Should we promote the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal on Gender Equality ?

Should we promote the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal on Gender Equality ?

Having registered as a ‘Global Citizen’ several years ago I receive regular emails from this advocacy group @globalcitizen.org. Sometimes interesting, sometimes requesting a signature in adi of some or other cause, and sometimes inviting me to one of their many conferences…

Yesterday I received a message which contained the following headings:

The GEF (Generation Equality Forum): An Opportunity to Address Women's Rights

World leaders hope to help get countries back on track to achieving gender equality at the Generation Equality Forum this month.→

These Influencers and Activists Are Shaking Up the Menstruation Conversation

These influencers are destigmatising menstruation with the help of social media.→

4 Ways You Can Take Action for Gender and Generation Equality in Africa

You have the power to take action to make sure that Africa gets back on track to ending gender inequality and empowering women and girls. →

African Leaders Must Advance Gender Equality

Gender equality is key to the economic growth, prosperity, sustainability and survival of any nation. Call on African leaders to strengthen efforts that promote the full emancipation and empowerment of all women and girls in Africa. Take Action. →

I was curious about the GEF, and so clicked on it to find out more. The button – ‘5 Young Activists Making 'Generation Equality' a Reality’ attracted my attention and I was glad that among the 5 there are 2 from Africa, who presented what they hope to bring to the GEF, the gender equality issues they care about most, and how they would like to see young people stand up to achieve gender equality in our lifetime, as follows:

Doreen Mora  (HIV/AIDS Advocate, Kenya, Youth Task Force)

“I hope to bring the perspective of women and girls living with HIV to the GEF. It has been 40 years since the first HIV case was reported and women and girls are still highly affected, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The inequality in access to health care services and the ability to give birth to HIV-negative children from women living with HIV is a promise that has yet to be fully achieved, especially in my country Kenya where the percentage of mother-to-child infection stands at 10.9%.

I’m passionate about championing comprehensive sexuality education in and out of schools and I advocate for the increase of quality and access of sexual reproductive health services. I envision a society where we break the issues around gender norms by including the knowledge of rights for women and girls in all of their diversity.

I would like to see young people stand and uphold the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action by making sure their voices count. Young people have been involved in different spaces ahead of the GEF, and this is the time they can speak, be heard, and champion the issues they are passionate about to world leaders and policymakers by making them commit and be accountable in order to achieve gender equality in our lifetime.”

Sylvain Obedi (Disabilities Activist; Country Coordinator, Enable the Disable Action; DRC; Youth Task Force)

“The GEF is super important because it is a unique opportunity that gives voice to all categories of people without any discrimination. I joined the Youth Task Force because I believe that young people have experiences to share and should be included — their energies are crucial.

My activism is centred around inclusion and diversity. I believe that every human being is endowed with a talent and needs to be given equal access to opportunities and special attention promoting their engagement in their community and being the trigger for positive change.

I would like to see leaders commit to making inclusion a reality, fighting social inequalities, and considering diversity as a richness, a plus in human capital development, and essential in social cohesion.

We must no longer continue to think that change is up to world leaders alone. You can also act to equalize for an equal world by committing now to promote good practices and champion gender equality.”

SAFCAM comment:

We certainly need to advocate equality and justice in respect of men and women globally, but the GENERATIONAL Equality Forum is actually the GENDER E.F. which is a very different matter.

How many genders are they calling to be treated equal before international and national law?

As many as there are people on the planet practically! If you ask google how many genders there are, while admitting that there are only 2 sexes, various websites provide answers from 15 to 72 plus! Facebook enables account holders to choose from 58 listed genders, while Wikipedia presently identifies 72 genders.

Anyway, all of the following information about the GEF was available on the Global Citizen website in case you are interested. We do need to know what is going on by the way, if we do not wish to be caught by surprise one day, when you get charged in court for not using the correct gender pronoun in addressing a person or referring to him/her/ze/it/they… or when you refuse to admit that some women have penises and some men menstruate and can give birth. In fact the word ‘mom’ is proposed to be banned as sexist. We are going to be required to speak of ‘birthing persons’.

Here is one of many guides on Gender-neutral Pronouns and How to Use Them

• He/She -- Zie, Sie, Ey, Ve, Tey, E.
• Him/Her -- Zim, Sie, Em, Ver, Ter, Em.
• His/Her -- Zir, Hir, Eir, Vis, Tem, Eir.
• His/Hers -- Zis, Hirs, Eirs, Vers, Ters, Eirs.
• Himself/Herself -- Zieself, Hirself, Eirself, Verself, Terself, Emself.

It is clear that the Gender Agenda is not so much the promotion of the just equality between the male/female sexes, but the installation of gender ideology across the board. Basic Natural Anthropology and its implications for humanity needs to BEWARE!

The rest of this article is just in case you wish to know more about the GEF:

The G.E.Forum was convened by UN Women, the United Nations’ organization dedicated to empowering women, and co-chaired by France and Mexico in partnership with youth and civil society, the forum kicked off March 29 through March 31 in Mexico City and will culminate in Paris from June 30 through July 2. The second half of the forum will continue to drive urgent action and accountability for gender equality. The conference will reconvene in a final push to ensure that women aren’t left behind.

What is the Generation Equality Forum?

The Generation Equality Forum marks 25 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women, where 189 countries agreed to set out to achieve gender equality and adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995. The Beijing Declaration provided a roadmap for creating a world where women have equal access to education, employment, and full bodily autonomy — but progress has been slow, and no country in the world has fully achieved gender equality.

The conference will drive financial and political commitments for gender equality and launch action coalitions to foster partnerships and call for urgent action. Each coalition will rally around one of the following themes: gender-based violence, economic justice and rights, bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights, feminist action for climate justice, technology and innovation for gender equality, and feminist movements and leaders.

Accelerating collective action, driving global and local conversations across generations, driving investments, and delivering tangible results for girls and women are all priorities for each coalition.

The Generation Equality Youth Task Force, designed and co-created the Generation Equality Forum, and will focus on ensuring that young people are prioritized in carrying out the Beijing 25+ agenda.

Why Global Citizens Should Care

Women and girls are more at risk of harmful practices, missing out on their education and employment, and lacking access to health care than ever. Global Goal 5 aims to empower all women and girls. When women have equal rights to men, societies are healthier, wealthier, and better educated. You can join us and take action at #ActForEqual.

Who will be attending the Generation Equality Forum?

Activists, feminists, young advocates, and allies from around the world will join together at the Generation Equality Forum to call for accountability for gender equality. The conference brings together governments, businesses, civil society, cities, parliaments, trade unions, media, and more, focusing on intergenerational and multi-stakeholder partnerships.

What was accomplished at the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico City?

More than 250 speakers from 85 countries and an estimated 10,000 people virtually attended the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico City in March 2021. Young people were widely represented with nearly half of the attendees under 30. Leaders there launched a vision for 2026 and a pathway toward a feminist agenda.

“Feminism maintains an unrepentant, unresolved optimism,” said Marcelo Ebrard, co-host of the forum and Mexico’s secretary for foreign affairs. “It is a dissatisfaction with the situation as it is and how it has been, and it is a permanent aspiration to change everything, or almost everything … The path it lays before us is to take the impulse that feminism leads to … to transform our societies, and never abandon optimism.”

Several other commitments were also announced at the forum.

Mexico’s National Institute for Women (INMUJERES), in partnership with UN Women, launched an Alliance for Care Work initiative to address the imbalance of domestic labour women perform compared to men which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The global philanthropy network Women Moving Millions made a commitment to raise $100 million by the Paris Generation Equality Forum to support the Action Coalition initiative.

Several other financial commitments followed, with the Ford Foundation announcing a $15 million commitment to the Equality Fund, a self-sustaining fund for gender equality, and Canada pledging $10 million to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. What’s more, the Ford Foundation, the Equality Fund, and the Government of Canada agreed to launch a Global Alliance for Sustainable Feminist Movements.

The Mexican government also launched the Group of Friends of Gender Equality, a group of 20 UN member states that committed to collaborate and promote action to support the Generation Equality Forum.

“What we want is ambitious and just,” South African Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of UN Women, said at the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico City. “Justice is not radical; it’s a baseline and it should become completely normal. This is our moment to move for gender equality across society. We believe in ‘allyship’ and no bystanders when there is injustice.”

The final day of the conference revealed the Generation Equality Action Coalitions, a blueprint of multi-stakeholder partnerships that drive the necessary actions to speed up the path toward gender equality.

How can you support the Generation Equality Forum?

Civil society can participate in the Generation Equality Forum through several actions that support the #ActForEqual campaign. Sharing the campaign placards can help draw attention to gender inequality, writing letters to governments or major companies can hold them accountable to stand up for women and girls, or a donation to women’s organizations can back grassroots efforts.

The Generation Equality Forum also recommends education through several recommended resources from a summary on the current state of women’s rights to visualizing what gender inequality looks like globally.

And Global Citizens everywhere can raise their voices for Generation Equality and take action to #ActForEqual here.

A sidebar article rejoiced that “Costa Rica Becomes the First Country in Central America to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage.”