2020 should have been marked
by Beijing+25: the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and
the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action, the most comprehensive agenda in the field of gender
equality and women's rights. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic most activities were
postponed to 2021. That is why we are now talking about Beijing25+.
In 1995, 17 000 delegates and
30 000 activists from all over the world went to Beijing to attend the Fourth
World Conference on Women. This was one of the biggest meetings to promote
women's rights ever held. Despite some progress, real change has been slow and,
to date, no country has achieved gender equality.
WO=MEN Dutch Gender Platform
is committed, on behalf of and in cooperation with its members and partners, to
promoting gender equality and women's rights in international processes such as
Beijing25+.
Generation Equality Forum
In 2021, various activities
are taking place in the context of the
Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action. The Generation Equality Forum (GEF) is the name for
two global meetings for gender equality. This process is initiated by UN Women
and co-organised by the governments of Mexico and France and with active
involvement of civil society.
These meetings aim to bring
together different actors, including young people and activists but also
philanthropic institutions and corporations, to develop a new feminist agenda.
And to develop a progressive partnership in the field of gender equality.
- Generation Equality Forum Mexico took place 29 - 31 March
2021. Some of the main sessions can still be seen here.
- Generation Equality Forum Paris took place 30 June – 2
July 2021. You can view the sessions here.
The Forum launched a 5-year action journey to achieve irreversible progress towards gender equality, founded on a series of concrete, ambitious and transformative actions, including $40 Billion in financial commitments. The results of these forums
are expected to be presented to governments in the United Nations general
Assembly (UNGA) in September 2021.
Generation Equality Action
Coalitions
As part of the Generation
Equality Forum process, six thematic action coalitions have been created. Over
the next five years (2021 - 2026) these Action Coalitions have a responsibility
to bring about concrete and sustainable change in the field of women's rights
and gender equality. These action coalitions are in line with the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Gender-Based Violence
- Economic Justice and Rights
- Bodily Autonomy and Sexual
and Reproductive Health and Rights
- Feminist Action for Climate
Justice
- Technology and Innovation
for Gender Equality
- Feminist movements and leadership
Attention to and engagement of girls and young women has been taken up as a cross-cutting issue.
Each of these Action
Coalitions has developed its own priority actions for the coming years. These
draft priorities are collected in the
Global Acceleration Plan for
Gender Equality. This feminist roadmap was presented in the
Generation Equality Forum Mexico and finalized in the Paris
Forum.
Several NGOs in the
Netherlands working for women's rights and gender equality are involved in one
or more action coalitions, either themselves or through their headquarters or
local partners. WO=MEN organises knowledge exchanges between its members and
civil servants that are engaging in these processes.
Commitments
The Generation Equality Forum
process aims to drive commitments by governments, women’s, feminist and
youth-led organizations, international organizations, philanthropy and the
private sector to achieve sustainable change towards gender equality.
If you wish, your organization
can also become a commitment maker in this process.
Commitments can be comprised
of financial, advocacy, policy or programmatic deliverables. In the Mexico
Forum, several financial commitments were made such as by Women Moving Millions,
a global network of individual philanthropists, who committed to raise 100
million USD by Paris to support the Action Coalition agenda. Read more about the outcomes of the Paris Forum
here.