Blog

Commitment from Irise to the Generation Equality Forum

In recent years global progress towards gender equality has stalled- the interaction between the female body and societal structures and norms is a neglected bottle neck in this fight and the lack of gender sensitive analysis and response to the global pandemic has only served to further entrench these inequalities which, without action, will hamper a resilient and rapid response.

The Irise Group commits to creating a world where a female body is not a disadvantage. Our ‘Period Equality’ framework produced in consultation with people experiencing disadvantage because they have a female body highlighted multiple domains including leadership & power, economic empowerment, sanitation, access to education, reproductive health, mental health & wellbeing and safety where policy intervention and investment are required to eliminate this injustice.

We recognise the global campaign to end period poverty and shame by 2030 as a significant milestone on this journey that will unlock the potential of young women and girls and remove a roadblock towards wider progress.

Our ambition is to work with the global movement to lift 500 million women and girls out of period poverty and shame by 2030 supporting a resilient, gender sensitive recovery from the pandemic and accelerating progress towards the SDGs. We will do this through:

1. Building-up: equipping civil society and the grassroots with the frameworks, tools and data required to hold local and national governments, international stakeholders and the menstrual movement to account for ending period poverty and shame by 2030.
2. Standing-up: bringing together the grassroots and youth led movements across the contexts where we work enabling them to advocate together for the changes they need.
3. Rising-up: developing and delivering programmes that realise meaningful change in the lives of those affected by period inequality and harness our learning to enable others to do the same.

We commit to:

• Creating period friendly schools and communities for half a million girls in East Africa through partnership with government and the grassroots women-led movement with an emphasis on ending period poverty through enabling the long-term economic empowerment of women and girls.
• Enabling the youth-led movement in the UK to hold the government to account and lift 1.6 million young people out of period poverty and shame by 2025, catalysing broader progress towards period equality for all via enabling diverse female leadership, ending stigma around the female body and directly supporting the most marginalised.