The WE Alliance for Women's Empowerment

This year, in the context of Ashoka's Changemaker's Week, I  have been honored to serve in a volunteer leadership role on one of the most exciting collaborations ever, with a fabulous group of women and men who have dedicated their lives to empowering women across the globe.

The WE Alliance on Prezi

As I posted to the WE Alliance mailing list, here's a very brief report of what WE experienced together on the 20th (& 21st-22nd) of June 2011, at the Ashoka Changemaker's Week in Paris:



What we did:

• We got to know each other a tiny bit with some personal sharing
• We watched the presentation http://prezi.com/smn7wdisq573/the-we-alliance/
• We got bogged down in mapping the impact we each stand for, by philosophical discussions about gender equality versus women's empowerment
• We wondered about who decided, and why it was decided that we needed to establish an alliance

• We moved to another space and worked in a larger group with some fresh perspectives on thinking through the potential Who, What, How and Why of the WE Alliance idea
• We went back to our "home" room and made a collective list of everything that needed to be decided upon in order to take the WE Alliance  forward (and also explored some concrete ways to influence Ashoka)
• We created an exploratory committee to further develop a proposal around the issues identified and report back to the larger group with it in the Fall
• We shared our reflections (after sleeping on it for a night) with each  other and some additional changemakers at a scheduled lunch meeting on the  following day

• We shifted our focus to other worldchanging topics, but continued to share, discuss and take action on pieces of the WE Alliance idea informally with each other
• We continued to identify ourselves and each other as part of WE in the halls of the Campus
•  We became a magnet of attraction for the Campus facilitators (many of  whom are now itching to be a part of our unique energy)
• We dared to dream that a next WE Alliance meeting - to ratify a WE Alliance Charter in revolutionary Egypt - could be possible in November of  this year.

What we discussed: 


There was a personal "To-Do" list proposed for all of us in the morning's presentation, which we were not able to revisit as planned (being distracted at the end by the whole other important discussion about how to influence Ashoka). When I revisited that To-Do list I found the following thoughts organizing themselves in my mind, as the main takeaways that I personally gathered from the entire WE process described above.


To Do #1 - 
Help define the DNA of your ideal community of collaborators

• what differentiates the WE Alliance from other networks is that it seeks to gather innovators
• the innovators should come from all silos in which innovators for Women's Empowerment are found
• we need to ensure that we think carefully about including men
• we need to balance between each member's individual and organizational identity & commitment

To Do #2 - 
Dare to dream about what we can achieve together

• most of us were able to imagine working together in a variety of ways to achieve both simple (ie, knowledge & info sharing) and complex (ie, impact measurement & global policy influence) objectives
• there was not much worry that we would find funding & other support to build useful structures and tools
• A (doable)? next meeting has been proposed: Egypt in November, to take the work of the Exploratory committee forward

To Do #3 - 
Identify the value you can add to building the alliance

• 19 individuals have put their names on the list to participate in an *exploratory committee* that will meet virtually in a series of calls and email discussions between now and the proposed November meeting. 
• Our initial call has been scheduled for Wednesday, 27 July. 
• The immediate issues for this group to explore will include those on the photo below,

• We will also discuss some key questions about the November event that's been suggested.
• Objectives of the meeting?
• Who will attend?
• Why it is important – why are we meeting?
• What will we do afterwards?
• (It's worth noting that I will propose some concrete suggestions recently developed by the Evolutionizing Innovation collective)

TO DO #4 - 

Get clear around what's in the WE Alliance for you

• being part of a "sisterhood" emerged as a highly valued potential benefit for many participants (I wonder if/how we can develop that into a "siblinghood," since we know we want to also include men....)
• Personal and professional access to a responsive high level global support network resonated as a valuable potential asset
• we can organize our interaction & activity with "spaces" for the many sub-interest groups represented in the alliance

TO DO #5 - 
Think outside the box about how the WE Alliance can help us gain energy

• this is the area where (for me) the most interesting ideas emerged "off-grid," outside of our larger group discussions
• there is a tremendous amount of "energy work" happening among and around us, which seems (to me) to reflect the same energy that calls us to believe in the potential power of a global alliance of innovators for women's empowerment.
• what gives us the feeling of "siblinghood" is the sharing of "together experiences" that energize us as individuals.
• unleashing a cascade of innovation *might* occur if we work more deliberately to harmonize/connect the personal energy of the amazing innovators involved.

See more photos of the WE Alliance launch workshop on facebook