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theDifference Consulting

theDiffernece

UN Women Generation Equality Forum

United a global multi-stakeholder group to co-create a transformative vision for gender equality and work together to achieve it

UN Women Generation Equality Forum

United a global multi-stakeholder group to co-create a transformative vision for gender equality and work together to achieve it

Generation Equality

Challenge

World leaders pledged at the Fourth World Conference on Women to eliminate gender inequality. Twenty-five years later, these words hadn’t translated into action. UN Women conceived the Generation Equality Forum (GEF) as a landmark global effort to fuel gender equality progress. However, as this global movement built momentum, a pandemic forced a pivot to virtual collaboration.

Solution

Pre-pandemic, we designed and facilitated in-person design sprints in Mexico City and Paris, where a diverse group of leaders aligned on six thematic areas requiring urgent action. These became the Action Coalitions: multi-stakeholder groups of leaders selected from various sectors formed to accelerate change. Post-pandemic, we facilitated collaborative virtual workshops where AC leaders worked through fundamental disagreements to co-develop blueprints for action. We supported virtual sessions at the Mexico City and Paris Global Virtual Forums, where this work was showcased.

In addition to visually designing the final Global Acceleration Plan, we supported UN Women’s efforts to inspire and secure funding, policy and advocacy commitments to these blueprints via a global website and pitch decks.

Impact

We believe that human conversations are the most powerful path through complexity. theDifference was viewed as a trusted, neutral partner by all key players. This allowed us to facilitate candid discussions that drove toward alignment/decisions and led to meaningful stakeholder connections.

$40B

committed to advancing gender equality

1K

total commitments

1
Global Acceleration Plan for gender equality,

including 6 blueprints to create gender-equal societies with 24 actions each

1
Global Acceleration Plan for gender equality,

1K

total commitments

$40B

committed to advancing gender equality

including 6 blueprints to create gender-equal societies with 24 actions each

“Generation Equality is our bold collective promise to the world’s women and girls. It will accelerate the world’s progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and transform lives for generations to come.”

Sima Bahous, Executive Director, UN Women

Generation Equality
Generation Equality
Generation Equality
2

global forums

in Mexico and Paris

6

design sprints

that led to the formation of Action Coalitions

11

multi-stakeholder steering committee meetings

that helped shape GEF structure and processes

8

curated discussions

that used storytelling to illuminate thematic focus areas for GEF
38

Action Coalition (AC) workshops

that resulted in 6 AC blueprints
and the Global Acceleration Plan for gender equality

dialogue-session
once-in-a-decade