Our History

Women''s Earth Alliance grew out of a network launched in 2005, called Women''s Global Green Action Network-an incredible story of activists, mothers, entrepreneurs, educators, health workers, and community leaders joining forces from countries around the world. This group shared a common concern-- the lack of networking and support services available at our grassroots, where environmental challenges are most pressing.

In order to better understand this challenge, a small international team of women decided to call for a global strategy meeting. Thirty women environmental leaders, nominated by their peers, traveled to Mexico City from communities around the world in a powerful "patchwork" of experiences, ethnicities, ages, and skill sets to take part in this visioning session.

WHY WE CAME TOGETHER

A small group of women working in environmental and social justice, launched a global search in 2005, seeking visionary women environmental advocates, organizers and entrepreneurs from around the world who were working on the frontlines of environmental, social and economic sustainability in their communities. Our selection committee received dozens of applications, and carefully selected thirty leaders to take part in identifying the priorities and action plans needed to support women engaged in environmental and social justice work.

Our meeting pooled the expertise of thirty women environmental advocates to assess the unique challenges we faced as women working for environmental and social justice and to identify the key resources, networking opportunities, and communication tools we needed to enhance the local and global impact of their efforts.

Over the course of our three-day meeting, our group agreed upon a set of shared values and principles; identified key communication and networking needs of women; and launched plans for the first regional projects. The strategy meeting represented a deeply significant and long-awaited step in the journeys of many of the women attendees. Having committed their lives to protecting and upholding the health and equity of their communities, our group of women were ready to magnify the scope of their effectiveness and model the solutions on the global stage.

With the committed participation of this powerful core constituency, we were poised to forge a global movement of environmental sustainability and women''s leadership.

These women leaders answered our call out of deep concern for the health and longevity of their communities, and for the very future of the planet. They understood this forum as the initiation of a long-range course of action towards enhancing the individual and collective impact of their efforts.

Women''s Earth Alliance, an Earth Island Institute project, is the organizational response to what we learned during these early stages. Our team worked to build the ideas and concepts for an initiative that would equip women with the appropriate technologies, critical support services, face-to-face exchanges, and information resources crucial to their local and global efforts.
 
Background

Local Realities - Global Challenges

In rural and urban settings around the world, women''s everyday contributions as mothers, food producers, and managers of essential natural resources deeply inform their role as environmental stewards. Women are committed to creating healthy environmental conditions, as it directly affects the quality of their health, the well-being of their families, and the economic security of their communities. In an effort to carry out their central responsibility as stewards, women around the world have taken to the frontlines of environmental, economic, and gender justice. They have become key players in the struggle to heal our communities and our planet.

Women''s work to ensure this vital sustainability has not been easy. Women and children are the most affected when water is scarce, forests are cut, farmland is degraded, toxins are present, or natural disasters hit. Often lacking the privileges of social or economic equity, personal safety, or political rights, women face significant constraints in exercising influence over these conditions. As a result, women worldwide still engage in an uphill battle to access the necessary training, information, and services they need to affect significant change in their communities-especially at the local level where resources are most limited.

Why Women?

Collaborative Partnerships of Women Lead to Environmental and Social Change

Women''s Earth Alliance is a response to an unmistakable trend: When women are in leadership positions, actively accessing the tools and resources they need, communities and environments thrive. The United Nations observes that "women''s personal stake in the distribution of natural resources has direct links to poverty eradication, economic growth, good governance, and improved quality of life." Around the world, women are protecting their communities, stewarding their forests, rivers, and land, and transforming their local economies. Yet, many of these women work in isolation and without the support structures they need. There are tens of thousands of women environmental leaders who are a part of a worldwide movement they cannot even see.

WEA was formed to build the mechanisms for these visionary women to locate each other, build their own alliances, and comprehend the powerful movement they are working within. WEA identifies the needs of women environmental advocates so that they have the support, partnerships, and visibility they need to co-create change. WEA works with regional partners to identify and reach the burgeoning numbers of women "under the radar" who are not yet networked globally with other women advocates. We create the powerful space for women to truly join forces, build collective agendas, and share their valuable analyses in larger decision-making forums-mutually inspiring others into action.