The Gender Alliance is a cross-network initiative bringing together feminists from the BMW Herbert Quandt Foundation Responsible Leaders Network, the Global Diplomacy Lab, and the Bosch Alumni Network.

In the forerun of the Summit (26-28 August 2020), the founding members Colette Mazzucelli and Trinidad Saona with contributions by Thandi Dyani, Julia Profeta Johansson, Chi Nguyen, Eirliani Abdul Rahman, Elsa Marie D’Silva and Carolina Sheinfeld, formulated this Feminist Manifesto:

The Feminist Manifesto:

1. We are promoters of gender equality. In each of our respective roles, personal, family, professional, as members of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network, we push for a Feminist Agenda to foster gender equity and work actively in closing gender gaps in line with Sustainable Development Goal 5.

2. We advocate for a gender inclusion perspective. With the aspiration, as articulated in the 2030 Agenda that no one is to be left behind, we affirm that women must have more spaces of representation and participation in contributing to the realization of the 17 SDGs.

3. We champion gender equality regardless of sexual identity. The gender issue is one that masculine, feminine, common, and neutral involving persons of all ages who must be actively engaged to close the gender gaps.

4. We support each other as Responsible Leaders. We encourage each other in the suggestion and scale up of ideas to achieve gender equity.

5. We aim to foster an empathetic approach to feminism. We acknowledge beginning without a common understanding and strive to create a broader foundation to include others without prejudice.

6. We call for an agenda to make the next decade a transformative one to achieve feminist goals. We strive in a transversal way to reach a comprehensive understanding of gender equity that is cross-cutting, diverse, intercultural, and interdisciplinary.

7. We believe that gender balance in all sectors is one of the main keys to transforming the current economic systems, which are broken, by leveraging the complementarity of skills and perspectives among diverse genders.

8. It is our goal to engage with a gender focus throughout 2020 and beyond when hiring, developing new programs, and initiating projects, in funding and other areas of work to accelerate closing the gender gap.

9. We nurture an understanding of gender equity that is cross-cutting, interdisciplinary, and holistic with awareness of religious pluralism, social prejudice against the disabled, and class inequalities.

With these principles, the Gender Alliance articulates the premise for their Agenda and their Call to Action. As the Gender Alliance organizes diverse public events and initiates specific research projects, additional principles of the Feminist Manifesto shall be elaborated.

You can get an even closer idea about the work of the Gender Alliance and the respective contributions of involved GDL members by reading the articles about Elsa Marie D’Silva, Eirliani Abdul Rahman, Elizabeth Maloba and Imran Simmins and their share in the project.