th
This concept note provides an overview of the forthcoming 28 th World YWCA Council to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from October 11 to 16, 2015 (Young Women’s Forum from
October 9 to 10 – World Board Meeting October 10).
Introduction
The World YWCA Council is the quadrennial global gathering of the YWCA movement and the supreme authority and decision-making body of the YWCA. It is where the direction setting and policy decisions of the movement are made and the governing body elected. It is also a collectively empowering environment for the 600-800 women expected to take part from over 100 countries, with at least one young woman under 30 from each participating
YWCA. It is a place of celebration of women’s leadership and of building of a cohesive vision for the future.
World YWCA Council 2015 is hosted at a critical time marking and celebrating the official 20 year review of global commitments on women, equality, development and peace agreed at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China in 1995, and negotiations are underway with Member States to decide the post 2015 development agenda and the new
Sustainable Development Goals.
It is an exciting time as we celebrate 20 years of advancing women’s rights since Beijing and the World YWCA envisions the next 20 years for the movement.
Theme “Bold and Transformative Leadership- Towards 2035”
The theme for World YWCA Council 2015 includes both leadership and the envisioning 2035 process.
Leadership lies at the heart of the YWCA as a movement. This forms the core purpose of the
World YWCA, as stated in article 4 of the constitution, “the purpose of the World YWCA is to develop the leadership and collective power of women and girls around the world to achieve justice, peace, health, human dignity, freedom and a sustainable environment for all people".
Envisioning 2035 will look at how YWCAs can organise, strategise, strengthen and mobilise to build collective power and common ownership and commitment to a proposal of action to advance the World YWCA's purpose and establish a clear vision for the movement’s future and to bring positive change for women and their communities

Goals of the World YWCA Council
1. Fulfil the World YWCA constitutional requirements, including election of leadership
2. Adopt the World YWCA Strategic Framework and Budget for 2016 – 2019
3. Adopt (collective ownership of) the Envisioning 2035 Proposal
4. Progress the leadership of women, young women and girls taking a shared and intergenerational approach
5. Share and build the capacity, knowledge, skills, communication, resource development, governance, management and accountability, of member associations
6. Celebrate women’s leadership, inspire the YWCA movement, and enable sisterhood, dialogue and solidarity
World YWCA Council 2015 Programme
The programme has been designed with the above goals in mind and the recommendations from previous Councils. World Council is more than just a constitutional requirement and a business meeting; it provides opportunities for learning and networking among YWCA members, celebrates women’s leadership and is a unique vehicle for communicating/affirming/shaping identity and organisational culture. These different aspects of the meeting, decision making, learning, motivation, networking, rituals and alignment, all have their place in the programme, are reflected in the goals and will require careful thinking about which methodologies are appropriate to use. We would like the delegates to interact with the content, to participate and return home to their YWCA inspired, motivated and with the tools and skills needed to implement agreed policies and resolutions.
Key recommendations from previous Councils include:

Provide greater opportunity for participants to interact with the content and priority issues

Provide more space for informal networking and interaction among participants

Identify methodologies and approaches that enable and facilitate improved dialogue and exchange

Need for the movement to define, own and honour a collective vision with actions around the priority issues
The programme includes:
1. Theological reflections and celebrating our faith – As a women’s faith based organisation, we are called upon to celebrate our faith in all our diversity. Woven throughout World YWCA Council will be time for conversations and discussions
on what it means to be a faith based organisation and how this guides and transforms

our work. With the support of a dynamic group of theologians, we will commence each day with worship and include theological and spiritual reflections during the plenary sessions and workshops on the priority issues that will take the movement forward.
2. Good Governance – the business of an ordinary meeting of the World YWCA
Council is clearly stated in Article 21 of the World YWCA Constitution. It includes the reports by the Board and General Secretary on the World YWCA activities and management of funds during the previous quadrennium. The Council approves the policies, guidelines and resolutions guiding the movement’s work until the next World
Council. And the leadership of the movement is elected. The first plenary sessions each day will start with items on the business agenda. Improving the delegates’ orientation and focusing on the business items first will hopefully improve decision making around constitutional matters. All the plenary sessions will have interpretation into the three official languages (English, French and Spanish)
3. Delegates : enhanced participation and orientation . A recommendation from World
Council 2011 was to find ways to improve delegate orientation and participation. This will include ti mely preparation of delegates’ working papers, and finding creative ways of engaging delegates prior to Council, for example through the use of technology e.g. Skype, webinars, to better inform them of their roles and responsibilities at
Council. At previous Councils not all delegates attended the pre-council delegate orientation. The suggestion at the 2015 Council was to strengthen the Ways of Work and Rules of Procedure agenda item to include training to all delegates, in particular on voting in plenary processes.
4. Envisioning 2035 - a major focus this time for World YWCA Council is the envisioning process and the adoption of the 20 year proposal for the collective efforts of YWCAs in advancing women’s rights and leadership, as well as strengthening our common identity and sustainability. Three plenary sessions are scheduled to discuss each of the Envisioning issues: women’s rights, leadership, identity, membership and sustainability. The plenary discussion will be followed by workgroup sessions to engage discussion on the issues and build ownership of the envisioning proposal.
5. Peer learning and sharing workshops . Building capacity and sharing best practices is an important and popular part of the programme. Workshops will be presented under the three themes of women’s rights; leadership; identity, membership and sustainability. There will also be workshops on proposed resolutions and constitutional amendments. The application process for hosting a workshop will ensure quality, diversity and regional representation.
6. Transformative leadership: As part of the theme and core purpose of the World
YWCA we will profile, reflect and further develop the concepts of intergenerational,

transformative and shared leadership. From World YWCA Council 2011 and throughout the quadrennium, conversations on shared and transformative leadership were facilitated with women, young women and leaders in the movement throughout.
This is an ideal time to bring these conversations together. There are many experts and resource people within the movement who can be speakers, facilitators and workshop leaders. Space will be given to YWCA leaders to share and lead.
7. Young Women – Young women will lead a twoday Young Women’s Forum prior to
Council. It will include a young women’s evening function in order for the young women to have the opportunity to meet each other and interact as part of a specific engagement framework. The forum will complement efforts to engage and encourage the participation of young women leaders into the World YWCA Council programme.
Young women need to be in the mainstream of the discussion and be part of shaping the discourse.
8. Networking – both informal and structured networking structures are to be incorporated into the programme. Informal structures include having networking lunches, where delegates are encouraged to meet other delegates with similar functions (fundraiser, communications, advocacy officers ) at round tables; using the market space as a village café space for delegates to share ideas; to have networking zones specific for young women, general secretaries or presidents. All are possible methodologies to foster more member interaction and contact. As the World
YWCA has moved away from regional training events we need to consider the importance or not of formal regional meetings during World YWCA Council.
9. Market Place – an area will be provided for member associations to share and display their work and sell goods during specific periods. We know some associations take the opportunity to sell their products and handicrafts at Council and generate some revenue for their associations.
10. Celebrating Women’s Rights & the Mary Robinson Award . Building on the synergy, momentum and legacy of Beijing + 20, combined with the ground breaking
Envisioning 2035, the welcoming reception will be commemorative of where we have come in the past 20 years and where the World YWCA is envisioning towards 2035.
The atmosphere will be celebratory and include stories from women who were at
Beijing and aspirations from those who were Beijing babies. It will be an honouring of women’s leadership continuing in the tradition of past World Councils. The highlight will be the 2 nd Mary Robinson Human Rights Award for Young Women’s Leadership presented to individuals from within and external to the movement and a member association. Recognising that awards ceremonies are more suited to combination of informality and formality the suggestion is to dedicate the evening to the celebration of this award after a welcome reception, allowing for greater flexibility with time,

capturing and maintaining the atmosphere and spirit of hundreds of leaders gathered in one room to energise and seek the tone for an inspiring week ahead.
11. Movement building – as the only global gathering of YWCAs, World Council is more than just a business meeting, it is a major movement building event, in particular around the collective ownership of the Envisioning Proposal.
12. Asian Exposure : taking the opportunity to highlight some of the critical human rights issues that women and YWCAs in Asia work on, in particular trafficking, HIV, migration and violence against women. Use of creative methodology will take delegates on a journey through the realities for Asian women, young women and girls. The Host Association will invite all participants to an Asian Night Dinner and we are in discussion with YWCA of Thailand about the possibilities of post council visits.
Anticipated outcomes

Culmination of the Envisioning process with the adoption of a collective goal and plan towards 2035.

Adoption of the World YWCA global strategic framework and budget for 2016-2019

Election of the World YWCA Board leadership for the next quadrennium.

Strengthened members capacity to deliver comprehensive programmes and services at the individual, community, national, regional and global levels

Deepening the rights framework and theological reflections in advancing gender justice
 Greater understanding and increased knowledge of the issues of women’s rights, leadership, identity, membership and sustainability in relation to the YWCA movement.

Celebrating our diversity and shared moments for fellowship and spiritual nourishment.
In all outcomes the post 2015 development agenda (which will be confirmed in September
2015) will be incorporated and woven into the programme as critical foundations for forwarding and impacting the World YWCA movement in advancing women’s human rights.