Youth-Led Activism for Social Change

Organized by: Advocates for Youth, AfriYAN, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

History is full of movements led by young people. From the US Civil Rights movement to the Arab Spring, youth-led activism has a history of pushing social change forward. In this session, four inspirational youth advocates will speak about the challenges that girls and women face in reclaiming decision-making power, and how we can collaboratively work together to develop solutions to change the world.

From the Playing Field to the Board Room

Organized by: Canadian Association for Advancement of Women and Sports, EIR Soccer, Women Win

Sport is as an accelerator to leadership development and economic empowerment, and research shows that women are more likely to land in C-suite positions if they played a team sport in their youth. In this interactive session, women at different points in their careers will share the impact of sport in their lives, while unveiling innovative approaches to build girls’ and women’s leadership, financial literacy, employability, and entrepreneurship.

Gender and Climate Change: Climate Justice Solutions

Organized by: BSR, UNFCCC, Women’s Environment and Development Organization

This session explores the linkages between gender equality, women’s empowerment and climate change by highlighting the differentiated impacts of climate change, and how they exacerbate existing gender inequalities. Come learn about the urgent need to accelerate the move away from business-as-usual towards low carbon, climate resilient economies and societies. Panelists will present examples of how to promote, facilitate and embed justice into climate policy and action to ensure the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of solutions.

Change Social Norms: Abandon Female Genital Mutilation

Organized by: Tostan, UNFPA, UNICEF

Female Genital Mutilation, also called female genital cutting, is a reproductive health and human rights concern, with devastating impact on the lives of girls and women. Legal and policy reforms, national efforts and community engagement are helping to end this harmful practice. This session will share strategies from the social norm approach to accelerating FGM abandonment in four African countries: Kenya, Sudan, Nigeria, and Senegal.

Her Story: 6,743 Count My Voice!

Hosted by: Accountability Lab

This documentary about the story of a Dalit women ward member in Terai region of Nepal. She was elected as per the constitution of Nepal 2015 that mandates that one of the four ward member elected during the last federal election must be a Dalit in each 6,743 wards in Nepal. However, she is prohibited from meaningful participation in the exercise of her rights and responsibilities as a ward member.

Open to all delegates.

Change Begins at Home: Decent Work for Domestic Workers

Organized by: Data 2x, International Labour Organization, Oxfam Canada, International Development Research Centre

Globally, 70 million domestic workers, mostly women, are busy at work inside the household, powering our homes and economies. They are also among those most vulnerable to the risk of informal employment, violence, and harassment. This session showcases “bright spot” initiatives – such as the International Domestic Workers’ Federation – that build domestic workers’ individual, structural, and movement power towards a new paradigm in domestic work.

News Watch

Breaking news and announcements

Host: Shahira Amin, Independent Journalist
- Carolyn Tastad, Group President - North America and Executive Sponsor - Gender Equality at Procter & Gamble
- Anna Van Acker, President and Managing Director of Merck Canada
- Florence Syevuo, National Coordinator of SDGs Kenya Forum

Film Screenings: Sex Trafficking

Saving Zoe (14:00)
> Echo and Zoë are sisters who couldn't be more different. One year after Zoë's murder, Echo unexpectedly discovers Zoë's diary and Echo begins a quest for the truth. Echo finds herself sucked into the surprising darkness of her sister’s world and uncovers how one small decision can lead to tragic consequences. SAVING ZOË is a powerful and thought provoking film that explores the dark realities of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation, including how the internet provides a ready marketplace for girls’ bodies. The film shows the pervasiveness of sexual exploitation and violence in a way that is current and relatable. Director(s): Jeffrey Hunt

I See the Roses (4:09)
> Human Trafficking can involve prostitution and physical abduction, but there are also many other elements that can be part of modern day slavery. This PSA features a young trafficked female who expresses through dance her desire for freedom. Join us in being a voice for the voiceless. Director(s): Sarah Goras Peterson

Crowbar (7:45)
> In CROWBAR, a lonely young girl stumbles around her neighborhood, hoping to find a friend. Friendship is not what she is offered. Still hungry, as a teenager, she allows abuse in exchange for cheap friendships and counterfeit love, until an unexpected heroine steps forward and offers that ‘crowbar moment’ and changes her life forever. Director(s): Lee Ryan Coston

Film Screenings: Women and AIDS

HIV Disclosure (2:31)
> This educational, animated video, developed by sexual health experts, focuses on disclosure as it relates to HIV status among very young adolescents. The video is targeted towards 10-14 year olds living in East and Southern Africa and is part of a larger global project aimed at ensuring all young people have access to inclusive, factual, and engaging sexuality education. Director(s): AMAZE.org for UNFPA ESARO, and TVSMITHS

Cuba: Born Free of HIV (6:40)
> Cuba became the first country in the world to receive validation from WHO that it has eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis

Bread of Life (5:19)
> Bread of Life is about a women’s psychosocial support group running a community bakery in Lowarengak, a town in Northern Kenya near the Kenya-Ethiopian border. The 52-member group has overcome stigma and members are able to have a source of income for their families thanks to their work in the bakery. The members bake and sell the bread and are also educated about the importance of ARV retention. Selling the bread helps to tackle both self-stigma and stigma from other community members.

Mothers2Mothers (8:27)
> The members bake and sell the bread and are also educated about the importance of ARV retention. Selling the bread helps to tackle both self-stigma and stigma from other community members.

The Sky is the Limit (2:58)
> Community Adolescent Treatment Supporters (CATS) provide peer-to-peer information, counselling and support to adolescents and young people living with HIV to help them start and stay on treatment and achieve viral suppression. We follow Ntsiki, a CATS from Swaziland as she begins her journey and her hopes and aspirations for the future.

Face to Face with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau

Host: Linda Givetash, Journalist

Beyond Compliance: Private Sector Action for Women's Health and Empowerment

Hosted by: United Nations Foundation

The United Nations Foundation, together with partners, is hosting a private working meeting followed by a high-level dinner, bringing together companies, governments, multilaterals, and NGOs to discuss how corporations can invest in the health and empowerment of women working in their global supply chains to advance the SDGs while also delivering business returns.

By invitation only.

Film Screenings: Female Health Workers

Our World United to End Polio: Beyond the End of the Road (2:40)
> Many thought polio could never be ended in India - a country where almost 70,000 children are born in a single day, each one having to be vaccinated against polio and other diseases. When the country was near zero-polio in 2009, health workers had to find new ways to access one of the most difficult areas of the country: the Kosi River Basi in the north-east of the country. Martha Dodray was one of the health workers who benefitted from a new plan to end polio in the area, heralding a new way of working with communities. Martha's work not only ended polio in India, she also forged new trust with communities. Director(s): Christine McNab for UN Foundation

Pipi's Story (3:00)
> Pipi is a boy who dreams of becoming an architect. Thanks to a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership with the Chinese government, Johnson & Johnson and other professional associations that trained and empowered his midwife, Pipi may one day realize his dream. The “Freedom of Breath, Fountain of Life” training program was launched to help prevent birth asphyxia in Chinese hospitals by ensuring that every delivery had at least one person trained in neonatal resuscitation present. When the program marked its 10-year anniversary, the initiative had saved an estimated 150,000 newborns across the country and one aspiring architect. Director(s): Elisa Gambino and Neal Broffman for Johnson & Johnson

Reaching the Last Mile (3:54)
> Manju is an ASHA – a frontline health worker in Bihar, India. She goes door-to-door, walking miles each day, to provide counseling and basic health services to people in rural communities who would otherwise have no access to care. Director(s): Jesse Crowell

EdTech Talk: The Future of Health Worker Training

Hosted by: International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), Laerdal Global Health & Maternity Foundation

Can technology help midwives save mothers and newborns in childbirth? Digital tools and innovations are rapidly changing the landscape of health worker education. We invite you to join global frontrunners in the digital health arena for an inspiring and educational EdTech Talk on the future of health worker training.

Talks by:
- Keynote by high-level speaker (to be announced)
- Franka Cadée, President of International Confederation of Midwives, ICM
- Tore Laerdal, Executive Chairman of Laerdal Global Health
- Anna Frellsen, CEO of Maternity Foundation
- Maria Langworthy, Director of Worldwide Research at Microsoft
- Genevieve Musokwa, Midwives Association of Zambia, MAZ

Open to all delegates. RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/edtechtalk-the-future-of-health-worker-training-side-event-at-wd2019-tickets-61094794174

Power Talks: Progress

Moderated by: Alana Glass, Attorney and Sports Entrepreneur

4:35 | Deborah Birx, MD, Ambassador-at-Large and United States Global AIDS Coordinator
> Adolescent girls and young women in Eastern and Southern Africa are up to 14 times more likely to be HIV infected than boys their same age. Ambassador Deborah Birx will speak about the DREAMS partnership, an innovative public/private effort to reduce new HIV infections through evidence-based approaches that go beyond the health sector, addressing structural drivers including poverty, gender inequality, sexual violence, and a lack of education.

4:45 | Lindsey Dietschi, Lead, Global Health Partnerships, Pfizer
> Women are the Chief Medical Officers of their families, and to play that role, they need to be able to take care of their own health first. Lindsey Dietschi, Head of Global Health Partnerships at Pfizer, will discuss how sustainable access to life saving technologies, particularly family planning and immunizations, help women keep themselves and their families healthy.

4:55 | HRH Princess Sarah Zeid, Global Advocate
> When emergencies strike, women, girls, children, and newborns in humanitarian settings are still chronically overlooked in international responses. HRH Princess Sarah Zeid, a global advocate for maternal and newborn health, makes a passionate plea to change the current humanitarian system and put girls and women at the center of all programs, policies, and investments.

5:05 | Lucky Gill, Founder and President of Global Girl Power
> As the third unwanted daughter, Lucky Gill’s mother refused to see her for three days at birth. From a forced child marriage at 15 to motherhood at 16, Lucky always asked; “why me?”, “and the only answer she ever got “it's your Kismet” (destiny)”. This a story of a girl’s journey from rural India to catalyst of a global movement.

5:15 | Faysal El Kak, M.D., Vice President, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO)
> As an OB-GYN and health expert with a lifelong commitment to women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, Dr. Faysal El Kak addresses the unique health challenges faced by Syrian refugees in his home country of Lebanon. The current refugee crisis within the region has created more need and urgency for women than ever before.

The Power of Tech: How do we best harness technology for gender equality?

A growing body of evidence shows that technology has the potential to help close the global gender gap faster – but only if it is designed by and for women, and gets in the hands of women. Whether or not tech lives up to its promise to be a driver of equality tomorrow will depend on the actions we take today. The Power of Tech will highlight leaders in different industries who have harnessed technology to reduce the gender gap, and propose policy changes that could scale impact.

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Opening: Nick Oketch, Founder, LucyBot, Director and Founder, Paradigm Youth Network Organization

Moderator: Melinda Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Panel:
- Shivani Soroya, CEO and Founder, Tala
- Judith Spitz, Founder, Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in New York (WiTNY)
- Nick Oketch, Founder, LucyBot, Director and Founder, Paradigm Youth Network Organization

The Real Groundbreakers: Women Food Producers Transforming Rural Landscapes

Hosted by: Canadian Foodgrains Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Rural women in developing countries are vital economic players in their communities. Many are food producers, crucial to their families' health and nutrition, and are agents of change. But gender inequality holds them back.

This event will explore the challenges women food producers face and will hear solutions from women who are championing gender equality, confronting injustice, and are helping to end hunger and malnutrition in their communities. These women are the real groundbreakers.

Open to all delegates.

Private Sector Impact for Women and Girls: Models that Make Good Business AND Social Sense

Hosted by: FHI 360

Join this exclusive fireside chat with representatives from IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard Foundation, Merck for Mothers and Procter & Gamble to explore how corporate and foundation investments and models of giving are driving catalytic social impact for women and girls. Gain new insights and build strong contacts to help foster truly sustainable impact in health, STEM education, economic development, financial inclusion and beyond. Light refreshments will be served.

Open to all delegates.

Candid Conversations

Mapping Abortion Rights Worldwide

Hosted by: Center for Reproductive Rights

Please join the Center for Reproductive Rights for cocktails, conversation, and the unveiling of the 2019 World Abortion Laws Map.

By invitation only.

Film Screenings: Access to Safe Abortion

RV (10:27)
> Stripped of her rights, a woman’s life changes when she ventures with her husband to remedy an impossible situation. R.V is a narrative short about the current threat to women's reproductive rights. R.V follows a woman's experience undergoing an abortion where access to safe, legal care is not an option. Director(s): Will Hawkes & Melissa Center

I'll Tell You Trailer (2:14)
> In the documentary film I'll Tell You, nine Brazilian women tell a similar story: at some point in their lives, they decided to interrupt an unwanted pregnancy. In the film, they share their experiences in clandestine abortion clinics or with abortion medication at home. They are ordinary women, women who work and have families. Some were already mothers when they had an abortion, some chose motherhood later on in life. Others just do not wish to have children. Although abortion is a crime in the country, 1 in 5 Brazilian women have performed at least one abortion by the age of 40. Director(s): Debora Diniz

Caroline's Story (2:30)
> All around the world, women are forced to seek out unsafe abortions, with terrifying, sometimes fatal, results. This short film focuses on the story of Caroline, who lives in Kenya, where the government has failed to issue clear legal guidelines around abortion, and has banned abortion trainings for health care providers, putting thousands of women at risk. The animation that accompanies her retelling of her story captures the grief, loss, and fear that Caroline endured with its graceful use of shape, line, and movement. Director(s): Gabriel Lee for the Center for Reproductive Rights

Abandoned Trailer (2:14)
> Abandoned tells, for the first time, the heartbreaking stories of women who have died or suffered terribly after being denied a legal abortion because doctors claimed it conflicted with their personal or religious beliefs, citing a "conscientious objection". This ground-breaking film exposes the injustice of allowing doctors to refuse care to women with an unwanted pregnancy. No other area of medicine allows treatment refusals based on personal beliefs because that is recognized as unprofessional and discriminatory. The film also explores the origin of the misnamed practice of "conscientious objection" in health care and interviews experts on the issue. Director(s): Patricia Marchart

That's One Small Step Trailer (1:17)
> The year is 1969, a man just landed on the moon but abortion in Canada is still illegal. Veronica is a conservative cop who fakes a pregnancy to gain evidence on a doctor performing underground abortions. She is just about to make the arrest of a lifetime when a pregnant girl barges in desperate for help. Director(s): Adelina Suvagau

We Were Hardly More Than Children (8:45)
> "We Were Hardly More Than Children" tells an epic tale of an illegal abortion as lived by two friends on a frightful journey through a world that has little concern for their survival. Director(s): Cecelia Condit