Luciana Marulli, a member of SI New York City, was recently appointed as one of Soroptimist International’s UN Representatives in New York.  Luciana worked for the UN for many years, but in this post she writes about her first experience of attending a UN conference in her new capacity, representing SI at the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2013.  

My initial experience as representative of Soroptimist International at the UN was at the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at New York Headquarters. It was indeed revelatory. I have been for many years a UN officer responsible for information technology in a department of 700 economists and social scientists. Now I was seeing things from the conference floor, and from the other side of the podium.

Revelatory was the variety of participants, from very young women, students in privileged societies, to stately policy makers in national dress from Africa; women who needed an interpreter for the very basics of the registration process, to journalists and published authors like Gloria Steinem; women without a coat in the North American winter, and old hands sailing knowledgeably through the process.

The experience was revelatory as to the role individual NGOs played: some jostling for influence on their embassies and official national delegations; some, essentially a chorus; some contributing original perspectives and new data to the ongoing research on the condition of woman. Among the latter, I noted several organizations that applied information technology in innovative way to arrive at new insights. Often they were from Nordic countries. For example, a presentation by the Danish Women’s Ministry and two local NGOs related how social media were used to help rape victims share their condition and contributing factors, without revealing their identities but finding support.

Revelatory was the number of parallel and NGO-sponsored events (hundreds over 10 working days!) and variety of topics discussed. I was left to consider whether some could have been combined, for greater depth and larger attendance.

I realized how important is coordination among UN representatives, and between them and the visiting Soroptimist delegation to ensure smooth information sharing, coverage and reporting of key events, and effective advocacy.

At present UN Women, the UN entity providing Secretariat services to the Commission on the Status of Women, is beginning preparations for the next session of the Commission, its 58th, in 2014. The priority theme at that session will be Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls. Effective monitoring, and reliable data gathering are sure to emerge among the key factors. The discussion will serve to identify key gender equality issues to be reflected in the post-2015 development framework, itself already under broad discussion.

Soroptimist International’s Programme Team is currently working to develop a statement on  the post-2015 development agenda and women and girls. Watch this space!