Generation Equality Forum: Focus 2030 is mobilized!

In 2021, for the first time in 26 years, a global conference on women’s rights will be held, beginning in Mexico City in March and culminating in Paris in June 2021: The Generation Equality Forum. To contribute to the success of this major event and to advance women’s equality and rights, Focus 2030 will support and coordinate a group of civil society actors mobilized on these issues ahead of the Forum to be held in Paris in from June 30 to July 2, 2021.

The Generation Equality Forum

In 1995, 189 countries committed to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action a forward-looking blueprint to advance women’s rights and gender equality. A quarter-century later, UN Women and the Governments of France and Mexico launched the Generation Equality Forum, a multi-stakeholder and multigenerational campaign and platform to accelerate collective action for gender equality.

The Generation Equality Forum (GEF) will be launched in Mexico City, Mexico from March 29-31 and will conclude with a high-level event in Paris, France from June 30, to July 2nd 2021.

The Action Coalitions of the Generation Equality Forum

The Action Coalitions are the mechanisms to establish global, innovative, multi-stakeholder partnerships to mobilize collective action from governments, civil society, international organizations, and the private sector for measurable impact on gender equality and girls’ and women’s human rights.

The Action Coalitions bring together United Nations’ (UN) member states, feminist and women’s rights organizations, youth-led organizations, philanthropic entities, the private sector, and other international organizations. These action coalition « Champions » will identify concrete measures to be taken over the next 5 years. There are six coalitions, centered on the following thematic areas:

1. Gender-based violence,
2. Economic justice and rights,
3. Bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights,
4. Feminist action for climate justice,
5. Technology and innovation for gender equality, and
6. Feminist movements and leadership.

Issues such as financing, transforming gender norms (including engaging boys and men), law and policy reform, education, gender-disaggregated data and accountability, addressing intersectional discrimination, and addressing structural inequalities are cross-cutting themes across all the Generation Equality Action Coalitions. The role of girls and women in fragile and conflict-affected settings, as well as the issues they face in these contexts, will also be addressed within specific Action Coalitions. Adolescent girls and young women are also a priority focus throughout all of the Action Coalitions.

The French government, along with the governments of Argentina, Burkina Faso, Denmark and Macedonia, has committed to be a "champion" of the Action Coalition on “Bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights” (SRHR).

Focus 2030’s work

Focus 2030 has chosen to include gender equality as one of its key programs for the year 2021 and beyond. In this context, Focus 2030 is providing financial and technical support to their partners in the implementation of their activities in the fields of communication, research, citizen mobilization and advocacy to ensure that the Forum is a success, and that concrete measures and financial commitments are made at the Forum to be held in Paris in June.

Its goals are to provide the necessary incentives for France to demonstrate leadership in convening a critical number of Heads of State, CSOs and the private sector to make a difference and set gender equality at the highest level on the international community’s agenda. In addition, these activities will support the reflections of six “action coalitions”, constituting the backbone of the FGE.

Focus 2030 is also leading a #GenerationEquality working group with organizations involved in gender equality and the promotion of women’s rights, in order to create a common dynamic, share information, action plans and define joint strategies around the Generation Equality Forum.

Focus 2030’s partner organizations

• Collectif Générations Féministes (Feminist Generations): this collective is a movement which brings together around fifty different civil society organizations in France. The movement is working together to make sure that feminist voices are heard at the GEF, and to ensure the Forum is a major political milestone for gender equality and feminism. Throughout 2021, the Générations Féministes will be working to build advocacy actions to ensure that the Forum is a historic moment, deliver a communication campaign aimed at the public and the media to promote the movement’s positions, and produce briefs to contribute to work carried out by the GEF and its six Action Coalitions.

• Oxfam France: the organization will carry out outreach activities to raise public awareness, particularly in France, on gender inequality around the world, and to mobilize the general public so that the leaders gathered at the Generation Equality Forum adopt ambitious commitments.

• Global Health Advocates:their project "EssentiELLES" is designed to contribute to France’s reflections as a champion of the Action Coalition on SRHR by promoting good practices and field initiatives that are both innovative and effective in order to ensure France’s political and financial commitment is ambitious and adapted to the needs of the field in terms of maternal and neonatal health within the framework of the GEF.

• Terra Nova and the Jean Jaurès Foundation these two think tanks will combine their expertise to produce a report presenting the state of play and proposals for the French government to increase their commitments for SRHR. They will also make joint recommendations with their partners in Europe and at an international level.

• Les Napoléons: with the support of Focus 2030, the Napoleons have founded "Napoleons Venture Philanthropy" fund to support and provide guidance to projects for gender equality and to engage their community in the GEF.

• Les Expertes: les Expertes is an online professional directory that indexes the profiles of francophone women experts in their fields in France and around the world. On the occasion of the GEF, a version dedicated to women with expertise on women’s rights and gender equality issues will be launched in order to give them greater visibility, particularly in major international forums and in the media.

• The Egaé group: the group will offer online training ahead of the Generation Equality Forum to train women and activists in public speaking. These trainings, targeting women activists or those wishing to get involved, working in feminist organizations, NGOs related to gender equality and women’s rights issues, should enable them to assert themselves and fight for their ideas during public debates.

• Oxfam Intermón: member of the International Confederation of Oxfam, as is Oxfam France, the organization will carry out mobilization and advocacy activities to ensure that Spain is a key actor in the EGF and makes ambitious commitments, particularly through its official development assistance and the adoption of a feminist diplomacy. Together with Spanish feminist organizations, they will be particularly mobilized in the framework of the action coalition "Justice and Economic Rights", of which Spain is a member.

For more information
– Overview of data resources on gender equality across the world
– Feminist Agenda – Major upcoming events and activities 2021
– International Development Barometer n°7 : “French views on gender equality in the run-up to the Generation Equality Forum”
– Know more about the Action Coalition «Champions  »