Youth Engagement at WD2023
Youth engagement in the lead up to the Conference
Young people are leading the way in shaping a gender-equal future. The Women Deliver 2023 Conference (WD2023) will serve as a platform for young people, and those working on youth issues, to advance their advocacy goals, including meaningful youth engagement and co-leadership. In order to ensure young people’s leadership and meaningful engagement in co-creating WD2023, Women Deliver is engaging Women Deliver Young Leaders, Young Leader Alumni, youth advocates, adolescents, and partner organizations working on youth issues in all aspects of planning the Conference.
- Youth and youth-led organizations are part of the WD2023 Advisory Group — charged with leading the strategic design and planning of the Conference. Advisory Group members include Women Deliver Young Leader Arya Manandhar of Nepal (Class of 2020), Women Deliver Young Leader Alum Zanda Desir of St. Lucia (Class of 2018), and representatives from the Adolescent Girls Investment Plan (AGIP), Girls’ Globe, Hashtag Generation, and Niamini Initiative.
- Women Deliver Young Leaders, Young Leader Alumni, and youth advocates recently participated in design workshops with Women Deliver’s Youth Engagement Team and IDEO.org to provide their input on WD2023 and help shape the Conference. During the design workshops, young people shared their vision and goals for WD2023, including how to best support youth in using the Conference as an advocacy opportunity, and what youth programming they want to see at WD2023. Participants were compensated for their time and input, and their perspectives informed the WD2023 Advisory Group’s work to craft WD2023’s vision, theme, and objectives.
- Youth will be engaged on the host committee of each Regional Convening and have opportunities to participate in WD2023’s Global Dialogue.
WD2023 Youth Planning Committee
In October 2022, Women Deliver launched the WD2023 Youth Planning Committee, comprised of 18 Young Leaders, Young Leader Alumni, and other youth advocates who are collaborating to co-create WD2023.
The members of the Youth Planning Committee are:
- Ahmad Nisar, Afghanistan
- Alejandra Arburola, Costa Rica
- Bridget (Chukwudera) Okeke, Nigeria
- Chiranthi Senanayake, Sri Lanka
- Condolizzarice Akumawah, Cameroon
- Enow Awah Georges Stevens, Cameroon
- Felix Olindi, Uganda
- Giovanna Basso, Brazil
- Iheb Jemel, Tunisia
- Jyotir Nisha, Nepal
- Ligia Gomez, Colombia
- Lilian Sospeter, Tanzania
- Lucy Fagan, United Kingdom
- Margherita Dall’Occo-Vaccaro, Australia
- Noëmi Grütter, Rwanda
- Takunda (Archlove) Tanyanyiwa, Zimbabwe
- Weema Askri, Tunisia
- Zelda Mairura, Kenya
Objectives at WD2023 for youth advocates
The Youth Planning Committee, along with Women Deliver, created the following four objectives for how WD2023 can best serve youth advocates and attendees. These objectives will guide all youth programming leading up to and at WD2023.
- Young people feel prepared, supported, safe, and equipped with knowledge, skills, resources, and spaces to advance their advocacy goals at WD2023 and beyond.
- WD2023 catalyzes and embodies a new approach to meaningful youth engagement and co-leadership that centers youth people as designers, experts, and leaders, alongside traditional decision-makers and power-holders, in all spaces at WD2023.
- Youth and youth-led and youth-serving organizations form new and build on existing intergenerational partnerships, connections, and movements across the gender equality, sustainable development, and youth sectors, energizing the youth and feminist movements for collective action and accountability after WD2023.
- WD2023 is a welcoming, enabling, accessible, and inclusive space for adolescents and youth, especially those holding one or more often marginalized identities.
Youth engagement at WD2023
- Youth will co-create, co-facilitate, and lead sessions. During the Conference, youth and youth-led organizations will be involved in all aspects of Conference programming — from plenary sessions to side events.
- WD2023 will include a Youth Pre-Conference and a designated Youth Zone where Young Leaders and other youth attendees can network and participate in youth-led programming. Both of these youth spaces will be designed by young people, including the WD2023 Youth Planning Committee.
- To ensure intergenerational dialogue at the Conference, Women Deliver has committed to ensuring that every panel has at least one youth speaker. Resources and scholarships will be provided to ensure youth speakers are prepared and supported. For example, this Youth Speaker Engagement Guide provides practical guidance for how to equitably and meaningful engage adolescents and youth as speakers at WD2023, and this guide has been shared with all WD2023 session organizers.
- Registration costs for WD2023 will be on a sliding scale, so youth, adolescents, and those from LMICs have reduced costs to participate.
- The WD2023 scholarship program provides financial assistance to individuals who would otherwise be unable to cover the cost of attending the Conference. An open call for scholarship applications was announced on July 19, 2022. The deadline to apply has now passed. Preference will be given to youth participants (defined as those under the age of 29 at the time of WD2023) as well as applicants from low- and middle-income countries and communities facing systemic discrimination.
- Scholarships and financial support will be provided to a minimum 25% of Conference participants, including 300 Women Deliver Young Leaders.
- Seven hundred Young Leader Alumni will receive virtual scholarships to the Conference. Young Leader Alumni are welcome to apply for scholarships for in-person attendance and to host Concurrent sessions.
- All official programming will be accessible, including physical and digital spaces, by providing closed captioning, interpretation in a minimum of three languages (English, French, and Spanish) and International Sign Language.
- All Conference participants will be required to comply with Women Deliver’s Child and Youth Safeguarding Policy, which is in the process of being updated ahead of WD2023. There will be mental health resources, including child safeguarding and trauma informed specialists, available to all WD2023 participants. You can find more information about our safeguarding approach as well as key resources here.