Suba, SIE Programme Executive is blogging and tweeting live from the UN Conference on Sustainable Development – known as Rio+20. We have a Soroptimist delegation observing the high level discussions, participating in the side events and networking with other NGOs. Progress over the past few months has been slow when it comes to issues of gender. Read on to see how the most recent developments influence the debate…. Tweet your questions to @SubaUma or facebook International Assistant Programme Director Anusha through the SI page!
Today, June 20, 2012
world leaders have arrived in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil seemingly
to attempt to tackle the world’s environmental and social challenges. In
reality, the leaders are here to consent on the agreement text that was already
adopted yesterday amidst widespread anger and disappointment from politicians
as well as NGO representatives. Kumi
Naidoo, Greenpeace International’s Executive Director declared that “this is
Rio Minus 20 which fails on equity, fails on ecology, fails on economy” and
radically calls the Rio+20 outcome document the “longest suicide note in
history.” Others have shared their positive views calling the text the right
path to achieve cleaner and greener growth and were pleased about the agreement
on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Last weekend, the Brazilian government took
the lead on the finalizing of the text and was responsible of presenting the
final outcome. Any issue that created contention and did not result in
unanimous agreement was ignored. It was to be expected that the heads of states
will only play a ceremonial role and there is no major discussion anticipated
at that level.
Having said this, the journey of the
Soroptimist delegation has been quite fruitful and interesting. The Soroptimist
Delegation headed by SI Assistant Programme Director Anusha Santhirasthipam
arrived in Rio last Saturday. The activities inside the Riocentro complex are
overwhelming with thousands of well wishers of our planet and humanity trying
to make their voices heard. Our
networking, lobbying and learning experiences has been incredible. We have made
numerous contacts that can be helpful for our Soroptimist Programme work and we
have gathered ideas to guide our members towards the future – the Future we
Want – as Soroptimists.
The Sustainable Development Dialogues, a
forum for Civil Society in the context of Rio+20 featured high level speakers from
civil society, including private sector , NGOs and academics on the following
topics:
- Unemployment, Decent Work and Migration
- Sustainable Development as an Answer to the Economic and
Financial Crises - Sustainable Development for Fighting Poverty
- The economics of sustainable development, including sustainable
patterns of production and consumption - Forests
- Food and Nutrition Security
- Sustainable Energy for All
- Water
- Sustainable Cities and Innovation
- Oceans
They engaged in an open and action oriented
debate including voices from the public based on ten recommendations that
received overwhelming support during online debates. We were then able to vote
on the top three recommendations to be presented to the high level panel to be
included in the outcome document. This was potentiallz a successful effort to
include all stakeholders in the debate.
We also attended a number of sessions on
reproductive rights and women’s health in order to make our voices heard. The
event “Sustainability Revisited: Population, Reproductive Health, and the
Planet” featured high level panelists, including Mary Robinson, former
President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Gro
Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and a crafter of the
original Rio outcome Agenda 21, and Musimbi Kanyoro, CEO of the Global Fund for
Women. This panel remarkably asserted that the empowerment of women and family
planning are basic human rights that cannot be neglected. This particular
reference of sexual and reproductive health has been included in the outcome
document as it has not been part of the original draft. However, our fear is
that this might be a weak mention without real commitments hence ending up on a
back-burner.
Other women’s groups also attempted to
understand the effects of climate change on women’s livelihoods. In this
context, Soroptimists have been able to share their Best Practices, especially
the popular Kenya-Danish partnership on Women and Climate Change.
Tuesday, June
19, was an exciting and important day for women as UN women organized the Women
Leader’s Summit to mobilize international Women Leaders present in Rio. It was intriguing to meet
Women Leaders across the globe who work for the same cause as the Soroptimists.
Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, opened the Forum by saying,
“women remain underrepresented in decision-making and this is not sustainable…”
She also called to turn words into action One of the panelist was also a member
of WAGGGS, a long time partner of Soroptimist International. Shakya Prerena
from Nepal reiterated that “girls are major agents of change to achieve
Sustainable Development.”
Although the
speakers’ included many prominent women, including Ministers and first ladies,
it was not until Anita Nayar from DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for
a New Era) took the floor, we could feel a breath of fresh air. She was
convinced that the interests of corporates are protected in the Rio+20 outcome document and
exclaimed that there is a “need for strong social movements to hold governments
accountable and make sure they don’t have amnesia.” Her strong speech was
followed by Connie Hedegaard, a Danish politician and European Commissioner for
Climate Action. Hedegaard warned that the biggest danger is that people would
want to continue business as usual. She even tweeted after the adoption of the Rio+20 text “telling that
nobody in that room adopting the text was happy. That’s how weak it is. And
they all knew. Disappointing.”
The interest
in this forum was particularly high online. UN Women was joined by 1.4 million
followers and online debaters on twitter and facebook. The panel “Showcasing
Women’s Innovation” was very captivating where women presented their
innovations. The winner from Senegal
of last year’s SEED Award (http://www.seedinit.org/)
was among the presenters. Their entrepreneurial ventures and engineering
innovations gave an interesting argument to promote women’s education even
further. Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany, female engineer from the United Arab Emirates put it so well, “give young minds the tools to invest in
innovations. Invest in education.” Soroptimists’ focus ‘Educate to Lead’
resonates well with all the speakers at this forum as everyone agreed that
education of women and girls are essential to increase economic participation
of women.
The afternoon
sessions focused more on shaping the international development framework. The
intention is to propose new development goals that are based on human rights
and gender equality should be a separate target. The opinion was that the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not fully cover inequality but poverty.
All in all, we
still have a long way to go. It is about time that the world recognizes women’s
rights as human rights and includes women’s tremendous untapped potential.
There is no
need for women to wait to be empowered. We will empower ourselves.
Suba Uma
SIE Programme
Executive
Twitter:@SubaUma