Gender and Inclusion: More than Just Buzzwords

Creating a more equitable world.

Missed the leadership lab? Learn more about the key takeaways from the session! 

WHAT WAS THE SESSION ABOUT? 

The session was fueled by knowledge sharing and exchanging expertise on gender and social inclusion, and how gender mainstream can be included in the youth collective work. We also had the opportunity to learn from young feminists who shared their experiences and suggestions for overcoming the barriers to gender inclusiveness. Throughout the session, we heard from various speakers who shared their knowledge and personal experiences with gender and social inclusion, shedding light on the challenges faced by advocates. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

  • Gender equality entails treating all people fairly and equally, regardless of gender and removing gender discrimination, bias, and stereotypes while fostering fairness and justice. It all comes down to ensuring that boys, girls, and people of all genders have equal rights, opportunities, and chances for success.  It entails establishing a society in which all people, regardless of gender, have equal access to resources, opportunities, and decision-making authority.
  •  Inequality affects everyone. It means unequal citizen’s rights, limited political participation, violence, unequal pay and employment opportunities, sexual violence and harassment, lack of government structures where to lobby for gender equality etc. 
  • Power shifting means dismantling historic barriers and biases that have left marginalized communities behind in the development agenda. It means changing the way we do development in our communities, ensuring we meaningfully involve girls and women in development initiatives, and prioritize them to drive development. 
  • Power shifting means inclusiveness including bringing communities we work with, girls and women, and young people on board when planning and undertaking development work that relates to them. Moving away from tokenism and embarking on complete and meaningful representation and participation is a deliberate step towards power shifting. 
  • Inclusion should be looked at from a broader perspective, and not just to be limited to gender. We also need to look at people with disabilities. Being inclusive is a process of constantly ensuring that people feel their presence is felt and that their time is of relevance and serves the interest that they represent. 
  • Gender equality and inclusion should go beyond empowering young women, and get the stakeholders along. 

OBJECTIVES OF THE SESSION 

  • To ensure we promote gender equality and inclusion in the way we carry out our work.
  • To learn from different speakers, the challenges they face in promoting gender equality and inclusion, and how they have been able to deal with it.
  • To understand how we can power shift to ensure we break down the barriers placed in undertaking development. 
  • To understand the concept of inclusion.

MODERATOR OF THE SESSION:

Fisayo Owoyemi 

Fisayo Owoyemi is a Nigerian-based queer feminist whose career has centered on helping improve lives and well-being of queer Nigerians. Previously, her work targeted lesbian, bisexual, and queer women in Nigeria to improve their socioeconomic well-being, as well as their sexual and reproductive health. Currently, Fisayo is the Community of Action Facilitator for the We Lead program in Nigeria.

SPEAKERS FOR THE SESSION 

Nour Nahhas

Nour is the Community Facilitator for We Lead in Lebanon. She has extensive knowledge in the non-governmental sector in the field of gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and migration. 

Yande Kalengo

Yande is the Power Shifting Director at Restless Development and has seven years of experience in International development, particularly working in gender, women’s rights and youth programming in Zambia. She is a feminist and an activist, a lawyer with BA Degree from Oxford Brooks University and a Master’s degree in International law from West Minister. 

Peace Pimer

Peace is the Founder and executive director of Nile Girls Forum, a woman-led organization focusing on elevating adolescent girls and young women. She is a partnership leader for the alumni committee of the MasterCard Foundation, Uganda Chapter.

She has made a presentation on Public Health in Youth Consultation and hate speech organized by the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. She is the board chairperson for EduChild Foundation-Uganda. She is recognized by the UNFPA as an advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights in 2019, and an advocate for inclusion and champion for adolescent young girls and women affected by displacement, refugees and with disabilities. She is a certified professional in sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

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