I can tell you; it was an exciting and overwhelming experience watching young girls and women speak out and share their experiences at the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali, Rwanda from 17th to 20th July 2023. It left me thinking that if more and more young females come forward and are given spaces at the table to talk about things that affect them, formulate strategies and policies and more. Surely the future will be equal,”

While almost half of the world’s population is under age 30, the momentum surrounding the global youth agenda is larger than ever before. Young people everywhere are making a difference, even though they rarely have a seat at the table where policy decisions are traditionally made because of persistent negative stereotypes about youth, which frame them as a problem to be solved and a threat to be contained. But rather than being the problem, young people around the world today are increasingly becoming part of the solution. A 2018 independent progress study on the United Nations Youth, Peace, and Security agenda observed that through their creative actions and unapologetic advocacy, young people are challenging the status quo in many sectors.

The conference enabled me to experience this first hand as I engaged with different stakeholders advancing gender equality. It offered me and am sure to many others so many insights on how we can see more women – including young women of diverse backgrounds, taking up leadership positions and taking part in development work. It was disappointing  to learn that globally, women hold only 19.7percent of board seats, and 6.7 percent of board chair, 5 percent of CEO, and 15 percent of CFO positions.https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/59d43be6-643e-4357-92b9-99a87ced6251.

A side event which was organized by World Bank Group reviewed that gender gaps in labour force and representation of women in leadership positions persist worldwide. Closing this gap can lead to a 20 percent increase in GDP per capita, on average. This is evidence enough that women have full potential of contributing to economic growth and development either at global, regional, national, district, community level and in their families. Female labour force participation remains low due to lack of skills, time-based constraints, limited mobility, gender discrimination in hiring and promotion, and restricted gender norms.

Attainment of SDG 5 on gender equality, is impossible without women’s equal representation at the top. Women leaders are levers of change for all SDGs, as they prioritize social protection, health, education, climate, and inclusivity. Having more women in leadership is positively correlated with higher environmental, social and governance standard, leading to improved business performance and inclusive economic growth. Yet, enormous gender gaps in corporate leadership persist. Unconscious and cultural biases, lack of opportunities, and other workforce barriers limit women’s professional aspirations and narrow leadership paths.

Five items stood out for me from 2023 Women Deliver that need to be urgently addressed if we are to create spaces, solidarity, and solutions to gender equality.

  1. Partnership And Collaboration at International, Regional and National Levels

Global and regional partnership and collaboration has high potential to provide policy guidance, accountability, and enhanced advocacy for women’s right, Sexual Reproductive health and Rights (SRHR), gender equality and Comprehensive Sexuality Education. International and regional bodies like the United Nations  General Assembly (UNGA), and Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariate  can provide a platform for Heads of State and key ministries  to meet at global and /or  regional levels to discuss and advance collective actions, holding leaders accountable by discussing some successful initiatives and strategies, generating a collective advocacy agenda and exploring potential pathways to realize full potential for women’s right, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Gender Equality and Unpaid Care Work/Care centred feminist social system. The SADC Parliamentary Forum has been key in driving advocacy for SRHR at regional and national levels, this is already available opportunity which can help to push for progressive laws for women empowerment and participation in leadership positions and promote gender equality.

At national level there is need to strengthen partnership building approaches and multi-stakeholder engagement to build active coalitions that will co-create spaces that foster solidarity for sustainable solutions on gender equality. This includes experts from government departments and agencies, political leaders, religious leaders, CSOs/NGOs, community leaders and the media. Stakeholder engagement is vital in building strong advocacy case, creating synergy of action, sharing lessons, facilitating efficient use of resources, fostering improved integration of gender equality into national systems through a well-coordinated approach. Strong advocacy case presented can help to influence policy makers to come up policies that are effective or show promise in closing gender gaps in women’s right, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), gender equality, Unpaid Care and Equal Opportunity for women and girls. There is need to explore legal barriers that hinder women’s economic participation and showcase successful reforms. Technical working groups need to be strengthened, they serve as the main coordination mechanism in many countries and are key to improved collaboration and partnership, they need to monitor reforms and promote gender equality in all aspects.

  1. Increase Funding for Gender Programs

There is need to come up with a financing benchmark for gender programs which will be adhered to globally. Increase international financing for accelerated implementation of the International Conference Population Development (IPCD) program actions, to complement and catalyze domestic financing, in particular of Sexual and reproductive health programs, and other supportive measures and interventions that promote gender equality and girl’s and women’s empowerment.

  1. Evidence Generation

Invest in and strengthen evidence informed and rights-based policies and programs in support of gender equality, unpaid care work, women economic empowerment and participation, women and girls bodily autonomy and sexual reproductive health and rights and Comprehensive Sexuality education. Evidence generation will help to come up with policies, strategies and innovative ways and approaches particularly on how to support, finance, and engage Women Rights Organizations including young feminists, to engage in collective action towards stronger movements for gender equality and Sexual Reproductive Health and rights.

  1. Youth Participation In Gender Equality And Fighting Gender-Based And Sexual Violence.

Youth creativity has reshaped culture and the arts. Youth movements have championed diversity and human rights and energetic activism has offered an antidote to despair. In many ways, young people are already designing their own futures by reimagining the way our systems operate and by demanding true power-sharing within those systems. Young people are capable of influencing policy changes and formulation, young people can accomplish when their talents are supported and when they are included in decision-making. To achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 through creation of Spaces, Solidarity, and Solutions to Gender Equality requires collective effort and youth are part of the solution in promoting women’s right, Sexual Reproductive health and Rights (SRHR) and Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Gender Equality, Unpaid Care Work and equal opportunity for women and girls globally.

  1. Gender Equality In The Era Of Multiple Crisis

Today, climate change, pandemics, conflicts, mass displacement, economic uncertainty, and other issues fuel concerns in advancing gender equality and solution to many of these concerns are always overlooked. Women and young people are victims and survivors of gender based and sexual violence during crisis. We need to advocate globally to make sure that there are guidelines and recommendations that will be used during advocacy, to make sure that policies are adhering to gender equality during crisis. Women and young people need to participate in the development of crisis response plan so that their needs should be included and let women and young people lead gender equality response programs.

The author is the ‘Her Future Her Choice’ Program Coordinator for Oxfam in Southern Africa responsible for Malawi Country Office.