Melanne Verveer
The Washington Post today has a great interview with Melanne Verveer, the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. During the interview, Ambassador Verveer touches on the economic arguments for empowering women around the world, stating that “women are the drivers of economic growth” and when women are able to access the tools that they need, they can make an enormous difference in their countries.
A couple months ago I got to see Ambassador Verveer when she participated in a panel on empowering women and girls at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting. You can read more of our coverage on Ambassador Verveer here.
A crowd of people lined the hall of the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday to attend a hearing hosted by Representatives Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA) of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight. With testimony from Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-IL), Ambassador of Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, Founder of Breakthrough Mallika Dutt, former Rep. Linda Smith and Actress and UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman, the hearing discussed the International Violence against Women Act (IVAWA), an effort to bring violence against women to the forefront of American foreign policy.
Each panelist provided a unique perspective on the issue, but all agreed on one principle: violence against women should be a priority for U.S. foreign policy. Schakowsky began the hearing with a grim message: over the course of their lifetimes, at least one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused. Delahunt continued, emphasizing that violence against women is not merely a woman’s issue or a problem for the developing world, but a concern for everyone. Verveer agreed. She stressed that everyone must act now “to eliminate this worldwide scourge.” Dutt remarked that we must include youth in order to make lasting change. Kidman echoed her fellow participants, adding that violence against women knows no borders and needs support at the highest levels of leadership.
Women in conflict particularly face unimaginable brutality. Quoting Major General Patrick Cammaert, former UN Peacekeeping Operation Commander in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Delahunt remarked that it is now more dangerous to be a woman than it is to be a soldier in conflict: in the DRC alone, 1,100 rapes are reported each month. Schakowsky reiterated this sad fact, adding that rape has become a systematic weapon of war. However, ending violence against women is more than a moral issue, said the panelists: doing so is in our own national interest and the interest of nations around the world. According to Delahunt, it is also a national security issue. Girls’ education, he explained, has proven to be an effective tool against extremism and terrorism.
Schakowsky remarked that violence against women also prevents them from actively participating in their communities, thus depriving societies of their important contributions. Verveer explained that there cannot be vibrant civil society, good governance or economic prosperity if half of the population is left out. The goals set by the international community will not be met without the voices of women, Kidman concluded.
The overarching message was clear: violence against women cannot be relegated to the margins of foreign policy. Check out ONE partner Women Thrive Worldwide for more information on IVAWA and how you can get involved.
Also, check out this clip from CNN on the hearing and Nicole Kidman’s participation in this important movement.
-Jen Fraser and Pooja Gupta
Audience members opted for seats on the floor and leaned against walls in a packed room at the Center for Global Development (CGD) yesterday at the launch event for Start With a Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health.
Supported by the Nike Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the report is a follow-up to the 2008 publication, Girls Count: An Action and Investment Agenda, and is part of a series of publications focusing on issues affecting adolescent girls, including education, health, and economic empowerment in the developing world.
The report, spearheaded by Miriam Temin and Ruth Levine, stresses the importance of including adolescent girls in global health programs and policies. The report sheds light on the realities of girls’ health and well-being in developing countries, emphasizing the link between the health of girls and their families, as well specific actions that will improve health prospects for millions of women and girls worldwide.
“When adolescent girls win, everyone wins. Girls are…agents of positive change for their future families and communities,” remarked Levine.
CGD Board Member and Executive Vice-Chairman of Magna International, Belinda Stronach started off the morning by introducing featured speaker, Melanne Verveer, the newly-appointed Ambassador of Global Women’s Issues at the State Department. Verveer spoke about the importance of focusing on women’s issues around the world, calling them both the keystone and most vulnerable population. She explained that we should, however, “look at girls and women not as victims…but as agents of change.”
Temin and Levine gave a brief overview of the report findings, including the most prevailing and serious health problems facing adolescent girls in developing countries. The report lays out an ambitious, yet feasible agenda of eight priorities for action which researchers believe will help to break the vicious cycles of ill health.
The eight actions are as follows:
- Implement a comprehensive health agenda for adolescent girls in at least three countries.
- Eliminate marriage for girls younger than 18.
- Place adolescent girls at the center of international and national action and investment on maternal health.
- Focus HIV prevention on adolescent girls.
- Make health-system strengthening and monitoring work for girls.
- Make secondary-school completion a priority for adolescent girls.
- Create an innovation fund for girls’ health.
- Increase donor support for adolescent girls’ health.
The event was followed by a brief panel discussion which featured participants from the World Health Organization, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and the NoVo Foundation.
The Start with a Girl report concludes: “A comprehensive agenda for girls’ health is within reach.” We have the resources. All we need is the will.
You can read more about the report here.
-Robyn Mitchell and Jen Fraser
In case you missed it, exciting news came out of the opening session of the UN General Assembly last Monday: after nearly three years of negotiations, member states voted to create a UN agency for women.
The new agency’s mandate will be to “promote the rights and well-being of women worldwide and to work towards gender equality.” Currently, the UN’s gender programs are scattered across various agencies through four different programs: UNIFEM, the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW). The new entity will be headed by an Under-Secretary General who reports to the UN’s Secretary General, on par with agencies like UNICEF and UNHCR.
Groups that have been campaigning for the body (such as Gender Equality Architecture Reform, or GEAR) hope that a composite, super-agency will not only raise the prominence of gender issues on the global agenda but also boost funding for women through the UN, which they say has been low under the current structure. GEAR and others are calling for $1 billion in start-up money for the new agency (for comparison, the 2007 budgets for UNICEF and UNIFEM in 2007 were $129 million and $3 billion, respectively).
There is no doubt that the step is a good one for the world’s women, especially those living in the world’s poorest countries. For over two decades, development experts have been saying that countries who invest in education, health and economic opportunities for their women see greater results in poverty reduction and development across the board. Yet while some progress has been made in improving the lives of women around the globe (through expanded access to microfinance and treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, for example), the fact remains that women are still bearing the brunt of extreme poverty and disease and in many countries, are systematically excluded from the economy and politics and living in fear of violence and rape.
The UN decision follows other signs that momentum is building for a renewed effort to tackle global women’s issues. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama created the first ever Office on Global Women’s Issues in his Administration (with veteran women’s advocate Melanne Verveer at its head) and in Congress, Senator Barbara Boxer now chairs a subcommittee with global women’s issues in its purview. The need to invest in women was also a recurring key theme of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent trip to Africa, and this past month both the Clinton Global Initiative and the New York Times have highlighted the topic in a major way.
So it seems that everyone- and now the UN- agrees: women are key to a healthier, more prosperous and stable world. The challenge is now to translate this growing consensus into action. At the UN, details on the new agency will be ironed out over the coming months after Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon comes up with a proposal to member states on the body’s mission, funding, structure and oversight. The first indication of how much muscle the new agency will have. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the FY011 budget should be a good sign of where the Administration’s priorities lie and how they match with Congress. We’ll be watching these developments at ONE closely, so stay tuned here for news from both fronts.
-Nora Coghlan
President Clinton shares the stage with Dr. Helene Gayle during plenary session on “Investing in Girls and Women”
Diane Sawyer just wrapped up moderating a really engaging panel with Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.; Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO of Women for Women International; Rex W. Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil Corporation; Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues in the State Department, and Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group; and Edna Adan, Director and Founder, Edna Adan Maternity and Teaching Hospital.
Sawyer framed the discussion as “the river of what is right converging with the river of what is needed” which I think really captures the spirit of what I’ve seen so far at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting. President Clinton, while introducing the panel claimed that in many places in the world, no matter how hard and long women work they rarely get as many opportunities and choices as men do. The panel echoed this sentiment with most, if not all, of the participants agreeing that education is the key to achieving equality for all women. According to Ambassador Verveer– the first such Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues (something that drew a big round of applause from the audience)– framed education as key to confronting extremism.
A lot of the discussion centered around the fact that women account for such a large percentage of the workforce in developing countries yet are rarely compensated to the degree that men are. This, according to Zoellick emphasizes the need to train greater focus specifically on girls and women. As he put it, it’s not an issue of giving special advantages to women, but just helping them achieve a level playing field. Indeed, as was echoed at numerous points in the panel, saving one woman often means saving an entire family. This opportunity has drawn the attention of businesses such as Godman Sachs and ExxonMobil to invest in women and children. At one point, when discussing ExxonMobil’s efforts in developing countries, Tillerson suggested and funding in and of itself is not the whole solution. Salbi quickly retorted that while this may be true in part, girls and women still continue to receive an incredibly small percentage of development funding.
Also touched on during the panel was the role of technology and innovation in empowering women. Ambassador Verveer listed both mobile banking and cell phones as being on the front lines in creating positive change. Zoellick also emphasized the need for basic technology– such as electricity– in many developing countries.
-Chris Scott
UPDATE: Here’s the video of the panel on girls and women.
