IPA

Empowerment of Rural Women is one of the topics of conversation among the UN Member States, UN Agencies and the Civil Society at the UN from today 27 February to 9 March 2012. According to UN Women, rural women make up one fourth of the world’s population…86 per cent of the global rural population of the both genders derives its livelihood from agriculture, with an estimated 1.3 billion people engaged in small-scale farming or working as landless labourers. Ms Michele Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, said, “… we continue to fail rural women when they die during childbirth, are shut out of decision-making, and cannot lead healthy and productive lives free of violence and discrimination. Let us be clear. This is not just hurting the women. It is hurting all of us! … We have to remove the structural, cultural, social and economic barriers that prevent rural women from participating fully in the economic and political life of their countries.”

A Side Event:
Be aware of the context – Understand the Interconnection between Governments, neoliberal economy, patriarchy, fundamentalism, poverty and violence and gender discrimination… Different voices from Governments, NGOs and grassroots. Governments trumpet their policies and programs and cry foul about lack of finance! NGOs share success stories and call for political commitment and policy implementation. Grassroots express total neglect by the government and failure of policy implementation.
Call – Be aware, understand, strategize, mobilize, find allies and form alliances among women with the participation of affected people. Recognize and enhance the strengths of rural women to ensure food security and capacitate them further with appropriate skills and technology.

I attended a very good session on Eco-Feminism and UN 5th World Conference on Women. The following conclusions were that there is wisdom in Nature to do with diversity, adaptation, interdependency and masculine-feminine balance. Jean Shinoda Bolen talked about the importance of trees because without them the planet will suffer an ecological and human disaster. The antidote requires empowered and enhanced women in sufficient numbers, quality education for rural women and girls and a shift in consciousness from the ground up. The expression of this shift in consciousness begins in the psyches of women and in circles of women who create NGOs. In fertile ground NGOs are the seeds… a movement that is bringing balance and wisdom…

1. US Ambassador Melanne Vereer spoke to the importance of elevating grass root processes and the importance of data collection.
2. Michele Bachelet invited us to continue to ask, “How can we unlock the potential of women and girls around the globe?”
3. China Ambassador Win in his opening remarks  thanked women religious for being “active and fruitful in a very concrete way” resulting in such forums. Ms Meng Xiuosi gave stats to over 100 women a day die giving birth and to other issues in women’s health.

Maura McCarthy pbvm

———————

UN Commission on the Status of Women 27 February-9 March 2012

“In some parts of the world, women represent 70 per cent of the agricultural workforce, comprising 43 per cent of agricultural workers worldwide. Yet despite their heavy workload and productivity, rural women continue to face discrimination, which is not only a lack of justice but holds back gains in vital areas. If women farmers had equal access to resources and opportunities, they would drive greater progress in ending hunger, boosting food security, and improving health and education.” Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director UN WOMEN

With these hope-filled and moving words Michelle Bachelet sets the scene for the 56th Session of the Commission on Women in 2012. Sixty five NGOs from all over the world have also contributed many proposals and have stressed the vital role of women in environmental management, sustainable development and poverty eradication. Combating the feminization of poverty is seen as fundamental as the rural environment is basically categorized by limited access to dignified and decent work, weak social protection, gender stereotypes, patriarchal attitudes and inadequate understanding of human rights.

Rural women produce 50% of the world’s food and data provided by the World Health Organization in 2011 indicate that the cultural preference for sons, based on prevailing beliefs that boys bring more prestige or wealth to a family than girls, has resulted in over 100 million missing girls, as a result of female feticide, infanticide, malnutrition and neglect. In addition, data from the United Nations Children’s Fund, also from 2011, indicate that only 50 per cent of children under 5 living in the developing world were registered at birth, with significant differences between children in rural and urban areas.

A number of empirical studies indicate that rural girls are more likely than their urban peers to manifest delayed growth and development and to show evidence of anaemia or deficiencies in iron and vitamin D. In some countries, including Ghana, Mali and Senegal, rates of anaemia among adolescent girls (aged between 15 and 19) exceed 60 per cent. Furthermore, girls face significant barriers to accessing health care.

Faced with stark realities all over the globe the NGOs have suggested that as a result of the multiple crises (energy, food, finances and social reproduction) conditions for women in rural areas, especially in African but also in Asian and Latin American countries, seem to have become even worse. The privatization of and the rush for land, water and other natural resources by transnational companies affects women very strongly, as it is especially rural poor women who depend most directly on access to common public goods such as forests, so-called wasteland and rivers. The non-recognition of human rights by agribusiness and the extractive industries have exacerbated women’s vulnerability and increased their exposure to sexual and economic violence. Basic human rights like the right to food, water and an adequate livelihood are ignored, people are swept away from their traditional land and women are put into even more marginalized situations as migrants, farm workers, workers in the informal economy or household employees.

Poor infrastructure worsens conditions as women and girls find it impossible to access education and so the various NGO organizations have made some excellent suggestions as we approach this important 56th Session of the Status of Women. There is a clear call to invest in quality education and training. Among the many recommendations named we see the emphasis on a meaningful, respectful human rights based approach to rural women and girls. There is a suggestion to end the victim/savior dichotomy to ensure that the dignity and capacity of the person is recognized. A Social Protection Floor is seen as one to the important solutions to mitigate the effects of extreme poverty and alleviate the huge and rising debt experienced by rural people both men and women.

Financial security, employment, land ownership, food security and sovereignty are seen as very important as there is a general emphasis in the statements that few women are landowners and thus have little or no access to markets, credit nor technology.

Access to medical care is suggested by almost all the NGOs as maternal and child deaths are still widespread in developing countries. The scourge of HIV Aids demands immediate and continual attention as many women are also affected on a large scale. A call is also emerging for mental health care as a growing depression among rural women is gaining ground. Isolation, lack of healthy pastimes, no incentives and family and community violence all play havoc with a woman’s self esteem.

Some statements drew attention to the fact that Indigenous peoples continue to be the most excluded, words like “slavery” and “penalization” were mentioned especially in relation to mining, oil exploration as the free, prior and informed consent of these native cultures is not taken into account. The rural woman is a custodian of traditional knowledge and expert in the management of a diversified agriculture and therefore needs to be recognized as an expert in crop rotation and the preservation of ecological balance.

In spite of their inherent capacity, the material poverty of women and girls in rural areas makes them vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers. This vulnerability, coupled with the demand for women and girls to be exploited in the sex industry and as a source of cheap labour, makes the abduction, enticement and deception of these women and girls profitable to traffickers. The rural populations in many countries are among the most impoverished, causing growing numbers of rural women and girls to be sold into prostitution or forced labour, within both rural and urban areas. There is a clear call to governments of the world to stop this inhumane treatment immediately. Policy and action in the following areas are suggested:

• Make specific and local recommendations not only about ending particular forms of male violence but also on transforming the systemic social and economic structures, such as patriarchy and other harmful social systems, that unremittingly disadvantage women.
• The elimination by Governments of economic and discriminatory factors, such as poverty, systematic violence against women and girls, gender discrimination, harmful traditional practices and other forms of discrimination, such as racism, that render rural women and girls vulnerable to trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

A primary concern must be to build the capacity of a given population to participate in creating a better world. It is imperative, then, that the educational process associated with such capacity-building assists rural women and girls to see themselves as active agents of their own learning, as the driving force of an ongoing effort to apply knowledge to improve their own material and spiritual condition and to contribute to the betterment of their communities.

Mary Ivers pbvm

——————————————–

The fiftieth session of the Commission for Social Development on the priority theme Poverty Eradication from 1 to 10 February 2012 has come to a stormy end with a vote on the resolution and the US dissociating itself from the resolution and also the EU abstaining from the vote! Still for the NGOs it was a success as they managed to get about five paragraphs into the resolution on human rights, agriculture, climate change, financing for social development.

This Commission was of significance for IPA as Fatima Rodrigo is the vice-chair for the NGO Committee on Social Development, chair of the working group on Poverty Eradication and co-chair of the grassroots task force for Poverty Eradication. Seven PBVMs, Maura McCarthy, Mary Ivers, Mary McFadden, Elsa Muttahu, Marcella Cruz and Joetta Venneman represented the three groups of Presentation Women and participated in the 50th session of the Commission.

Significant time was spent by Fatima and her team planning and preparing for this event. Statement and submission by the Member States, NGOs and UN entities were studied and discussed thoroughly to find out which direction the wind was blowing. UN entities like the Economic and Social Council, the United Nations Department of Social Affairs (UNDESA), UNNGO liaison (NGLS) worked in collaboration with the Civil Society to turn the heat on the Member States to ensure the outcome was  an effective  resolution on the Priority theme “Poverty Eradication”. There was excellent rapport between the NGO committee members, UN secretariat and Chair of the Commission, Ambassador Jorge Valero from Venezuela.

Breakfast Meetings: Usually advocacy is done through mission visits. Realising the ineffectiveness of that strategy, the team hit upon a novel idea of organising breakfast meetings for Member States, one in December and another in January. Fatima spent hours calling, emailing and faxing every Member State. Four Member States attended the first breakfast and nine the second along with UN staff and NGO representatives. Allies were identified, talking points exchanged, strategic interventions discussed and NGOs intensified their efforts to influence the policy document with tacit support from the Chair of the Commission who was quick to share the zero draft of  the outcome document with  the NGOs.

CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM: 31 January was significant as Sr Winifred Doherty RGS, chair of the NGO committee, shared the dais with the President of the ECOSOC and other signatories. The inaugural session was meticulously planned and managed by Fatima and her team. In an impressive ceremony, the president of the ECOSOC released the NGO committee publication, Can you hear us? Two large files with 12,500+ hand-written signatures from India, Chile and Zambia were handed over to the President supporting the Social Protection Floor Initiative. At the back of the stage was a large banner with the electronic signatures ironed on, as well as the hand-written signatures of those present.

SIDE EVENTS: On 3 February IPA organised a side event on the Social Protection Floor with a Human Rights Based Approach. Fatima invited two governments and a UN agency to co-sponsor the event with the Good Shepherd Sisters and ATD Fourth World. Mary Ivers, as a panel member, shared the story of practices and interventions successful in Ecuador. The panel was attended by more than 80 participants even though five other side events were happening at the same time.

On 6 February Elsa was part of a panel on Participatory Approaches to Poverty Eradication with the International Association of Schools of Social Work citing the example of  Kudumbashree and Neighbourhood Parliaments.

Every possible forum was used to make the IPA presence felt at the Commission and everyone was provided with the opportunity to participate. Maura was one of the co-ordinators who organised some 26 young people to translate the sessions into different languages for the Civil Society Forum.

Elsa also made an oral presentation for 3 minutes on Poverty and Youth Unemployment. Fatima, in her inimitable way never missed an opportunity to ask a most forward looking or challenging question at every session, this being highly appreciated by the Chairs as well as the Members. She spends time studying the different documents, to ensure the appropriate question or comment is made so that IPA’s direction to address the root causes of poverty, by addressing personal and corporate greed, is at the forefront.

Mary McFadden who joined us from Australia  by the end of January was swept right in to the overwhelming experience and kept an excellent record of  all the happenings.

With all the work we don’t miss an opportunity to celebrate our togetherness as Presentation sisters and rejoice in the giftedness and in appreciation of each other.

Joetta Venneman and Marcella Cruz  left us at the end of the Commission. We were invited by Sandy Butler from Newfoundland to spend the weekend at Emmaus, New Jersey with her. It was indeed a celebration of our Presentation solidarity and our connectedness to the wider community of religious. We were blessed abundantly with the gift of nature nurturing our communion, splendid sunshine, the vastness and stillness of the ocean, songs and music that stirred our depths, played and sung by Sandy and her companion Pat, and soul stirring stories of the founding of the Emmaus community; the experiences of God walking with Women of courage, compassion and love revealing Herself to those who have the courage to walk the Emmaus journey! We are indeed companions on the journey, sharing not only bread but vision and compassion. It is a Blessing to be a part of the Presentation and IPA journey!

Elsa Muttathu pbvm

—————–

Photo: Mary McFadden (Australia), Mary Ivers, Fatima Rodrigo & Elsa Muttathu (Union), Rose (Aberdeen), Maura McCarthy (Dubuque) and Sandy Butler (Newfoundland)

———————-

Edmund Rice International (ERI), an advocacy non-governmental organisation (NGO), supported and sponsored by the Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers, has had a significant success with the United States government. In 2010, ERI submitted a report on the issue of migrant workers in the United States whose conditions of employment were such that they amounted to exploitation.

Some migrant workers, mainly from across the border in Mexico, are admitted to the USA under a  US Department of Labour programme called the H-2B programme. The H-2B non-immigrant program permits employers to hire foreign workers to come temporarily to the US and perform temporary non-agricultural services or labour on a one-time, seasonal, peak-load or intermittent basis.

Working with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Brother Kevin Cawley, the ERI representative in New York, drafted a lengthy report which formed the basis of a submission under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United States which took place in 2010 in Geneva. The report advocated changes to the H-2B programme which would extend to migrant workers the same legal and other social protections afforded to regular US workers.

This past week the USA Department of Labour has, in fact, conceded that the current operation of the H-2B programme could lead to the exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers. It has put into effect the legal changes recommended by ERI and the Southern Poverty Law Center. These changes have been documented into a recent New York Times report available here.

All who were involved in the preparation of the submission and in the accompanying lobbying strategy deserve our expressions of appreciation. Their success augurs well for the upcoming UK UPR and ERI’s involvement with it. Very soon the Salford organisations who have been involved in developing the UPR submission will begin the lobbying process in Geneva. Let’s hope they can look forward to a similar successful outcome to their efforts.

—————————–

The UN DPI had a special session for the NGOs  on ‘Greening the Value Chain for a Sustainable Future’ commemorating the World Day of Justice 20th Feb. It was a two hour programme and can be viewed in the UN Webcast for 16th Feb. http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2012/02/dpi-ngo-briefing-greening-the-value-chain-for-a-sustainable-and-equitable-future.html The following is the SG’s message that was presented by an ILO expert.

Secretary-General’s Message for 2012 World Justice Day

Over the past year, the winds of change have swept across the globe. Citizens by the millions have voiced their discontent around similar themes: inequality, corruption, repression and the absence of decent work. At the heart of this mass mobilization lies a call for social justice.
 
Achieving social justice for all is integrally linked to realizing the agreed development goals articulated at the Copenhagen Social Summit, the Millennium Summit and elsewhere.
As we look to the upcoming Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, we have a chance to rethink development strategies and business practices so that they point us toward a more sustainable and equitable future.
 
Sustainability depends on building markets that do a better job of spreading the benefits of development. It means meeting growing consumer demand for greener products and services. And it means laying the foundations for dignity, stability and opportunity for all. As we strive to make this transformation, we must integrate social inclusion into our policies and other efforts.
 
Let us work together to balance the global economy and build a new social contract for the 21st century. Let us chart a development path that leads to greater social justice and the future we want.

Ban Ki-moon

——————

Rio+20 Conference is a major summit of all time as stated by UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon. It is hoped that it will bring the world leaders together for the triple agenda – poverty eradication, new model of economic growth and human wellbeing as the subject of Rio. There is a lot of anxiety around the growing struggles in the Arab world. In the US, it is a question of solidarity between the 1 percent and the 99 percent.  

Rio 2012 Conference is taking place after 20 years of Rio Conference in 1992 and after 40 years of Stockholm Conference. Rio+20 Conference is not a celebration of anniversary but rather to look forward to 20 years ahead as to where the world will be in 2032, to get its act together towards progress for humanity. Rio+20 Conference is an intergovernmental process for consensus on deliberations and for renewing commitments.

Discussions have begun on the 19-paged zero draft of the Rio+20 Conference Outcome Document that had been drafted drawing wisdom from the 6,000 pages of input by all the stakeholders.  

One of the two major themes of the conference is ‘Green Economy in the context of Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development’.

There is a lot of debate around green economy. The Latin American countries fear that in the name of green economy the natural resources will be exploited. They fight against green capitalism and merchandising of nature.

In the non-political world, the conversation is about the kind of economy that

• is inclusive and job intensive
• ventures into renewable energy  in a world of hike in oil price
• creates system of sanitation for 9 billion people not using much water
• uses  less water for better agriculture
• moves away from oil driven industry to a new industrial revolution; e.g.  producing home grown foods rather than exporting and importing foods
• measures human wellbeing as the index for  progress and not  by economic growth/GDP e.g. Bhutan uses happiness index as the measure for progress.

The other theme for Rio+20 Conference is ‘Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development’.

 There is a lot of discussion on

• reforming the UN for sustainable development  having sustainable development as the main policy tool
• creating a strong environmental pillar- Plan to strengthen UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) as the world environmental agency; 110 countries are in support of this.
• using  UN  Trusteeship Council  ( an UN body that enabled self-governance for those countries under colonial rule and is sleepy at the moment since it has done its task) to create a senate of voice for  the Planet

Some of the activities on the ground in preparation for Rio+20 Conference

• Global Sustainability Report is a political report and has been widely disseminated
• There is huge movement for Mayors to come together for a global town hall meeting
• At regional level people summit is taking place.
• Church groups are organizing programmes in Europe
• Corporate sustainability Conference will take place
• Brazilians are planning for organizing dialogue days between the two UN Conferences in Rio.

Expected outcome of Rio+20 conference

• Sustainable Development Goals:  An initiative has been moved forward by Colombia, Guatemala and Peru to have a set of universal goals – Sustainable Development Goals
• Post MDGs agenda for the UN:  to begin a process for taking forward discussions on the subjects such as –sustainable cities, energy, water, food security, avoiding disasters
• Registry / Compendium of commitments: Providing space for monitoring governments and other stakeholders for their commitments. Social media to be used as one of the tools to call to accountability.

Role of civil society

• Civil society is part of the game; need to put strong pressure on the governments all over the world. There is not much civil society pressure in the US.
• Urge the leaders to generate medium and long term vision towards sustainable living keeping in mind the future generation
• Many groups have proposed ‘Charter of Responsibility’ with the ethical perspective. Civil Society to join in campaigning for same.
• To be consistent with the advocacy on particular issues and not to be all over- e.g. World Bank to be reformed as the International Bank for Sustainable Development!

 Henry de Cazotte, Special Advisor to Executive Coordinator of UNCSD 2012 Rio +20

The 50th Session of the Commission for Social Development is taking place for the next two weeks at the United Nations in New York. The Commission is committed to finding ways to eradicate poverty in the world. The eradication of poverty is at the heart of the work of Presentation Sisters around the world, especially through changing systems that keep people poor and powerless. Presentation Sisters who represent the International Presentation Association (IPA) at the United Nations have organised a parallel event on ‘Social Protection and Human Rights: Challenges and Opportunities’. The attached flyer gives information about this event.

———————–