I slept in today!
Of course realizing what time it was, I panicked, got dressed and ready as quickly as possible, and I ran out the door. I am halfway to the station when I realize I am completely under-dressed for the weather as I watch big, feathery and lazy snowflakes hit the ground all around me. Everything is slowly turning white.
I arrived in New York City just in time for the 1-:30 round of sessions. Strengthening the Capacity of Women: Gender Mainstreaming was hosted by the Friede-Institute Fur Dialog and presented five amazing youth delegates from around the world who each discussed their experience from their individual parts of the world.
The group was incredible. It was one of those times when you question everything you've done and wonder how you could have done more. They were truly admirable and together they raised a really interesting point, and although I think it applies to more groups than youth, it is something I want to spend some time considering once the conference is over.
One delegate put it quite clearly:
"There is only 7 youth delegates present and we're all from Europe. That's not representative of world youth and it's particularly not representative of the rural women we're trying to empower. That's no way of building sustainable policy for change."
How right she is.
Furthermore, most (if not all) of them were presenting at a parallel event and essentially excluded for conversations with decision-makers whom were in the side and main UN events. They were also all presenting off the official UN grounds and thus not truly accessible to those decision-makers either...What is the point if you are only inviting stakeholder voices to play token roles and not include them in any real or meaningful way?
This was truly painful, and more painful when you considered the other groups who were excluded to the conference, particularly those rural women from Africa being denied US Visas. But even those who made it to the conference, much like the youth delegates, were often relegated to the parallel events and left from the main events where major decision-makers are discussing solutions. As has been reinforced for me over the last few days, you cannot design change for anyone without meaningfully involving them in the process. The commission could be doing a much better job of this.
I attended a few more sessions and then found my way to the 2018 Women's Empowerment Principles Forum. The entire session was focused on how the private sector could engage in supporting rural women. Everyone from banks, chemical engineers, and even actors were present. Although quite captivating, I truly wish that the forum had allowed for my dialog and discussion. Each panel that presented was inaccessible to the audience- not a single question or debate truly played out! Although I wish more discussion had taken place, it was quite surprising that in many ways I felt that the private sector was doing some incredible work towards supporting gender-balanced policy and structures. I walked away happy after the session ended 3 hours later at 6pm.
What a great note to end on.
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