Women Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE)

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Empowering women and young females since 2004

Nigeria · Women & Gender

🪙 0 Grant Koins · 🏆 Rank #19 Nigeria · Visit Website →

The group started in 2004 as Environmental Management and Protection Network, a non-profit organisation that unites individuals and organisations already committed to promoting environmental sustainability and effective waste management. This initiative sought a coordinated and harmonised approach to environmental intervention efforts. As the group continued to address environmental challenges (water shortage, dirty cooking energy, food scarcity, deforestation etc), we became increasingly aware that women in grassroots communities were the most severely affected. In response to this pressing issue, the group underwent a significant transformation in 2008 and was renamed the Women Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE). The transition was actually to involve the realities of the women that were at the frontline of the impact of environmental challenges. It is common to find women who do the entire farm work and are yet denied the right to own the land they till day-in and day-out. Women are the ones who source for water, yet they remain the thirstiest and most burdened by the search for clean and safe water points as they have no say when interventions are planned. They spend productive hours searching for fuel wood and take in much of the toxic fumes from the fireplace, but they are rarely considered in conservation strategies. several assessment studies on the level of women’s representation, participation and leadership in the control, use and distribution of natural resources. WISE developed a model that creates opportunities for disadvantaged women and girls to organize, train and collaborate on environmental and climate concerns, particularly those that have direct bearing on their lives. This approach is key to supporting them to contribute to environmental sustainability in ways where the women position themselves as seekers and initiators of solutions, decision makers, contributors and authors of their future. In this way, the women and girls do not return to the default, societal position (or social norm) of passive participants, victims, nor helpless recipients of handouts. The group has been involved in strengthening the roles grassroots women play in community resource management. We have worked for over nineteen years to mobilize disadvantaged women, especially, in Kaduna State, Nigeria by addressing several environmentally destructive cultural practices in water and food supply, energy services, natural resource access, education and waste management issues. Our programs deliver environmental awareness and education on climate change, conservation, energy, food and water security, as well as sanitation and hygiene. We also teach peace and conflict resolution, micro entrepreneurship, citizen journalism, empowerment 2.0 and digital empowerment. To support further WISE’s efforts, we lobby individuals, governmental and intergovernmental bodies, NGOs, CBOs and other individuals and corporate organizations to develop environmentally sustainable initiatives that socially and economically empower women. The group networks and lobbies individuals, governmental and intergovernmental bodies, NGOs, CBOs and other individuals and corporate organizations to develop environmentally sustainable initiatives that socially and economically empower women. To date, the group’s efforts have directly impacted over 150,000 women at the grassroots.