Women's International Network (WIN)

WIN uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) and face-to-face interaction to work for women's right to communicate as a basic human right expressed through community radio. WIN's actions, events, and publications support women's empowerment, gender equity, and a general improvement in the condition and position of women worldwide. Infused with its participatory philosophy, WIN promotes women's access to all levels of community radio, including decision-making. WIN supports women's efforts to express themselves within and beyond their communities, by providing training programmes and production exchanges at the international and local level. The documents page on WIN's website offers access to publications that further illustrate WIN's commitments.

A concrete example of WIN's advocacy work is the creation of a "Gender Policy" which explains what gender equality means in community radio and how it can be achieved. Designed to serve as a tool to implement gender equality in community radio stations, the policy was framed by members of AMARC-WIN Asia Pacific - and shaped through comments from WIN members and others, in part submitted online. It demonstrates the necessary measures which can enable and encourage women's equal participation in all fields and levels of the radio station.

On March 8 2009, in honour of International Women's Day (IWD), AMARC-WIN held its fifth annual international broadcast campaign, with the theme of "What do the global crises (financial crisis, food crisis, and environmental crisis) mean to women in local communities?" AMARC-WIN offered a 24-hour Webcast dedicated to women and gender issues. Click here to listen online to the programmes.

From November 25 to December 10 2008, AMARC-WIN actively participated in the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence with an internet campaign to denounce gender violence in the media and transform media into a catalyst to end violence against women. This multilingual broadcast campaign was designed to mobilise community radios around a global issue and encourage them to use new communication technologies such as the internet to extend the reach of their voices. Community radio producers from Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean dedicated the campaign to highlighting the effort of women and men working to put an end to gender violence. The audio files of some of the participating community radios and production groups are available here. The programmes included documentaries, interviews, debates, poetry, music, and more.

Women, Gender, Rights, Community Media.

WIN membership is free for all women working in or within the community radio sector.