Putting gender equality at the heart of French civil society advocacy for the G7 in 2019
Published on06/06/2019.
Coordination SUD is the French national NGO platform, representing over 170 French NGOs working on development. A respected partner and actor on international development and the SDGs, Coordination SUD plays a central role in coordinating civil society work on development in France.
Coordination SUD’s work is two-fold:
- To work for international development and humanitarian policies which are based on the principles of solidarity, human rights, justice and democracy, and which tackle the causes of conflict, poverty and inequality, in particular gender inequality.
- Bring together, strengthen and maximise impact of French NGOs as actors of international solidarity, through encouraging and facilitating exchange and representing members in France, Europe and internationally to build influence and visibility for the sector.
Gender equality has long been a strategic priority forCoordination SUD. This particular project is built with the French G7 Presidency in 2019 in mind, which Coordination SUD saw as a both a media and political opportunity to promote gender equality by and within French NGOs. Supported by Focus 2030, Coordination SUD therefore launched a project entitled “Mainstreaming Gender in Development and International Solidarity Policies”.
Context and objectives
Achieving gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment requires coordinated action from government and non-government actors, and the adoption of ambitious development policies which fully integrate gender equality as both a transversal approach and stand-alone goal. In order to achieve such policies, French civil society – beyond specialist organisations – must be able to understand and adhere to all of the technical, scientific and political angles of gender equality, so that together NGOs are clear and coherent – and ambitious – in their work to influence promised new positions on gender equality during the G7 in 2019.
Thus Coordination SUD’s project has two main objectives:
- Capacity building for French NGOs to better integrate gender equality in their operations, campaigns and advocacy, through providing targeted workshops and awareness-building and training.
- Alignment for ambitious and coordinated positions with government interlocutors to ensure effective advocacy in the run-up to, and during, the French G7 Presidency in 2019.
Main activities
During the first months of the grant, between September and December 2018, Coordination SUD already achieved the following:
- training sessions for around thirty participants from French civil society;
- several press statements and position documents shared with government authorities;
- initial preparations for the organisation of the C7/Civil Society 7 meeting, the major event for civil society during the G7 which will take place in July 2019.
In 2019, for the following months of the grant, Focus 2030 will continue to support Coordination SUD particularly through sharing our own research and analyses on gender equality to inform and support position papers or recommendations for the G7, relaying Coordination SUD’s actions, or those of its member organisations, through our own networks, and finally providing support and expertise in particular for the organisation of the C7 event, financed in part by the grant with Focus 2030.
