On the Front Lines: Youth, Gender and Political Change

Day two at InterAction’s Forum had an inspiring and youthful start as the morning plenary focused on youth, gender and political change. Co-sponsored by InterAction's Commission on the Advancement of Women and the Alliance for International Youth Development (AIYD), this plenary considered how young people, particularly women, are at the threshold of social and political change, and how the international community can cultivate this energy to help create greater opportunities.

Lakshmi Puri, the Assistant-Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, provided the framework of the discussion and outlined the challenges that young people are facing around the world.  She spoke on five issue areas that UN Women has identified for women: investment, economic empowerment, enhancing their role in political decision-making as well as peace building, and ending violence against women.

While discussing these challenges, including the frustration many young people feel as educational gains are not turning into opportunity, Puri’s tone remained optimistic and she discussed the untapped power that youth and women have to change their communities. This optimistic ideal was manifested in the following segment of the session, as three young women from around the world, Basant of Egypt, Raihana of Afghanistan and Ana of El Salvador* shared their perspective on how the NGO community can work to help women and youth in their countries. These women were the highlight of the session, as their excitement for change and advancement for women was visible in their passionate and dynamic discussion.

Questions and topics varied from country to country, the role of gender in Afghanistan, youth’s role in advancement towards democracy in Egypt and continuing gang violence in El Salvador, but the women’s answers shared a common theme: increasing women’s role in the political decision making process. There was a consensus that around the world women are underrepresented in governing political bodies.

This plenary was instrumental in providing a human voice to the work of many of the NGOS represented at Forum. While it may be hard to convince both and women and men to change stereotypes that have been engrained from society, like “machismo” in El Salvador, or the westernized perception, and the negative connotation of the word “gender” in Afghanistan, by educating women, and allowing them a greater role in the political decision making bodies, women can work to change the conversation.

Contributed by Kellie Peake

For security reasons, only first names are used.