Issues

WECF focuses on 5 thematic areas, which it sees as essential for achieving a Healthy Environment for All. WECF believes that in order to reach sustainable development, progress to achieve improvements in all 5 areas need to be integrated.

  • Energy and Climate
    WECF cooperates with local organizations to improve the access to affordable and renewable energy and to cut back on the use of energy in general. In addition to project implementation on the local level, WECF advocates for safe and sustainable energy at the national and international level. The WECF energy working group handles upcoming events like the International Renewable Energy Conference and the UN Climate Change Conferences.
  • Chemicals and Health
    WECF and its members advocate for non-chemical alternatives worldwide, based on three principles: polluter pays, reversal of the burden of proof and the precautionary principle, and will highlight the gaps and inadequacies in current legislation. WECF raises awareness amongst consumers and encourages them to ask questions about the products they allow into their homes.
  • Water and Sanitation
    WECF implements decentralised, safe sustainable and affordable sanitation systems for rural areas and promotes in particular access to safe water and sanitation for schools. WECF raise awareness and mobilise citizens for a sustainable water and wastewater management and promotes community based and affordable water supply systems for rural areas without a centralised drinking water supply. WECF and partners represent civil society in the UNECE Protocol on Water and Health process and advocate for an integrated and sustainable approach to water resource and river basin management.
  • Biodiversity and Food
    WECF’s overall goal for Safe Food Production and Sustainable Rural Development in the EU and EECCA region is that by 2020 all children, women and men have access to safe, regional, diverse and affordable food, free of hazardous chemicals, nano-particles and GMOs, based on fair trade and produced in harmony with nature and landscape, protecting water, soil, air and biodiversity.
  • Gender and Rights
    WECF’s overall goal “Achieving a healthy environment and sustainable development for all” can only be reached by integrating human rights and gender perspectives into all policies. If sustainable development and a healthy environment for all are the focus of our societies, short-term economic gains cannot have priority above the rights and health of people and the environment. Therefore, at the base of all sustainable development goals, stands a rights-based approach to achieving these goals.


Our projectwork in these five key issues brings safe ecological solutions to local problems in the areas of chemicals, sanitation, energy and food production. Our policy work at national, European, UN and international level brings women’s perspectives to policymakers. For more information see our project pages.