Finally….

I have been coming to the CSW meeting for
many years. During the past administration of the United States, I often wanted
to pretend that I was Canadian as the United States was not a strong supporter
of the UN. The US mission to the UN was often creating issues that Soroptimist
had to join with other NGOs to fight against. In all my years, I had never been
invited to a briefing with the US Mission. Other Soroptimists were going to
meetings with their missions but it was clear that the US Mission was not open
to discussions with the NGOs in attendance. So I was thrilled when I was able
to sign up to attend a briefing with the US Mission. The meeting was mostly
ceremonial and there wasn’t concrete work on the CSW outcome statement. But the
NGOs were able to voice their interest and concern over CEDAW, international
family planning, climate change and more. The session was led by Melanne
Verveer, the US Ambassador At-Large for Global Women’s Issues and the
Representative of the United States to the CSW meeting. In addition, Dr.
Gillian Bowser, Research Scientist, Genna Davis, Actress and Founder of the
Geena Davis Institute on Gender and the Media, Dr. Mae Jemison, former
Astronaut and Judith Lichtman, former President for the National Partnership
for Women and Families and other state department officials were on the panel.

It was so refreshing to hear the voices of
the US administration express concern about the Afghan Shelters, the safety of
women in the Congo, interest in pursuing dialogue with CSOs, a Beijing plus 20
years conference, and ensuring that UN-Women has the financial resources to
accomplish its mission. Although Ambassador Verveer was very clear that the
Obama administration would not be make the final decisions but rather Congress
and it was our responsibility as much as anyone’s to influence the political
process.

One thing that was discussed was Secretary
Clinton’s recent initiative around clean cook stoves for women in the
developing world. The unsafe ways that women must cook around the world causes
more deaths every year than Malaria but it isn’t something that is discussed.
Anyone from the United States will understand that having an official with the
standing of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussing cook stoves is
inspiring.  This topic resonated with me
because when I was studying and working in Guatemala, we went into the villages
to build ventilated cook stoves for women for just this reason.

Regardless of the lack of concrete outcomes
of the 90 minute session, I was thrilled to be in the room with U.S.
decision-makers that were concerned with the progress of women in the U.S. and
the world.

 Lori Blair, Senior Programme Director, SIA