WD2023 After-Action Review

Women Deliver contributed to the culminating report from a Wilton Park event co-hosted by WHO, UNFPA, and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which highlights key actions the global community must take to make humanitarian action work for adolescent girls. Our biggest takeaway: adolescent girls and the local organizations that support them are resilient change-makers in humanitarian settings, and must be financed and engaged to unlock their full power and potential.

Women are powerful agents of change, and the far-reaching benefits of diversity and gender parity in leadership and decision-making are increasingly recognized in all spheres of society. Still, women continue to be vastly underrepresented in decision-making in politics, businesses, and communities. This policy brief explores the benefits, challenges, and opportunities to accelerate women’s leadership. It outlines recommendations to drive progress in women’s leadership and decision-making by 2030.

Infographic on women in leadership.

Educating girls and women is a powerful investment that benefits both individuals and society by unlocking the potential to improve health, nutrition, social justice, democracy, human rights, gender equality, social cohesion, and economic prosperity for current and future generations. This policy brief examines the cross-sectoral interventions that promote gender equality in and through education and support girls to access and complete school.

The Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation, in partnership with Women Deliver and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), has developed guidance to help auditors to understand gender equality and its place in the 2030 Agenda, and to plan either an audit focused on SDG 5—gender equality and women’s empowerment—or an audit that examines gender equality within other SDGs, such as poverty, hunger, health, or education.

A practical toolkit for young people to advocate for improved adolescent health and well-being.

Women are an essential part of global value chains. As raw material producers, small-business owners, executives, retail workers, and consumers, women help businesses succeed and grow. Yet women continue to face barriers to achieve their full potential at work, in the marketplace, and in many other aspects of life. This not only holds women back, it impairs the growth of businesses, economies, and communities. This report aims to help unlock business opportunities that advance the health, rights, and wellbeing of women in global value chains.

The full and equal political participation of women is a prerequisite for democratic governance. This policy brief examines various proven solutions to addressing barriers in institutions, sociocultural norms, and individual capacity in order to empower all girls and women and amplify their voices in decision-making processes.

Women’s economic empowerment is a pre-requisite for inclusive and equitable economic growth. Every day, women demonstrate they can build informal and formal businesses out of very little capital, create networks to maximize limited resources, and shoulder disproportionate care-taking responsibilities. Women succeed in spite of laws, policies, social norms, and institutions that hold them back. This policy brief examines opportunities to create an enabling environment for women to thrive economically.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a phenomenon that transcends social, economic, and geographic borders. GBV is rooted in power imbalances between the sexes and fueled by multiple factors, including cultural norms, social acceptance of harmful practices, and insufficient legal protections. This policy brief discusses several approaches that can help societies step up the prevention of gender-based violence and build a stronger response to violence when it occurs.