Act for equal! Join us for our public conversation series following the Generation Equality Forum, every Monday at 6 p.m. (CST) from May 24th to June 28th.
Register here to receive the Zoom links.
In 2021, although significant progress has been made in terms of gender equality, there is still much work to be done. The COVID-19 crisis has exposed and accelerated existing inequalities and has disproportionately affected women.
Women are on the frontline of the pandemic while conservative forces attempt to undermine the rights acquired after decades of progress. As we begin to recover from the pandemic, we must put gender equality at the heart of that process.
It is in this context that France and Mexico, under the sponsorship of UN Women and in partnership with civil society, are organizing this year’s Generation Equality Forum, which was kicked off in Mexico City from March 29th to March 31st, 2021. The forum will finish in Paris from June 30th to July 2nd, 2021. Its goal is to launch a series of concrete, ambitious and transformative actions to achieve immediate and irreversible progress toward equality.
This is a critical moment. We are seeing violence against women has increased in the past year, as well as negative economic impacts caused both by increased unpaid caregiving and the fact that women work in more insecure, low-paid and informal jobs. Women of colour, Indigenous women and youth face compounded risks and barriers. We are living through a gender equality crisis and we have to confront it.
We invite you to join our Generation Equality Forum: Public Conversations on Mondays from May 24th to June 28th at 6 p.m. (CST). These conversations will help us to generate urgent action and accountability on gender equality, spotlighting the power of women’s rights activism, feminist solidarity and the leadership of the youth and women everywhere to achieve transformative change. The selected themes of the Generation Equality Action Coalition will shape our conversation. The themes are as follows:
In our first session, a small group convened to discuss different ways we could mobilize governments, civil society, youth-led organizations, international organizations, philanthropies, and the private sector to deliver transformational progress toward the elimination and prevention of gender-based violence. Through a collaborative approach, we determined that as a collective, we wished to focus on eliminating and preventing gender-based violence in Indigenous communities. In order to determine where we can best assist, we have chosen to wait for the release of the upcoming report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which is set to occur in early July. Once we have acquainted ourselves with this information, we will reconvene and undertake completing four concrete actions, namely:
- Creating enabling policy, legal and resource environments;
- Scaling up evidence-driven prevention programming;
- Scaling up comprehensive, accessible and quality services for survivors
- Enabling and empowering autonomous female-led & women’s rights organizations to exercise their expertise.
As always, we welcome all individuals who wish to participate moving forward. If you have questions, please email diversity@iiwrmb.ca