Wikigender and partners would like to invite you to participate in a new online discussion on “Advancing women’s rights through social media: which strategies?” from 11-20 February 2015.
With the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development and in partnership with UN Women, the OECD Development Centre is organising a side event during the 59th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) on “Advancing women’s rights since Beijing: making women’s voices heard in the post-2015 agenda through social media”.
In the lead up to the event, Wikigender is running an online discussion to discuss effective strategies for advancing women’s rights through social media. The ensuing report will synthesise the discussion and be distributed at the event.
Participate from 9am (GMT+1) on 11/02 until 5pm on 20/02!
Background
In recent years, social media has arisen as a powerful tool for online communities to raise awareness and mobilise campaigns on a wide range of issues. Women’s voices – whether individual or collective – have proven to be fundamental to advance women’s rights at national and international levels. In particular, social media has become essential for women’s rights groups to push for greater accountability and action on gender equality. Women increasingly take part in different social media outlets (including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest) and use them as avenues to raise awareness, discuss policies or mobilise campaigns on gender equality. Grassroots women’s networks have resulted in changes in laws and norms as seen in the last few years in India, Kenya and Niger. However, a lot more needs to be done for women’s voices from civil society to be more visible in decision-making processes. This online discussion opens the debate on how new media can broaden the scope for action on women’s rights and gender equality within a post- 2015 agenda.
Guiding Questions
We would like to hear from you on your experience and challenges in using social media in this respect and to exchange on:
Which strategies are the most efficient to make women’s voices heard in the post-2015 agenda using interactive platforms and social media tools?
How can such tools be better harnessed to be more effective in achieving substantive and lasting equality?
We look forward to your participation! We strongly encourage you to disseminate news about the online discussion via your networks and on Twitter using #HearHerVoice and #WomenSpeak and the following link to this page: http://bit.ly/1FsUqK3
To participate, simply type your comment below or register directly via Disqus, Twitter or Facebook before typing your comment. Open for comments from 9am (GMT+1) on 20/10 until 5pm on 24/10.
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Anyone with an Internet connection is invited to participate in the discussion and we encourage you to express your views on this pressing issue.
Please note however that comments will be moderated to ensure that there is no spam disrupting the discussion.
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