This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, adopted in 1995 (BPFA). While I had heard a lot about the BPFA, I had never had a chance to learn about what it really has. You can imagine my excitement when I learned about the herstory of this incredible document and importantly the politics of what went down in Beijing. On 1st July 2020, I attended a training session facilitated by the ever so versatile Saida Ali. This training was planned as part of YWLI’s launch of the #DefendingTheDream Campaign organised as part of various actions by members of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) and supported by Urgent Action Fund- Africa. This training helped me appreciate the BPFA, why it is still relevant today and ongoing Generation Equality actions as part of the Beijing +25 review process. This is definitely a potential avenue to amplify young feminist organising in Kenya.

Although there is a general consensus that the need to realise gender equality is
more relevant than ever, young feminists are not perceived as active participants in decision-making. Thus dialogue around the review process needs to answer the question about how relevant the Beijing platform for action is to young feminists today. This issue is probably why the ongoing debates and efforts to include the young generation through Generation Equality efforts have gained so much momentum.

The BPFA review processes may fail to appeal to young feminists as a result of the intergenerational gap that exists between the problems at its inception and issues affecting adolescent girls and young women today. African feminists made significant contributions at the Fourth World Conference on Women by demanding that the rights of the girl child need to be a critical area of concern. However, this video about the Africa Regional Review held as preparations for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and in preparations for the Beijing +25 review illustrates my concerns. Whilst it is of symbolic value that the feminist organisers who first championed the twelve critical areas of concern were present at the African Regional Review, in practice, the lack of young feminists representation and voices impedes the BPFA transformative potential. There are novel and unique challenges plaguing young feminists today such as the entrenchment of gender based violence through cyberspaces and other forms of exploitation and violence against women and girls. These include but are not limited to; revenge porn, sex for pads and the ever evolving climate change crises. Young feminist organisers need spaces to speak about our unique challenges and we have been at the forefront in various spaces championing based on our different interests.

We cannot realise the extent of the BPFA’s potential if we do not divest from notions around exclusionary attitudes within our activism. When Ulemu Kanyongolo, founder of the Young Feminists Network in Malawi attended the regional consultation in 2019, she noted that “there was a fair attempt at encouraging diverse participation, in my view. However, as is the norm, the space was dominated by middle-class people. I believe it left out the voices of many others who could have been there – notably…women from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds, and other marginalised groups such as sex workers and the LGBTQI+ communities”. To echo Ulemu’s unease, watching this UN ESCAP video about the generation inheriting the BPFA’s outcome emphasizes how far we still have to go to include all women. One young woman notes that she has “the opportunity to run two businesses on my own which my mum didn’t have” based on non-acceptance from the society for women to make their own choices. Whilst there has been an increase in women’s employment in the formal sector, the voices of women in the informal sector like sex workers, domestic workers, cross border traders, among others, are often left out. Leaving out certain groups of women, promotes beauracracy by portraying an ideal of what the acceptable feminist looks like – this is a failure to rally the support of informal feminist organising and those often left out of formal organisational structures in our pursuit for gender equality.

Lastly, without adequate funding, advocacy around the BPFA cannot be relevant to young feminst organisers because funding is the necessary link that allows us make our dreams a reality. In 2014, Frida and AWID’s Young Feminist Activism Program conducted a research project to fill the gap in mapping key characteristics of YFO with a focus on their financial status. The findings of the survey illustrate that “91% of respondents ranking lack of financial resources as their top challenge.” Furthermore, an underlying issue noted is that because YFO’s work is underpinned by volunteer efforts, “46% of the organizations surveyed have no paid staff, and only a minor group (14%) had most of their members in paid positions”. This reflects patriarchal attitudes that women’s work is not “serious” work and advocacy around women’s rights is a hobby undeserving of remuneration. However, YFO’s must note that the report cautions us on money alone will ensure the success of our organising. Instead, I have began to appreciate that funding is simply a stepping stone that will enable us to seek opportunities to “take on leadership roles, participate in grant-making decisions, to network with wider movements, and access knowledge building training and resources.”

Ulemu Kanyongolo contemplated the question of whether YFO’s need a new document today to “consciously designing it to be a living document that responds more to those changing needs?”. I don’t think developing a new document is the key to fulfilling gender equality because the BPFA’s is simply a framework that guides activists on our efforts towards gender equality. What the training for the BPFA made me realise is importance of multigenerational dialogue that bridges the gap between unique challenges we currently face. Through calls to action, YFO’s are strategizing informal methods of organising such as levying use of social media that may enhance the work of previous women’s rights activists. The framework is clear, only when we increase young feminist participation in decision making processes will we successfully defend our dreams.

By Naila Aroni