The Commission on the Status of Women Forum Is Coming Up Soon!

WILPF CSW Forum Participants enjoy the evening together in 2019, the last year meetings were held in person.

By Jan Corderman
Co-coordinator of WILPF’s CSW Programs

January 2023

The UN Commission on the Status of Women will hold its 67th session March 6-17, 2023, with the priority theme: “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.”

Our Section partners with WILPF International each year to send a small delegation of university students and WILPF US members to participate in the CSW Forum at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. This access is made available through our CSW Programs: PracticumInAdvocacy and LocalToGlobal.

Applications for both the Practicum in Advocacy and Local to Global programs will be accepted until January 6, 2023. Find the applications here.

CSW Programs Help Build WILPF for the Future

The PracticumInAdvocacy Program began in 2008 and is specifically tailored for university and college students looking to learn and expand their advocacy skills on an international level. The LocalToGlobal program was launched to send WILPF members to participate alongside the students. Participants in both programs network with experts in their field, meet with peers, and develop a deeper understanding of WILPF’s work.   

Our CSW Programs are also a way for WILPF US to expand access to the UN among our membership and give us the opportunity to advocate on behalf of WILPF at the same time.

The week includes an orientation session and networking evening event on March 5, followed by participation in Consultation Day open to all civil society participants. Consultation Day is hosted by NGO CSW/NY, “a coalition of hundreds of organizations and individuals working within the United Nations community to advance gender equality and empowerment of women and girls across the globe.” This event serves as an orientation to the Forum, particularly highlighting the annual priority and review themes.

Our Program Coordinators, Jan Corderman and Shilpa Pandey, will hold morning update sessions and evening gatherings through March 11 featuring briefings from WILPF’s Peace Women & Reaching Critical Will staff, WILPF US Issue Committee Chairs, and others to help bring focus to a truly global community focused on standing for human rights, gender equality, feminine peace and the building of relationships. These gatherings, along with the sessions participants select from the many offerings at the Forum, empower us as women and help build WILPF for the future.

Through both Programs we look for ways to energize WILPF at the local, national and international levels. The Practicum offers a really unique opportunity for outreach, mentorship, and mutual learning between seasoned WILPF members and students who are already activists and advocates in their own right. Maybe you have a daughter or granddaughter who is a university student majoring in women/gender or environmental studies, government or foreign relations? Ask her to consider discussing the PracticumInAdvocacy program with a professor or department head.

Are you interested in expanding the work your Branch may already be doing or developing an issue you’re working with a committee on? Through our LocalToGlobal program, we hope to provide an opportunity to deepen our knowledge of WILPF’s work and offer ideas that will help further develop that work.

Continued Engagement with WILPF US Branches and Members, Issue Committees, and Solidarity Actions

WILPF CSW Forum Participants enjoy the evening together in 2019, the last year meetings were held in person.

Our goal is to engage each participant based on their area of expertise and geographical location.  All participants will be asked to create opportunities and ideas to expand and improve upon the WILPF US CSW programs during our week together and find ways to apply what they take from the Forum to enhance programs and events at the national and branch levels.

All of us can share what we learn at CSW67 (2023) and move that knowledge forward locally in our own activism/advocacy work.

Here are some delegate experiences, in their own words:

“Participating in CSW 2019 broadened my understanding of the issues prevailing in different parts of the world and exposed me to progressive approaches and policy solutions that proved to be successful in achieving women’s empowerment and gender equality,”

“I’m walking away with a more acute awareness of gender equity issues plaguing women and girls around the world and an understanding of how many of these issues are connected and can therefore be solved by more intentional and collaborative efforts. I’m also walking away with an understanding of my role in making sure we’re taking these tenets and bringing them back to the policy world so policies are intersectional and empowering. We’re not fixing communities but empowering communities to do the work themselves. It’s important to look at empowerment and know it doesn’t work the same for everyone.”

There are still a few days left to get in applications to these valuable programs! Again, you can find the applications here.

For more information contact:  jancorderman@msn.com or emailtoshilpa@yahoo.com