The Generation Equality Forum 2021 was a civil society–centred, global gathering for gender equality, convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France.

It started in Mexico City, Mexico, on 29–31 March 2021, and culminated in Paris, France, from 30 June to 2 July 2021. The Forum brought together governments, corporations and change makers from around the world to define and announce ambitious investments and policies. These diverse stakeholders have embarked on a 5-year journey to accelerate equality, leadership and opportunity for women and girls worldwide. This work will culminate in 2026.

Videos from the Forum are available here.

The Forum responds to the fact that—despite the commitments made in Beijing in 1995 to take strategic, bold action on gender equality—progress and implementation has been slow. Not a single country today can claim to have achieved gender equality. With women’s rights at risk of rolling back further as a result of the COVID-19 crisis—due to heightened poverty and risks of gender-based violence—the Forum is a rallying point to finally achieve the human rights of all women and girls.

It concluded with the announcement of bold gender equality commitments and launch of a global 5-year action journey to accelerate gender equality by 2026. The Forum’s bold, action-oriented agenda will be under-written by nearly USD 40 Billion of confirmed investments as well as ambitious policy and programme commitments from governments, philanthropy, civil society, youth organizations and the private sector. The monumental conclusion comes at a critical moment as the world assesses the disproportionate and negative impact that COVID-19 has had on women and girls. Gender equality advocates have pressed for gender-responsive stimulus and recovery plans to ensure that women and girls are not left behind as the world re-builds.

The USD 40 Billion of investments confirmed at the Forum’s close represent a major step-change in resourcing for women’s and girls’ rights. Lack of financing is widely understood to be a major reason for slow progress in advancing gender equality and in enacting the women’s rights agenda of the milestone 1995 Beijing Conference. By the close of the Forum, governments and public sector institutions had committed to USD 21 Billion in gender equality investments, the private sector USD 13 Billion, and Philanthropy USD 4.5 Billion. UN entities, international and regional organizations committed an aggregate of USD 1.3 Billion. In addition to these bold investments, many organizations made strong policy and program commitments, including 440 civil society organizations and 94 youth-led organizations. Forum organizers expect that the approximately 1,000 commitment-makers confirmed to date will be joined by many others over the next five years.

To learn more about the Forum, the Action Coalitions and to stay up-to-date on all the latest developments, visit the Generation Equality Forum website.