Women

Women’s Major Group Statement on the High-Level Week, 2023

View from the Top: Summits Reveal Abysmal Progress, Gaping Lack of Ambition: The 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was a moment of stocktaking and profound reflection on the current state of affairs worldwide, as well as an opportunity to review progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address critical gaps and challenges as the world grapples with multiple, interlinked crises. Calls for urgent action were loud and clear. However, negotiated outcomes leading up to the SDG Summit, and statements by leaders during High-Level Week were not ambitious enough for a shift away from current business-as-usual approaches. With just 15 per cent of the SDGs on track as of April 2023, the full achievement of Agenda 2030 slips further out of reach. The Women’s Major Group is particularly alarmed by… click here to continue reading

SDG Action Weekend

On the SDG Mobilization Day we had an incredible turnout and powerful speeches at our official session, “Towards a Rights-Centered Gender-Transformative Economy, including a New International Financial Architecture,” organized with the support of UN Women where speakers from feminist civil society, international institutions and member states stressed the need for inclusive, democratic and accountable governance, centering civil society voices, especially those from the Global South, to reform the international financial architecture.

WMG also co-organized two side events on the same day with partners:

• Together towards a disability-inclusive future: From the SDGs Summit to Beyond 2030 (co-organized with International Disability Alliance, International Disability and Development Consortium, Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities, Major Group on Children and Youth, the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the UN, the Permanent Mission of Guatemala to the UN, Permanent Mission of Mexico to the UN, UNICEF, and UNPRPD)
• Towards the Realization of SDGs: A Multistakeholder, Intersectional and Intergenerational Approach (co-organized with ARROW and Women with Disabilities Development Foundation (WDDF), UNFPA, and the Permanent Mission of Malaysia.)

Our members were panelists in different capacities throughout the events of the day, including on side events and the “Enhancing Advocacy, Financing and Accountability: Key Messages from Civil Society to the SDG Summit and Beyond” session, in UNHQ Trusteeship Council.

Photo Credit: Kalpana Rai

Global People’s Assembly

We co-organized the Global People’s Assembly (GPA) with over 60 civil society organizations from across the world, and co-wrote the Declaration of the Global People’s Assembly 2023 and played a strong role in the adoption and dissemination of the Declaration. This critical, interlinked Declaration of the 2023 Global People’s Assembly, co-created by over 40 national and regional People’s Assemblies and Global Peoples Assembly co-organizers, in all our diversities, is our shared and collective vision for a human-rights centered, gender transformative, intergenerational change to address the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated, and to accelerate the faltering progress toward the achievement of the SDGs.

WMG organized two sessions within the GPA:

• Linkages of Pushback, Linkages of Resistance: Gender, Climate, Migration and Democracy
• Feminist Economy (co-organized with Civil Society FfD Mechanism)

Many of our members organized, moderated and spoke at the other sessions of the Global People’s Assembly. Please support us by helping the Declaration to be spread as wide as possible so the voices of people are heard by those in decision-making.

Photo Credit: Kalpana Rai

SDG Summit and Beyond

We were able to follow (though in very limited numbers in person) and document the developments at the SDG Summit in all of the sessions. We had over 5 official meetings with member state delegations, UN institutions, and other stakeholders. We hope to stay in touch with all the delegations we’ve met, to share information and advocacy priorities with them.

We cosponsored the side event on “Accelerating Progress towards Health Equity: High-Level Commitments that Address Inequalities in Health” organized by Akina Mama Wa Afrika and Wemos, with Partners in Health, University of Global Health Equity, UHAI East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative.

Many of our WMG members continued their fierce feminist activism during the remainder of the UN High-Level Week, through speeches, events they organized and meetings they’ve held. We are deeply grateful to you and your continued fierce feminist inspirations, and before we sign off, a reminder that you can read WMG’s position on the SDGs in English and French in our HLPF 2023 Position Paper here.  

In solidarity with feminists, in all their diversity, who were missing in this conversation.

Photo Credit: WEDO

Other Engagements and Work

Parallely, several of our members were at the Generation Equality Forum Mid-Point, and we also marched with our fellow feminists to Demand an End to Fossil Fuels.

Please find the visual graphics that we prepared here! You can find photos for all days being uploaded by our members here.

This year’s incredible messages, graphics and Zoom backgrounds will always remain available to you. So please bookmark the link to the social media toolkit, and use the materials whenever you can throughout the year, to show WMG’s advocacy on gender equality and sustainable development is year-round!

Do not forget to check out this incredible Facebook Live Series, “Feminist Voices at #SDGSummit2030” steered by our members, where our member Dr. Rachael Misan-Ruppee spotlights the powerful perspectives of WMG feminists with a focus on the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda at all levels. Watch on WMG Facebook page!

We ended with a WMG Feminists and Allies Gathering Celebration, where we shared space and joy!

We thank you all for all your support, expertise, work, time and solidarity. We are already very much excited for our collective, fierce feminist advocacy in the upcoming days and months. Stay in touch on social media!

Twitter: @Women_Rio20
Facebook: Women’s Major Group
Instagram: @womensmajorgroup
Youtube: Women’s Major Group

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Women’s Major Group Statement on the High-Level Week, 2023

View from the Top: Summits Reveal Abysmal Progress, Gaping Lack of Ambition

The 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was a moment of stocktaking and profound reflection on the current state of affairs worldwide, as well as an opportunity to review progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address critical gaps and challenges as the world grapples with multiple, interlinked crises. Calls for urgent action were loud and clear. However, negotiated outcomes leading up to the SDG Summit, and statements by leaders during High-Level Week were not ambitious enough for a shift away from current business-as-usual approaches. With just 15 per cent of the SDGs on track as of April 2023, the full achievement of Agenda 2030 slips further out of reach. 

The Women’s Major Group is particularly alarmed by the unrelenting dilution and rollback of language and persistent inaction on gender equality and human rights. The political declaration adopted at the SDG Summit has only perfunctorily addressed gender equality and human rights, initially envisioned as integral to sustainable development and cutting across the social, economic, and environmental pillars. Several Member States coordinated efforts to strip the outcome document of language on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and limiting references to women and girls in all their diversity to only a handful throughout the declaration. A similar pattern was observed in the negotiations for the political declaration on universal health coverage, which reverted to agreed language from 2019 instead of adopting more progressive language, which is a reflection of the global rollback on gender equality. 

After months of fraught, closed-door negotiations and last-minute objections, leaders finally agreed to a document that acknowledges the lack of progress on the SDGs and includes calls for “bold, ambitious, accelerated, just and transformative actions” but in no way matches the urgent need for deep systemic reforms to our global institutions and systems and the significance of a human-rights centered approach, or addresses the shrinking space for civil society, the alarming rise and support to state and non-state anti-gender and anti-right movements, and continued domination, exploitation, and the exercise of power over, rather than power by historically marginalized and exploited groups and regions. Leaders delivered many generic statements and lackluster commitments throughout high-level week, but ambition, credibility, cooperation, and strategic plans for concrete actions were in short supply – and even absent, since some of the world’s largest carbon emitters were missing from the list of speakers at this year’s Climate Ambition Summit.  

The Women’s Major Group reaffirms that the status quo can’t hold. In the lead-up to the Summit of the Future in 2024, we call on Member States, UN entities and other stakeholders to join us in crafting transformative, sustainable, inclusive, human rights-centered solutions accompanied by strong accountability mechanisms, placing gender equality and the empowerment of all women, girls and gender diverse people firmly at the center. Only through this can we have a true ‘course correction’ that upholds the rights of people and the planet.

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SDG Action Weekend | 16-17 Sept | UN Headquarters, New York
The UN will be convening an SDG Action Weekend with the aim of opening space for diverse stakeholders to mobilize towards an ambitious SDG Summit and UN General Assembly High-Level Week. The SDG Action Weekend will consist of the SDG Mobilization Day on 16 September, and the SDG Acceleration Day on 17 September which will be open to representatives of all Member States, the UN system and organizations and stakeholders. At the hyperlinks you can view the full programme and the registration process.

Gender Equality and the Rights of All Women and Girls in All their Diversity: Towards a Rights-Centered Gender-Transformative Economy, including a new International Financial Architecture |16 Sept | 12pm – 2pm EST | UN Headquarters, Conference Room 2
Organized by the WMG, with the support of UN Women, the session is a part of the official program of SDG Mobilization Day. It aims to explore the gendered implications of the current financial architecture and discuss how the reforms proposed by civil society, member states, the World Bank Evolution Roadmap, and the Secretary-General can be designed and expanded to accelerate progress toward the SDGs for a substantive, positive impact on gender equality and the rights of all women and girls. Registration for the SDG Action Weekend can be accessed at the hyperlink.

Global People’s Assembly | Sept 17-18 | Church Center, New York & Virtual 
Co-organized by over 40 civil society networks, the 2023 Global People’s Assembly (GPA) will be held to bring people’s representatives together for a strong civil society voice at the margins of the SDG Summit. You can find at the hyperlink the concept note and registration link. You can read the Global People’s Assembly 2022 Declaration here. A 2023 Declaration is currently being drafted.

Linkages of Pushback, Linkages of Resistance: Gender, Climate, Migration & Democracy | 17 Sept | 1.30 – 3.00pm EST | Church Center, New York
Organized by the WMG as a part of the Global People’s Assembly, the session seeks to explore the intricate interconnections between four critical dimensions of global societal dynamics: gender, climate change, migration, and democracy. Despite their apparent differences, there exists a noteworthy intersection between these movements, characterized by shared narratives, tactics, and implications. The complex interplay among these dimensions has given rise to a range of challenges and opportunities that warrant in-depth examination.

Feminist Economy | 18 Sept | 9 – 10:45am EST | Church Center, New York
Co-organized by the WMG as a part of the Global People’s Assembly, in collaboration with Civil Society FfD Mechanism, the objective of the session is to foster a deep understanding of the key principles and transformative potential of a feminist economic framework. Participants will engage in critical analyses and knowledge-sharing to analyze structural inequalities, and envision future pathways for a feminist economy that challenges existing economic paradigms and structures and offers a transformative vision for societies that prioritizes gender equality, social justice, and the well-being of all.

SDG Summit | 18-19 Sept | UN Headquarters, New York
The 2023 SDG Summit, the second of its kind, marks the mid-point of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It will carry out a comprehensive review of the state of the SDGs and provide policy guidance to respond to the impact of multiple and interlocking crises facing the world with a negotiated political declaration as its outcome. You can find the programme of the Summit at the hyperlink.

WMG Co-organized Events

Together towards a disability-inclusive future: From the SDGs Summit to beyond 2030 | 16 Sept | 1:15 – 2:45pm | Conference Room 7 UN Headquarters
Co-organized by the WMG as a part of the Global People’s Assembly, in collaboration with Civil Society FfD Mechanism, the objective of the session is to foster a deep understanding of the key principles and transformative potential of a feminist economic framework. Participants will engage in critical analyses and knowledge-sharing to analyze structural inequalities, and envision future pathways for a feminist economy that challenges existing economic paradigms and structures and offers a transformative vision for societies that prioritizes gender equality, social justice, and the well-being of all.

Towards the realization of SDGs: A multistakeholder, intersectional and intergenerational approach’ | 16 Sept | 3:15 – 4:45pm EST | Conference Room 12 UN Headquarters
An interactive, inclusive and intergenerational side event co-organized with ARROW and partners to discuss the regional realities of SDG implementation in Asia and the Pacific region with a focus on SDG 3 and 5, and highlighting the importance of mobilization of multistakeholder approach and partnerships for equitable and sustainable implementation of interventions for resilient response and recovery from COVID-19 pandemic, which is imperative for accelerated actions in the second half of the SDGs.

Accelerating progress towards health equity: high-level commitments to address inequalities in health | 19 Sept | 9:00 – 11:00am EST | UN Church Center, Boss room & Online 

Akina Mama wa Afrika and Wemos, with coorganizers the Women’s Major Group, Partners in Health, University of Global Health Equity, UHAI East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative, warmly invite you to join us at our side event ahead of the UNGA High-Level Meetings on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPR), Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and Tuberculosis (TB).

The right to health, financial justice, sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality are not siloed issues. They are interlinked! Progress towards UHC, and protection against diseases and epidemics, requires the strengthening of public health systems that give access to quality services to all – based on need, not on privilege or ability to pay. This asks for policies that are informed by the needs of populations and their intersecting vulnerabilities, sufficient public finance, and more.

Hybrid event – Register here

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