The member groups elect 6 women to the Executive Committee (Exco).
The Exco may invite 3 other expert members to join the Exco for a term. The elected Exco members may serve up to two terms or 6 years.
The Exco is the body that manages the organization according to the mandate given to it by the members during the triannual members consultation meeting.
The day-to-day work of the organization is done by the Secretariat who are paid staff and who may include volunteers from time to time. The Secretariat has usually been centralized and work from the organization office.However in its history the secretariat also included staff members who worked from their home countries.
The member organizations often are hosts/organisors of many projects of the organization. Also the Constitution provides for the formation of working groups that work specifically on some themes or focus areas.
In all its existence CAW has depended mainly on external funding to carry out its projects though the member organizations take on some tasks and finance it themselves.