Feminists demand end of UN WOMEN’s partnership with BlackRock
#StopBlackRock
On 25 May 2022, UN Women announced a partnership with the investment company BlackRock, “to cooperate in promoting the growth of gender lens investing”.
A collective of feminist activists and women’s rights organisations from around the world expressed their protest to this „corporate capture“ in a letter to UN WOMEN (see WEDO press release from 9.8.2022). The letter was supported by more than 500 NGOs, among them WIDE Austria and the European WIDE+ network.
Challenging corporate capture
BlackRock Inc. is a global player in financial investment. As highlighted in the NGO letter […]
Feminist Economic Alternatives
Report from an ActionAid webinar
By Margaux Bolzan
(22.12.2020) A new report of Action Aid Netherlands was presented in a webinar on the 9th of December 2020. In this event, experts gathered to discuss about the report which provides policy and analytical frameworks for feminist economic alternatives (FEAs).
The speakers were Mariama SONKO (president of the NSS/We Are the Solution, Senegal), Soledad SALVADOR (economist and researcher on development and gender at the Interdisciplinary Center for Development Studies, Uruguay) and Roos SAALBRINK (policy and advocacy manager on women’s economic rights at Womankind Worldwide).
The moderators, Rachel WALKER (Women’s Rights Campaign Manager in ActionAid Netherlands), Lila […]
Petition #halfofit: Half of the Corona funds for women
(May 2020) We urge the European Commission and the European Council to make sure that at least half of the volume of the Recovery and Resilience Instrument is spent on women’s jobs and the advancement of women’s rights as well as equality between women and men.
Invest in the Care Economy for a Just, Green, Feminist COVID-19 Response and Recovery
(13.5.2020) WIDE supports the statement of around 200 networks, trade unions, and organizations demanding expanded investment in the “care economy” for a COVID-19 response and recovery that is just, green, and feminist.
As the pandemic exposes the weaknesses of underfunded health systems around the world, the collective burdens that are frequently shouldered by women continue to worsen. A robust recovery will be impossible without greatly augmenting the public services that support positive health outcomes and demands policy choices that end such exploitation, including women’s paid and unpaid labor in the public and private sectors.
Transnational solidarity against racism and war!
(March 2020) WIDE supports common statement of many groups and organisations worldwide demanding peace, fundamental rights and freedoms of every person on the move.
Read the statement: https://crossbordersolidarity.com/#english
Statement in German: https://crossbordersolidarity.com/#German
Open letter on the Energy Charter Treaty
Prioritize climate protection and public policy space!
(9.12.2019) As the Energy Charter Conference takes place in Brussels this week (10./11. December 2019), more than 270 civil society groups (among them WIDE) call on decision-makers to scrap the Energy Charter Treaty as long it continues to protect fossil fuels and includes the ISDS parallel justice system for corporations.
The civil society organisations – environmental, climate, consumer, development, trade related civil society groups, as well as trade unions – express in an open letter to European ministers, the EU Commission and Parliaments that the Energy Charter Treaty is incompatible with the implementation of the […]
Trade for Her: Empowering Women?
WIDE+ open letter on the EC „Trade for Her“ Conference
(19.9.2019) WIDE+, with support of ActionAid International and further organisations, sent an open letter to EU Commissioner Malmström, concerning the conference organised by DG Trade on 30 September: ”Trade for Her: Empowering Women through International Trade”.
WIDE+ highlights that women are not a homogenous group and demands that the EU Commission needs to listen to the voice of women affected by international trade, not only to the champions and beneficiaries of the current international trade regime.
Women’s and girls’ rights and agency in humanitarian action
WIDE supports the advocacy-initiative of several organizations to strengthen a more systematic approach for ensuring that humanitarian action responds to women’s and girls’ rights and needs. Drawing on emerging initiatives, best-practice, research and the perspectives of affected communities themselves, the following recommendations provide a blueprint for governments, donors, United Nations agencies, civil society organizations, and national and local actors to work in tandem to drive system-level changes and put women’s and girls’ rights and agency at the centre of every humanitarian response.
The recommendations talk to:
- Women’s and girls‘ voices and leadership
- Equitable access to sexual and reproductive health services
- Prevention […]
“Show me the rest of the agreement!”
Global Feminist Alliance for Trade Justice launched
On 12.3.2019, as a parallel NGO event at the CSW 63 in New York, a Global Feminist Alliance for Trade Justice was launched.
Mariama Williams (Gender and Trade Coalition) moderated the presentation and discussion.
Speakers were Gita Sen (DAWN), Michelle Maziwisa (FEMNET), Ranja Sengupta (Third World Network) and Christina Palabay (APWLD).
WIDE+ is part of the Feminist Alliance of Trade Justice.
WIDE Erasmus+ project on gender, migration and democracy concluded
Reports and publications available
(31.1.2019) “The Europe we want? Feminist approaches to gender, migration, and democracy” was an Erasmus+ project that brought together five women´s rights organisations from different European countries in 2017 and 2018:
CEIM, GADIP, Karat Coalition, Le Monde selon les femmes, and WIDE
WIDE+ Briefing Paper on EU Trade Policy & Women’s Rights
(6.12.2018) Policy makers in and outside Europe have since 2017 discovered a gender divide in the trade policy and are starting to introduce specific policies to promote women’s economic empowerment. However these new policies and reflections fall short of a trade policy that effectively promotes and protects the rights of women.
This briefing paper published by WIDE+ gives an overview of the ways in which EU trade policy hinders the protection and promotion of women’s human rights, and makes several recommendations to EU policymakers to change this. The paper is available in English, French, Spanish and German.
WIDE publication: The Europe we want?
Feminist approaches to gender, migration, and democracy
Publication:
The Europe we want? Feminist approaches to gender, migration, and democracy
November 2018
Edited by WIDE
Download
(21.11.2018) This WIDE publication discusses issues around gender and migration in Europe, with a special focus on challenges in Spain, Austria, Poland, Belgium and Sweden. The publication is the result of a two years project supported through the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, and it is meant to serve as a resource for adult educators and the interested public.
Transforming lives?
CONCORD Report on the EU Gender Action Plan II
(19.9.2018) In the framework of the EU Presidency of Austria, this report was presented on 19 September by Celine Mias from CARE Interantional in an event organized by WIDE, Global Responsibility and CARE Austria in Vienna.
CONCORD & WIDE+: Women´s Rights and Trade
Joint Position Paper calls on the EU to move beyond voluntary gender articles in EU trade agreements
(4.6.2018) In this joint position paper “Women’s rights and Trade: Time for a radical shift”, CONCORD, the European Confederation for Relief and Development that represents 2.600 NGOs in Europe, and WIDE+ reflect on the recent policy developments to promote women’s rights in EU’s trade policies.
Making the case for gender equality in the new MFF
(4.5.2018) As the European Commission has released its Communication on the Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027), WIDE+, Care, DSW, EWL, IPPF European Network, One, Plan International, Kvinna till Kvinna, World Vision and WAGGS express their concerns that gender equality is not addressed as a key political priority.
They call on the European Parliament and the Member States, in the further elaboration of the future EU budget, to safeguard the promotion and protection of gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights.
