5) Description of initiative: The Nobel Women's Initiative (NWI) was established in 2006 by sister Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Betty Williams. Of the seven living laureates, only Aung San Suu Kyi, still imprisoned, is unable to formally join NWI, though we are confident shares our vision and we continue to fight for her, and the Burmese people's, freedom. We six women, whose roots are in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, believe the Nobel Peace Prize confers both great honor and great responsibility. It is this sense of responsibility that compelled us to create the NWI to help strengthen work being done in support of women's rights and peace around the world, work too often carried out with little recognition. With our various experiences over thirty years and on every continent, we know that women are an unshakable force for peace. We also know, however, that women’s work in building a more peaceful, secure world is too often marginalized and unrecognized and women face relentless threats of violence as they carry out their work around the world. The NWI is a united effort for peace with justice and equality- our vision is one of a democratic world free of physical, economic, cultural, political, religious, sexual and environmental violence and the constant threat of these forms of violence against women. Our Initiative works to address the root causes of violence against women by using the prestige of the prize to spotlight and promote the tireless efforts of women’s rights and peace activists, researchers and organizations. We turn the Nobel Prize, an honor bestowed on our work, into a force for strengthening work being carried out by unrecognized women advocates around the world. One way we aim to do so is through sharing visibility and access to media and to connect the voices, priorities and solutions with high-level global policy-makers.

6) Description of innovation: Our approach differs in that we are attempting to turn the Nobel Prize, an honor bestowed on our work, into a force for strengthening work being carried out by by advocates around the world - work often carried out in the shadows with little recognition. By sharing a platform with these women activists, we will spotlight their tireless work to prevent violence. We support women’s rights and peace campaigns at critical, strategic moments when additional media attention for their efforts, communications with policy makers, etc can help boost their initiatives. What is different is that we are supporting and strengthening existing initiatives, together. We believe profoundly in the sharing of information and ideas. By networking and working together rather than in competition, we enhance the work of all. We are committed to supplementing and enhancing existing work. We want to open new ground for discussion, debate and change. We remain committed to action, as a uniting force, so we wish to engage in discussion and debate, through conferences that are linked to meaningful action. We wish to support campaigns at critical junctures, leveraging the prestige of the prize for additional momentum and key points as well as highlight the work of key activists. In addition to strengthening activists' work and campaigns, we hope to use our Initiative to help secure more funding for women's rights and peace movements globally.

7) Delivery model: Thus far we have reached partners via usual communication methods of email newsletters, website, outreach and networking at events, etc a

8) Key operational partnerships: Partners are women's rights and peace activists, coalitions and networks worldwide. They are indeed key for our initiative.

9) Financial model: N/A

          • Costs as percentage of income: n/a

          • Financing: The Initiative is financed by the laureates themselves, their personal contributions, some government funding (Governments of Norway and Switzerland), some small foundation funding and some individuals.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: Thus far we have supported disarmament and human security initiatives such as the Arms Trade Treaty, signing letters before it went to the General Assembly, the Cluster Munitions Campaign, writing op-eds in media; we have also supported Nicaraguan women's organizations during the elections in November 2006 through participating in the online web-cast 'virtual observation' with FIRE (see http://www.fire.or.cr/) - very innovative project for monitoring and responding to violence against women with new communications strategies. We brought groups of women activists from Iran and the US together to meet, exchange experiences and strategize on avoiding a military conflict between our countries, and conducted media and lobbying activities together.

          • Number of clients in past year: n/a

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Start Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: We hope to expand staff (currently 2 and interns) in the future in order to enable us to support and strengthen more efforts for peace, justice and women's rights. We hope to be able, in the future, to have networks such as 'friends of NWI' to be able to support other peace and women's rights activists with us.

12) Origin of the initiative: In December 2004 the Review Conference for treaty banning landmines was held in Nairobi. Jody Williams was there, and invited Shirin Ebadi, Nobel laureate from Iran, to come talk about landmines in Iran from the Iran-Iraq war. Then Wangari Maathai was awarded the Prize. We had tea, to get to know one another, before holding a panel discussion together. There Shirin Ebadi suggested that we join together, work together for women's rights and peace. In 2005 we contacted the other laureates, discussed plans for the initiative, and NWI began in Janurary 2006.

Contact Information:
Liz  Bernstein
Director
Nobel Women's Initiative
(NGO)
Canada
Website: www.nobelwomensinitiative.org