About Us
- Step up on gender mainstreaming, social protection and 1325- Civil Society to 9WAMM
- March 8 2010: As IWD heads towards 100, pressure is on for new responses
- WILDAF Ghana raises CEDAW profile with CWN support
- CSW 54: Commonwealth prepares for civil society and government discussions
- CANADA: Indigenous women and violence
Who we are, what we do
Background
The Commonwealth Women's Network (CWN) is a global network of civil society organisations committed to women's empowerment and gender equality. The CWN is made up of its members and an Executive Committee which includes the Chairperson and ten regional focal points. These include:
- East Africa
- Southern Africa
- West Africa
- South Asia
- South East Asia
- Europe
- Caribbean and Canada (2)
- Pacific (2)
Goal
The main goal of the CWN is to improve the quality of life of women throughout the Commonwealth.
Our work is ensuring a voice for civil society and women is an effective and dynamic part of commonwealth programmes and processes.
Information, communications and networking are at the core of our activities, building relationships among women and women's organisations in the commonwealth, and ensuring the collective voice and concernsof women in the Commonwealth are heard by those who dictate policy, decision-making and power.
The objectives
• To provide a gender perspective to Commonwealth programmes.
• To create and strengthen relationships among women in the Commonwealth.
• To create and strengthen links among women's and gender NGOs in the Commonwealth.
• To create and strengthen links with policy makers in the Commonwealth.
The CWN further seeks to influence and advocate for policy changes on behalf of civil society in the Commonwealth. Its core themes of Democracy and Governance; Sustainable Development; Culture and Diversity also resonate well with our own aspirations as civil society and as women's organizations.
About the Commonwealth Foundation
Click here to find out more about the Commonwealth Foundation.
The CWN has moved to the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it from Uganda and other sub regions have also hosted the CWN HQ which becomes a program of the hosting NGO organisation, usually a strong and networked member of the CWN. This is because a key role of the secretariat is to assist the critical CSO pre-WAMM forums and CSO interventions and participation during WAMM itself. As a network, the strength of the CWN is its online solidarity and information sharing, bringing together women's and gender-focused civil society organisations from around the 53 Countries of the Commonwealth. It is commonly hosted in the same country where the Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting (WAMM) are held every three years. For all hosting arrangements of the 9WAMM CSO Partners Forum, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it of NOW Barbados.
In Uganda the CWN was hosted by the Eastern African sub Regional Support Initiative for Advancement of Women (EASSI) based in Ntinda, Kampala . EASSI was selected by the women NGOs in Uganda because of its regional focus (It covers eight countries in the Eastern African sub region, three of which are Commonwealth countries), as well as its focus on policy monitoring, analysis and advocacy on implementation by governments on gender specific policies.
The role of the CWN is to organize civil society participation in the Partners Forum that is held in the wings of the Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting (WAMM). During the 8WAMM the Partners Forum was held at the Speke Resort Munyonyo from 8th to 10th June just three days prior to the formal 8WAMM held from 11th to 14th June 2007 at the same venue.
