Our participatory governance

We have a dual governance system. The formal supervision of the executive directors and their team is done by our Board of Trustees (BOT). Their role is to approve our annual plans, budgets and reports, and supervise our directors’ work. Our network partners also have their say in our governance, through our International Advisory Board (IAB).  Their role is to give strategic advice to our BOT and directors. The IAB is also crucial for the development of common funding, advocacy and campaigning strategies. The IAB is elected by our partners, thus ensuring that our network’s thematic and geographic diversity is represented throughout our work.


IAB

Through our International Advisory Board (IAB), our partners get to have their say in our governance. The members of the IAB are elected from among our partners. They are all non governmental organisations working with us on gender equality and sustainability through activities such as policy advocacy and project implementation. They subscribe to our vision and mission, as well as our good governance policies. In the nominations for the IAB, we encourage our partners to pursue diversity, for example in terms of geographical scope, age and gender. The IAB's role is to give strategic advice to our Board of Trustees and Directors and is crucial for giving new impetus to developing common funding, advocacy and campaigning strategies.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Our International Board of Trustees consists of three to seven members who bear the final responsibility for our strategic and financial management. Members are appointed on the basis of their expertise and perform their functions on a voluntary basis. They are mandated for four years and can only be re-elected once. The Board meets at least twice a year to approve our yearly accounts, annual reports, and our upcoming year’s budget as well as work plan. In addition to their controlling tasks they advise the Executive Director, perform representative functions for our organisation, and if time allows, visits project partners. Since 2015, our board members are:

Founding members

Special thanks to our founding members & previous chairpersons:


Strategic Plan

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Statutes

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Integrity policies

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annual reports

Annual Reports

At WECF, 2023 started on a sad note with the passing of Irene Dankelman – a driving force behind the ecofeminist movement and long-time board member of WECF. Her legacy, however, continues to inspire us.

This year has also been marked by growing conflicts and division, with new wars escalating in Gaza and Sudan and with advances of far-right and anti-gender groups in many countries where we work – including the home of our international office: The Netherlands. We continued to receive worrying news from our partners in Ukraine as well, where have been working closely with women and environmental organisations for decades and have increased our support since the unprovoked military invasion by russia.

Despite the challenges and concerning global developments, for us it has also been a year filled with powerful engagements and wonderful achievements, accomplished through close collaborations between colleagues and partners across the world.

With our wonderful team at the WECF International office in Utrecht, we have combined growing support for our network partners with strengthening our team and increased financial stability. We look towards to the future with confidence, aiming to strengthen our ecofeminist movement and solidarity.

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Annual Reports

Results and activities in 2022

Our key results focus on project outcomes that address growing inequalities, specifically gender inequality and the triple crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. These outcomes are achieved through our local-global and back to local (LGL) advocacy actions in three thematic areas:

  • Feminist action for sustainable development: We work towards promoting sustainable development from a feminist perspective, aiming to ensure social, economic, and environmental well-being for all. Our efforts include advocating for gender-responsive policies, empowering women and girls, and promoting sustainable and equitable practices.
  • Feminist action for climate and energy solutions: We actively engage in advocating for climate and energy solutions that prioritize gender-just solutions. Our actions include promoting renewable energy, supporting women’s leadership in climate action, and advocating for gender-transformative climate policies.
  • Feminist action for a toxic-free future: We strive to achieve a toxic-free future by advocating for stronger policies and regulations to eliminate harmful chemicals and pollutants. Our work focuses on raising awareness about the impacts of toxic substances on human health and the environment, promoting sustainable alternatives, and advocating for gender-responsive approaches to waste and pollution management.

Through our projects and advocacy efforts in these thematic areas, we aim to create positive change, advocating for women as agents of change and the inclusion of marginalized communities, thereby contributing to a more sustainable, just, and equitable world.

Financial report 2022Activity Report 2022ANBI form Annual Report 2022

Annual Reports

The year 2021 was again impacted by the global Covid pandemic, with many of our offices and partner organisations continuing to work online. This situation bluntly highlighted the digital gap between countries, genders and age groups effecting our network. It also brought to the forefront the further increased burden of care work that women have in all our societies, as many of our partners are women and working from home with additional care tasks for family members. The pandemic with its lockdowns also led to a strong increase of gender-based violence. Overall, the pandemic has rolled back women’s rights for several decades and seen significant democratic backsliding.

Despite the adversity, we have continued to built a strong team of colleagues, cooperating with our offices in other countries, and creating new strategic partnerships that provide financial stability for the coming years. Our team showed great resilience during the corona pandemic and we were able to adapt our organization, for example by leading in an inclusive digital transformation where we create safe-spaces for civil society activists. We were able to continue to advocate and lobby for climate justice and gender equality, supported by the dedicated members of our Board of Trustees and International Advisory Board. Thank you for your dedication, energy, and hard work to bring us closer to a more sustainable and gender equal world!

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Annual Reports

The year 2020 has been a difficult year, for our partners and for the world, as many colleagues and family members were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. As an ecofeminist network we note with concern that this worsened the situation of women and environmental rights defenders in many countries. Even though the economic slowdown from the pandemic halted Green House Gas emissions from many sectors, the onslaught on forests and biodiversity continued unabated, as the expansion of plantations linked to meat production and biofuels continued. Often it are women in all their diversities, that stand at the forefront of fighting against deforestation, mining and agro-industrial expansion, while at the same time they carried the additional burden caused by the pandemic. Faced with combined crises of covid-19 and climate change, we have been standing up even stronger for women’s rights and have been able to mobilise with new alliances, building new networks.

In the WECF International Activity Report for 2020 we present our collective achievements from last year. We were able to continue a great part of the planned activities in a hybrid format, and the in-person activities were moved forward into the next year, thanks to our donors willingness to provide flexible timelines for our programmes. We hope this year’s report will inspire you to join forces with us in changing the future.

Financial reportActivity Report 2020ANBI form Annual report 2020

Annual Accounts

2019 marked WECF’s 25-year anniversary. We have come a long way since 1994, evolving from a group of dedicated female environmentalists to a professional civil society organisation, known for our expertise on gender equality and sustainable development and on local to global policy advocacy.

The current times clearly and painfully demonstrate the interlinkages. With the combined crises of armed conflicts, COVID-19, the climate, and environmental crisis, we need to stand together now more then ever for women’s rights. Because, women in all their diversity, are at the frontlines fighting these multiple crises; women are the majority of health sector workers, they are the majority of those who feed their families whilst 800 million people are sliding into extreme poverty and hunger, and they are increasingly targets of violence, as environmental and women’s rights defenders.

Now, 25 years later, there is finally a broad public understanding that if we want to have a chance at saving the planet it can only be done with women co-piloting our global ship. We are pleased to share with you the WECF International Activity Report for 2019, presenting our collective achievements from last year. We hope this year’s report will inspire you to join forces with us in changing the future.

Financial reportActivity Report 2019

Summary

In 2018 WECF entered the second year of the multi-annual program “Make Europe Sustainable for All” (MESA).

The Women2030 programme picked up speed, in terms of engaging partners in gender assessments, shadow reporting and awareness raising. As part of this program in 2018, the gender impact assessment and monitoring tool was finalized and ready to use for local data collection aimed at helping women and gender civil society organizations to implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addition, 7 shadow reports and 8 gender assessments have been published, successful interventions took place at various international and regional policy meetings and many trainings contributed to strengthened capacity of women and their organisations in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and the Balkans

Financial reportActivity Report

Summary

In 2017 an new multi-annual program, “Make Europe Sustainable for All”, started. It is organized through the European Environmental Bureau and our Dutch office is a co-applicant. The Women2030 programme picked up speed, in terms of engaging partners in gender assessments, shadow reporting and awareness raising. Policy dialogues were held in Abuja and Jakarta, linking up to United Nations processes on safe chemicals and waste. Partners joined us at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the UNECE regional and global sustainable development processes, as well as to the climate change negotiations.

Financial reportActivity Report

Summary

In 2016, we started our partnership programme with women and gender equality networks worldwide, Women2030. It is funded by the European Commission, EuropeAid. With our climate and gender just circular economy programmes, we worked alongside our partners towards increased energy efficiency as well as clean, safe water and sanitation access in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. With our programme for a healthy and toxic free environment, we worked towards women’s and children’s improved health in Western Europe and the Balkan.

Annual reportFinancial report

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The year 2015 marked the end and new beginnings for us. It was the last year of our multi-country “Empowering Women benefits All” programme which focused on building women’s leadership, economic and political empowerment in Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The lessons learned entered into our new 5-year global partnership programme with women and gender equality networks, Women2030, starting early 2016.

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The main effort in 2014 was to demonstrate local solutions for inclusive and environmentally friendly development, with full participation and leadership of women through our programmes “Empower Women benefits All” and “Switch to Sun”. We developed a water and sanitation safety planning (WSSP) compendium which was implemented in nine rural villages of Romania and Macedonia. More than 50,000 women, men and children from low income communities were trained on SDGs.  We lead the continuation of the “ChildProtect” programme, focusing on phasing out endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Annual reportFinancial report

Summary

In Uganda and South-Africa women recieved training on the development of food gardens and organic agriculture through the “Empower Women benefits All” programme. In Ukraine, Georgia and 5 other EECCA countries, “Switch to Sun”, a program to improve and up-scale solar heaters for household and public building in rural areas, made progress. In Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, together with our partners we transferred knowledge and built ecological sanitation systems for schools and households. Through our capacity building and training programmes we trained 500 trainers.

Annual reportFinancial report

Summary

We took a leading role in the 2012 Rio+20 conference, as co-facilitator of the “Women’s Major Group”, one of the nine groups of civil society which have a space in the UN policy process. Our role was to facilitate the 300 organisations through virtual and face-to-face meetings, develop joint text proposals for the negotiation text, organise meetings with country negotiators, as well as organising events in which to present the priorities of women’s organisations. One of the main highlights was our “Women Rio+20 Award”.

Annual report

Annual Accounts

Financial report

Statutes

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