Nobel Women’s Initiative is organizing an intergenerational feminist convening in Nairobi connecting women leaders from around the world to advance climate justice, peace, and environmental care.
Dates: 28 February - 05 March, 2026
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
NWI staff met in Nairobi with teams from the Wangari Maathai Foundation and the Green Belt Movement.
In March 2026, Nobel Women’s Initiative (NWI) will convene Rooted & Rising in Nairobi, Kenya. This will be a global feminist gathering dedicated to climate justice, environmental protection, and peace.
The convening will honor the life and legacy of Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, environmentalist, and founding member of NWI, whose work showed the world that environmental justice, women’s leadership, and peace are deeply interconnected.
The convening will bring together alumni of NWI’s flagship Sister-to-Sister program, alongside partners, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, and women leaders, to build networks and solidarity, and to strengthen feminist movements at a moment when women’s rights, climate justice, and peace work are increasingly under attack worldwide.
The convening will also mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of Nobel Women’s Initiative, returning to Nairobi—the city where the idea for NWI was first born during a gathering of its co-founders, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, and Wangari Maathai.
Rooted & Rising will be a celebration, a circle of learning, and a launchpad for collective action. The convening will strengthen feminist climate justice networks and leadership, while creating space for reflection, movement-building, and shared strategy among Sister-to-Sister alumni, women leaders, grassroots activists, philanthropists and laureates from across regions.
By grounding the gathering in African and Indigenous climate leadership, the convening will challenge dominant narratives around climate action and promote intersectional feminist approaches rooted in care, justice, and peace. Participants will engage through dialogue, skill-building, community visits, cultural exchange, and collective reflection, honoring Wangari Maathai’s legacy while building pathways for sustained collaboration.
Climate change is not only an environmental crisis—it is a justice issue. Its impacts are felt most acutely by communities already facing inequality, conflict, and displacement, particularly in the Global South. Women and feminist movements are often at the forefront of responding to these challenges: protecting land and water, defending community rights, restoring ecosystems, and building peace.
Rooted & Rising will center these realities and amplify the leadership of women who are advancing climate justice and peace in diverse ways—through advocacy and storytelling, community organizing and policy work, creative expression and research, sustainable energy initiatives, and efforts to protect ecosystems, livelihoods, and human rights.
The convening will create space for dialogue, skill-building, reflection, and solidarity, connecting lived experience with global advocacy and movement-building.
At the core of Rooted & Rising are young women leaders from NWI’s Sister-to-Sister program.
Thirty young women from the Sister-to-Sister alumni network will participate in the convening, including members of the 2025 cohort, whose theme—Rooted & Rising—was inspired by Wangari Maathai’s life and work. These women come from diverse regions and contexts and are actively shaping change in their communities.
For more than a decade, NWI’s Sister-to-Sister program has been our flagship initiative, supporting young feminist leaders working for peace. Centering Sister-to-Sister at Rooted & Rising is therefore both intentional and symbolic—honoring the organization’s origins while lifting up the next generation of women leaders carrying that vision forward.
The Rooted & Rising convening aims to:
Rooted & Rising will bring together a diverse group of participants, including:
Over five days in Nairobi, participants will take part in:
Opening and closing circles grounded in reflection and community
Skill-building and dialogue sessions on feminist leadership and climate justice
Field visits with local communities and environmental defenders
A day honoring Africa Environment Day and Wangari Maathai’s legacy
Intergenerational conversations with Nobel Peace Prize laureates
Opportunities for connection between activists, partners, and supporters
Parallel spaces include regional meetings for Sister-to-Sister participants, advocacy and bilateral meetings, and laureate dialogues.
The convening is organized in collaboration with:
Wangari Maathai Foundation
Green Belt Movement
Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace (CUNY)