The Need for Gender Equality
You should develop and propose your own original multi-stakeholder initiative to address one or more global challenges. It could be a multi-stakeholder private governance voluntary rule-making initiative, a public-private partnership, or an initiative related to lobbying for more ambitious government intervention to address specific global challenges.
What global challenge does your initiative help address? Give some detail about the societal problems related to your global challenge. Discuss in relation to the UN SDGs.
Which partners and why – what do they bring? Which different stakeholder organisations would be involved? Why do those organisations need to be involved – what would they uniquely contribute that would be valuable?
What would be the case for each stakeholder organisation to participate? Why would they do it? What would motivate them to participate? What would be the benefit for them?
What would be the work? What activities would your initiative engage in and why? What would it be aiming to achieve and how would those activities help?
How would you measure impact / success? What would be the key metrics?
What challenges would likely be encountered? How could these be overcome?
Gender Inequality As a Global Challenge
Gender inequality has permeated the world. In the economic aspect, women are still being paid less remuneration than their male counterparts in the formal sector while still handling a larger share of household work (Jansen van Vuuren, 2020). Politically, women’s numbers in representative offices are still lower, with a similar trend in corporate appointments. Socially, men face a higher possibility of facing violence, imprisonment and disability. At the same time, women are more prone to be victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and even educational attainment, with both genders facing a similar task. Generally, gender equality is a human right. Still, there is a persistent gap in the access to opportunities and the power of decision making between the genders globally (Global issues: Gender equality and women’s empowerment, n.d.). Therefore, this multi-stakeholder initiative will focus on increasing awareness on the gender inequality matter, and different stakeholders bring in their respective efforts to ensure gender equality is achieved across all domains.
The gender equality needs objective is related to Goal 5 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is focused on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls (United Nations, 2021). This is because the pervasive inequalities such as in wealth cause a cascade of resultant social inequalities in the range of various fields such as housing, employment, access to energy, health, education, among other social benefits.
Partners To be Involved In the Initiative
The first important partner will be the region’s Civil Society Organizations (CSO), focused on pursuing the purpose of gender inequality within their specific territories for the public interest. CSOs range from non-governmental organizations, faith-based organizations and unions working within a community. The primary role of CSOs is to be a watchdog that holds both governments and institutions to account. In this case, they will monitor any human rights abuses and provide information to the local constituencies and international organizations concerned with this matter (Cooper, 2018). The CSOs in distinct regions need to be involved. They have accurate information on the gender inequality cases within their regions, which is a valuable foundation for the interventions.
On the other hand, CSOs are set up to help the community on various matters. In this case, being part of the multi-stakeholder initiative just brings them closer to their community objectives. Access to various important stakeholders will streamline the CSOs access to resources and expertise necessary for developing effective measures that are evidence-based and consider all fundamental factors.
The second key partner will be Financial institutions within the community that have demonstrated being focused on the social responsibility of attaining gender equality. Financial institutions that have directed their gender expertise exclusively to the development of women’s economic opportunities in accessing finance, employment, skills and services as per the transition mandate or rather the gender gaps (Document Of The European Bank For Reconstruction And Development, 2015). Therefore, this will be a critical partner that will provide the funds and resources to help these women undertake empowerment courses to acquire the right skills. These skills are then directed into income developing activities. The partnership will support the transition into an open market economy while acknowledging the need of supporting the complete and efficient utilization of economic resources. Notably, the financial institutions will be willing to be part of the initiative. They realize that the project will have identified the victims suffering from gender inequality; hence their resources will be used for the right course.
The third partner will be research institutes whose focus is on conducting extensive research on different matters, which as gender inequality within the community. A partnership with research institutions should provide information, patterns and trends of gender inequality in respective communities. Notably, the research institutes being part of this partnership will get access to the development initiatives implemented to curb gender inequality within the community.
The Measures To Be Implemented By The Initiative
This initiative will identify the gender inequality cases happening in distinct regions working with the partnerships identified. Understanding the actual challenge will guide the initiative on the proper measures that will mitigate the challenge. The work mainly ensures that the initiative identifies the actual challenge while avoiding those that could exploit the funds and resources provided. After extensive research, the initiative will work with community social workers who directly access the community members. The affected individuals will be identified, be educated and taken through the process of empowerment.
The measurement of impact or success will consider the number of gender inequality cases reported to various agencies and the numbers being reported periodically after the women are enrolled on the programs. Also, the number of children being enrolled in educational institutions will be noted since if parents are empowered, they can educate the children.
The main challenge in this process is that while it is easy to identify women and children dealing with gender inequality matters, men are a vulnerable group that found it difficult to open up. The initiative will have to find strategies that will allow men to come forth, share their experiences, and find solutions that could help them make their lives better.
References
Cooper, R. (2018). What is Civil Society, its role and value in 2018? The University of Birmingham. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c6c2e74e5274a72bc45240e/488_What_is_Civil_Society.pdf
Document Of The European Bank For Reconstruction And Development. (2015). Strategy For The Promotion Of Gender Equality 2016-2020.
Global issues: Gender equality and women’s empowerment. (n.d.). Peace Corps – Make the Most of Your World. https://www.peacecorps.gov/educators/resources/global-issues-gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment/
Jansen van Vuuren, J. (2020, March 5). Six critical global issues | What are the world’s biggest problems, and how can I help? Volunteer Abroad & Internships Abroad – International Programs | GVI UK. https://www.gvi.co.uk/blog/6-critical-global-issues-what-are-the-worlds-biggest-problems-and-how-i-can-help/
United Nations. (2021). Gender equality and women’s empowerment. United Nations Sustainable Development. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/
