Copy and paste the below in to your preferred writing/email software:
Making sure girls and young women have a voice – and are heard
[type representative’s name and title here]
[type department here]
[type address here]
[type date here]
I am writing to request our government to take immediate steps towards ensuring the elimination of poverty among women and girls and reducing inequality.
Women and girls are overrepresented among the world’s poor, and the drivers of their experiences of poverty and inequality lie in policy and economic structures. The challenge is the lack of targeted policies addressing systemic inequalities.
The right to live free from poverty and inequality goes beyond addressing economic deprivation – it must be examined as a civil, political, social, environmental, and cultural right.
Here in [country], women face [insert local challenge]. I am particularly concerned about [insert personal priority].
To eliminate gendered inequalities of poverty and achieve substantive equality for women and girls, we need to:
- Create fairer economic systems that generate and distribute resources more equitably and place women’s and girls’ rights and needs at the center
- Ground all laws and economic and social policies in the core human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination.
I ask that you adopt and implement the recommendations of the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls thematic report on Gendered inequalities of poverty: feminist and human rights-based approaches. The full report can be found here (https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5339-gendered-inequalities-poverty-feminist-and-human-rightsbased) and a summarised version here (unworkinggroupwomenandgirls.org).
I believe that you as my government representative have an important role to play in eliminating poverty among women and girls in [country] and I ask that you consider how we can make changes happen. Thank you for considering this request. I’d appreciate a response that outlines what actions you are taking to address these issues.
Sincerely,
[Type your name]