Gender Equality Brazil Project #38096

Investing in Young People to be Powerful Champions

by Women Deliver Inc

Project Report | Jan 16, 2020
Women Deliver Young Leaders Program, January 2020

By Youth Team | Women Deliver

In the months between October 2019 and January 2020, the Women Deliver Youth Engagement Team focused its efforts on preparing for the next class of 300 Young Leaders, enhancing the Digital University curriculum, supporting the continued implementation of small grants, meaningfully engaging Young Leaders at the Nairobi Summit on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25), and hosting a Young Leaders Program Latin America and Caribbean Multi-Country Workshop.

This report provides an overview of Women Deliver’s progress in key areas of youth engagement in this reporting period. These efforts have been funded in part by Chime for Change in addition to investments from a broad range of multi-year funding partners.

Communications

In February 2020, Women Deliver will be inviting applications for the next class of 300 Young Leaders. Women Deliver will be welcoming applications from passionate advocates for gender equality between the ages of 15 and 28 from all across the globe. In preparation for the application launch in February, during the reporting period, Women Deliver dedicated efforts to developing targeted promotional materials, including social media toolkits and flyers, among others, for the recruitment of the next class of Young Leaders.

Digital University

As shared in the previous report, Women Deliver has been working on enhancements to the Young Leaders Program Digital University. During the reporting period, efforts were focused on finalizing the scope of work and timeline with vendors to establish the next steps toward implementing updates to the curriculum and other technological enhancements. The Digital University will be ready to launch soon after the next class of Young Leaders begins its two-year program in May 2020.

Small Grants

As shared in the previous report, Women Deliver selected and notified the most recent group of grant recipients of Women Deliver Young Leaders Program grants in the fall. There are 23 grants currently being implemented from August 2019 to January 2020 by Young Leaders and Alumni across 14 countries. Every grant recipient received intensive technical assistance to support the implementation of their advocacy project strategies, including an orientation, web training, one-on-one phone sessions, and email support. Highlights of work conducted by select small grant recipients at the interim period of the grant cycle include:

Boris Nwachukwu, Nigeria: #Advans: Advocacy for the Domestication of Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act in Nasarawa State
At its mid-point, this project succeeded in getting two legislators in Nasarawa State, Nigeria to sponsor the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act. The team also hosted a town hall with 147 religious leaders from both Muslim and Christian communities to discuss contributions and resolutions around domesticating the Act. The town hall concluded with a majority consensus and a signed commitment from the religious leaders on supporting the VAPP Act in Nasarawa State.

Additional activities included meeting with leaders of the market unions to gain approval to speak to the market women and educate them about their rights under the Act. Boris and his team successfully spoke to 4,000 people and helped garner grassroots support to pressure legislators to pass the VAPP Act. They also hosted a special radio talk show focused on the prevention of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and its impact on society and worked with the Emir of Keffi Palace to speak at an event on female entrepreneurship.

Georgiana Epure, Romania: Advancing the Prevention of Gender-Based Workplace Discrimination and Harassment in Sibiu, Romania
This small grant aims to prevent harassment in the workplace by working with employers to develop internal policies against harassment. At its midpoint, the project had successfully held a conference for human resource staff and local employers. Since that conference, one employer has already developed an internal mechanism for reporting sexual harassment, and two others have reached out to the team expressing an interest in the initiative. The conference served to increase the visibility of sexual harassment in the workplace and launch a mobile exhibit on women's rights in Romania. Multiple employers have expressed interest in hosting the exhibition and using it to raise awareness around gender equality.

Speaker’s Bureau

A major advocacy moment milestone during the reporting period was the Nairobi Summit on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25). Five Young Leaders were selected for sponsorship by Women Deliver to participate in the Summit. In addition to the five sponsored Young Leaders, there were over 30 other Women Deliver Young Leaders in attendance. Women Deliver actively supported the placement of Young Leaders in key roles as advisors, conveners, and speakers across the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 and provided them with technical assistance in developing their talking points and presentations as needed. These young people were ultimately successful in bringing a strong youth voice to this important gathering through their influence on programming, their role in drafting the Youth Accountability Statement for ICPD25, and their engagement in numerous advocacy moments throughout the week.

Latin America and Caribbean Multi-Country Workshop

Women Deliver hosted its fourth Multi-Country Workshop from December 6-7, 2019 in Panama City, Panama for 36 Young Leaders and Alumni from 21 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The purpose of the workshop was to strengthen relationships among Young Leaders, Alumni, and Women Deliver staff, develop the capacity and skills of Young Leaders and Alumni, share lessons learned, explore region-specific issues, and discuss forward-looking opportunities.

In the lead-up to the Workshop, a planning committee was formed, consisting of six Young Leaders and Alumni who served as advisors to and provided support for the Workshop. This group met bi-weekly with Women Deliver staff to discuss Workshop progress and to provide additional ideas and feedback on programming. Additionally, they facilitated communications with Young Leader attendees, supported logistics, and led a number of sessions on site.

The Workshop program included a variety of interactive activities, presentations, small group discussions, and skills-building sessions. A total of 18 Young Leaders presented or facilitated a session during the Workshop. Pre- and post-tests were administered specifically to assess the impact of skills-building sessions; these tests identified a 74% improvement in Young Leader knowledge.

Closing
During this reporting period, Women Deliver continued to champion meaningful youth engagement and bolster the capacity and knowledge of youth advocates through the Women Deliver Young Leaders Program. Women Deliver is looking forward to a great start to 2020. The recruitment, selection, and onboarding of the next class of 300 Young Leaders is now just around the corner! Women Deliver is grateful for the generous support provided by Chime for Change and is eager to continue the efforts to strengthen the collaboration.

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Oct 18, 2019
Women Deliver Young Leaders Program, October 2019

By Youth Team | Women Deliver

In the months between July and October 2019, the Women Deliver Youth Engagement Team focused on applying key learnings to the next iteration of Digital University, provided young people with opportunities to engage on important issues through strategic communications work, and launched its next round of grants. This report provides an overview of Women Deliver’s progress in key areas of youth engagement in this reporting period. These efforts have been funded in part by Chime for Change as well as investments from a broad range of multi-year funding partners.

Digital University
The Youth Engagement Team’s work on Digital University during the reporting period focused on synthesizing feedback from those who completed the course, gathering updated technical inputs, and translating the received recommendations and refreshed content into planned enhancements for the 2020 cohort of Young Leaders. In order to inform enhancements to the platform itself, Women Deliver convened a Digital University committee of 2018 Young Leaders tasked with collecting qualitative feedback from their peers and analyzed data from the Digital University assessments. In order to inform technical content updates, the Youth Engagement Team utilized an organization-wide approach, collaborating with all Women Deliver teams to develop refreshed content. Enhancements are now underway to both the platform and its content with the goal of increasing accessibility and strengthening learning outcomes that will ultimately amplify impact for the incoming 2020 cohort and beyond.

Small Grants
In July, Women Deliver selected and notified the most recent group of grant recipients of Women Deliver’s Young Leaders Program grants initiative, which began in 2014. The program is rooted in the belief that young people must be provided resources for their innovative projects and advocacy campaigns at all levels of their advocacy journey. This new round of 23 grants is currently being implemented by Young Leaders and alumni across 14 countries. Women Deliver has awarded a grant to an adolescent for the first time;Milka Brenda Ininahazwe,a2018 Young Leader from Burundi, is implementing a grant to promote menstrual hygiene through sexual education workshops and public education campaigns for adolescents.

Communications
During the reporting period, Women Deliver continued to harness the power of communications to promote meaningful youth engagement and to elevate the voices of young people. Capitalizing on key calendar moments, Women Deliver drew focus to the needs and issues important to young people. To mark International Youth Day (12 August), Women Deliver launched its new position paper titled,Meaningful Youth Engagement: Sharing Power, Advancing Progress, Driving Change,which calls for redefining power and establishing new approaches that meaningfully engage youth to build a healthier, more equitable and sustainable society. Through a thoughtful multi-prong promotion plan, the paper received widespread attention and engagement.

Additionally, on World Contraception Day 2019 (26 September), as in years past, Women Deliver led on a social media dialogue with support from partners. This year, Women Deliver took this important conversation from Twitter to a more youth-friendly and dynamic platform where many young people are: Instagram. For an inaugural#RealTalkwithWDon Instagram, Women Deliver brought together young people to test knowledge on contraception, bust myths, and share methods and resources. Almost 1,100 participants joined in, with many sharing video submissions.

Through communications and media opportunities, the Youth Engagement Team also spotlighted young people as partners in the work to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality. All Women Deliver Young Leaders and Alumni who received grants in the fall 2018 cycle culminated their advocacy projects with an opportunity for a spotlight in partnership with WellbeingForWomen. In total, 12 Young Leaders used thisplatformto publish their reflections on their advocacy projects.

Closing
During this reporting period, Women Deliver continued to bolster the capacity of youth advocates through the Women Deliver Young Leaders Program, resulting in greater influence of these advocates in the movement for gender equality. Looking forward, the Youth Engagement team is excited to co-create and convene the Latin America and Caribbean Multi-Country Workshop with Young Leaders and alumni in Panama City in December, advance the meaningful participation of young people at the Nairobi Summit and beyond in the lead up to Beijing +25, and finalize and implement a strategy for the recruitment and selection of the 2020 Young Leaders class. Women Deliver continues to be appreciative to Chime for Change for its generous support and looks forward to continuing conversations to strengthen collaboration.

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Jul 22, 2019
Women Deliver Young Leaders Program, July 2019

By Youth Team | Women Deliver

Between the months of April and July 2018, the Women Deliver’s Youth Engagement Team was hard at work preparing for the Women Deliver 2019 Conference, in addition to many other ongoing Young Leaders Program projects. This report outlines Women Deliver’s progress in key areas of Youth Engagement from April through to July 2019.

Women Deliver 2019

This June, Women Deliver’s Young Leaders were joined by hundreds of young people from around the world at the Women Deliver 2019 Conference (WD2019) in Vancouver, Canada. Of these delegates, 440 Young Leaders and Alumni were sponsored to attend by Women Deliver. WD2019 kicked off the week with the Youth Pre-Conference, which was open to the more than 1,400 young people in attendance at WD2019 and included vibrant performances, lively regional breakout sessions, and remarks from diverse speakers, such as Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, and Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth. The Youth Pre-Conference was just one of three pre-conferences hosted by the Youth Engagement Team; the Young Leaders & Alumni Workshop, Generation Now, and the Youth Pre-Conference each drew enthusiastic and passionate participation from hundreds of people.

The Youth Zone, which lay at the heart of the Fueling Station (WD2019 exhibition hall), was a bustling hub for people of all ages at WD2019 and provided a space for intergenerational dialogue and idea-sharing. Fourteen events were hosted in this space over the week, including various conversations on harnessing creativity for advocacy, a speed networking session, and a silent disco. Beyond these youth-forward spaces, young people were engaged across the Conference, bringing their unique voice and perspective to the forefront of the conversation. More than 150 Young Leaders had speaking engagements at WD2019, from the Plenary Stage to Concurrent Sessions each day. One highlight not to be missed was the explosive presence of 18-year-old Young Leader Natasha Mwansa on the official WD2019 Opening plenary stage!

Alumni Committee

In 2018, Women Deliver’s Young Leaders Program launched its inaugural Alumni Committee, gathering 10 Young Leaders from the 2010 and 2013 cohorts to collaborate and advise on the best next steps forward for an alumni program. This committee was instrumental in the success of initiatives such as One Year Out (OYO), a collection of events held around the world to mark one year until the Women Deliver 2019 Conference, and the Women Deliver Youth Engagement Team’s alumni mapping effort to begin re-engaging Young Leader Alumni.

In May 2019, the Youth Engagement Team launched a call for applications for a new Alumni Committee cohort to join for the 2019-2020 term. Following a competitive application review process, 10 Young Leader Alumni from the 2013 and 2016 classes representing a diversity of regions, identities, and areas of expertise were selected and introduced at the Young Leader & Alumni Workshop at the Women Deliver 2019 Conference. The first Alumni Committee meeting for the new cohort is scheduled for late July.

Small Grants

Too often, young people are viewed by institutional donors as lacking a “proven track record”, and are therefore perceived as too young and inexperienced to implement a grant or change policies in any significant way. As a result, youth advocacy efforts are left ignored, underestimated, and under-funded. To fill this gap, Women Deliver has been providing small grants to select Young Leaders and alumni to implement short-term six-month advocacy projects since 2014. With thanks to the generous support of our donors, Women Deliver has provided 93 small grants totaling US$465,000 to Young Leaders and alumni to date.

In this small grants cycle, which began in January 2018, 17 small grant recipients receiving a total of $85,000 USD successfully completed their projects across 13 countries and 3 continents, increasing their capacity to manage donor funded projects and providing them with the foundation to seek larger, continued funding opportunities

In the past three months, Women Deliver launched the broadest and biggest grant making cycle to date, open to all Young Leaders and Alumni, and received one of the largest pools of grant applications thus far. Further, Women Deliver’s Small Grants program provided inaugural pre-application assistance both at the Women Deliver 2019 Conference and through in-country consultants across the Southern and Eastern Africa region. Young Leaders selected to receive these grants will be notified in July 2019.

Communications

Women Deliver’s communication initiatives continued to spotlight the efforts of young people as champions of gender equality and for their meaningful engagement in the programs and policies that affect them and their communities. Examples include the following:

Women Deliver’s webpages underwent a transformation with the introduction of new brand language and a brand refresh. In keeping with best practices, the youth webpages were accordingly simplified and made more dynamic in design and substance by incorporating compelling and clear language, as well as use of rich multimedia content that better reflects the power of our work.
In the lead-up the Conference, the team also produced a new infographic that spotlights powerful data to make the case for deeper investment in young people politically, financially, and in representation. More than 5,000 conference delegates received this new infographic.
In addition, the team launched a position paper titled, Sharing Power, Advancing Progress, Driving Change. This latest position paper calls for redefining power and establishing new approaches that meaningfully engage youth to build a healthier, equitable, and sustainable society.
A powerful new video spotlighting the work of Young Leaders in the movement for gender equality was screened at Women Deliver 2019.

Finally, the team is proud to share that in keeping with the commitment to meaningful youth engagement, all Young Leaders were equipped with the tools and resources to standout and shine at Women Deliver 2019 and beyond. All Young Leaders were provided access to a webinar on enhancing public speaking skills and a media training. In advance of the Conference, those with formal speaking engagements received a comprehensive speaker package containing a link to the public speaking skills webinar, fresh messages, and a day-of “cheat sheet” to support them on-site. A select group of Young Leaders and other youth advocates speaking on high-level stages were also provided intensive one-on-one expert speaker prep coaching and support. To promote them in their networking at the Conference, all Young Leaders in attendance also received a personalized set of business cards.

Closing

This June, Women Deliver welcomed over 1,600 young delegates under the age of 30, including 53 delegates under 18, to Vancouver, Canada to attend the largest global conference on gender equality and sexual and reproductive health. At WD2019, these young people engaged, learned, and led alongside world leaders, influencers, advocates, academics, activists, and journalists, demonstrating #ThePowerOf youth. The Women Deliver Young Leaders Program invests in solutions and aims to produce trained and highly capable advocates who are passionate about driving lasting and positive change, and the team is looking forward to building on the incredible momentum of WD2019 toward a gender equal future.

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