2030 Agenda Civil Society Watch

Beijing+20: Civil Society Side Event to the UN Global Leader’s Meeting

On 27 September 2015, during the UN Sustainable Development Summit, the Post-2015 Women’s Coalition, in partnership with dozens of other civil society organizations, held a side event to the UN Global Leaders Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Commitment to Action, which was hosted by UN Women and the Republic of China. (Commitments made by Member States during the high level meeting toward the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action can be found here.)

During the side event, titled “Civil Society Watch: Governments’ Commitments to Action,” participants discussed best practices for using the momentum of the SDGs to implement and monitor existing gender equality and women’s empowerment commitments; strategized about the shrinking policy space available to civil society at the international level; developed recommendations for innovative accountability mechanisms; and unpacked the intergenerational nature of the women’s movement and where we hope to go between now and 2030.

A comprehensive report with recommendations from over 500 civil society representatives can be found here.

As part of Civil Society Watch, the Post-2015 Women’s Coalition hosted a break-out session on “Civil Society and Community Pledges: Commitments and Strategies for Implementing and Monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals.” Key recommendations from the break out session included linking civil society activities to peace as a prerequisite to sustainable development, helping women to fulfill the SDGs through education and empowerment, and holding governments accountable by collecting data and monitoring gender equality, and fostering collaboration between governments and civil society.

Tweeting live from the side event, organizers published commitments to gender equality made by representatives of civil society. (Click image to enlarge.)