 Advocating for policy that supports World Neighbors work with rural communities and organizations is one way that you can help us ensure that the progress we help people make is maintained and expanded.
As an organization, World Neighbors is actively involved with several international coalitions that promote the dignity, rights and well-being of people in poverty, almost three-quarters of whom are women. Our priority areas for global advocacy work over the next few years are (1) people-centered food systems and (2) women's equity, rights and health.
You can play a vital role promoting policy that empowers women and girls and allows them the opportunity to improve their own lives. Help women worldwide by taking action on one or more of the options listed below.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please help WOW! and the work we support by encouraging your elected officials to sponsor these important pieces of legislation. For your convenience, you can search for your elected officials here.
Reform U.S. Foreign Assistance
 Women's and global poverty issues —two areas that impact on the work that World Neighbors does around the world - have taken center stage in world politics recently. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made bold statements calling on the U.S. government to re-think the way it deals with the developing world by investing in women’s opportunities and listening to local voices in poor countries.
President Barack Obama has declared that America is ready to lead once more, saying, "To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders.
Right now President Obama and Congress have a historic opportunity to make this change a reality for million of women and families living in poverty. How? By reforming the U.S. foreign assistance system. Learn more about how you can help!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ratify CEDAW
 The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.
Currently, more than 185 countries - more than 90 percent of the members of the United Nations - are party to the Convention. However, the United States has yet to ratify this important document and is not bound to the provisions of the Convention.
Find out more about the provisions of CEDAW and take action today!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
End Violence Against Women
 Violence against women is a major cause of poverty and a huge barrier to economic opportunity. In addition to being an extreme human rights violation, it keeps women from getting an education, working and earning the income they need to lift their families out of poverty. The International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA), if passed, would consistently incorporate solutions for reducing violence against women into U.S. foreign assistance programs. WOW! and World Neighbors, along with other coalition members of Women Thrive Worldwide, support passage of this act.
| 
