Women Major Group (WMG) Organising Partners 2019-2021 Elections

These past two years the WMG was successful in influencing multiple spaces and mechanisms and even co-chaired the HLPF MGoCoordination Mechanism for the 2nd year in a row. Despite the shrinking of civil society space and defunding of women rights and feminist organizations, the WMG was able to facilitate powerful statements, in-person engagement, and had multiple actions to uplift women human rights and environmental defenders.

To continue to be more democratic, transparent and inclusive, we want to create opportunity for more balance across regions and themes, and to have continuity as well as a space for newcomers. Due to limited funding, such as not receiving any funding from the UN for coordination, the new set of OP’s will need to provide the basic needs of our group, facilitate engagement, monitor and influence what is happening at the national level, and secure more resources for our advocacy. English will be the common language for coordination.

The following will be the process/ structure:

1. Nomination process

Candidates may self-nominate, but also need at least 2 organizations to support their nomination. Nomination forms need to specify the organisation and the person in the organisation. The nomination forms are found at the end of the application form.

2. Timeline

                    17 July 5 PM – WMG Info Session on elections & first membership feedback

                    3rd week of August – WMG Election Process shared with wider membership for feedback

                    31 August 3 PM NY Time – Q & A conference call

                    5 September – Send out instructions on how to vote via an updated survey monkey. Fill out the new survey by Oct 16

                    9 September  – Share updated ToR, cover letter, nomination form

                    9 September – 21 October – Nomination form open

                    21-27 October – 3rd Party and secretariat to review

                    29 October – Announce official candidates

                    30 October – 1 November – Collect questions from members

                    2-7 November –  Q&A calls with candidates

                     7-20 November –  Voting period via ballot bin

                    21 November – Announce OPs

                   21 November – Dec 2018 – Capacity building for new OPs

                    7 January 2019 – New OP terms begin, e.g. with a call that week for the whole WMG

3. Staggered OP Election

                     Five OPs will be elected for the term Jan 1, 2019 – Dec 31, 2020. These include:

                      1) global OP (preferably NY based)

                      2) Anglophone Africa

                      3) Francophone Africa

                      4) Latin America and the Caribbean,

                      5) Pacific Small Island States.

The OP for Asia will be determined by the Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism (AP-RCEM) election that will be organized by the AP-RCEM, which is also taking place now.

Download the Terms of Reference for the full criteria and OP responsibilities here.