Last week was International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate women and girls and increase awareness about their marginalization across the globe. Much work remains to be done, but there are hundreds of organizations and efforts working to address the issue of female rights across the world. Women Deliver, a global advocacy organization, recently announced the “Women Deliver 50“, a list of the 50 most inspiring ideas and solutions that are delivering results for girls and women across the globe. After hundreds of online nominations from 103 countries, a selection committee chose 125 finalists to be voted on by the public. A selection committee of experts and advocates representing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Medic Mobile, Room to Read, Man Up, and the International Center for Research on Women, narrowed down the original list of nominations for voting. More than 6,000 individuals participated in the online voting, which created the top 50 list.
“The solutions on this list show that with ingenuity, drive and dedication, we can build a better world for girls and women,” said Jill Sheffield, Women Deliver Founder and President. “We are proud to celebrate these organizations and programs, which are pioneering real, lasting, social change at the local and global levels. We have seen time and time again that when we invest in girls and women, entire societies benefit.”
The “Women Deliver 50” list is broken down into five categories: advocacy campaigns, health interventions, technologies, educational initiatives, and leadership programs. The categories were each finalized with ten organizations and initiatives from across the globe. The “50” list ranges from grassroots to global programs, which are led by a mix of social entrepreneurs, civil society, governments, international agencies and private companies. Of the 50 ideas and solutions featured, 25 are centered in sub-Saharan Africa, nine in Asia, five in the Middle East and North Africa, four in Latin America, and two in Europe and North America, while the others are global in reach.
A few of the amazing programs providing deliverable results and sustainable solutions to women and girls included organizations like the Chanan Development Association (CDA) in Pakistan, which uses youth- and women-led theater programs to educate communities on vital issues such as sexuality, HIV/AIDS, family planning, and sexual education. Their creative approach seeks to ensure that not only are taboos broken, but issues are accessible to illiterate populations. Sixty-three percent of the 137 million illiterate young people in the world are female, thus leaving many uninformed about critical health issues. Another powerful advocacy initiative among the finalists is the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign, which works in the United States to raise awareness and champion vaccines as one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of children in developing countries. The Partnership to End Child Marriage by Girls Not Brides, Because I Am a Girl by Plan International, Schools for Husbands by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and many other programs providing gender specific programming in a sustainable manner to change lives and communities made the list. Women Deliver hopes that the list will inspire “action, commitment and, most importantly, excitement for what we can accomplish together moving forward.”
