WE-Women for Expo is an Expo Milano 2015 project in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori Foundation.
The President of Women for Expo is Federica Mogherini, the Honorary President is Emma Bonino, and the Executive President is Marta Dassù.
WE-Women for Expo addresses nutrition and sustainability and it does so, for the first time, by placing female culture at the heart of a Universal Exposition. All women are repositories of practices, knowledge, food-related traditions, and have the ability to feed themselves and others – of “taking care”, both of themselves and others.
Thanks to WE-Women for Expo, the women from participating countries at Expo Milano 2015 will be invited to speak about nurturing the body, and nurturing freedom and intelligence.
Our conviction is that global sustainability will be achieved through a new alliance between food and culture, and that the creators of this new approach and new pact for the future will be women.
By this, we mean artists, writers, celebrities, but also ordinary women – because all women can belong to WE, a network of ideas welcoming women from around the globe.
One of the initiatives of WE-Women for Expo is a simple, symbolic invitation: share your recipe for life. In other words, tell us a story about a dish that holds particular emotional value for you, that is more than anything a story from your life. For, we are all nurtured by memories, suggestions, and personal experiences.
Creativity and awareness for the future: WE-Women for Expo projects embrace the world
WE-Women for Expo is being developed through special projects and initiatives so as to create a progression of awareness projected toward the future that takes its cue from a variety of creative inspirations.
WE-International – A network of women who have distinguished themselves on the international scene and who are proclaiming one single, clear message: the need to draw the world’s attention to the issue of wastage of food and of resources in general.
WE-Women for Expo International has created a document-manifesto called the Women for Expo Alliance, the new global alliance of women against food wastage, whose purpose is to strengthen the role of women in agriculture around the world.
The Novel of the world – A wide-ranging, global narrative, composed of stories, memories, and feelings related to food. This is a book written by many different hands, each with own their own expertise, and each in their own fashion.
The act of feeding ourselves, described from the four corners of the earth, will be explored through a variety of forms, styles and perspectives. The ensuing collection will be preserved for the future. The Novel of the world (Romanzo del mondo, in Italian) is to be published in May 2015.
Competitions for female entrepreneurs – A special section dedicated to female-owned businesses, in collaboration with Expo’s Italian Pavilion.
In the current economic crisis, women are emerging as the new productive class, with female-led businesses multiplying, their sights set especially on agro-food, biodiversity, as well as the protection of, and respect for, the environment.
The Italian Pavilion will display the winning entrepreneurial entries in the Projects by Women and Projects for Women competitions.
The judging panel was headed by Diana Bracco, President of Expo 2015 S.p.A. and General Commissioner of the Italian Pavilion. Some of the business models are to be used as pilot schemes, and will contribute to identifying Best Practices for new approaches to agricultural production.
