Conference Background

Many of the regions addressed in larger conferences have little or no access to funding to attend these conferences (I.e Women of the Mountains 2011) UVU, along with the Mountain Partnership, have embarked on a series of smaller conferences with the goal of Outreach to the very regions in need.

These Outreach Conferences are smaller more localized events tailoring to remote regions that are directly impacted by, but not exclusive to, Global Climate Change, Resource Abuse, and Population Exploitation. These conferences provide a platform for the people of these regions and we at UVU provide a global audience via the Women of the Mountains site.

Goals of the 2012 Women of the Mountains International Conference

• To discuss pressing issues concerning mountain communities in the Andean regions of Peru and Surrounding countries;
• To continue traditions of two previous international Conferences, organized by UVU and IUK in Orem, Utah in 2007 and 2011;
• To implement a number of decisions of the Orem Declaration of Mountain Women, the final document of the first conference in 2007 which aimed, in particular on:
  • Strengthening regional alliances to promote gender issues;
  • Encouraging membership in the Mountain Partnership and Mountain Forum;
  • Alternating convention sites between Utah and the other mountainous countries around the world, with the aim of identifying and resolving mountain women problems in particular regions of the world.