Women Deliver 2019全球大会将于6月在温哥华会议中心举行

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Editor’s note: As we reflect on our path in this special edition, we have chosen to revisit a handful of our favourite pieces from the archives. This article was first published in Meetings International #21, 2018.

Despite this, decision makers have consistently failed to make women and girls a priority. Many millions remain deprived of access to health services, confront barriers to education, face vulnerability to gender-based violence, and encounter discrimination across economic and political spheres.

The Women Deliver 2019 Global Conference is the world’s largest meeting on the health, rights, and wellbeing of women and girls. The gathering will serve as a fuelling station for spokespeople working to achieve a more equal world. In early June, over 6,000 world leaders, advocates, academics, influencers, activists and representatives from the media will gather in Vancouver Convention Centre.

The choice of Canada as a location sends a clear signal to the world regarding its commitment to social progress and equality. Or in the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “Prioritising the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women is not optional, but in fact, foundational to drive change and progress for all. Canada is proud to host the next Women Deliver Conference to bring us all further in advancing human rights for women.”

The Women Deliver Global Conference was held for the first time in London in 2007 and gathered nearly 2,000 advocates from 115 countries. At that point the maternal mortality rate was still unacceptably high. World leaders needed to step up, rally around the issue and commit to action. And they needed a place to do just that, hence the Women Deliver Conference was born, founded by Jill Sheffield, today President Emeritus. At the time the event was described as a groundbreaking meeting and credited with igniting a movement that was desperately needed.

In 2010, in Washington DC, the organisation highlighted effective solutions to improve maternal, sexual and reproductive health on the global development agenda. Three years later in Kuala Lumpur, the third Women Deliver Conference proved to the world that when you invest in girls and women, it pays. More than 3,400 delegates from 149 countries participated. And today Women Deliver is recognised as a key player and advocate for gender equality and the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women.

When Meetings International attended the Women Deliver Conference at Bella Center in Copenhagen two years ago, we met Katja Iversen. She has been the president of the organisation since 2009. Two sentences scribbled in my notebook still capture the memory of that event: “Everything is focused on solutions,” and “This is a happy conference.”

The organisation has taken a gender lens to the new sustainable development goals. It is like a development framework and identifies 12 very specific investments in women and girls that need to be made. That has driven the conference programme.

Without a clear strategy, the scope of Women Deliver’s work could easily have amounted to simply highlighting a multitude of problems, leaving Katja Iversen and her team bogged down by systemic challenges or a sense of hopelessness. Instead, they made a deliberate choice to focus on solutions, because they know what drives results. All 115 concurrent sessions plus 20 plenaries during the Copenhagen event shared that focus. Two years ago, the conference drew more than 5,700 delegates from 169 countries – 80 per cent of whom were attending for the first time.

What attracted such an influx of first-time attendees to Copenhagen? In part, it was because the conference broke new ground. Women Deliver expanded beyond its traditional health focus to address gender equality in a wider context – incorporating women’s economic empowerment, education and land rights into the programme. The organisation recognised that the business case for investment is far stronger when applied across the entire spectrum of gender equality. Opening the floor to new sectors was essential: treating health in isolation will never solve these systemic issues. All the clinics in the world cannot help a woman who is forbidden to leave her house or see a male doctor. True progress requires addressing gender norms, equality, and women’s societal status from a broader perspective.

Katja Iversen stresses that it comes down to both politics and finance. This is far more than a health issue alone; it is a development challenge, an economic priority, and a matter of political empowerment. As the organisation puts it, somewhat polemically: “Women deliver, and not only babies and water. And there are a lot of good men who deliver for women.”

A diverse cross-section of participants gathered at the conference in Copenhagen, representing various industries, issues, generations, and geographical regions. Twenty per cent of the delegates were young people, spanning sectors from the private realm, academia, and government to health services, UN agencies, media, and non-governmental organisations. In total, the number of participating entities surpassed 2,500.

Many of us felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of challenges facing girls and women, and not every question drew universal agreement. Yet consensus remained absolute on one vital point: girls and women are the primary drivers of development. Investing in them not only benefits individuals but creates a ripple effect that powers progress for all. For the attendees I spoke with, the primary takeaway was leaving better informed, encouraged by the progress made, and inspired to champion women’s and girls’ issues moving forward.

During a coffee break on the final day, I overheard a conversation between two young delegates from Nigeria sharing their impressions: “I think of the conference as an on-site and online fuelling station,” one said. “We learn from each other and leave with new ideas and inspiration. We are energised to push for ambitious action and refuelled to make change for girls and women everywhere.”

Women Deliver maintains that young people belong at the very centre of designing, implementing, and evaluating the policies and programmes that shape their lives. Achieving this relies on deep collaboration with global influencers, multilateral bodies, and youth-led organisations to elevate young voices and accelerate their inclusion in decision-making spaces. When youth are meaningfully engaged from start to finish, policies naturally reflect their actual needs.

Launched in 2010, the award-winning Women Deliver Young Leaders Programme comprises 400 advocates under 30 representing more than 100 countries, with another 300 scheduled to join in early 2018. These advocates amplify their impact through online learning communities, high-level networking, speaking opportunities, and seed grants.

It is striking to see how an organisation like Women Deliver actively shapes the global conversation on youth engagement. By connecting young leaders with national and international platforms, they ensure these advocates contribute on equal footing, sharing vital experiences and expertise.

Deliver for Good is a global campaign, initiated by Women Deliver and partners, that applies a gender lens to the Sustainable Development Goals. This evidence-based advocacy campaign calls for enhanced policies, programming, and investments in girls and women.

With nearly 300 supporters across more than 50 countries, the campaign is mobilising followers across sectors and issue areas to redefine the narrative around women and girls. Together, they are building a movement to drive concrete action and implement the Sustainable Development Goals at both global and national levels.

The campaign’s partners, allies, and supporters focus their efforts across 12 core investment areas:

1. Improve maternal and newborn health and nutrition.
2. Meet the demand for modern contraception and reproductive health.
3. Respect, protect, and fulfil sexual health and rights.
4. Ensure access to comprehensive health services.
5. Dramatically reduce gender-based violence and harmful practices.
6. Ensure equitable and quality education at all levels.
7. Boost women’s economic empowerment.
8. Strengthen women’s political participation and decision-making power.
9. Expand access to resources – including land, clean energy, water, and sanitation.
10. Invest in women to tackle climate change and conserve the environment.
11. Improve data and accountability for girls and women.
12. Build sustainable financing and partnerships for girls and women.

Through the Deliver for Good campaign, Women Deliver highlights strategies and best practices that emphasise the crucial link between gender equality and broader development goals, such as education, poverty eradication, and climate resilience. The campaign clearly illustrates the social, economic, and legal injustices facing girls and women, while also recognising their vast, untapped potential – and what families, communities, and nations stand to gain by dismantling barriers. According to Women Deliver, boosting women’s economic empowerment comes down to a simple principle:

Give women a fair opportunity to earn, and they will deliver solutions.

Granting them equal footing in the formal economy represents a decisive victory against poverty.

Around the world, women operate as resilient, resourceful economic agents, perpetually overcoming gender-based obstacles to secure the health, education, and survival of their families. Every day, they demonstrate an extraordinary capacity to build formal and informal businesses from minimal capital, forge networks to maximise limited resources, and shoulder heavy caregiving responsibilities – from cooking and cleaning to caring for children, the sick, and the elderly.

Women succeed in spite of the laws, policies, and institutions that hold them back. It is well past time to build environments where they can truly thrive.

Ensuring equitable and quality education at all levels is another of the 12 core investment areas. Give girls and women the chance to learn, and they will help build more equitable, healthy, and prosperous societies. While global statistics show that girls now enrol in primary school at the same rate as boys in two-thirds of all countries, these broad numbers mask persistent local inequalities.

In many parts of the world, girls remain far more likely to be shut out of the classroom. Hard realities – such as poverty, school fees, travel distances, and a lack of basic menstrual hygiene facilities – severely limit their access to education, particularly at the post-primary level. As the international community embraces the new Sustainable Development Goals, expanding quality education and training opportunities for women and girls must remain at the forefront of the movement.

Technology also plays a vital role in closing this gap. Mobile operators are increasingly supporting students and teachers by integrating digital tools into the classroom, opening up learning opportunities for youth in both urban hubs and remote regions. Expanding digital infrastructure is essential to fulfilling the broader Sustainable Development Goals; indeed, estimates suggest that if another 600 million women gained internet access, annual GDP could surge by as much as $18 billion across 144 developing countries.

Major challenges lie ahead, not least ensuring that the voices of girls and women resonate across societies, communities, households, and the halls of power. Investing in their health, rights, equality, and wellbeing generates a wave of progress that spurs growth for everyone.

Yet one of the most pressing hurdles for Women Deliver is funding. Katja Iversen notes that financing in Copenhagen relied on a diverse coalition of more than forty backers – including governments, foundations, the private sector, and non-governmental organisations – with contributions ranging from $5,000 upwards.

A full 40 per cent of the association’s budget is dedicated to funding scholarships for participants from the Global South, particularly young people. Ahead of the conference, Women Deliver received 5,500 applications for just 800 scholarships. For many of these young delegates, the journey to Copenhagen required getting their very first passport, having never even left their home village before. The organiser was only able to provide a modest $25 allowance to help with local transfers and food – for some delegates, that turned out to almost equal a month’s salary. Once at the conference, however, they met with everyone there on equal footing, and the solutions they presented were nothing short of mind-blowing. The reason is simple: they live these realities every single day, and who could possibly know more about their lives than they do?

Who in their right mind would throw away 50 per cent of human potential? Give women a fair opportunity to earn, and they will deliver solutions; granting them equal space in the formal economy is a victory on every front. Give girls and women the chance to learn, and they will build more equitable, healthy and prosperous societies. Paving the way for greater female representation across the political, business and civic arenas is an investment in a more balanced and peaceful world. Girls and women are the drivers of development and critical to the success of the Global Goals. Women are at the economic heart of the developing world – but to do their vital work, we must ensure they have their health.

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