White Ribbon Alliance is in Kigali at this year’s Women Deliver conference to announce that this highly respected global grassroots movement is stepping confidently into the future with a new Global Leadership Group.
‘It’s truly a new dawn for White Ribbon Alliance,’ says Angela Nguku from WRA Kenya. ‘We are at the forefront of the localization agenda which is on everybody’s lips. We are indeed ahead in Reframing who Leads in line with the conference objectives, ensuring that grassroots and communities, local advocates and change makers and those on the ground are centered and leading.’’ WRA’s members and national alliances have always been locally led, listening and acting on local voices. WRA has shifted power and is closing down the US based secretariat, paving way for the local players who have been the drivers of the WRA movement for decades. It is a new era for being truly locally owned, locally driven and led
Nguku is Co-Chair of the Global Leadership Group together with Aparajita Gogoi of WRA India. ‘White Ribbon Alliance has a long track record for leading the charge in advocacy for women and their newborns around the world,’ says Gogoi. ‘The What Women Want campaign was started by WRA India. WRA members across the world then took it forward, implementing and curating this campaign which has gathered 1.2 million statements from women about their priorities for their own sexual and reproductive health – and which has inspired a number of further campaigns for midwives, women and young people on the same model.’ WRA also initiated and led the global campaign for the Universal Rights of Childbearing women with the Charter for Respectful Maternal and Newborn Care, which since has become the gold standard for policy makers and health professionals around the world.
In the past, the global WRA has operated through a secretariat based in Washington DC. The main purpose of this office was to coordinate and support the work of the National Alliances. However, since 27th April 2023 when this secretariat conveyed their decision to cease this function, WRA National Alliances have united in a new collaborative operational model based in the countries where their grassroots work takes place. This is in line with the long-standing aspiration of WRA to transfer leadership to local/regional hubs. Two such hubs have now been set up, one in the UK, one in Kenya (contacts below).
WRA’s new Global Leadership Team is collectively leading and coordinating WRA, pushing for change and accountability through their power approach; the ASK-LISTEN-ACT methodology. They continue asking and listening to WHAT WOMEN WANT for their health and wellbeing, advocating for local, national and global actions to drive transformational systems change for women, girls and newborns and the communities that they live in.
‘It is our foundational principle to value the voices and contributions of WRA members equally, wherever they are in the world,’ says Gogoi. ‘We know the challenges faced by our own communities and we also know the solutions. We work in our own communities, countries, regions and globally with the decision makers who are responsible for implementing those solutions– and holding them to account. We continue to do so and are charting our course into the future, in solidarity with all women, girls and newborns.’
Contacts at Women Deliver
Angel Katusia /
Katy Woods /
Co- chairs
Aparajita Gogoi. agogoi@c3india.org