Bette Levy, one of Soroptimist International’s UN Representatives in New York and a member of SI Manhattan, will be speaking at a meeting on 28 May to analyse lessons learnt at this year’s session of the Commission on the Status of Women, organised by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women.  Other speakers include H.E. Marjon V. Kamara, Permanent Representative of Liberia to the UN and Chair of CSW57, and Eleanor Solo of the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service’s Division for the Advancement of Women.

One key point that Bette will make is the need for Soroptimists and other civil society organisations to work together and build a relationship with their Governments before events such as CSW.

“Women at all levels (global, national & regional) need to organize within their own communities, setting up meetings with their countries’ delegations and capitals in advance”, she explains.

“By waiting until CSW, we are less effective. We need to build smaller more localized caucuses at the local and regional level and bring them together at national and, at CSW, the global level. Some countries, such as Canada, Norway and UK, have been much more effective at doing this”.

She will also highlight the importance of NGOs sharing information and co-ordinating their efforts during CSW: “I learned first hand about the effectiveness of having NGO colleagues at the negotiating table, who by using the caucus group or at daily briefings with UN Women and the NGO CSW, helped us understand where we needed to put our energy and advocacy efforts.”

Bette plays tribute to the key leadership role played by Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women until her departure after CSW, for example in encouraging Member States to include NGOs on their delegation , guiding the negotiation process and reminding delegates of the importance of what they were doing, when negotiations stalled.

The final agreement on violence against women and girls at this year’s CSW was only reached after several days of intense debate and  until the last hours of the Session,  campaigners were worried that Member States would fail to send out a strong message on gender-violence.  Bette will call for an improved mechanism to share the text being negotiated with NGOs, using the model of Rio+20 conference, where Major Groups were given the opportunity to access the text and make daily formal statements and informal interventions.

On a personal level, Bette will describe her own personal journey at CSW. “I learned how to take advantage of all the "real" experts and use the CSW experience and specifically the caucus as a learning tool. I was educated and empowered and learned how to better advocate for key issues for women."

“I also, learned that the basic issues for women are not so different regardless of the part of the world you live, but rather it’s the extreme of how it is played out that is different.”

 “Calling All Experts: What have we learned from CSW 57?” will take place at NGO Committee on the Status of Women’s monthly meeting in New York City on Tuesday 28 May at 6.45pm.  The speakers will be:

• H.E. Marjon V. Kamara, Permanent Representative of Liberia to the UN and Chair, CSW 57
• Eleanor Solo, Division for the Advancement of Women, UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service
• Bette Levy, Soroptimist International, North America/Europe Caucus
• Beth Adamson and Winifred Doherty, Co-Chairs Working Group on Girls, Conversation Circles  

Further information

Soroptimist International’s UN Representatives

57^th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

Bette Levy’s blog on the Working Group on Girls (1 Feb 2013)

NGO Committee on the Status of Women NY