Campaigns

Formed in 1915, the WI has a long history of campaigning on a wide range of issues. Our resolutions and mandates process means every campaign starts within our membership. WI campaigns are about changing things for the better and tackling the issues that matter to members. Members are at the heart of the WI and they play a central role in bringing issues onto the WI’s national agenda through our public affairs and campaigning. From equal pay to climate change, from gaps in the midwifery workforce to the plight of the honey bee, WI members have embraced a diverse set of challenges and built a reputation for the WI as a practical and ambitious organisation that doesn’t shy away from tricky issues.

Current campaigns and initiatives

Due to the Coronavirus the Annual Meeting for 2020 was cancelled so it was not possible to discuss and debate the two resolution suggestions which had been selected by the national vote. The NFWI decided that both the winning resolutions should be accepted as our national campaign for this year. The winning resolutions are:

A call to increase potential stem cell donor registration

There is an urgent need to increase the number of people registered on the aligned UK stem cell registry in order to provide potentially life-saving treatment to people of all ages with certain blood cancers. We call on all WI members to promote registration to the database to avoid people dying whilst waiting for a match.

End Modern Slavery

There are tens of thousands of victims of modern slavery hiding in plain site in the UK. Modern Slavery has severe consequences for the health and mental wellbeing of survivors. The NFWI calls on the Government to protect victims of modern slavery in the first instance and deliver longer term support to help them rebuild their lives. We call on our members to raise awareness of the prevalence of modern slavery throughout society and to campaign to defeat it.

Link Together to Alleviate Loneliness
At the annual Meeting in June 2017, delegates voted in support of the NFWI’s resolution to ‘alleviate loneliness’ which aims to ensure that people who are lonely,  or  at  risk  of  loneliness,  are  identified  at the earliest possible opportunity and have access to the support and assistance they need. Our Link Together campaign seeks to inspire WI members to take action within their Institutes and federations and raise the profile of the issue with local health services.

End Plastic Soup
Microplastic fibres are small plastic fragments 5mm or smaller that are shed from synthetic clothes when laundered and end up in the sea and wider environment. The scale of the problem is large; millions of people wash their clothes every week, shedding these tiny particles that are too small to be  caught  by  the machine’s filters, flowing into the sewage system and eventually into the ocean. Due to their small size microplastic fibres are readily ingested by aquatic life, filling up their stomachs which can eventually cause death. We also know that these fibres are ending up in the food we eat, the long term effects of which are not yet clear.With a 98.9% majority, delegates voted overwhelmingly to support the resolution. The End Plastic Soup campaign calls for research and the development of solutions to prevent the detrimental environmental impact microplastic fibres are having on the environment.

Further information can be found at  https://www.thewi.org.uk/campaigns/resolutions-and-mandates