In April, over 30 women working at the frontlines of civil society, culture, media, philanthropy, business, and government gathered for the 2019 Connected Women Leaders Forum, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. Participants in the meeting discussed the urgency of an upsurge of women's leadership in climate and the need to converge the women's rights and climate movements.
Every woman made personal commitments to this end and together co-wrote the declaration, inviting other women and girls to join them.
The mission of Connected Women Leaders (CWL) is to activate the power of women, working together through connected leadership, to find better solutions to global challenges. Building on the outcomes of the 2019 Forum, CWL is building a transformative global agenda centered on climate justice and its link to gender equity, recognizing that education, human security, economic opportunity, and the health and well being of women and girls are critically interconnected.
Forum organizers Pat Mitchell and Ronda Carnegie summarised the declaration by saying: “Now is the time for all women, no matter their focus, to re-imagine themselves as also climate leaders. The participants at the Forum have done just that, and will support all women and girls to step forward at this vital moment to take up leadership of the climate movement globally. We call on all other women and men in positions of power and privilege to do the same.”