ALIGN Project: initial convening

An initial platform awareness and engagement session was held by the ALIGN project in New York, US. This convening comprised small group discussions and presentations from participants, who included researchers, thought leaders, advocacy and policy practitioners, donors and others working in the adolescent girls space. 

The aim was to explore the current climate for gendered social norms work to help frame the scope of the ALIGN Project. The meeting discussed how the ALIGN Project can build and curate innovative learning in this area, and also highlighted various important challenges to understanding, measuring and changing norms both globally and at a country level.

The convening highlighted several key questions to shape the project’s focus and vision:

• What is the core to obstructing change for adolescent girls and young women, to which our knowledge on norms can make a positive difference?
• How can we build wider networks of learning and momentum for change using our skills in knowledge generation and evidence-sharing?
• How do we curate and communicate knowledge on norms, given their complex nature?

The ALIGN Project looks forward to developing the community and digital platform in response to these initial discussions, and bringing together further conversations in our next convening.