On the 7th of July 2021, Share-Net Netherlands and WO=MEN Dutch Gender Platform, in collaboration with Rutgers and CHOICE for Youth & Sexuality organised a virtual debriefing meeting on the Generation Equality Forum Paris. This event was moderated by Yvonne Bogaarts (Manager Advocacy, Rutgers) and Nadia van der Linde (Programme Manager International Processes, WO=MEN) and provided a space for civil society in the Netherlands and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to share reflections and discuss strategic opportunities for advocacy following the Generation Equality Forum in Paris (30 June – 2 July 2021).
The Generation Equality Forum (GEF) is a global process initiated by UN Women to celebrate progress since the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995 and to keep gender equality and women’s rights on the international political agenda. Due to the pandemic, the GEF took place mainly virtually apart from a few in-person participants. Over the past year, six thematic multi-stakeholder action coalitions (AC), a global Compact and a Youth Taskforce were launched to develop priority actions and foster new commitments to further the Beijing agenda. Each AC was led by a multi-stakeholder group consisting of governments, foundations, civil society actors, private sector and UN organisations and came with a set of concrete and ambitious actions (the so-called blueprint). UN Women announced that the GEF raised 40 billion dollars and it came with a bold, action-oriented agenda.
Download the full report here to learn more about youth participation at the GEF, the government perspective, AC2: Economic justice and rights and the compact on women, peace and security and humanitarian action. In the Annex you can find an overview of all commitments made by the Netherlands during the GEF Paris per action coalition.
