into sustainable development. In the early 1990s I was working with the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, in New York as their gender-environment advisor, preparing for the upcoming United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. On many occasions we met with members of women’s organizations in the lead up to the Conference.
I remember a meeting room in the cellars of the UN building in New York: fully packed with women…
Memorial for Wangari Muta Maathai, Tues. November 14th
[ November 14, 2011; 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. ] Wangari Muta Maathai
(1940–2011)
A Memorial Ceremony
Philosopher, environmentalist, educationist, political activist, freedom fighter,
mother, grandmother, guiding light. We will miss her. We will celebrate her. We will
emulate her. We will never forget her.
— H. E. Macharia Kamau, Ambassador and Permanent Representative at Kenya Mission to
United Nations
WEDO’s Story: “Women’s Group Seeks Environmental Role”
In October of 1990 women from around the globe joined forces to make their voices heard. Their plan was to collectively break through the previously male dominated dialogue and become key players in “policy-making on environmental and developmental issues” where women were previously “invisible”. Among these women were leading environmentalists Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement; Claire Greensfelder of the Earth Institute in California; Vandana Shiva of India and Bella Abzug, founder of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization.
At that time, the New York Times followed a historic 4 day meeting where 50 women met at the United Nations Church Center to establish a worldwide network for bringing their agenda into the environmental debate. This meeting was the impetus and foundation for a new organization to represent women's views. A few months later, in 1991, the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) was legally established.
This article is one of the first chronicles in a not so distant past, where women’s international diplomatic presence was weak and a few strong souls had the inspiration to change the world. It sets the stage for WEDO's story, formed out of passion and unity for change and sustained through the advocacy and leadership of a network of groundbreaking women activists. Click here to read!
Remembering Wangari- In Her Own Words
“The road is long and the battles many… For me it is a journey and I continue to pursue it wherever fate leads me…I learned to rise from the ashes of disappointment and look to the road yet ahead.” – Wangari Maathai
After the passing of our dear friend and mentor, Wangari Maathai, WEDO has spent the past two days reflecting on our fortunate experiences with this incredible woman. In doing so we have un-earthed a piece written by Wangari following the passing of WEDO co-founder Bella Abzug. In it Wangari shares her story, the life of a woman who overcame any obstacle she encountered with a boundless sense of hope. Her strength led her to accomplish unparalleled success in the work of human and women’s rights, not only in her home country of Kenya but around the world. In the attached article from our 1998 newsletter, Wangari explains the hardships endured throughout her journey and how she managed to rise above the corruption and politics, which so fervently worked to silence her voice.