Reflections of Home & Abroad

All week long we have had sessions which talk about global and national strategies to educate and support young girls and boys in accessing education. All week, in every session, we have heard how strategies which help to provide access to firewood, water and food in local rural communities frees up time for rural women and girls to achieve an education. 

Strategies across the world recognize the use of time saving technology, in whatever format, however basic, can support girls to access an education and once that education is given young girls and women can become economically independent and rural regions invariably thrive as a result. 
In several live case studies success of the schooling of young girls has been built upon access to a hot free school meal and the provision of a guarantee that in return for attending school, children are rewarded with a  healthy nutritious meal. The provision of this meal is often part of  programme of work in which girls are supported to learn basic cooking  and nutrition skills. I sat  as the UK UN Aid mission chaired a meeting in which they highlighted the need for support to regions around the world to educate young women and highlighted that by providing schools at a local level they generate not only a knowledge economy but also local teaching jobs, healthcare expertise and safe spaces for communities to gather to access external health system support. It was also highlighted time and again that the provision of school meals brought  economic benefit to those who provide food produce for the schools and those who do the cooking. 

The irony of all of this was in returning to my hotel to discover the planned cuts to free school meals in the UK.

As someone keeping a watching brief on Welfare Reform, on the roll out of volunteer led responses to food poverty in the UK and knowing first hand of families whose children's only hot meal in the day is that which offered in school it was all I could to do ask...where is joined up government in all of this? We export aid programs and understand in their construct that a fundamental part of the success of children's learning is when their bellies are not rumbling from hunger. We know from experience that they learn better and perform better when they have access to food. To cut access to free school meals at a time of austerity across the UK, at a time when welfare reform has plunged hundreds of low income families into crisis  - we cut the access to a hot meal from children in greatest need.   There are no excuses for a government who seek to punish children who live in poverty. There are no excuses for a government who would make our children stand still in the development of their goals  or push our children's potential backwards in order to save a few pounds. This is unacceptable and indefensible and shame on us if we stand idly by and let it happen. 

Hero Worship and Listening!

So I booked into a session being run by the Mary Robinson Foundation simply because I was interested to hear more about the work the former President of Ireland was engaged in since joining the UN. I have been an avid fan of the former president for a long time and have admired her bravery in calling nations, including the USA, to account in the exploitation and neglect of young people, women and girls. She has been a steadfast supporter of work to reduce the global impact of climate change and has long worked to help others to understand the real needs of rural women which have come about  as a result of the changes that are happening on the planet. 

At the opening of the session she said 'Those who are impacted most by the effects of climate change are those who are least responsible for causing it'. A wry thought in my head was that I had used a similar line in my talk about Brexit and Rural Women living in the Border Regions of NI. 

Imagine my delight and surprise when I turned up early to a packed room and saw Former President Robinson and Geraldine Byrne Nason ( Chair of this weeks conference and also the Irish Ambassador) sitting at the table. I can't describe my delight but suffice to say a lovely generous  woman beside me, saw my enthusiastic delight ( I have a rubbish poker face!) and quickly vacated her seat in order that I would enjoy the experience from the comfort of a table and chair. I will be eternally grateful to her for that opportunity. 

In the session we heard how for many rural women climate change causes them to have to adapt to new ways of rearing animals, organizing water collection and accessing firewood. As drought hits some regions,  the issue of climate change then impacts on the ability of children to go to school or attend healthcare - they are busy collecting water from further and further away - for some this can be as much as 720 hours a year just collecting water. Water collection at such distances is fraught with danger and many young girls are vulnerable to danger from animals, disease, kidnapping, rape and other violent crime.  

We heard from one nation that the purchase of a solar powered clean energy cooking stove can change that existence for many - reliable fuel from solar energy can; sterilize water making it safer to drink, provide energy for a hot meal/making basic bread, reduce time and disease risk from firewood collection, enable mothers to be freed up to do other things.....All positive outcomes from the use of simple but effective technology.  

But the other side of clean energy was also discussed. One group of women from Northern Kenya talked about the growth of huge wind farms that generate substantial energy daily, all of which is exported to Nairobi. So while Nairobi benefits from the energy provided in Northern Kenya, people in Kenya still live without access to affordable accessible energy. 

This issue of big corporations having little or no responsibility to local landowners, local people  and those who live in the shadow of the wind generating structures resonated with me in light of some of the local battles communities are having to prevent development of huge wind farms in areas which are regarded as being natural sites of beauty and environmental protection. 

The dialogue session between contributors  began with a plea from those impacted most greatly by climate change. One woman said "Nothing should be discussed about our needs without us'.  In other words we should not presume to 'fix' the issues of the developing world or nations impacted by climate change without taking steps to listen and learn from those who are on the ground and coping and managing on a daily basis. Women described how they have worked to build resilience to climate change in regions around the world. They spoke of innovation, understanding and knowledge which has been gained as climate change has impacted.  

The issue of justice and cases of many indigenous women dying or being killed  in order to protect land and the development of land/exploitation of resources was mentioned a number of times. The destruction of native lands and the lack of access to legal support, legislation and protection is a worldwide problem and little is being done to protect them.

Another nation said don't start to develop Aid action plans without dialogue.  'Start with Us' they said. We need to be a part of the solution. We need to work with Aid providers to encourage the community and the leaders to come on board - we need to work with the Aid agencies to find a way that suits those who are local leaders as well as those who have responsibility for spending the 'aid money'/ organizing the development actions. 

One nation spoke candidly about cultural traditions and how sensitive they are to outsiders knowing their methods and approaches to harvesting, farming and managing local resources. the sharing of this knowledge is handed down from males to males simply because men do not leave home when they marry and women often do. She stated this knowledge is scared and protected in her culture and that agencies who come to the area must take account of that. 

The session recognized that in some areas of the world whole communities of men have left the rural regions to seek work in urban centers and women, left behind with families to feed from the land locally, are working to address the impact of climate change and are working daily to overcome the challenge of that change. The gender impact of climate change has not been measured and it was stated that when every nation has gathered the data it needs as part of the national  gender action plan then the true impact of climate change on rural women will be more evident. 

The session looked at the global impact of climate change from Ireland to Figi to Nairobi to Pakistan to New Zealand. It was obvious that in this small gathering the knowledge of the participants and the learning from the experiences of each region could be a powerful global resource to support other regions who are really struggling with the changes as they take place around the world. 

Finally, I will say that I unashamedly pushed my way through the crowd along with Catherine from the National Womens Council of Ireland ( whom I actually dragged along, as she was much shier than me)  to access a photo opportunity with president Robinson. A true high point of this whole experience! 

#metoo : A time for reflection:

As I enter the final days of my time in New York and at the UN I have had time to reflect on the learning and the knowledge that I have been exposed to in the past number of days.  At times that reflection has been on how far we as a gender have come in the past 100 years and it has been a reflection on all those who worked so hard to lobby and campaign for the rights that I, as a woman born in the 1970s, take for granted.  But with the issues raised by the #metoo campaign and the #timesup campaign it brings it home that the world is still unequal. A key message from the conference is that unless we all step up to effect a change, men and women, its likely that my daughters and others will be exposed to the same glass ceilings the women who spoke at today's conference have experienced. 

A plea came from women in regions where gender rights are less well recognized. They said that they often looked to the western developed world as a region where sexual exploitation and inequality didn't  exist. The Hollywood exposure of very powerful men and famous womens' experiences of sexual violence and violation was a shock for them. But the exposure has helped them ( mainly in African nations)  to begin dialogue and begin to organise behind this campaign. They have taken great hope , inspiration and solace from the bravery of those who said 'no more!' Delegates said that hearing from those actresses they began to realise it could happen to anyone, how it is not as a result of something they did but that the fault in this lies solely with the perpetrator. That's a hugely powerful message to send to those who feel weaken and ashamed by their violation. Many from regions where women struggle with issues of equality began to realise that the only way to stop this from happening is to speak up and be strong. But we were warned the consequences of doing so can impact on women themselves who will be ostracized locally, their  wider families can be shamed, their marriages can be at risk and most worrying their children can be targeted. The risk for some is too much and for others that risk will only be taken when they are supported by governments, powerful legislation and local leaders. 'When women stand up they need to be supported'

One quote that stuck with me was 'By speaking out the visible women of Hollywood made invisible women visible and vocal'

But in all of this the question 'what next?' has been raised. Exposing the conduct and securing convictions for those who are perpetrators is one element of it but how do we begin to use this campaign to push for something more - something that will see a stamping out of violation by those who hold power. 

A plea at the end of the session was that men need to be a part of the change. We cannot as women keep talking to ourselves. We need to bring in men tot he dialogue, listen to their experiences, we need to develop a zero tolerance of the unequal treatment of women at all levels and places in society. 

One journalist said too that we need, as women, to demand to be allowed to infiltrate the 'male only' locker/golf club and 'boys club' situations which prevent women from rising above certain pay grades in many media and corporate situations. She described situations where men in her media organisation go, that are impossible for her to go simply because of her gender, and so she finds herself 'outside the circle'. She suggested that women begin to test the boundaries and began to sit at their tables and demand to be included in these spaces and when they are not allowed or enabled they need to cry foul loudly!

Days 2 & 3 at the United Nations

Yesterday started with a wardrobe malfunction. Heavy snow was forecast and a day of sharp cold winds. As appeared out of my hotel room a neighboring Conference attendee said 'Honey, those shoes ain't gonna last an hour out there'. I put on my boots, my hat and my gloves and ventured into my first New York snow storm. In comparison to the recent weather at home it was, at best, a light flurry!

The morning NGO briefing began with a look at how women should be defined as 'women who live in rural area's and not as 'rural women'.  There was a discussion about how women who live far from capital in rural areas find it difficult to organise and march. they are often dispersed, under resourced to organise and distant from seats of power.  Discussion in both developed and developing regions explained that despite different stages of a country's development rural women in general earn less than men, they access fewer life long learning opportunities, they take a more significant part in unpaid care and domestic work and are very often trapped in poverty. These figures and statistics are more stark in all regions when women are the head of household - so widowed women, single parent families and families where men are sick, missing or imprisoned.

We heard from a variety of speakers that where women and girls are empowered through access to land ownership, access to healthcare, education and technology then the economic development of many rural regions is greatly improved.

Challenges in areas of conflict about the recognition of women's roles in building peace, in the reconstruction of regions and in the resolution of conflict really resonated with me given that NI still is not recognized as having experienced an armed conflict and as such we cannot use the UNSCR 1325 to ensure gender equality.

Conflict and the global experience of violence against women and girls is a recurring theme in many of the workshops. There is a recognition that many of these acts of gender based violence are under reported, suppressed and ignored as a natural consequence of war - but there is a growing feeling that campaigns such as the #metoo and #times up are beginning to reach across the world and present a challenge not only in corporate workplaces but into the farthest flung remote  rural communities. Women have reported that they have  used social media and mobile phone technologies to shame perpetrators and to provide early warning systems across regions where 'surprise attacks' have been a regular occurrence in more conflict and contested places.

Peace and security -
The use of UNSCR 1325 in Georgia Moldova and Czech Republic was discussed at one workshop and it was interesting to hear reports from those monitoring the National action Plans of these regions.

In Georgia women were forcibly displaced and suffered sexual violence. Through the introduction of a national action plan to support UNSCR1325 women's need for a system to address justice issues was recognized, women's need for psychological health care services for trauma support was recognized and actioned, and women played a central and active role in conflict resolution, reconciliation, reconstruction of communities and in planning and influencing budgets. Women were decision makers and they open dialogue with grass roots women's groups across the region and decision makers - keeping those lines of communication and dialogue open was and essential part of the restoration process in their post conflict society - could NI learn from that approach . I'm sure we could.

Lessons learned:
Strong leadership is required and that has to be a long term process of investment in current leaders but also in emerging leaders. Investment in women and women's groups was required to support women to remain engaged and animated  to be a part of the solution. all plans were supported by budgets - they had adequate finance to enact them. they had a strong principled framework to measure progress and distanced travelled and to report on impact of actions. they didn't expect results right away but they did create a series of milestones to which they could review how and if things had to change or required more investment or indeed less investment.

Anything that was funded was enabled to be localized - they rolled out a series of broad actions which were taken to local women and groups and leaders to be 'localized' in the understanding that a blanket approach would not work.


Key to all that was done was a desire not to go back to violence so they creatred space to build confidence and diplomacy between people - they worked hard to create opportunities for people to people contact. they say this was a key element of the progamme.

The Ukraine experience was more fractious and difficult. They are the only nation to adopt UNSCR 1325 while still in the midst of a conflict. They sought to prevent gender based violent  attacks on women during the conflict.

They rolled out a progamme of gender awareness among civil servant including teachers, social workers, healthcare workers. They had significant numbers of women in security forces, the defense sector and across the media and they made use of these natural advocates to roll out gender awareness training within their sectors. Their ambition was to put in place systems of support for those who were victims of gender based violence, prevention of further attacks and violence and training for those in social service and across sectors to reduce gender based violence. A lack of data and documentation was available to see what if any impact this adoption of UNSCR1325 has had on the conflict there.


Yesterday I spoke on the lack of UNSCR 1325  in NI. and how we have really missed an opportunity to embed gender equality across all areas of the aftermath of conflict in our society. It is worth noting NIWEP and others have done significant work to lobby on this issue but there is more work to be done and more awareness to be raised from areas like Georgia and the Ukraine  of the possibility of the impact of in its introduction in our region and on our society. A work in progress. 

United Nations and the Issue of Rural Women.

This week, our Director Kate Clifford, is addressing the  62nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of women, that is running from 12th-23rd March. Here are some of her thoughts.

The first morning in New York began with a  weather warning. Heavy snow is forecast for the coming days and a storm is making its was up the Coast. At the UN building it too feels like a huge storm is brewing but in a positive and constructive way. Women and men from around the world are working together at the 62nd Commission Special Status of Women  to address issues of gender inequality and putting a special focus on Rural Women.

There is an energy and expectation in the air that is infectious and a little daunting. This is the second time this priority theme has been addressed and participants are aware that the last conference session did not achieve its ambitions fully.

There is a dogged determination among many here that this will not come to pass this time around.

Opening the conference was Geraldine Byrne Nason of Ireland. Her focus was on setting out the ambitions of the conference and to use the work of the NGO sector/Civil Society and governments to directly address the inequality facing women and more specifically rural women around the world. She spoke about how taking time in this session to explore the real, and lived lives, of rural women and their stories, contributes so much more the development of good policy and implementation of policy across the world. But her general plea and that of subsequent speakers was that policy alone cannot change lives or address barriers to inequality only actions can do that.

A second speaker pointed out that across the world there are so many common issues that we can all agree are barriers to the inclusion of women but agreement is not enough - action to address these issues is what is required. He said ' we keep calling for things that we all agree on, but only some of us take the action to address them, that has to stop, we all need to take action. One speakers cited the #metoo campaign and the #timesup as ways in which a global coming together of women can achieve so much change. Sadly the speaker also reflected that only a handful of sexual abusers have been exposed through the campaign but she acknowledged the powerful lobby that had begun to publicly address the issue which empowered women.

So what are the asks for Rural women from this morning: Access to transport and basic infrastructure including digital broadband and mobile phone technology. Connecting rural women into urban support centers so they can articulate their needs. Acknowledgement of the role of women in building peace and reconciliation and the inclusion of women in the processes of building peaceful society.  The acknowledgement of the needs of victims of violence, in all its forms, in rural areas and supporting their voice in processes of reconciliation and justice.

An acknowledgement that rural women are half of the rural population and as such their empowerment and education lifts the economy and sustainability of rural areas long term. By building the human capital of all rural dwellers we sustain rural populations longer term.

Women in rural areas need to have access to basic health care support and reproductive rights - this helps them to take control over family sizes, who they marry, who they love this is still a critical issues in some parts of the UK not least NI where barriers to equal marriage, abortion rights still exist and  access to advice around crisis pregnancy is not readily available in rural regions.

Finally the call for gender specific data collection for rural populations caught my attention. As an agency Rural Community Network NI has worked hard to disaggregate statistics for rural regions from urban settlements, we have sought to paint a picture of the reality of rural poverty and disadvantage in NI today - to date we are still unclear as to how we can factually describe rural poverty using the data gathered at a regional level given that it is not readily available. We hold a lot of anecdotal evidence relating to rural poverty and disadvantage but we struggle to gain access to accurate statistics.  The problem is therefore compounded when  working to defining the rural gender deficit within those statistics.

Unless we can accurately define the poverty and disadvantage experience by rural women in our region we cannot hope to take account of the impact of a variety of  policies and actions once they are implemented. A call for rural specific data should be accompanied now for a demand for gender specific rural data.

Looking forward to hearing this afternoons talks on Women Peace and Security  and more specifically the UNSCR 1325 and how it is applied in the Czech Republic, Moldova and Ukraine.

Over and out,

Kate