Brief from a multi-stakeholder roundtable

As we move toward the end date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), work towards a new post 2015 global architecture to frame development outcomes and track progress is already underway. Recognising the 57th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York as a strategic moment to feed into these processes, a multi-stakeholder roundtable was organised, co-hosted by BRIDGE/Institute of Development Studies, Switzerland and South Africa. The roundtable brought together a diverse group of actors from country delegations, United Nations country missions, civil society, UN agencies and research institutions. The aims were to highlight the need to place gender equality and women’s empowerment at the heart of a new post 2015 framework and to consider concrete ways to ensure commitments are translated into action. This brief sets out the key messages that emerged from the meeting.

Gender at the World Social Forum

The World Social Forum took place in Tunisia between 26 and 30 March. Thousands of social and economic justice activists got together to discuss and strategise on the transormations needed for a more equal and sustainable world. A Women's Assembly was held at the forum on 26 March. Find out more in our BRIDGE update for March which focuses on gender and the WSF. You can read about different people's experiences at the forum on Twitter, using #wsf and #fsm, including this blog from a member of Oxfam Youth Partnerships programme. And this AWID Friday File has some interesting reflections on gender at the forum.

As we have a gender and social movements programme at BRIDGE, we're very interested in the ways that gender equality and women's rights were discussed at the forum. Were you there? Do you know of resources on this topic? If so we'd love to hear from you. Please email: j.birchall@ids.ac.uk .

BRIDGE is 20 years old!

This year BRIDGE is celebrating 20 years of work on gender and development! BRIDGE was set up in 1992 on the initiative of the OECD DAC Gendernet. Its purpose was to provide quality research information on gender equality to support gender advisers in donor agencies. BRIDGE has remained in its home at IDS ever since, and has grown and diversified over the years. To mark this 20th anniversary year, we are held a birthday party. Friends of BRIDGE, past and present staff, and BRIDGE International Advisory Committee members got together to celebrate our achievements over the years. You can see some of the birthday messages we collected at the party on our You Tube channel. If you would like to send a video or written birthday message to BRIDGE, please email us at Bridge@ids.ac.uk . We will display your messages on this site over the coming months.

Gender and Climate Change Cutting Edge Pack

Produced in collaboration with policy, donor, and advocacy experts and NGOS based around the globe, the BRIDGE Cutting Edge Pack on gender and climate change provides a transformative and rights based approach in which to tackle climate change and address gender inequality.

This Cutting Edge Pack hopes to inspire thinking and action. It contains the Overview Report offering a comprehensive gendered analysis of climate change which demystifies many of the complexities in this area and suggests recommendations for researchers, NGOSs and donors as well as policymakers at national and international level. The Supporting Resources Collection provides summaries of key texts and contacts of organisations in this field, whilst a Gender and Development In Brief newsletter contains three articles including two case studies outlining innovative local led solutions.