Day One: 24 September 2015

As New York awakes, SI shares the first in a series of daily updates from Pat Black, International Director of Advocacy. 

"Well, the Soroptimist delegation to the SDG Global Summit
has arrived in a balmy and sunny New York. However, our planes were not greeted
with quite the same frenzy that greeted Pope Francis who arrived this evening.
He is due to address the Opening Session of the UN General Assembly on Friday
morning, along with many of the global leaders. New York has been in lock down,
streets closed throughout central Manhattan and thousands of police on the
streets. The Pope’s very human approach does seem to have captured American
hearts. Commentators and politicians have also been impressed by someone who
not only speaks strong humanitarian language but also ‘walks the talk’. Instead
of lunching formally with Congress members in Washington, he joined the
homeless to serve them a meal.

This contrasts strongly with the way in which the UN
sessions have been organised, with huge security and very limited access for
civil society organisations.

For the opening session a lottery has been held to
distribute a few entry tickets to NGOs. All the sessions are very restricted,
although every session will be webcast live.

Marie, one of our UN representatives in New York has
entered the lottery but it doesn’t look as though she has been successful.  Francesca, Advocacy Manager for SI, still
hasn’t heard if her ‘waiting list place’ has been turned into reality – if it has
she has to be at the UN by 5.30am to clear security.

I have been given a ticket to take part in an interactive
session on economic empowerment. I hope that I am able to demonstrate from the
examples of Soroptimist work how significant to local economies the empowerment
of women entrepreneurs can be.

While the various formal events of the Global Summit are
happening, there are many side events being run by UN agencies, Governments,
and NGOs. Although ticketed for security these are much more accessible to
civil society representatives so we are hoping to learn a great deal. Several
events are being held to look at how the rhetoric can be translated into action
– and this is where Soroptimists excel.

Monitoring the implementation of the targets and the way
in which Governments and other donors contribute the resources needed to
achieve the targets by 2030 are also hot topics.

I am looking forward to the next few days. One thing I am
very certain of – I will be a lot fitter because I am going to have to walk
every where while the streets of Manhattan are closed off!"