author:Julia Sun

Gender equality is a common challenge faced by countries around the world. The recent assault cases involving female employees at Alibaba have once again highlighted the challenges faced by women. The United Nations convenes the Generation Equality Forum to assess progress on global gender equality and promote positive action to accelerate gender equality.

Total words1803About5minutes

On June 30, 2021, the "Generation Equality Forum" was held in Paris. Leaders from governments, United Nations agencies, philanthropic organizations, business and youth organizations have launched a series of bold, transformative actions to accelerate progress towards true gender equality.

What is the Generation Equality Forum?

The Generation Equality Forum is a global gender equality conference convened by UN Women in partnership with the governments of Mexico and France, as well as youth and non-governmental organizations. The forum kicked off in March in Mexico City and will be held in Paris from June 30 to July 2.

Twenty-five years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Generation Equality Forum assesses progress on gender equality globally and promotes action to accelerate the achievement of gender equality.

Why is gender equality important?

Globally, approximately 810 women die every day from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. Women spend three times as much time as men on unpaid family care work such as housework and childcare. Globally, women's labor force participation rate fell from 51% in 2000 to 48% in 2019. There is a gap between what women earn and what men earn in all countries. Globally, women are 9% less likely than men to have an account at a financial institution or mobile banking, and the gap is wider in poorer countries. More than one in three women are affected by gender-based violence.

Achieving gender equality will ultimately benefit everyone. Eliminating gender discrimination will have a significant impact not only on women's well-being, but also on their families and society more broadly.

What major efforts have been made by all parties to promote gender equality?

The forum reaffirmed the value of multilateralism and involved representatives from governments, businesses, media and non-governmental organizations. During the forum, major donor commitments from the public sector, private sector and non-governmental organizations reached US$21 billion, US$13 billion and US$4.5 billion respectively. In addition, the United Nations and international or regional organizations have also pledged US$130 million.  

Major donation commitments from all parties include:

• The U.S. government is donating $1 billion to prevent gender-based violence (GBV) and another $175 million to address GBV globally;
• The Government of Canada contributes $100 million to address economic inequalities related to unpaid home care work;
• Procter & Gamble has committed to investing $10 billion in women-owned or women-led businesses through its global value chain by 2025;
• PayPal commits $100 million to support women’s economic empowerment;
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides $2.1 billion to advance women’s political leadership, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and economic empowerment;
• Ford Foundation donates $420 million to combat pandemic-related gender inequalities;
• Malala Fund provides $20 million for girls' education.

Important policies and projects proposed by all parties include:

• World Bank commits to projects to address gender inequality in 12 African countries;
• Kenya launches national strategy to prevent and reduce gender-based violence;
• Burkina Faso committed to working with Benin, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Togo to provide free health care for pregnant women and children under five years of age and to amend legislation to prevent child marriage and forced genital mutilation;
• The Georgian government revised the legal definition of rape to strengthen protection for survivors of sexual violence and bring perpetrators to justice;
• The Bangladesh government has committed to increase women’s participation in the IT sector to 25% by 2026 and to 50% by 2041;

These funding and policy commitments will advance women’s rights and ensure that promoting gender equality is at the forefront of the global post-COVID agenda.

What plans did the forum propose to promote gender equality?

UN Secretary-General Guterres said at the opening ceremony of the forum, "It is absolutely necessary to effectively address the issue of power by achieving gender equality andGlobal Gender Equality AcceleratorOn the basis of this, we embarked on a “five-year action journey”. 

The six action coalitions of the Generation Equality Forum have proposed a Global Gender Equality Acceleration Plan, outlining key steps to further protect the rights and advancement of girls and women by 2026 to ensure that gender is included in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Equality perspective.

The Generation Equality Forum also launched the Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action, which calls for a fundamental rebuilding of humanitarian processes to systematically include girls and women at all stages of project design and implementation, and to strengthen existing mechanisms, Coordination between systems, networks and partnerships.

The 1995 World Conference on Women made strategic action commitments on gender equality, but progress has been limited. To date, no country in the world has achieved gender equality. The global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated poverty and gender-based violence, and women's rights are at risk of further regression. The Generation Equality Forum will promote the formation of a strong and lasting gender equality alliance and promote the cooperation of governments, businesses, civil society, youth and other stakeholders to achieve true gender equality.

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references

https://forum.generationequality.org/forum

https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2021/7/press-release-generation-equality-forum-concludes-with-commitments-and-global-acceleration-plan

Finland leads UN Action Alliance for Generation Equality Forum to promote gender equality in technology and innovation

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender/overview

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