As the first in a series of monthly discussions, the inaugural Generation Equality Virtual Stakeholder Gathering centered around the theme “Collaborating for impact: Advancing synergies across the WPS-HA Compact and Action Coalitions ” and was hosted by the Generation Equality Hub on May 8, 2023.
In his welcome remarks, Ziad Sheikh, Special Advisor for Generation Equality at UN Women, highlighted that the event was a response to calls for identifying more ways to systematically leverage linkages across the six Generation Equality Action Coalitions and the Women, Peace, and Security and Humanitarian Action (WPS-HA) Compact. The gathering aimed to identify concrete ways for the multi-stakeholder platforms to drive collective action and resources toward the Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality and the WPS-HA Compact Framework.
“In our current world of soaring risks and vulnerabilities and the escalating threats to girls and women’s rights we know that bold, concerted action is needed to catalyze the changes that we need to move forward,” said Harriette Williams Bright, the WPS-HA Compact Lead at UN Women and the moderator of the event, in her opening remarks. She also stressed that Generation Equality is designed to move the needle on implementation and propel coordinated and intergenerational action, investment, and progress.
The opening remarks were followed by a presentation on the WPS-HA Compact by Roya Murphy, the Compact’s Monitoring and Reporting focal point, who provided a general overview of the Compact and its signatories at the time of the event. She highlighted the Compact’s three main objectives of establishing a voluntary monitoring and accountability process, strengthening coordination, and promoting financing and awareness of the WPS agenda and gender equality in humanitarian action.
WPS-HA Compact board co-chair Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, the founder and CEO of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), spoke about the many opportunities for Compact signatories and Action Coalition commitment makers to collaborate. “We’re facing complex problems with peace and security and many other issues, and these multifaceted problems also require a multidimensional response,” she said. If we’re not seeing positive and transformational changes at the local level, then we’re not using the most important elements of the WPS agenda and gender-responsive humanitarian action, explained Cabrera-Balleza.
The second segment of the event featured a panel discussion with commitment makers from the Action Coalitions on Economic Justice and Rights and Feminist Movements and Leadership, as well as WPS-HA Compact signatories.
Piyumi Samaraweera, the Programme Director of Feminist Leadership at Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), asked how to best ensure that the WPS-HA agenda and the feminist movement and leadership agendas work in symbiosis, especially during crises when there’s a need to move quickly while also ensuring the inclusion of marginalized perspectives. In times of crisis, it is the most vulnerable and traditionally excluded groups that find it most difficult to access resources and support, she explained.
Samaraweera also identified three key recommendations, including creating an enabling environment for feminist leaders in all their diversity to be included in co-designing solutions, a commitment to sharing power, and broadening our understanding of what decision-making spaces are and what leaders look like.
Feminist leaders struggle to enter the public space despite being on the frontlines of most political battles, agreed Sumaiya Islam, the Acting Director of the Intersectional Justice Division at Open Society Foundations. She stressed the lack of adequate conditions for women to thrive in the political sphere and the importance of addressing the violence they face online and offline. Islam also highlighted the need to support intersectional feminist movements by providing flexible and multi-year funding. The GEF platform can be more impactful for philanthropy by enabling more meaningful collaboration with broader movements that are not in the spaces we are in, she explained.
Joining the event from Fiji, Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, the Regional Representative of the Shifting the Power Coalition and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) Pacific brought attention to the more frequent and intense disasters facing communities as the climate crisis worsens. “What’s key from the outset is to reiterate that feminist practice isn’t about militarized boots on the ground, but enhancing and investing in preparedness and prevention,” she said.
Bhagwan-Rolls also called for enhanced coordination, especially between disaster response and development efforts. “When we come together, then we can redesign these political tables to ensure the power shift that can achieve the goals of sustainable and inclusive peace.” She also added that the nexus approach is critical and that there’s a need to better inform the climate justice, humanitarian, and peace-building spaces.
Pravina Makan-Lakha, Advisor on Women, Peace and Security at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) brought attention to the changes needed at the policy level and to advance the economic empowerment of women in conflict situations. During a conflict, the governance and policy machinery has to compete with many demands “and we have to be aware of this and how national policy can contribute to women’s economic empowerment,” she said, highlighting the need to promote women’s access to economic services and to implement gender-responsive budgeting.
She stressed that policies often remain on paper without implementation and that the majority of budgets are spent on policies, leaving little for implementation through civil society. Makan-Lakha also brought attention to how conflict situations impact education, the long-term challenge of reconstructing facilities, and the severe impact it has on women and their economic empowerment.
The third section of the event featured a Q&A session with the panelists who were asked by the moderator Williams Bright to share concrete actions Generation Equality commitment makers and WPS-HA Compact signatories can take to move against the slow progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and the pushback on women’s rights.
Nthabiseng Malefane, the Director for Vulnerable Groups at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation at the Government of South Africa called for more leadership to transform the difficult situation facing women and for all stakeholders to engage more with communities and between each other. She also highlighted the need for more political will and for pushing for the implementation of policies for radical transformation.
In response, Samaraweera highlighted the complexity of multisectoral collaboration and how the GEF platform could be used to identify catalytic processes and how they can be used to galvanize like-minded organizations.
The multistakeholder approach needs to take place at multiple levels and actors mustn’t lose sight of the local community change needed for sustainable change, explained Bhagwan-Rolls. “This is an opportunity to catalyze greater movement-led approaches across intersectionalities and across the different Action Coalitions, as well as the Compact,” she said, adding that the UN and the multilateral systems for Generation Equality have an opportunity to drive accountability and leverage women’s rights expertise through their capacity to convene Member States and women’s feminist movements.
While civil society is great at identifying advocacy opportunities, more needs to be done to ensure policies are being implemented, stressed Cabrera-Balleza. “We need to use our collaborative advantage as commitment makers and as signatories…to do the utmost and to strengthen partnerships and alliances even more and hold the power holders accountable,” she said.
Examples of how women’s movements in Mozambique and Sudan have come together to advance the gender equality agenda under a broader umbrella were brought forward by Makan-Lakha, who added that Generation Equality can provide a platform for solidarity across regions and for uplifting the demands of diverse women’s movements. “They are creating spaces of dialogue and what is a priority to them… We have seen in consultations this disconnect between policy and practice and the realities on the ground,” she said.
In closing, the panelists highlighted the need to revisit the unrealistic five-year timeline of the Generation Equality Forum and host more conversations between the Action Coalitions and the WPS-HA Compact. Others highlighted the need to ramp up feminist funding and capitalize on the role of civil society and harnessing existing networks. “Feminist activists have brought the most positive changes to the world by implementing locally and inspiring globally,” said Cabrera-Balleza.