Women’s Major Group Statement on the High-Level Week, 2023

View from the Top: Summits Reveal Abysmal Progress, Gaping Lack of Ambition: The 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was a moment of stocktaking and profound reflection on the current state of affairs worldwide, as well as an opportunity to review progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address critical gaps and challenges as the world grapples with multiple, interlinked crises. Calls for urgent action were loud and clear. However, negotiated outcomes leading up to the SDG Summit, and statements by leaders during High-Level Week were not ambitious enough for a shift away from current business-as-usual approaches. With just 15 per cent of the SDGs on track as of April 2023, the full achievement of Agenda 2030 slips further out of reach. The Women’s Major Group is particularly alarmed by… click here to continue reading

A group of feminists gleefully pose for the camera after an insightful Women's Major Group Session at the SDG Action Weekend.

SDG Action Weekend

On the SDG Mobilization Day we had an incredible turnout and powerful speeches at our official session, “Towards a Rights-Centered Gender-Transformative Economy, including a New International Financial Architecture,” organized with the support of UN Women where speakers from feminist civil society, international institutions and member states stressed the need for inclusive, democratic and accountable governance, centering civil society voices, especially those from the Global South, to reform the international financial architecture.

WMG also co-organized two side events on the same day with partners:

  • Together towards a disability-inclusive future: From the SDGs Summit to Beyond 2030 (co-organized with International Disability Alliance, International Disability and Development Consortium, Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities, Major Group on Children and Youth, the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the UN, the Permanent Mission of Guatemala to the UN, Permanent Mission of Mexico to the UN, UNICEF, and UNPRPD)
  • Towards the Realization of SDGs: A Multistakeholder, Intersectional and Intergenerational Approach (co-organized with ARROW and Women with Disabilities Development Foundation (WDDF), UNFPA, and the Permanent Mission of Malaysia.)

Our members were panelists in different capacities throughout the events of the day, including on side events and the “Enhancing Advocacy, Financing and Accountability: Key Messages from Civil Society to the SDG Summit and Beyond” session, in UNHQ Trusteeship Council.

Image description: A diverse group of five feminist activists panel a session at the Global People's Assembly. Behind them, a projected screen reads - Feminist Economy.

Photo Credit: Kalpana Rai

Global People’s Assembly

We co-organized the Global People’s Assembly (GPA) with over 60 civil society organizations from across the world, and co-wrote the Declaration of the Global People’s Assembly 2023 and played a strong role in the adoption and dissemination of the Declaration. This critical, interlinked Declaration of the 2023 Global People’s Assembly, co-created by over 40 national and regional People’s Assemblies and Global Peoples Assembly co-organizers, in all our diversities, is our shared and collective vision for a human-rights centered, gender transformative, intergenerational change to address the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated, and to accelerate the faltering progress toward the achievement of the SDGs.

WMG organized two sessions within the GPA:

Many of our members organized, moderated and spoke at the other sessions of the Global People’s Assembly. Please support us by helping the Declaration to be spread as wide as possible so the voices of people are heard by those in decision-making.

Image description: Five panelists are engaged in a session at the Global People's Assembly, with the session agenda projected behind them.

Photo Credit: Kalpana Rai

SDG Summit and Beyond

We were able to follow (though in very limited numbers in person) and document the developments at the SDG Summit in all of the sessions. We had over 5 official meetings with member state delegations, UN institutions, and other stakeholders. We hope to stay in touch with all the delegations we’ve met, to share information and advocacy priorities with them.

We cosponsored the side event on “Accelerating Progress towards Health Equity: High-Level Commitments that Address Inequalities in Health” organized by Akina Mama Wa Afrika and Wemos, with Partners in Health, University of Global Health Equity, UHAI East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative.

Many of our WMG members continued their fierce feminist activism during the remainder of the UN High-Level Week, through speeches, events they organized and meetings they’ve held. We are deeply grateful to you and your continued fierce feminist inspirations, and before we sign off, a reminder that you can read WMG’s position on the SDGs in English and French in our HLPF 2023 Position Paper here.  

In solidarity with feminists, in all their diversity, who were missing in this conversation.

Image description: On a sunny day in New York, four feminists with banners pose at the march to demand an end to fossil fuels.

Photo Credit: WEDO

Other Engagements and Work

Parallely, several of our members were at the Generation Equality Forum Mid-Point, and we also marched with our fellow feminists to Demand an End to Fossil Fuels.

Please find the visual graphics that we prepared here! You can find photos for all days being uploaded by our members here.

This year’s incredible messages, graphics and Zoom backgrounds will always remain available to you. So please bookmark the link to the social media toolkit, and use the materials whenever you can throughout the year, to show WMG’s advocacy on gender equality and sustainable development is year-round!

Do not forget to check out this incredible Facebook Live Series, “Feminist Voices at #SDGSummit2030” steered by our members, where our member Dr. Rachael Misan-Ruppee spotlights the powerful perspectives of WMG feminists with a focus on the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda at all levels. Watch on WMG Facebook page!

We ended with a WMG Feminists and Allies Gathering Celebration, where we shared space and joy!

We thank you all for all your support, expertise, work, time and solidarity. We are already very much excited for our collective, fierce feminist advocacy in the upcoming days and months. Stay in touch on social media!

Twitter: @Women_Rio20
Facebook: Women’s Major Group
Instagram: @womensmajorgroup
Youtube: Women’s Major Group

A session is in progress inside the UN Headquarters in New York, as seen from the seat reserved for the Women's Major Group.