“I love how everyone is typing in Caps. WE WANT TO BE HEARD. WE ARE SCREAMING, it is sad.” Aksheyaa Akilan, 23, from India, a participant at the inaugural Generation Equality: Young Feminist Unconference. Highlighted the three-day (13-11 June 2021) virtual event attended by over 600 young feminists representing over 100 countries.
Organized by the Generation Equality Youth Task Force, National Gender Youth Activists, CSAG Youth, Adolescent Girls and youth co-leads of the Action Coalition. The Unconference strategically mobilised and engaged youth activists, Adolescent Girls, youth-led and girl led organisations, movements, and partners. It established ground for support in their organising, participation, and advocacy before, during, and after the Generation Equality Forum in Paris.
The Young feminist Unconference created an example for what bold and transformative spaces should looks like, as outlined in the Young Feminist Manifesto. The Unconference reiterated the need for individual learning, reflection, and relational transformation, including spaces for the co-creation of innovative solutions.
Strengthing young feminist solidarity and movement building, the Unconference engaged and invited marginalised youth activists to join the processes.
Featuring the groundbreaking “Dear World: You Must Listen!” adolescent girl-led event, youth-led discussions on the 6 Action Coalitions, and parallel events, the Unconference brought together the youth in their diversity, the UN Women Executive Director, and the heads of Forum from France and Mexico. The dialogues inspired the participants to take the first steps on becoming commitment makers, and contribute inputs for the Action Coalitions blueprints.
Powered by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Restless Development, Plan International, AGIP, She Decides, CHOICE, and Action Aid, the Unconference created a community and space for young feminists to connect across borders and build “power with” and “power within”. This was a reminder to world leaders that youth from every constituency must be an integral part of the processes and journey of the next 5 years.
You can become an Action Coalition Commitment Maker too. Join this critical moment for gender equality, and make one or more of the following commitments:
- Financial: to support the realization of an action to advance gender equality results.
- Advocacy: to amplify and mobilize support for transformative change to achieve the goals of the Action Coalition.
- Policy: to demonstrate how an action can be translated to concrete policy change in the context of a government, company, or organization.
- Programmatic: to deliver programs, services, research, or other actions, with a focus on scale.
Learn more:
https://commitments.generationequality.org/
https://forum.generationequality.org/form/membership-application-form