WUNRN
WELDD - Women's Empowerment & Leadership
Development for Democratisation
The Women’s Empowerment and Leadership
Development for Democratisation (WELDD) programme was jointly developed by
Shirkat Gah- Women’s Resource Centre (SG), Women Living Under Muslim Laws
(WLUML), and the Institute for Women’s Empowerment (IWE) following remarkable
changes in the ways people around the world express their demands for freedom,
equality and justice. Our mission is to support women’s empowerment and to
boost capacity to challenge
inequality worldwide by nurturing women’s leadership. Working
with women’s rights activists across the Global South, our goal is to
create transformative
and sustainable feminist leadership in countries in the
Middle East, Africa and Asia including
WELDD is spearheaded by Shirkat Gah. Based
in
The international solidarity network,Women Living Under Muslim Laws,has
been active for three decades across countries where women’s lives are shaped
by laws said to be driven from Islam. Its mission is to effectively advance
gender justice, equality and women’s rights by linking women from Muslim
communities and collectively empowering women in their local struggles to reach
their own goals in their own unique contexts. Transnational, flexible and
non-hierarchal, WLUML is at the core of a unique network that mobilizes around
the issues of women’s rights and the political use of religion. For more
see http://www.wluml.org.
The third consortium member, Institute for Women’s
Empowerment, was founded by a group of engaged researchers
and political advocates, who are active in regional and international networks
working on various issues around the empowerment of women. Among
others, issues include religious fundamentalisms, land rights, sexualities,
political participation, economic justice and the sustainability of activism,
organisations and movements. IWE’s mission is to enable women to challenge
and transform unjust power relations and structures which obstruct their full
access to and enjoyment of their rights and entitlements. Please see http://www.iwe-women.org.
All three partners, SG, WLUML and IWE, have long been at the forefront of advocacy for gender equality in different socio-cultural and political contexts. They see the WELDD programme as an opportunity to strengthen and expand their existing programmes and activities by focusing on women’s leadership, over and beyond specific issues, while ensuring that activities implemented under WELDD support the actions that women are already engaged in or desire to address in their own contexts.
MISSION
Advancing equal rights for women and
girls
The overarching goal of WELDD is ‘to
build women’s leadership by advancing equal rights and opportunities for women
and girls.’ This will be done through the delivery of activities under four
thematic areas:
Through its transnational work, WELDD aims to connect women’s rights organizations and build international solidarity around a shared agenda of social, cultural, economic and political transformation for equality and the realisation of human rights for all.
VISION
The WELDD programme strives, through its
work, to contribute to a world that recognises, nurtures and responds to
feminist women leaders active across a broad range of issues, contexts and
power dynamics, locally, regionally and globally. Engaging with new and vibrant
movements from the Global South, WELDD supports the creation of communities of
women able to engage locally and act globally for gender justice.
In pursuit of women’s equality and social justice, WELDD views leadership and power through the lens of transformational feminist leadership. Transformational feminist leadership aims to create social change and gender justice. It strives to use power, resources and skills in non-oppressive, generative and inclusive ways so as to mobilize others towards the realization of women’s human rights. From agency to empowerment, to leadership, WELDD aims to support a new wave of women’s rights activists as they transform the very nature of leadership and the world.
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