Women in Action Network (WIAN) is a Pan-African initiative advancing climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods through gender-responsive, community-driven solutions. We work at the frontlines of economic change—where the impacts of climate instability are felt most deeply, and the potential for transformation runs strongest.
Our work empowers women, youth, and local communities to adapt, thrive, and lead. We co-create pathways that strengthen ecosystems and economies through regenerative practices, inclusive enterprise, and intergenerational collaboration. From restoring degraded lands to building value chains rooted in culture and care, WIAN turns local knowledge and innovation into sustainable impact.
We see climate resilience not as a technical fix but as a holistic process, one linking income with identity, environment with equity, and tradition with innovation. By anchoring development in the lived realities of those too often left out of global conversations, we help build futures that are not only viable but just, rooted, and free.
Words We Live By
We begin with each other.
Not alone.
Not in isolation.
But in community. In connection. In shared purpose.
We are Women in Action Network (WIAN)—
a Pan-African movement rooted in freedom, dignity, and possibility.
We believe development is the process of expanding real opportunities—
the ability to choose,
the chance to lead,
and the right to live lives that reflect our values, our cultures, our aspirations.
And we know:
our role is to help build systems that restore agency,
amplify voice,
and open space for lasting change.
Our work is guided by women.
Powered by youth.
Strengthened by tradition.
And always—shaped by the communities we walk with, not ahead of.
We are not one project.
Not one place.
We are a living network—spanning borders, generations, and dreams still unfolding.
We begin with each other.
And from here,
we grow.
Welcome to WIAN.
Let’s build what comes next—together.
Our Team
Azeb Tadesse, PhD
Walter Allen PhD
Micheal Peprah
Arielle Davis, BSc
Our Mission
Our team is a passionate collective of changemakers, rooted in community and driven by purpose. Blending deep local knowledge with global expertise, we bring together backgrounds in sociology, sustainability, design, and data science to co-create solutions that are regenerative, inclusive, and culturally grounded. United by a shared vision for climate justice and economic dignity, we are building systems that center care, elevate traditional wisdom, and invest in the leadership of women and youth.
At Women in Action Network (WIAN), our mission is to expand freedom as the foundation of sustainable development, freedom to choose, to lead, to care, and to live lives rooted in dignity, culture, and purpose.
We co-create systems that strengthen individual and collective agency, especially for women and youth, by addressing the structural barriers that limit opportunity. Through intergenerational collaboration, climate resilience, and inclusive enterprise, we work alongside communities to build pathways toward self-determined, thriving futures.
WIAN exists to transform development from something done to people into something built with them, grounded in wisdom, powered by youth, and sustained through collective action.