The Diverse Women for Diversity (DWD), an international network of women, emerged as a Southern response to the threats to cultural and biological diversity posed by globalisation. Founded in 1997, following the Conference on Plant Genetic Resources in Leipzig in June 1996, the movement today has a presence in all continents. The moment aims at building and concentrating women’s energies to articulate and provide alternatives based on equality, justice, sustainability and peace.
“Making Peace with the Earth – Through Diversity, Mutuality, Non-Violence & Care ” – An Ecofeminist Manifesto
In the framework of a series of events held in Italy from 5 – 7 June 2023, on June 5th, on the occasion of International Environment Day, Dr Vandana Shiva, President of Navdanya International, launches the Diverse Women for Diversity’s Ecofeminist Manifesto in Rome.
Resources:
Synopsis of the Ecofeminst Manifesto – Making Peace with the Earth
Executive Summary of the Ecofeminist Manifesto – Making Peace with the Earth
»Frieden mit der Erde schließen« – Ein ökofeministisches Manifest
Estratto dal Manifesto Ecofemminista «Fare Pace con la Terra
Launch of “Making Peace with the Earth – Through Diversity, Mutuality, Non-Violence & Care”, an Ecofeminist Manifesto – Highlights, 5 June 2023
PRESS RELEASE – Press Conference with Dr Vandana Shiva – Launch of “Making Peace with the Earth: An Ecofeminist Manifesto” – June 5th in Rome
COMUNICATO STAMPA – “Fare pace con la Terra”: Un manifesto Ecofemminista per un futuro ecologico – Conferenza stampa con Vandana Shiva il 5 giugno a Roma
ARTICLE – Freedom in Diversity, by Dr Vandana Shiva
ARTICOLO – Ripartire dall’Eco-femminismo, di Dr Vandana Shiva
ARTICLE – Diverse Women for Diversity- On Making Peace with the Earth
Voices of Diversity – Film
Who are these women, who have dedicated their lives to protecting this earth? What do their voices stand for? Do they speak for us all?
In this short trailer to our upcoming short film, we showcase the diverse voices of people who are silently working on re-establishing harmony with the Earth. People, who for generations, have carried on a way of life that breeds health, biodiversity and vitality to ecosystems.
“Voices of Diversity”, a Short Film by Navdanya
English subtitles available
DWD Festival: Celebrating Diverse Women for Diversity at Navdanya Farm (2 – 8 March 2023)
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From March 2-8 2023, the Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm hosted the Diverse Women for Diversity Festival (DWD), a coming together of the international movement of Diverse Women for Diversity. Over 50 women activists, farmers, and researchers from more than 20 countries, from Latin America, the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, and Canada, amongst others, gathered with over a hundred women representatives from 21 states in India to share struggles and build coordinated actions in defense of the Earth, biodiversity, and food. The gathering represented a fundamental step in strengthening relationships and building alliances among women’s struggles in different areas of the world.
More Videos by Friends of Navdanya
Diverse Women for Diversity
For thousands of years, women have produced their food and guaranteed food security for their children and communities. Even today, the primary work of maintaining household food security through local food production, processing and distribution is done by women.
The patriarchal mindset not merely devalues women’s role in food security, it also destroys biological and cultural diversity through the concepts of monoculture and corporate monopolies on life and knowledge embodied in Intellectual Property regimes and technologies that tamper with life itself such as genetic engineering. Globalisation of the market puts trade above sustainability and profits above life. The commodification of all resources and relationships that ensure sustainability and peace has led to a global increase in hunger and starvation, in violence and terrorism.
Women of different regions have organised as Diverse Women to provide an alternative voice and vision to the dominant paradigm of commercialization and corporatisation of Food Security and the privatization of natural resources.
Other Resources
Seattle, 1999: Diverse Women for Diversity Declaration to WTO
Diverse Women of the World Resolve to Defend Biological and Cultural Diversity through Non-violence
Pledge To Be Seed Guardians and To Protect Our Traditional Seeds
Biodiversity Or Gmos: Will the Future of Nutrition be in Women’s Hands or Under Corporate Control?
“Food security for all is not possible within a global market system based on the dogma of free trade, permanent growth, comparative advantage, competition and profit maximization. On the other hand, food security can be achieved if people within their local and regional economies feel responsible, both as producers and as consumers for the ecological conditions of food production, distribution and consumption, and for the preservation of cultural and biological diversity where self-sufficiency is the main goal.
Our food security is too vital an issue to be left in the hands of a few transnational corporations with their profit motives, or up to national governments that increasingly lose control over food security decisions, or to a few, mostly male national delegates at UN conferences, who take decisions affecting all our lives.
Food security must remain in women’s hands everywhere! And men must share the necessary work, be it paid or unpaid. We have a right to know what we eat! No to Novel Food and No to Patents on Life. We will resist those who force us to produce and consume in ways that destroy nature and ourselves.”
(Excerpt from the Leipzig Appeal for Women’s Food Security, June 20, 1996)