The Executive Committee Meeting (ECM) of ICW will be held in Avignon, France, from May 12 to 16, 2020. During the ECM, we evaluate women’s status from a global perspective, while assessing ongoing activities of ICW members and organizations. 

Through the event, our ICW sisters will share their ideas and understanding, creating a basis for strengthened solidarity and global friendship.

This year, the ECM will be held under the triennial theme, "Social Protection for All Women and Girls: Sustainable Development for the World." The theme was approved at the last General Assembly held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2018. 

At the 35th General Assembly in Yogyakarta, ICW sisters agreed that social protection can play a fundamental role in creating inclusive and sustainable development. Social protection should be designed and implemented to consider women's socio-economic disadvantages and ensure that all women and girls have access to essential goods and services. Without accessible care and systematic measures to address gender-related constraints and barriers, gender equity and social transformation cannot take place. 

As such, ICW will focus its triennial plan of action and focus of work on raising awareness of specific needs of women to be addressed through implementation of gender-sensitive social protection policies and encouraging women’s participation in the effective planning, implementation and evaluation of gender-sensitive social protection policies. 

At the upcoming ECM, there will be vibrant discussions on evaluation of global and local initiatives to combat Violence Against Women (VAW) as we approach the 25th anniversary of Bejing Platform for Action. We hope that many ICW sisters around the world will join us at Avignon to share their insights on measures against VAW and other initiatives implemented at the 4th World Women's Conference in Beijing 1995. 

The itinerary and other information for ECM can be found in the attached files above. 

If you have other questions, please direct them to secretariat office via icw.secretariat@gmail.com