Women Deliver is one of the largest, multi-sectoral convenings to advance gender equality. Girls' and women’s lives are compromised by being valued less because of their sex. This is exacerbated by emerging global crises, including climate change, conflict, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These issues have accelerated child, early and forced marriages and unions (CEFMU), a practice that the world has promised to end by 2030 through the Sustainable Development Goals.
Women Deliver 2023 is an opportunity to engage with and learn from others who are working to end CEFMU and gender inequality. In this guide we have highlighted key evidence around the drivers of CEFMU, some of our key advocacy messages, and a curated selection of gatherings and sessions.
Our calls to action
- Build and leverage movements across community, national, and global levels, and include diverse stakeholders, sectors, and geographies. Strengthen partnership to create an ecosystem for change and act collectively for greater impact, shared learning, coordination, mobilisation, and influence.
- Create spaces for young people so that they have an active role in shaping policy, programmes, and solutions. Invest in those who have the power to end child marriage within the next generation.
- Invest in gender-transformative approaches that act to address the underlying social norms and structures that perpetuate gender inequality. Respect, protect and fulfil girls’ and women’s human rights, including the right to health, right to education, bodily integrity, right to adequate standard, right to be free from discrimination of living.
- Invest in multisectoral services and girls’ education, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), and gender-based violence (GBV) interventions – particularly in crisis and humanitarian contexts.
- Provide flexible funding to girls, civil society organisations, and regions with the highest prevalence and burden of child marriage, including West and Central Africa (WACA), and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
Our unstoppable Women Deliver delegation is made up of:
7 youth advocates, amplifying their voices for a brighter future.
2 gender advocates, championing equality and empowerment.
6 member delegates, uniting their strength to bring about lasting solutions.
12 secretariat delegates, working tirelessly behind the scenes to drive progress.
Where you can find us at the conference?
INDABA: Uniting all those working to end child marriage
Side event | Networking | Invitation
Host: Girls Not Brides
18th of July | 7:30 to 8:30 a.m.
Kigali Convention Centre, Room AD12.1
About: The Indaba - from Zulu and Xhosa languages, a word used in Southern African communities to describe an important meeting between peers - is an opportunity to meet other Girls Not Brides members, partners and supporters – and a space for members to showcase efforts to end child marriage and learn from others. We will convene discussions around current child marriage themes chosen by the end child marriage community. This event will be a positive space to connect, listen to insight from across the global Partnership, have coffee, dance, listen to music, and recharge as a community.
Girls Not Brides members, partners, and by invitation only.
Harnessing the power of Education to end harmful gender norms & stereotypes in schools
Concurrent Session | Panel | Open
Host: Global Partnership for Education, co-hosted by Partner Coalition for Ending Gender Stereotypes in Schools, Room to Read, UN Girls’ Education Initiative, UNICEF India, UN Women Bangladesh, Girls Not Brides and others.
Speakers include Dr. Faith Mwangi-Powell, CEO of Girls Not Brides
18th of July | 13:30 to 15:00 p.m.
Kigali Convention Centre, Room AD12.1
About: The session will spotlight the role education has and can play in breaking the cycle of harmful gender norms with benefits for all young people and the future of societies and economies.
Where is the money? Financing adolescents and young feminists
Side Event | Panel | Open
Host: AGIP and co-host by Amplify Girls, GAGE, Girls Not Brides, Plan International, Save the Children
Speakers include Dr. Faith Mwangi-Powell, CEO of Girls Not Brides
18th of July | 15:30 to 17:00 p.m.
Kigali Convention Centre, Room MH4.2
About: Intergenerational dialogue between girls, donors, researchers and CSOs to discuss what needs to shift to make funding accessible for girls and young feminist-led organisations.
Preventing CEFMU in the face of a polycrisis, including thorugh comprehensive sexuality education
Side Event | Panel | Open
Host: Honourable Harjit Singh Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, Government of Canada, the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage, and Girls Not Brides.
Speakers include Dr. Faith Mwangi-Powell, CEO of Girls Not Brides, Mary Robinson, founding member/Chair of The Elders and Graça Machel, founding member of The Elders; co-founder of Girls Not Brides
18th of July | 17:30 p.m.
Kigali Convention Centre, Room AD10.1
This session will bring together young global leaders, influencers, and key stakeholders driving action to end CEFMU around the world. It will encourage open dialogue on challenges and effective tools for preventing CEFMU, including through comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) – an empowering tool for changing harmful gender norms and practices that perpetuate child marriage and gender inequalities.
Menstrual health and hygiene: bloody critical for gender equality
Side Event | Panel | Open
Host: WASH United, The Case For Her, the Global Menstrual Collective, BMZ/GIZ and Columbia University (tbc)
Speakers include Alma Burciaga-Gonzalez, Girls Not Brides Head for Latin American and The Caribbean
18th of July | 17:00 p.m.
Kigali Convention Centre, Room MH 3.1
About: The session will begin with a scene-setting by a young leader on her experiences around menstruation and why it matters to everyone in the room. This will be followed by a panel with key actors working in (1) girls′ education, (2) gender-based violence, (3) women′s economic empowerment and (4) sexual and reproductive health and rights, that share why the interlinkages are relevant to and how to address it practically in their field of work. After the panel, will officially launch the four thematic briefing papers on the interlinkages between MHH and these issues that have been jointly developed by WASH United, The Global Menstrual Collective, The Case For Her, BM/GIZ and Columbia University (tbc). The second panel will focus on how educating and empowering girls and women (through better MHH) is an enabler to creating leadership opportunities.
No More Excuses! Accountability Mechanisms for Girls and Young Women
Side Event | Panel | Open
Host: AGIP, AKILI DADA, Girls Not Brides, ICRW, Plan International
19th of July | 15:30 to 17:00 p.m.
Kigali Convention Centre, Room AD10.1
About: Discussion about funders’ accountability for girls and young women, hearing challenges, successful solutions and commitments which ensure that power can be shifted to adolescent girls.
Chai and Politics: Conversations with Women Political Leaders
Side Event | Panel | Open
Host: AGIP, AKILI DADA, Girls Not Brides, ICRW, Plan International
Speakers: H.E. Joyce Banda, H.E. Helen Clark, H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, H.E. Mary Robinson, and H.E. Graça Machel
19th of July | 17:30-18:30
Kigali Convention Centre, Auditorium
About: Join for this thought-provoking conversation with five extraordinary women leaders who have made remarkable contributions to gender equality and women’s empowerment globally. H.E. Joyce Banda, H.E. Helen Clark, H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, H.E. Mary Robinson, and H.E. Graça Machel will share their extraordinary journeys, highlighting pivotal moments, challenges and triumphs, through their impactful work.
Growing Feminist Movements: Overcoming Challenges and Fostering Connections
Side Event | Panel | Open
Speakers include Mabel van Oranje, Girls Not Brides’ Founder and Global Champion,
20th of July | 09:00 am -10:30 am
Kigali Convention Centre, Auditorium
About: Strong movements are key to the progress and sustainability of gender equality across the world. But how do we build inclusive movements and foster meaningful connections in times of crisis and polarization? This plenary is a space for the leaders of today’s pivotal movements to share their knowledge and experiences.
Find our members and delegates in Woman Deliver
Radical Possibilities for Girls Education & Civic Engagement
Side Event | Panel | Open
Host: National Democratic Institute & Population Council
Speaker: Karla Rax (LAC delegate)
17th of July | 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Lemigo Hotel, KG 624 Street
About: Join us for a discussion of the radical possibility education offers for activism, democracy, and leadership, and learn about DISRUPTHER, a leadership and empowerment program that supports an action-oriented focus on the political engagement of adolescent girls and young women, reframing who leads and enabling power shifts.
We Deserve Better: Strengthening social protection for women and girls
Host: UNICEF
17th of July | 16:00 to 18:00 p.m.
Park Inn by Radisson Hotel
About: Open dialogue on how social protection systems can drive economic empowerment for women and girls
Amidst World Crisis, A Feminist Approach to Gender and Hunger
Side Event | Panel | Open
Host: Action Against Hunger
Speaker: The Hunger Project
18th of July | 17:30 to 19:00 p.m.
Lemigo Hotel, Nasho Room, KG 624 St
About: Gender inequality is a cause, a consequence, and an effect of hunger. This diverse panel will unpack the causes and consequences of hunger on women and girls and share best practices and possible solutions based on field experiences from local and international organizations and governments.
State of Fathers in the World's 2023 Report Launch
Side Event | Report Launch | Open
Host: Equimundo
Speaker: This event will be attended by Sima Bahous, Executive Director of the United Nations, Chili King of ILO, Fidèle Rutayisire of RWAMREC, Nicholas Perry of the World Policy Analysis Center and Gary Barker, Taveeshi Gupta and Nikki van Der Gaag of Equimundo.
18th of July | 17:00 p.m.
Hotel Marriott, Kigali
About: Launch of the 2023 State of the World's Fathers report that articulates data from 17 countries on five continents.