October 2016 Update
AiW was all over the region this month!
Myriam Sfeir, AiW Assistant Director, participated in the international conference “Feminist Movements: History and Discourse” that was organized by the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of Jordan. Her presentation discussed the issue of resources and the feminist agenda. Women’s organizations continue to be underfunded - despite the fact that they are key agents of change. So, if supported strategically and over a long-term period they can achieve significant impact in the lives of women and girls. Myriam’s presentation addressed the importance of resources in influencing feminist agendas globally, within the region, and then highlighted the situation in Lebanon. She addressed the critical role resources and funding play in sustaining the agendas and strategies of women’s rights organizations and movements and discussed the need for an increased commitment to resourcing feminist and women’s rights organizations and movements as well as the importance of building deeper alliances among women’s rights organizations, donors, and activists. What are we waiting for?!
Carol Khater, our development projects guru, traveled to Dubai for the 18th Global Women in Leadership Economic Forum along with 500 global business leaders, policy makers, as well as young female professionals and entrepreneurs. Together they addressed challenge of diversity, shared experiences and produced actionable strategies to achieve women’s economic empowerment. The premise of this forum is one we subscribe to – that women are key economic drivers! The forum highlights inspiring stories of successful women and best practices to advance this agenda in the region. The conversation revolved around three pillars: story-telling, future-building, and game changers, facilitating discussion, promoting innovative thinking and making an impact on the discourse on women’s roles in the global economy. For more information on the 18th Global Women in Leadership Economic Forum click here.
And I spoke at the Arab International Women’s Forum 8th Young Arab Women Leaders Conference in Kuwait. My presentation was part of the panel Why Change Starts with our Young Women Leaders and the Way Forward. I addressed efforts at AiW to cultivate young women’s leadership, but also what WE can learn from young women’s movements: their techniques, their ways of organizing, and their genuinely democratic decision-making. Young feminists are naturally innovative - without consciously trying to be. Their movements are real and grounded, in touch with grassroots issues and connected to community groups. They are embedded in the socio-cultural context by default. These groups are also organically diverse and intersectional in the way they frame and address issues of equality, rights, and justice. They don’t see growth of their organizations as a goal. Bigger is not always better – and “small-but-strong” is still effective. They lead through participation and consensus-building, seeing a collective struggle. These groups support each other and include self-care as fundamental aspects of their work. Young women’s movements are actually staffed by those who represent the populations they serve. This sounds logical but it is revolutionary - and rare. In my experience after 20 years in the aid world, this is not always the case.
So now what? I think of that infamous Einstein quote: “We can’t solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”! We MUST genuinely prioritize support for girls and young women. This must be more than rhetoric. We must “put our money where our mouth is”, as we say. The recent search for a new UN Secretary General is a good example. The names of so many extraordinary women were put forth. Are we to believe that none were qualified? Is the global institution that makes loud calls for gender equality to be led by a man yet again?!
We have a lot of work to do!
Anyway, in other October news, Christina Lamb - bestselling author and one of Britain’s leading foreign correspondents – passed through Beirut and delighted us with a book signing for her recent book “Nujeen: One Girl’s Incredible Journey from War-Torn Syria in a Wheelchair”. This event, organized jointly by AiW and Antoine in the Beirut Souks, consisted of an informal discussion with Christina Lamb along with an array of anecdotes about her experiences and adventures – from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Syria and beyond!
In Beirut and Byblos, our Food 4 Thought this month addressed self-defense. Both groups were full of enthusiastic women (and men!) eager to learn from expert instructor Jacob Schaap. Jacob first spoke about the importance of confidence and how to present yourself to avoid dangerous situations, followed by some simple but effective self-defensive techniques. There’s a lot of demand for us to have more events like this – we’re working on it!
And on October 21, the United Nations announced a new Ambassador for Women’s Empowerment: Wonder Woman. This announcement also launched a new campaign to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 – to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Gender equality is a stand-alone goal and a pre-condition to achieving all the other goals. As such, the goal – and its Ambassador – are critical.
While the fictional feminist comic-book icon has long been a representative of strong, liberated women, this choice has been met with a great deal of criticism. Her overtly sexualized image not only does not resonate with young women but risks alienating them due to her Western appearance, American-flag attire, and unrealistic beauty ideals. And – is it possible that no real, human embodiments of women’s empowerment were able to take on the job? Why choose a comic book when we’re surrounded by real-life “wonder women” all the time?!
And finally, this month we launched an initiative to create those champions for change – our Gender in Development and Humanitarian Assistance (GDHA) Diploma, in partnership with the Continuing Education Program (CEP) at LAU and Human Rights Education Associates (HREA), global leaders in online human rights education. This is a practical training program is built on technical approaches to applying gender to development and humanitarian programming with three focus areas: (1) Gender in Conflict – addressing the women, peace, and security agenda (2) Integrating Gender in Development Programming and (3) Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response. The diploma will meet an identified need for capacity building and individual specialists working for regional, national, and international agencies – or looking for work with those agencies. The goal is to build local Arab capacity to address Arab development and humanitarian challenges. Apply here – now!
Stay strong – and don’t let the garbage get you down.
Remember - change starts with US! And we deserve a clean country – so don’t forget to clean it up!
Lina
