Beijing Women's Federation

The Generation Equality Forum kicked off in Mexico City from March 29-31. The forum concluded with the unveiling of an Action Coalition blueprint and new commitments for gender equality. It is another milestone for women's development after the historic Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, held in 1995 and it develops an agenda to sharpen the Generation Equality Forum vision towards Paris.

Although the majority of front-line workers are women, they are disproportionately underrepresented among the beneficiaries of the national and global policies relating to the new coronavirus (COVID-19). [un.org]

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, French President Emmanuel Macron and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director and convener of the forum, declared the opening of the event virtually. The forum is a global gathering convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France in close partnership with civil society and youth. It will culminate in Paris, France, on June 30.

The forum is the kick-off for the Generation Equality Forum journey, which will conclude in Paris on July 2. It was expected to kick off last year, marking the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 10,000 people attended the event via a video link, including 250 plus speakers from 85 countries. Half of the participants were under the age of 30, showing their enthusiasm for the agenda.

The forum aims to create an opportunity to promote gender equality with various parties in the world, such as governments, the UN, civil society and private sectors, and bring together their leadership and participation. It intends to draw investment to drive towards securing transformational commitments for gender equality. 

The speakers discussed selected themes including economic justice and rights, gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, climate emergency's impact on women and girls and feminist action.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres [Chinanews.com/Liao Pan]

During the forum, the participants listened to the suggestions from the Action Coalitions. Action Coalitions are multi-stakeholder partnerships, and they define the most catalytic areas for investment in advancing gender equality and have concrete measurable targets for gender equality for the upcoming five years.

The forum also proposed initiatives to strengthen efforts and investments for promoting women's rights and gender equality and to reduce the possibility that COVID-19 may aggravate the gender equality crisis. The efforts include:

The Mexican national women's studies institute and UN Women will set up a nurse alliance to minimize the damage to women's economic equality brought by their nursing work.

A global network consisting of philanthropists will be established and a $100 million fund will be raised to support the agenda ahead of the Generation Equality Forum in Paris.

The Ford Foundation, the Equality Foundation (a Canadian-based organization) and the Government of Canada developed a strategic partnership. The Ford Foundation will donate $15 million to the Equality Foundation and the Canadian government will donate $10 million to a UN trust fund to help end violence against women.

Addressing the opening, António Guterres said there have been significant victories since the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, but progress has been too slow.

Women leaders from all over the world attended the forum. Among them were Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, Epsy Campbell Barr, who is not only Costa Rica's vice president, but the first woman of African descent to be elected vice president in all of Latin America, Amanda Nguyen, founder and CEO of Rise, a nonprofit that advocates for sexual assault survivors, and Jayati Ghosh, an Indian economist and Executive Secretary of International Development Economics Associates.

(Source: Chinanews.com)