Malawi to Host Global Learning Forum on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion
For Immediate Release
Research shows that societies with greater gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) experience faster economic growth, better outcomes for children, and more representative institutions at all levels. And yet, many women, girls, persons with disabilities, refugees, children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups around the world continue to experience inequality and exclusion.
World Vision addresses gender inequality and social exclusion by working with entire communities — women, girls, men, and boys — to transform discriminatory practices together and promote livelihoods and overall well-being for vulnerable children and their families. We also work with faith leaders to acknowledge and act upon gender and social injustices and other related barriers to economic empowerment, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, comprehensive health, and food security and livelihoods that vulnerable groups continue to face.
Building on these experiences, World Vision will host a GESI Learning Forum which will bring together stakeholders from 11 countries across World Vision’s field and support offices, programme participants, multi-stakeholder development partners, government collaborators, and policy-makers to engage in a robust exchange of operational knowledge, promising practices, research, and tools. The forum will run from 23-26 May 2022 at Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe, Malawi.
The forum, championed by World Vision United States, will have an inclusive structure covering diverse and cross-cutting themes related to GESI transformational approaches to development, sponsorship, and humanitarian emergency relief.
As a child-focused organisation, World Vision is committed to advancing GESI to help promote human transformation by reaching the most vulnerable and challenging the root causes of vulnerability that sustain gender inequality and social exclusion. Our goal is to achieve equal and inclusive access, participation, decision-making, systems, and improve the overall well-being for all regardless of their gender, age, disability, refugee status, and other socio-economic characteristics. World Vision developed a GESI Approach and Theory of Change to provide guidance on how to effectively and systematically advance GESI through evidence-based GESI transformative change. And this forum provides us all with an opportunity to learn how to accelerate this work in the midst of the pandemic and disasters we continue to respond to.
During the four days of this forum, participants will:
1. Share and analyse emerging evidence and promising practices that show progress towards achieving GESI transformative impacts (in health, child protection, education, food security and livelihoods, economic empowerment, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Faith and Development is cross-cutting in all of these.
2. Share experiences and knowledge on integrating GESI into programming in the field, developing benchmarks and success indicators, and launching learning agendas.
3. Strengthen understanding of the opportunities, gaps, and challenges of enhancing GESI integration in our programming, and bringing it to scale across different contexts including fragility and during COVID-19 recovery and other emergency situations.
4. Enable networking and knowledge exchange among practitioners, donors, peers, and policy makers from multi-sectoral partners.
The forum will directly inform end-term planning, scaling up, and future partnership and collaboration, following the three-year piloting of GESI Transformational programming.
Francis Dube
National Director, World Vision Malawi
For more information, please write ‘The Communications Manager’, Charles Kabena on charles_kabena@wvi.org.