Panel Discussion - Strengthening Youth for a Gender Equal World at Breakthrough’s Pan-Asian Virtual Summit - Reframe Envisioning a World without GBV

Sky Social hosted a panel discussion called – “Strengthening Youth for a Gender Equal World” at Breakthrough’s Pan-Asian Virtual Summit - Reframe Envisioning a World without GBV

Insights on Breakthrough’s Pan-Asian Virtual Summit - Reframe Envisioning a World without GBV

The Summit had varied themes around Gender-Based Violence including building agency and leadership of young people for Preventing GBV, Covid - 19 and re-strategizing prevention of GBV, strengthening adolescents, youth and communities, Using the Internet for Social Change and Creating an Enabling Environment and Preventing GBV.

Our session Strengthening Youth for a Gender Equal World had diverse panellists who shared varied perspectives on Youth Development. The panel was moderated by Srishti Pragat, founder Sky Social. And the panellists were Prarthana Mishra, Director, Sangini Mahila Kalyan Samiti, Arzoo Garg, Project Coordinator, YP Foundation, Supriya Gulati, Expert – CSR and communications for development and Lalit Bighane – Youth Ambassador.

The discussion focused on building and strengthening the agency and leadership skills of young people so that they can take action and work towards creating a violence-free world. Through this discussion, we shared strategies, tools, insights, recommendations and advocacy agenda of what can work in supporting these young people to live to their full potential, becoming leaders and role models in their own right. Building their capacities will help them in creating an enabling and gender-just environment along with tackling gender-based violence and discrimination.

Key take aways from the Panel Discussion –

Gender-Based Violence and Gender-based Discrimination is a gross violation of human rights. Our Panel discussion focused on engaging young people and strengthening their capacities along with improved life-skills so that they can take up leadership roles and become agents of change in their community for creation of gender equal and just world. The following aspects were talked about in our discussion-

• The challenges faced by the grassroot organizations while working with youth and especially adolescent girls on gender issues in the community. For overcoming the challenges, it is necessary to have a multi-sectoral approach where government, policy makers, stakeholders, gatekeepers, organizations and communities work together. It is also necessary to involve men and boys in discussion about gender-based violence.
• The critical linkages between SRHR and GBV were discussed with special focus on the need to include comprehensive sexuality education for students and youth so that they understand the importance of these subjects and further take up initiatives that will create more awareness about these topics in their communities. Also, a very important aspect was about moving beyond the gender binary and talking about inclusion of marginalized people from LGBTQIA+ community.
• To have sustainable youth engagement for creating change in the society it is necessary to focus on building life skills of young people. Capacitating them with good communication skills and partnerships will help them understand their driving force and reach out to people at larger individually and collectively. These skills should be incorporated by organizations and institutions working with youth to expand the outreach of their work and ensure their development in a purposeful way.
• Youth representation and involvement is necessary at the policy and institutional level so that their voices are heard and they are considered as key stakeholder for effective policy implementation at the grassroots.
• Partnerships and alliances with like-minded organizations and people at community, organizational, state and national level will result in sustainable interventions of GBV and GBD.
• Integrate digital literacy and accessibility of youth and women in the programs related to COVID-19 preparedness & GBV along with forming youth collectives at community level from different vulnerable backgrounds to bring together varied voices of change.