Convening 2026 - Building the Coalition

In June 2026, the WLRI gathered for the fourth time. Participants travelled to Nairobi for four days of strategic planning to shape the WLRI’s future engagement with the Rio Conventions at both the national and global levels. Building on the outcomes of last year’s workshop and the progress made over recent months across the Global, National, and Financing Action Tracks, the convening focused on translating identified opportunities to advance women’s land rights into concrete action plans with clear commitments, timelines, and responsibilities.

Over the past four years, the WLRI has steadily built the trust, alliances, and collective vision needed for effective joint advocacy. Successful collaborative initiatives have strengthened participants’ confidence that they can achieve greater impact by working together. With this strong foundation in place, the WLRI is now ready to move from information sharing and coordination to join action, driving the inclusion of women’s land rights in the Rio conventions together.

The objectives of this workshop were similar to the ones in 2025:

Objective 1 - Shaping our shared vision and building stronger collaboration through solidarity; jointly reflect on how being part of the WLRI community has impacted us as professionals and our work, how the WLRI can build on this to increase its impact and how we want the WLRI community to develop in the future.

</aside>

Objective 2 - Designing action - advancing the three Action Tracks; continue work that has started in the Global, the National and the Finance Action Track in the past months and use the convening to deepen our discussions and reflect on our commitments to better anchor women’s land rights in national and global Rio processes, strategies and action, as well to improve access to environmental finance to secure women’s land rights.

</aside>

Following an opening session, during which ‘old’ participants had the opportunity to reconnect and those joining for the first time were introduced to the history and evolution of the WLRI, the group quickly moved into in-depth discussions on the two objectives of the convening. This report summarizes the key discussions, insights, and outcomes of those sessions.

Objective 1: The future of the WLRI - shaping our shared vision and building stronger collaboration through solidarity

The impact of being part of the WLRI

As a starting point for reflecting on how to grow as a women’s land rights community and shape the future of the WLRI, participants first reflected on the value they have experienced from being part of the WLRI to date. They appreciated the WLRI as a space for exchanging ideas, building collective positions, and deepening their understanding of the Rio processes – their processes, technical language, the synergies among the Rio Conventions, as well as exploring ways to strengthen women's role as key agents of environmental action. and ways to empower women to become key agents of environmental action.

Participants also emphasized that the WLRI's value extends well beyond technical knowledge and policy engagement. The sense of solidarity, mutual support, and shared purpose fostered by the initiative has inspired, re-energized, and motivated members while strengthening their confidence to champion women's land rights at both the national and global levels within the Rio agenda.

Building on existing and expanding new assets

After having collected examples of how participants have experienced the value of the WLRI individually, the discussion on the future of the WLRI focused on existing assets of the community to build on, and new assets that need to be developed to strengthen the resilience and power of the community.

What are the assets of the WLRI?

One of the assets identified during last year’s convening is the power of numbers; the increasing size and scope of the network make its action more powerful, and experiences so far showed that working together, joint positioning and pooling resources is possible without making many compromises.

As one participant put it “the WLRI is a space to go from ego to eco”.

Another asset the WLRI builds on is the involvement of National Focal Points (NFPs) deliberately strengthened this year by inviting more NFPs to the convening. The safe space for discussion and the opportunity to expand informal contacts were also highlighted.

While confirming last year’s reflections, this year participants also highlighted assets such as being a space to keep the women’s land rights on the agenda, empowering land rights advocates with content, arguments and technical back-up and providing the opportunity to connect with different kind of stakeholders, from grassroots to government representatives.

How can we use these assets to advance our shared vision for women’s land rights?