Pre-Conferences

The Youth Pre-Conference sets the tone for WD2023: a Conference for youth, by youth, with youth on stage and leading critical conversations. This Pre-Conference will welcome youth attendees to Rwanda and WD2023 with dynamic, engaging, and interactive youth-led and youth-centered programming. The Youth Pre-Conference is a space for youth delegates to build solidarity and community, to connect with each other, and to mobilize collective action at and beyond WD2023. Additionally, this Pre-Conference lays the foundation for youth attendees to leverage WD2023 to advance their advocacy through the creation of advocacy action plans and intentional relationship building.

• Hosts: Women Deliver and the WD2023 Youth Planning Committee
• Date and time: July 17, 2023 from 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM CAT
• Location: Serena Hotel, Ballroom
• Attendance requirements: To apply to attend, please complete this application form, which will be open from 12 June – 3 July. In early July, those accepted to attend will be sent a confirmation email from Women Deliver, and all others will be notified that they are on a waitlist.

There is consensus that more investment and action are needed to accelerate progress towards improving gender equality, bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and building resilience and resistance in the face of global pushback on women’s rights including the recognition of the pivotal role that many women-led organizations (WLOs) play. UNFPA and partners will host a Pre-Conference on Bodily Autonomy to underscore how critical it is for women and girls to claim their right to bodily autonomy, to have the power of choice, and to be able to access comprehensive and inclusive SRHR. A critical component will include analyzing how the international community can better support WLOs, social movements, feminists, and leverage their potential for the ICPD mandate. The session will have a high-level segment for global advocacy, and a second session aimed at developing recommendations to carry forward into the conference and beyond.

• Host: UNFPA
• Date and time: July 17, 2023 from 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM CAT
• Location: Serena Hotel Auditorium
• Attendance requirements: Limited space will be available for all delegates. Fill out the online form by July 3 to express your interest in attending the “The power of choice: fostering partnerships to realize bodily autonomy” Pre-Conference. However, due to limited capacity, registration does not guarantee admission to the Pre-Conference. Admission to the Pre-Conference will be confirmed by July 10 by e-mail. 

With under seven years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and progress on maternal mortality being highly uneven and even regressing in some contexts, bold steps are necessary. Evidence-based, funded strategies; global, regional, and country-level partnerships; and strong political will are critical. Our efforts to reduce maternal mortality are closely linked to women’s empowerment and involve a variety of strategies and interventions. This includes addressing unmet need for family planning, providing access to integrated services such as comprehensive abortion care, and training healthcare workers. This session will bring together civil society, policymakers, professional associations, UN organizations, and other stakeholders to discuss these linkages, examine challenges, explore successful interventions, and highlight solutions to accelerate the reduction of maternal mortality globally.

• Host: UNFPA
• Date and time: July 16, 2023 from 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM CAT
• Location: Kigali Marriot Hotel
• Attendance requirements: Limited space will be available for all delegates. Please fill out the online form by July 3 to express your interest in attending the Women Deliver Pre-Conference on Maternal and Newborn Health. However, due to limited capacity, registration does not guarantee admission to the Pre-Conference. Admission to the Pre-Conference will be confirmed by July 10 by email.

There are 1.8 billion adolescents and youth around the world today — the largest cohort in history. Despite being the future, adolescents and youth, particularly girls and women, face significant challenges, and the ecosystem of stakeholders supporting adolescents and youth remains fragmented. This Pre-Conference will convene global stakeholders representing a wide variety of perspectives on how to support adolescents and youth. The Pre-Conference will also create a dedicated space for interactive, multi-sectoral conversations, while elevating the voices of adolescents and other stakeholders from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); fostering solidarity within the community; and driving evidence-based solutions. The event will cultivate a multidimensional approach to adolescent well-being, co-create next steps to build an integrated feminist ecosystem for adolescents at WD2023 and beyond, and catalyze action to advance gender equality.

• Hosts: Population Council GIRL Center; Co-hosts: AFIDEP, Amplify Girls, Baobab Research Programme Consortium, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Coalition for Adolescent Girls, Exemplars in Global Health, FP2030, Girl Effect, Girls First Fund, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, NDI, Plan International, PMNCH, Purposeful, Together for Girls, UNICEF, Women Deliver, and The World Bank Africa Gender Innovation Lab
• Date and time: July 16, 2023 from 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM CAT
• Location: Lemigo Hotel
• Attendance requirements: Limited space will be available for all delegates — fill out the online form by 3 July to express your interest in attending the Girls Deliver Pre-Conference on Adolescents. However, due to limited capacity, registration does not guarantee admission to the Pre-Conference. Admission to the Pre-Conference will be confirmed by July 10 by e-mail.

Climate change is the foremost crisis of the 21st century, with devastating environmental, economic, and social impacts. It affects everyone, but the impacts are unequal and the burden of climate change falls to those who have least contributed to it, particularly girls and women. Climate justice is not possible without systems change. This Pre-Conference will bring together diverse climate actors who prioritize gender equality and take a climate justice, gender justice, intersectional, and human rights-based approach. Climate actors who don’t often come together will have the opportunity to share research and analysis, discuss policy priorities and campaigns, center frontline experiences, and coordinate for urgent needed action. Topics of discussion will include climate finance, loss and damage, policy pathways, gender just transition, and transformative solutions.

• Co-Hosts: SRHR and Climate Justice Coalition, Women and Gender Constituency, Sanitation and Water for All, UNFPA, DIVA for Equality, Women Defend the Commons Network, Pacific Island Feminist Alliance for Climate Justice, Stand for Her Land Campaign, FP2030, Women Deliver, Wallace Global Fund, and The Shine Campaign
• Date and time: July 16, 2023; from 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
• Location: Ubumwe Grande Hotel
• Attendance requirements: By invitation with limited space available for all delegates — fill out the online form by July 3 to express your interest in attending the Gender and Climate Crisis Pre-Conference. However, due to limited capacity, registration does not guarantee admission to the Pre-Conference. Admission to the Pre-Conference will be confirmed by July 10 by e-mail. 

The FGM/C Pre-Conference will be a space of shared solidarity, bringing together activists and organizations working to end FGM/C across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and America. It will promote knowledge exchange, interregional collaboration, and global cooperation with the aim of catalyzing collective action and movement building, designing actionable commitments, and working toward substantive structural change.

• Hosts: Orchid Project, ARROW, The Global Platform to End FGM/C, End FGM European Network, Sahiyo, Equality Now, Amref Health Africa, The Girl Generation, IPPF ARAB World Region, U.S. End FGM/C Network, and End FGM Canada Network
• Date and time: July 16, 2023 from 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM CAT
• Location: Simba Ball room, Four Points by Sheraton
• Attendance requirements: By invitation. Delegates may express interest

Ongoing conflicts and crises have spurred the urgent need for action and political will to support a resilient care economy. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility, inadequacy, and injustice of the global childcare, eldercare, and disability care infrastructures. This has been exacerbated by more frequent climate emergencies and conflicts. Women’s disproportionate share of unpaid care responsibilities increased significantly due to school and daycare closures, heightened eldercare and disability care needs, lockdowns, and other disruptions. As a result, women were forced to reduce their work hours or drop out of the labor force entirely to meet care demands. Many girls have not returned to school due to increased caregiving and domestic responsibilities and early marriage. Despite these ongoing challenges, the care economy remains underinvested and understudied. The Women Deliver Pre-Conference on the Care Economy is a collaboration across a consortium of partners.

This Pre-Conference will elevate regional perspectives on care while specifically focusing on concrete, tangible actions for change and lifting up intersectional movements for care justice.  

• Hosts: Women Deliver, The Asia Foundation, Center for Global Development, WeProsper, International Labour Organization (ILO), Nathan, a Cadmus Company, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Global Alliance for Care, Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), City Government of Bogotá, Hilton Foundation, Pro Mujer, UN Women Asia-Pacific Regional Office, FEMNET, Moving Minds Alliance (MMC), MenCare: A Global Fatherhood Campaign, and Sonke Gender Justice.
• Attendance requirements: By invitation 
• Date and Time: July 16th, 2023 from 8:30 am – 6:30 pm CAT 
• Location: Serena Hotel 

Globally nearly 1 in 3 women experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, mostly by an intimate partner. Violence against women is preventable. The Generation Equality Forum’s Gender-Based Violence Action Coalition has prioritized scaling-up evidence-based prevention. This pre-conference workshop aims to highlight what commitments, evidence, tools, and practical experiences from the field can be applied to inspire global and local actions to prevent violence against women.The session will be a mix of interactive panel discussions, presentations and participatory activities. Panelists will include Government representatives, feminist civil society leading prevention in communities, UN and multi-lateral agency representatives. Participants will learn what policy makers can do to prevent violence against women. They will learn about interventions from the field that have worked to prevent violence against women; will have access to available data, evidence and tools to support their own advocacy, programming and monitoring and evaluation of prevention.

• Hosts (Organizers): World Health Organization and UN Women
• Date and Time: 17 July 2023 from 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM
• Location: Ubumwe Grande Hotel
• Attendance requirements: To apply to attend, please complete this application form, which will be open until July 3. In early July, those accepted to attend “Inspiring commitments to prevent violence against women: from evidence to action” will be sent a confirmation email from the World Health Organization, and all others will be notified that they are on a waitlist. 

Philanthropists from around the world will exchange ideas about intersectional feminist activism and how it is transforming global philanthropic policy and practice.  We will share stories of our collective journey; explore how we can better walk the talk; and chart out new strategies to stand in solidarity and partnership with feminist movements, young leaders, and women’s funds.  

We will hear firsthand from peer funders shifting gears to integrate feminist strategy and grantmaking practices.  This session will combine: hard self-reflection on the contradictions of structural power dynamics in our global economy and society; some myth busting (e.g., “absorptive capacity” and lack of measures for systems change); offer alternative approaches and tactics; a workshop space to enable participants to leave both humbled and energized by new insights; and specific steps to take to “fem the future.” 

• Hosts: Global Fund for Women and Women Deliver 
• Attendance requirements: By invitation 
• Date and Time: July 16th, 2023 from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm CAT 
• Location: Marriott Hotel 

The Ministerial Forum, hosted by the Government of Rwanda, will take place on the sidelines of the Women Deliver 2023 Conference. The Ministerial Forum will drive political commitment, and identify and generate concrete actions on how to obtain accountability for gender equality and equity outcomes. The Forum will bring together Ministers of Youth, Education, Environment, Gender, Finance, and more, represented globally, for an exchange of experiences to challenge and re-commit to new ways of implementing transformational programs that will impact the lives of girls and women. The discussion will also focus on accountability mechanisms in advancing gender equality across different sectors to accelerate progress to reach gender equality outcomes. 

• Host: Government of Rwanda 
• Attendance requirements: By Invitation 
• Date and Time: July 17th, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm  
• Location: Kigali Marriott Hotel