HIGH-LEVEL POLITICAL FORUM 2018 15TH MEETING: LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND: ARE WE SUCCEEDING? WRAP-UP OF THE FIRST WEEK JOYCE HAMILTON, COC NETHERLANDS, NETHERLANDS 13TH JULY 2018

Thank you moderator, I am Joyce Hamilton speaking on behalf of the Women´s Major Group. Our lives and realities are complex. Our intersecting identities influence our ability to exercise our rights, opportunities, health and well-being. We are girls, adolescents, young adults, middle aged, and older women; people of various castes, races and ethnicities; indigenous, migrants and refugees; we live with disabilities and with HIV; in poverty and in wealth; in rural, peri-urban and urban communities; formal and informal workers, manual laborers, executives; with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, expressions and sex characteristics. Patriarchy, colonialism and other systems of oppression reinforce inequalities, deny girls, women, gender non-conforming and trans people their agency and block progress toward achieving sustainable development. Discriminatory gender norms, stereotypes and gender-based violence hold us back and prevent us from participating in sustainable development. Unequal structures and systemic barriers impact all of us, with the most marginalized being impacted hardest. The lack of disaggregated data sets back development efforts by failing to give adequate information about who is being left behind. These are our recommendations: 1. To leave no one behind, we call on governments to have feminist foreign policies, including funding for the feminist movement, whilst curbing illicit financial flows and blending of ODA . 2. Investing in efforts to close the massive gender data gap is essential for effective budgeting and policy making. 3. Actively support the meaningful and institutionalised participation of women in decision making and participatory budgeting 4. Ensure that strategies to address gender discriminatory norms and violence are integrated into policies and programs for each of the SDGs. 5. All policies must foster gender equality and the empowerment of women, youth and vulnerable groups through decent work and social protection policies. And finally, eliminate discriminatory laws and put in place proactive policies to guarantee women’s rights to own and control land and other productive resources. Thank you