In 2024, global military spending hit $2.7 trillion while schools, hospitals, and climate programs went underfunded. Record military spending isn’t making us safer. It’s fueling conflicts, accelerating climate breakdown, and draining resources from healthcare, education, and human rights. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom is dedicated to reversing this.
Founded in 1915, WILPF is the world’s oldest women’s peace organisation. With more than 4500 members in over 40 countries and a Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, WILPF works globally and locally to disarm violence, center gender justice, and build lasting peace. We advocate at the UN and in national forums to shift money, policy, and power away from war economies and toward communities.
WILPF doesn’t just protest violence: we document it, expose weapons flows, support and connect young feminist activists advancing peace and demilitarisation in their communities, and ask that governments choose people over war profits.
WILPF played a pivotal role in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its work towards eliminating nuclear weapons.
Through close collaboration with other NGOs, civil society, and activists, WILPF contributed to the adoption and entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2021.
Our collaboration with other NGOs in Geneva led to the first-ever Human Rights Council resolutions addressing the firearms industry. This effort also resulted in the first written guidance from human rights experts outlining the responsibilities of arms companies with regard to human rights.
89,000+ people reached through in-person and online trainings to challenge militarised masculinities and promote feminist peace.
Globally, WILPF partners with 30+ organisations to advance feminist peace activism and reimagine feminist alternatives to militarised and exclusive peace and political processes in Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and beyond.
Together, we can create a world where everyone, regardless of their identity, can live with dignity and respect. Stay resilient, stay hopeful, and continue to be the change you wish to see in the world.
Our members are on the ground in conflict zones and in the rooms where UN policy is written, connecting grassroots truth to global power.
From women’s suffrage to nuclear disarmament, WILPF has been at the table for major peace breakthroughs of the last century.
While others talk about the next generation, we’re training them: 100+ young feminist leaders equipped to challenge militarism in their communities this year alone.
We research and raise awareness of how military spending drives inequality, climate crisis, and authoritarianism; then we work to redirect those billions toward justice.
Channel Foundation promotes women’s human rights by funding intersecting streams of the global movement for gender equality.
The United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) supports local and grassroots women’s civil society leaders and their organizations in conflict and crisis settings worldwide.
Oak Foundation commits its resources to address issues of global, social, and environmental concern, particularly those that have a major impact on the lives of the disadvantaged. Through our grant-making, we support others to make the world a safer, fairer, and more sustainable place to live. With offices in Europe, India, and North America, we make grants to organisations in approximately 40 countries worldwide.
The Sigrid Rausing Trust is a grant-making foundation established in 1995. The Trust runs ten grant-making programmes, organised under three themes: human rights; fairness and inclusion and the environment. In addition, we make occasional grants in other fields, including medical and humanities research.
PAX sapiens’ mission is to generate new systems of collective coordination to address serious, systemic global problems at the root of armed conflict.
The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and inclusive democracies whose governments are accountable to their people.
The Ford Foundation’s mission has sought to reduce poverty and injustice, strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement.
PeaceNexus is a Swiss private foundation that helps strengthen the capacities of and collaboration between peacebuilding organisations. Based across Switzerland, West Africa, Central Asia, South East Asia and the Western Balkans, the PeaceNexus team works with local actors and international organisations active in fragile states that support local initiatives or shape national and international policy.
Peace isn’t built by governments alone. It’s built through sustained investment in people and movements with the courage to transform systems.
Your partnership helps fuel systemic change. By supporting WILPF, funders enable local activists, researchers, and advocates to shape national budgets, influence UN policy, and press governments to prioritise peace and justice over militarism.
Investing in WILPF strengthens an infrastructure for long-term impact.
Our advocacy contributes to global efforts that shift public spending priorities and budgets toward social investment.
Our members connect local realities to global decisions, bringing community voices from conflict zones into international policy.
Allow funders to align their portfolios on gender, peace, climate, and human rights with a century-proven global network.
Let’s build peace together. Contact us at partnership@wilpf.org to explore partnership opportunities.
Sustains WILPF’s advocacy at the UN, research into weapons flows, and convenings that connect grassroots leaders with policymakers.
Can target priority regions, gender-responsive budgeting, or youth leadership initiatives.
The challenges before us are profound and unprecedented. But just as we always have, WILPF continues to work for a future of peace, freedom, justice, human rights and equality for all.
We hope you’ll join us. Learn more about how you can become a member or volunteer with WILPF, check out our latest news and events, donate to support our cause or come work with us!
Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.
Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.
Your donation isn’t just a financial transaction; it’s a step toward a more compassionate and equitable world. With your support, we’re poised to achieve lasting change that echoes through generations. Thank you!
Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.
Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.
Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.
In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris facilisis luctus rhoncus. Praesent eget tellus sit amet enim consectetur condimentum et vel ante. Nulla facilisi. Suspendisse et nunc sem. Vivamus ullamcorper vestibulum neque, a interdum nisl accumsan ac. Cras ut condimentum turpis. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Curabitur efficitur gravida ipsum, quis ultricies erat iaculis pellentesque. Nulla congue iaculis feugiat. Suspendisse euismod congue ultricies. Sed blandit neque in libero ultricies aliquam. Donec euismod eget diam vitae vehicula. Fusce hendrerit purus leo. Aenean malesuada, ante eu aliquet mollis, diam erat suscipit eros, in.
WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.
Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.
Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.
WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.
In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.
In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.
