Our Anti-Racism Report and Action Plan

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WAGGGS STATEMENT ON ANTI-RACISM

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and the Movement of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts pride ourselves on being open to every girl and any girl. We are the largest voluntary movement dedicated to girls and young women in the world, representing over 8.9 million women and girls from 152 countries around the world.

WAGGGS is a charitable incorporated organisation with its headquarters in London. As an umbrella organisation supporting and linking our 152 member organisations, WAGGGS has upward of 80 staff – half based in the UK and half based in the WAGGGS regions (Arab, Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Western Hemisphere), and over 800 volunteers from across the world.

For these reasons, inclusion is one of our core organisational values and is at the heart of all our activities and programmes. We embrace our diversity, and value equally the contribution of staff and volunteers from across the world; we consciously strive to work together collaboratively, as one global team for those we serve.

The May 2020 murder of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests across the world, led WAGGGS to reflect on changes we need to make to be a more inclusive organisation, one that truly lives up to the values of the Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting Movement.

Two independent diversity and inclusion experts were commissioned to explore with WAGGGS staff members their experience of racism – particularly anti-black racism – and to make recommendations for concrete actions for how we could change.

We recognise that work must be done to ensure that:

WAGGGS is not only a non-racist but also an anti-racist organisation
WAGGGS has clear commitments and corresponding actions to becoming an anti-racist organisation that are fully felt in the lives of Black and Global Majority individuals across our organisation and Movement

To do this, we have developed an organisational report and action plan rooted in the experiences of racism that were shared with the consultants, and the consultants’ recommendations for how we can improve. This report and action plan, which makes for hard but essential reading, represent both a wholehearted commitment to this work, and tangible actions to support meaningful change.

We condemn all types of racism – structural, systemic and individual – against any minoritized group. There is no room for racism of any kind in our organisation or Movement and we stand by every individual who has suffered racism. The WAGGGS strategy for 2022-23, adopted by Member Organisations in December 2021, includes several actions aimed at shaping a more inclusive WAGGGS.

We would like to thank Black and Global Majority staff for their courage and commitment to this process, and their bravery in sharing painful experiences of racism and discrimination that they have experienced within the organisation and the Movement. We hear you, we see you, we stand with you. Your experiences have provided critical learnings that will shape WAGGGS and the Movement now and into the future.

We also offer a sincere and heartfelt apology to all Black and Global Majority WAGGGS staff for having failed to live up to our values.

The report and action plan focus on racial discrimination and colonial legacy issues. It does not serve as a comprehensive set of diversity, equality and inclusion plans for WAGGGS. They will, however, serve as a launchpad for further work on all areas of intersecting discriminations and will contribute to work being done across the whole Movement. We will establish a DEI working group to support driving this work forward.

If you have any Diversity, Equity or Inclusion related enquires please reach out to Jess Bond (jess.bond@wagggs.org), Chair of the People Committee of the WAGGGS World Board, or Magdalene Thomas (DEI@WAGGGS.org), WAGGGS DEI Focal Point.