#REF4Women: Advocating for Women in Development through MY World 2015

REF

By Karol Alejandra Arámbula Carrillo, Youth Advocate for MY World 2015

The Red Elephant Foundation (REF) is an initiative built on the groundings of story-telling, civilian peace-building and activism for gender sensitivity. We recognize the many different challenges women and girls continue to face in today’s world.

As such, we look forward to strengthen our actions in favor of gender equality within the international community. To do so, we have become official partners of the MY World Global Survey on the Post-2015 Development Agenda aiming to position gender equality as one of the top priorities of international development.

REF 1We believe global civil society plays a very important role in the construction and follow-up mechanisms of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Through MY World, which represents a fundamental tool to share some of our needs and interests as global citizens, we can have a real impact towards the adoption of new global development policies and actions led by the United Nations.

We are a committed group of over 70 volunteers of all ages living in 30 countries. We specifically work on the promotion of online and offline voting in the MY World Global Survey and we have developed different strategies and activities aiming to reach the most vulnerable and isolated communities.

REF 2Our strategy is simple: we create awareness on post-2015 processes among our volunteers and staff, which is expected to gather over 200 votes. We request them to do the same with their family members, colleagues and friends. Once they have completed this step, we ask them to engage in offline voting among civilians of their respective countries, especially in communities where there is limited Internet access. We particularly care about the participation of children and elders.

Volunteers must also talk about the importance of positioning gender equality among the six priorities, especially among youth. They must talk about the different social, political, economic and cultural challenges women face around the globe and even in their communities. They must also document their process, through photographs and videos. Our effort wishes to collect up to 10,000 votes in the upcoming months!

With the help of the UN Volunteers online platform, our growing team has been working since the end of July and we will continue to do so until August 2015. We do not think MY World will end with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, as we strongly believe this initiative will continue to be a key follow-up global mechanism.

REF 3We are willing to engage our campaign in continuation mechanisms at the local, regional and international levels. We look forward to advocate for those vulnerable communities, with a special focus on the many women and girls who still face violence, discrimination and other conditions of inequality. We believe a different world in which men and women are equal is possible, and we will put all our efforts to achieve this as non-state actors, as citizens of the world.

We have a commitment towards public information and our volunteers will highly contribute to spreading the word and making their voices and others’ heard. We also want you to join our cause! We want you to be part of this hard-working, diverse and fun group of wonderful volunteers!

Help us engage vulnerable populations in your country in the MY WORLD process! Help us create public awareness on gender issues and most importantly, help us build a better world!

Join us!