Gucci joins UN Women’s Generation Equality Forum to mobilize a global community for gender equality
In early 2021, to further drive global impact on gender equality, Gucci proudly joined the Generation Equality Forum as the private sector lead on the Feminist Movements & Leadership Action Coalition. Convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the Governments of Mexico and France in partnership with youth and civil society, the Generation Equality Forum is designed to accelerate actions and global commitments toward gender equality by 2026.
Despite some important gains in the 26 years since the historic World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, not a single country has yet achieved gender equality, and COVID-19 has put progress at risk. The Generation Equality Forum is a landmark moment bringing together stakeholders across generations and sectors to unite on a path forward to gender equality. Through a series of virtual and in-person gatherings beginning in March 2021 in Mexico City and culminating in June 2021 in Paris, the Forum will establish an agenda for accelerated and urgent action for gender equality across six Action Coalitions.
The Action Coalitions are innovative, global partnerships of member states, businesses, youth-led, civil society and international organizations and philanthropies. Together, Action Coalition members will collaborate to propose a targeted set of concrete actions within a five-year period of 2021-2026. These actions will ensure that equality for all women – including queer women, transgender women, non-binary women, women of color, disabled women, women refugees, young women, Indigenous women, women in the Global South – is at the center of the global agenda for COVID-19 recovery and beyond.
“This broad spread of diverse partners in the Action Coalitions brings new strength & energy. In combination across ages and sectors, these are forces that can crack open the age-old limitations women have struggled against for far too long.”
As the private sector lead on the Feminist Movements and Leadership Action Coalition, Gucci is working in partnership with its fellow youth-led organization leaders MARIJÀN Feminist Organization in Haiti, Young Feminist Europe in Belgium, the Governments of Canada, Netherlands and Malawi, Open Society Foundations, United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Crea, International Women’s Development Agency, and Women Enabled International. The power of multi-stakeholder partnerships drive the Action Coalitions, and by playing active roles as leaders, we will use our resources and expertise and work hand-in-hand to help co-create and co-design solutions to global challenges.
Released at the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico City in March, the Action Coalition Blueprints for action together formed a Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality. During the Generation Equality Forum in Paris from June 30 through July 2, Gucci is pleased to respond to the Plan’s call for bold commitments to push these actions forward with a series of financial, policy, programmatic and advocacy commitments for the next five years, including:
- $2.5 million USD over the next five years for direct, core, flexible, multi-year funding to feminist organizations, groups, movements and activists. This funding will uphold feminist funding principles and will include support for mutual aid and girl-led projects, and will include those that are often hard to reach, and/or who have been historically marginalized and criminalized, such as trans and nonbinary people, indigenous women and girls and women and girls with disabilities;
- Developing and implementing a worldwide public awareness campaign calling for the global community to #ActForEqual, estimated at $15 million USD in pro-bono media placements over the next five years;
- A dedicated edition of the CHIME Zine, Gucci’s publication of creative contributions from activists and artists, to amplify the voices of young feminists who are part of the Generation Equality Forum;
- Ongoing collaboration with young feminists to provide a platform for visibility and dialogue through Gucci’s digital channels dedicated to social impact;
- Achieving gender pay parity for equivalent positions within the organization globally by 2025, furthering substantive representation and meaningful participation;
- And adopting, expanding and implementing practices internally to continue to advance a gender equitable workplace for all.
Gucci’s commitments are designed to accelerate progress for gender equality, in alignment with the following action areas as outlined in the Blueprints on Feminist Movements and Leadership, part of the Global Acceleration Plan, designed to accelerate progress for gender equality:
- Fund and support diverse feminist activists, organizations, funds and movements;
- Promote, expand and protect civic space for feminist action, organizing and mobilization;
- Advance and increase meaningful participation, leadership and decision-making power of women, girls and non-binary people in all their diversity;
- And strengthen adolescent girls and young feminist leaders, their movements and organizations.
The Forum is a moment for global mobilization to finally achieve the human rights of all women and girls, and Gucci shares this aspiration. Through projects with global nonprofit partners, Gucci’s global campaign for gender equality Gucci CHIME continues to mobilize support and resources for women-led movements and gender justice organizations reaching girls and women around the world. To date, Gucci CHIME has supported more than 500 projects with 185 partners in 92 countries. Discover more about the campaign’s impact here.
Gucci is proud to be part of an initiative that is committed to the advancement of gender equality everywhere. In a world where the global health crisis exacerbates inequalities, it is more important than ever to continue pursuing the objectives of the Generation Equality Forum, aiming to centralize the voices of civil society and youth in promoting gender equality. To learn more and explore the complete list of Action Coalitions and leaders, visit here.
