#WhatWomenWant: A new accountability paradigm and expanded accountability mechanisms through leveraging social media, catalysing movements, and building leadership

abstractPositive shifts in the global policy landscape have contributed to situating gender equality at the centre of programmes to address HIV, advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and eliminate violence against women and girls. Achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – in particular Goals 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” and 5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” (United Nations, 2015) – requires new strategies and new thought leadership. Gender activists and feminists have mobilized to make their voices heard on the issues that matter to them on the virtual #WhatWomenWant platform. Girls and young women mobilizing around HIV and SRHR want a new paradigm to hold governments accountable to the commitments they have made. This profile briefly considers the shifts in the policy environment and implications for gender equality and argues for a new accountability paradigm in which young women and girls in Eastern and ...