We talk to International President Ann Garvie, President Elect Yvonne Simpson, SI UN Rep Bette Levy, IPP of the Belgian Union Gerda Rosiers, SIGBI APD ECOSOC (UN) Pat Black, SISWP FPD Di Lockwood and President of SI Dublin Catherine Giblin.

 

What was the stand out experience for you at CSW
and why?

Ann Garvie:  I thought the Four Federations and SI HQ
team were vibrant and also very well informed – a considerable amount
of preparation had gone into  the planning for CSW and this was a credit
to everyone. We raised the profile of SI and clearly demonstrated
collaborative working with NGOs.  I believe that we have reiterated
Soroptimist International’s General Consultative Status with ECOSOC. 
This can only be maintained through a united approach. The March on
International Women’s Day also stood out for me.  No one told us it was
all uphill! 

Yvonne Simpson:  A stand out moment was listening to NGOs read out
their statements and the common theme of ‘Nothing about us without
us’ being stated by so many.  I hope that this call can
strengthen a universal move to bring more women and grassroots
organisations into one strong forward moving stream, surging towards full
inclusion at the decision making table. The repetition of this simple message
gave me hope that we will increase the momentum until we achieve gender
equality.

Bette Levy:  My experience at CSW is different from most
because I live in NYC and I’m on the NGO CSW/NY executive committee. For me CSW
is months of hard work that continues non-stop throughout the two weeks, but for
me what is always the best experience is the excitement and energy of all the
women who come to town, from first timers to the hard core experts. Watching
them get caught up in the energy and fast pace of NY is fun to watch. I
especially love meeting up with my Soroptimist sisters from far and near; the
reconnecting and the making of new friends. This connection and finding ways to
continue to work together or keep in touch after meeting is long over, makes my
hard work all worthwhile.

Gerda Rosiers:  I
had the chance to assist very interesting sessions, but I was particularly
impressed by the presentation of the report ‘Every Woman – Every Child’ by the
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. He demonstrated that we absolutely must work
with all the partners, civil society, corporations, policy and decision makers,
and that it is essential to include women in all decision-making levels.

The
session that mostly impressed and challenged me was ‘Cool Feminism’, a session on
March 10, 2015. In particular the fact that Iceland teaches men and
women equality classes and they are offered in 17 schools. I am convinced that
it is a good solution if we want to eradicate inequality and violence against
women and girls. These
courses should be part of the program in all schools in the world!

Pat Black:  Attending a workshop run by Women’s Major Group, which
highlighted how other nations see the UK and some other powerful nations, as
taking a negative stance on the post 2015 agenda.  As part of the UK NGOCSW Alliance I have
always seen UK Government as moving forward, albeit slower than we would like
on gender equality.

Di Lockwood: The stand out experience for me was being  involved with the intergenerational dialogues because of
the passion and commitment of the young people, (even though I did not
always agree with what they said). For me it was akin to the passing of a baton
in the fight for women’s rights.

Catherine Giblin:  It
is very difficult to choose one stand out experience but to hear female role
models speak about Gender Equality and Empowerment of women was inspirational
and I felt honoured in particular hearing Mrs Mary Robinson, Hillary Clinton and
Dr Mongella.

In terms of progress, where do you see the
advancement of gender equality – do you believe some measure of it is reachable
by 2030?

Ann Garvie:  It is not whether or not it is
reachable, it is a necessity – it has to be reached, it must be
achieved.  No member of Soroptimist International can rest until it is
achieved.  No country in the world can claim that they have achieved
gender equality. This illustrates to me that members must mobilise
themselves to bring their governments to account.  We must up our game
in lobbying our own governments. Soroptimists individually must
illustrate the necessity to promote high ethical standards in business
and professions so that equality becomes a reality.  We must  respect
that equality cannot be achieved by being women alone –  we must include
men and boys. In conclusion, we must keep pushing forward; we have not
yet achieved our full potential in ensuring that SI champions gender
equality globally. 

Yvonne Simpson:  I believe we are stepping forward albeit at a stumblingly
slow rate that sometimes moves backward. There has been a shift to include boys
and men as fellow travellers on this journey. The call is now for human rights
and  gender equality has moved from being a women’s issue to being one for
all society. We will make the finish line when men and boys, and women and
girls are working together to address human rights for all. 50:50 by 2030 is
aspirational.

Bette Levy:  Here I am less optimistic, the drive
among
member states to push back on things that have been agreed is difficult
to
understand. This goes as  far back as
the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development, the Beijing
Declaration, ICPD, (International Conference on Population and
Development), and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.
The countries using sovereignty rights, national law and tradition and
culture as a way to limit the roles of women is disheartening. As there
was
little formal discussions this year due to the nature of the year being a
review year, it is hard to evaluate or for see if gender equality will
be achieved by 2030.

That said as I am now half way through the week
of the Post 2015 Negotiation session on SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), targets and indicators, (as I write this), I
feel a little bit more optimistic. Governments for the most part are not
willing to reopen the work of the the Open Working Group on the goals and targets. So that
means that there will be a stand alone gender goal and women sensitive targets
and indicators under the other goals. I believe that NGOS and feminist and
women’s organizations need to have a more active role upfront in the developing
of the indicators and on the back end with the implementation including monitoring and holding governments
accountable.

Governments are looking to NGOs to get support
at the grassroots level for the SDGs and they are hoping NGOs will help with
the public awareness but that in my opinion is not enough. We need to stay on
top of governments and hold them accountable or 2030 will whiz past and we will
still be talking about achieving gender equality.

Gerda Rosiers:  Gender
Equality in some countries is much more advanced than others. The Nordic countries
for example. But too often women were excluded when it came to making important
decisions. Much
progress was made but we must speed up the process to achieve the goals in
2030!  Gender equality is an essential dimension of the financing for
development agenda that will underpin implementation of the post-2015
sustainable development agenda. We have to be creative! Gender equality is
necessary if we want sustainable development!

Pat Black:  Yes, if greater focus can be achieved and resources
directed for example at primary education. Encouraged by the increased voices of young women who
will take this agenda forward to 2030. A strong united voice also came from the African Union
States for some movement on gender equality, though in some cases this has to be on
their terms.  Economic empowerment is
very  high on their agenda, as is
education.

Di Lockwood:  I see some aspects being achieved by 2030 but
until women’s rights are acknowledged as human rights full equity will not be
achieved.

Catherine Giblin: I think there have been great achievements in some African countries
where we see large numbers of female representatives in Governments including
in Rwanda and Kenya. This
gives me hope of advancement of gender equality. Ireland have finally introduced
gender quotas for our 2016 election we have a very low 16% female
representation in our current Government Upper House. Hearing the male speakers
at the Consultative Day hosted by NGO CSW  does inspire confidence that
with equal representation and if we bring men along with us we can get there by
2030.

What was your experience of the SI and
collaborative events?

Ann Garvie:  As International
President I am naturally biased to the fact that Soroptimist
International delivered the events to a very high standard. This should
set the bar for all future events at any UN centres and we must continue
to strategise, so that we have a common goal and mission, which will
ensure that as an organisation we will continue to deliver.

Yvonne Simpson:  I experienced a quiet pride in the calibre of the events SI
sponsored or participated in. The rooms were always full. The End Sex
Trafficking side event was particularly good – the speakers were dynamic, fully
informed and the video was moving.  I thought it was memorable and I
know it  had a high impact on the audience. Through our events we
showcased the mission of Soroptimist International, raised awareness and
understanding of important issues of trafficking, VAWG, education, empowering
women and girls out of poverty .. and more. They attracted interest from
audience members to join our movement. Soroptimist International showed that we
are truly  ‘A Global Voice for Women’.

Bette Levy:  Unfortunately, my other responsibilities did not
allow me to attend most of the sessions but I did attend the session on Human
Trafficking and was quite impressed by the quality of the speakers  and the video, I heard only positive feedback
about the event and a number of people asked how they could get involved with Soroptimists in their own country/community.

The other event I attended was one that we
collaborated with Soka Gakkai International and Francesca (SI Advocacy Manager), was an excellent facilitator of a break out
session and Linda Witong (SI Marin County) served as rapporteur and reporter. The topic was on women’s
leadership and the discussion was very open and fruitful.

I think that Soroptimist International had a
high profile throughout CSW and besides the SI organized or collaborative
parallel events, several of our SI sisters participated as panelists on both
parallel and UN side events that were not sponsored or co-sponsored by SI.

Gerda Rosiers:  

I
attended two SI events.  Uniting our voices Against Violence in collaboration with
YWCA – As
I am part of the SIE Advisory Council Violence against Women and Girls, I was
very proud of the presentation of our project by SIE President Ulla and Chair
Constitution & By-Law’s Committee Renata but also by the good work done by
organizations such as YWCA and WAGGG’s. At Voices from the Grassroots It
was very interesting to see how the clubs of other SI federations realize their
projects. And the brainstorming at the end was particularly instructive. Four
questions about poverty at different stages of the life of women, the different
groups came up with some interesting solutions that could be applied in our
society.

Pat Black:  Well organised, not academic meant that grassroots
stories demonstrated how progress could be made on the ground by effective
NGOs.

Di Lockwood: The SI events I attended were very
good and I heard a number of different people speak about how professional and
well organised they were.

Catherine Giblin:  I
found every event excellent, panelists were generally very knowledgeable in
their areas or experts in their fields, which gave great credibility to what we
were hearing. I felt SI ran  very professional events. I enjoyed the
opportunity to hear fellow Soroptimists tell us about their programme action
work.