Pippa’s doing her best – to make ten million girls and young women’s voices heard!

In March I was lucky enough to represent the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. I was there as a member of a delegation to the Commission on the Status of Women – a global discussion about progress towards gender equality.

 As the chair of Anglia Region’s Youth Forum, ASSK, I’ve been involved in advocacy within Girlguiding UK for a few years. I’ve always tried to do my best to make the voices of my peers heard by the right people, to ensure decisions are made with girls and young women in mind. In New York this was scaled up and did my best to bring the voices of ten million Guides and Girl Scouts to international decision makers.

During the two weeks in New York I spoke to many ministers and ambassadors encouraging them to include the specific needs of girls and young women in the policies they were developing. I also got the opportunity to address all the country representatives at the commission by giving a speech during the panel on “Including young women and young men in achieving gender equality”. I certainly did my best, and it looks like the power of united ten million voices was felt - the speech was quoted in reports and summaries of the session.

I hope to do my best again this June, as I have been selected as an Event Coordinator for the WAGGGS Rio+20 Conference Delegation heading to Brazil. This time we will be advocating for sustainable development. I hope to ensure that decision makers understand the future that Guides and Girl Scouts want to see.

Pippa Gardner

ASSK Chair

PS Fancy doing advocacy for yourself? You don’t have to travel to New York! There are loads of resources available to help you make your voice heard. Find out more about taking action through WAGGGS here – or try out Girlguiding UK’s Together We Can activity pack on the Millennium Development Goals.