Three Takeaways from the 2021 Reykjavik worldwide discussion board

After a 12 months and a half of Zoom conferences and digital interplay, feminists world broad are starting to assemble as quickly as extra in particular person and in widespread objective to reignite the fight for gender equality world broad.

on the current annual Reykjavík worldwide discussion board, the vitality and enthusiasm for an equal future for women and ladies have been palpable. The UN basis participated alongside worldwide leaders and advocates to debate and pace up options to discover gender equality.

The discussion board, hosted by ladies Political Leaders and the federal authorities of Iceland, takes place beneath the theme “vitality, collectively.” So how did this 12 months’s event further unite a rising movement of advocates and allies for gender equality, and the method did we resolve to vitality faster, greater progress for women and ladies?

listed beneath are three issues to know.

1. From local climate Change to Taxation, Gender Equality Undergirds All worldwide factors

whereas the Reykjavík worldwide discussion board elevated gender equality throughout all discussions, the discussion board additionally confirmed how political, social, and financial equality for women and ladies is essential to progress on all factors on the worldwide agenda — from peace and safety to local climate to taxation.

With the UN local climate Change convention (COP26) taking place in parallel, the gendered impacts of local climate change have been a trending topic in the course of the discussion board. Philanthropies, the private sector, and youthful local climate activists talked about the path to internet-zero emissions and why ladies and ladies should be on the center of local climate response insurance coverage policies, as these most impacted by the damaging outcomes of local climate change and as leaders driving local climate movement in any respect ranges.

The intersection of world financial progress and gender equality additionally featured prominently. Members of GWL Voices, a bunch of feminine leaders inside the multilateral sphere, defined discover out how to mainstream gender-disaggregated knowledge, gender-delicate taxes, and gender-primarily based budgeting all by way of worldwide fiscal coverage to create extra inclusive, prosperous, and sustainable economies that work for women.

a quantity of classes additionally put the spotlight on the important position ladies play in worldwide peace and safety, collectively with peace processes and negotiations. The dire state of affairs in Afghanistan was entrance and coronary heart. Are we doing enough to fulfill the wants of Afghan ladies and ladies at this essential second? Are they on the desk, and are their voices being heard? members on the discussion board made clear that onerous-earned ladies’s rights in Afghanistan aren’t up for negotiation and should be prioritized on the worldwide agenda.

2. expertise Equality is our North Star — Now we now should observe It

The expertise Equality discussion board (GEF) was threaded all by way of the Reykjavík worldwide discussion board, as a North Star for multistakeholder movement on gender equality and the start of a 5-12 months journey in the direction of exact change for women and ladies — if stakeholders observe by way of on their commitments.

Making good on the ensures will name for investments and implementation on the grassroots diploma and accountability on the very prime — a diploma made all by way of GEF’s important second on the discussion board the place Michelle Milford Morse, UN basis’s vice chairman for women & ladies method, led a dialog with Scheaffer Okore, Director of coverage and Advocacy at ladies Political Leaders; Lopa Banerjee, authorities Coordinator of expertise Equality at UN ladies; and Vivian Onano, Founder and Director of the main mild Initiative. These 4 advocates additionally emphasised the should create sturdy infrastructure all by way of the gender equality movement and talked about the essential topic of notion amongst stakeholders.

The private sector’s position inside expertise Equality additionally acquired here into focus in an intimate Leaders communicate hosted by the UN basis. members explored paths for sustaining momentum and accelerating ambition by way of 2026 by way of their corporations’ commitments, strategies, and plans for movement.

agency dedication-makers from the Estée Lauder corporations, represented by Anna Klein, Senior vice chairman of world agency Affairs and worldwide Communications, and Google.org, represented by Stuart McLaughlin, worldwide authorities Engagement Lead, emphasised how GEF pushed them to make progress on gender equality inside their corporations and why it’s important for completely different corporations to get entangled. As Klein mentioned, “expertise Equality gives the private sector a exact avenue map for change,” which McLaughlin echoed, “expertise Equality created a forcing second — we want these.”

private sector funding and collaboration emerged not solely as essential for progress on gender equality however in addition as important for multilateralism and sustainable enchancment general. Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, Senior Advisor on ladies’s management at UN ladies, and María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, GWL Voices member and former President of the seventy-third session of the general meeting, have been two key voices on this topic. each held up GEF as a potential mannequin for discover out how to work together corporations which will very effectively be replicated to deal with completely different factors throughout the worldwide agenda inside the spirit of “co-accountability,” as María Fernanda put it. And as Hanna mentioned, “If the voice of the private sector simply isn’t loud on this course of, expertise Equality simply isn’t going to obtain success.”

three. Progress on Gender Equality stays to be sluggish and Uneven

regardless of the optimistic vitality, enthusiasm, and ambition displayed by worldwide leaders all by way of the Reykjavík discussion board, there was no scarcity of dialogue regarding the cussed gaps that stay inside the fight for gender equality.

on the discussion board this 12 months, ladies Political Leaders and Kantar Public launched their fourth annual Reykjavík Index for management to measure society’s perceptions of women’s suitability to steer. The headline discovering is dismal: Perceptions of women’s management throughout the G7 main industrial international areas have remained stagnant for three years. And regardless of hope for progress with the following expertise, the examine finds that youthful people have much less progressive attitudes than older people in the direction of ladies’s management, with youthful males being significantly much less progressive than youthful ladies.

These damaging gender perceptions reveal a key underlying barrier holding ladies again, and a essential space to deal with to advance ladies’s management.

The Reykjavík worldwide discussion board was a useful alternative to take inventory of the place we’re in advancing gender equality globally. there have been indicators of hope and requires greater ambition. now’s the time to redouble efforts on gender equality as a world precedence to maneuver forward insurance coverage policies on local climate, financial progress, peace and safety, and rather extra. inside the spirit of “vitality, collectively,” we’re in a place to all catalyze change which might be transformative.