“We need advocacy, we need movement building to happen so that we can get everybody engaged—policy makers and citizens. Participation in political and public life is another important area where we need to see more women” said by UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri.

Mr.Dinesh Gajendran Catalyst and Founder of Audacious Dreams Foundation attended the UN Women Dialogue with the Audacious youth panel team and school students. There, The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by UN Member States in September 2015 is a universal roadmap for people and planet was discussed. Everyone addressed with the key challenges of the 21st century, such as poverty, inequality, and climate change. Women’s empowerment is recognized as a pre-condition to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the core of the 2030 Agenda. The SDGs include a transformative stand-alone goal on gender equality and women’s rights (Goal 5) that addresses structural barriers to women’s empowerment, along with important targets on gender equality in other Goals. Success will now depend on rigorous implementation.

As part of the implementation efforts, UN Women is urging all partners to Step it Up for Gender Equality. This includes news media who are influential actors to advance the gender equality agenda. Building on the successful Beijing+20 Media Compact established with media organizations worldwide in the context of the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, 

UN Women is invited media partners to play their part in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda and focus on gender equality and women’s rights issues on two fronts:

In their reporting, disrupting stereotypes and biases.

In increasing the number of women in the media, including in leadership and decision-making functions.

 

In orientation and training of staff members, ensure guidelines for gender-sensitive reporting.

Through gender-responsive decision-making, enable equality in the newsrooms by ensuring women journalists are given similar opportunities as their male colleagues and can cover diverse subjects from politics to business, science, sports and technology, while encouraging male journalists to also cover diverse issues, including women’s rights and gender equality stories.

Ensure women journalists are provided mentors and guidance for career advancement.

 

Development Goals discussed on the sessions:

 

There should be serious discussions about engaging both women and men in the action towards obtaining gender equality. The approach must be four-pronged.

 

Increasing investment in adolescent girls’ and young women’s leadership across the board:

 

This is a very important step so as to assure that women are not only the leaders of tomorrow, but also the leaders of today. This will also mean that young women are able to assert their rights as laid out in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the broader human rights framework.

 

 

A serious conversation about the responsibility and accountability of young men and boys:

 

This needs to be emphasized upon. The role of young men and boys is not only important as actors in attaining gender equality, but also as partners in creating a world that is equal if we want to achieve the goal of planet 50-50 by the year 2030.

 

Discussion on youth and gender equality including all the sexes:

 

With young women, young men and all others, this discussion must break stereotypes and the silos that have been created through age-old systems of patriarchy and the hegemony of masculinities embedded in social institutions including the education system, organized religion, and political and financial systems.

Serious effort to strengthen the life cycle of gender equality, and inter-generational partnerships on gender equality:

 

There is a need to create a culture of continuous dialogue and mutual understanding amongst all generations through inter-generational partnerships. In this regard, children, adolescents, youth, adults, and elders can all become champions of gender equality today.

 

In conclusion, there was a call upon all youth-led organizations, youth-led initiatives, and supporters of youth movements to seriously engage in creating a planet that is truly 50-50 by the year 2030. Young women and men need to be on the frontlines of the fight for gender equality.

“I hope that we can leave an equal world as a legacy for our children, I will be equally happy if we success in creating a class of men and women that believe that gender equality is the norm and any person that questions that is an aberration. I hope that the goal of an equal society is taken as a given by the future generations” Said by Aishwarya Dhanush-UN Women Dialogue.

 

 

Reference:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10207452221248030.1073741900.1362923616&type=3