Monthly Archives: July 2023

Girl Advocates from around the world participate in the Adolescent Girl Leadership Town Hall including 10 girls from the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd – planners, speakers, and participants.

Today the GFA Adolescent Girl Leadership Town Hall gave girls the opportunity to come together with a shared purpose: to reaffirm the power and leadership of girls worldwide. Throughout the town hall, girls engaged in vital conversations with key stakeholders: member states, UN agencies, philanthropies, and civil society organizations. Girls’ recommendations revolved around the five domains of adolescent well-being: good health and optimum nutrition, connectedness, positive values, and contribution to society, safety and a supportive environment, learning, competence, education, skills, and employability, and agency and resilience.

We are proud to report that a Good Shepherd student from India named Sugandha was able to give her recommendations where she called upon the Member States to engage as active participants with girls to empower adolescent girls worldwide. She shed light on the burden of responsibility that rests upon Member States’ shoulders to guarantee the safety and welfare of adolescent girls. She urged Member States to actively implement policies to combat gender-based violence, to focus on adolescent health, and to ensure quality education – so that Member States can shape a brighter future for adolescent girls. 

Mr. Fred Simwaka, the Deputy Director for Gender Affairs responsible for Women Empowerment in the Ministry of Gender Children Disability and Social Welfare from Malawi responded to Suganda’s recommendations and seemed to agree with many if not all her recommendations, which is promising. It is through the commitment and support of Member States that meaningful change can be achieved.

During the UN agencies segment, Ms. Begona Lasagabaster, Director for Gender Equality at UNESCO and Sarah Hendriks, Deputy Executive Director for Policy, Programme, Civil Society and Intergovernmental Support ad interim from UN Women responded to girl recommendations and again agreed with many of the recommendations given by the girl advocates. UN Agencies bring specialized knowledge, resources, and networks to address the challenges faced by adolescents, making their contributions invaluable.

During the Philanthropies segment, we had the pleasure of hearing  responses from Ms. Lisa Bohmer as the Global Lead for Early Childhood Development initiative at Hilton Foundation and Ms. Aminata Kamara, as the Acting Co-Lead, Resourcing Resistance at Purposeful. Philanthropies play an important role in influencing the flow of resources, particularly financial support, for the well-being of adolescent girls so their input is important for this type of conversation.

During the Civil Society segment, the importance of Civil society organizations serving as vital partners in driving transformative change, advocating for policies, and amplifying the voices of girls was demonstrated. We had the honor of having Christle, a Good Shepherd student from Sri Lanka address civil society as an ally. She demanded necessary space, support, and opportunities to drive girls’ development agenda. Christle also urged Civil Society to actively engage girls in policy creation, programming, and research. She called for Civil Society to empower girls to thrive and reach their full potential. Adolescent girls are not just the leaders of tomorrow, but they are leaders today.

Ms. Divya Srinivasan, Global Lead of the Ending Harmful Practices program, Equality Now and Ms Kathleen Sherwin as the Chief Strategy and Engagement Officer at Plan International responded to Christle’s recommendations and shared their reflections where in general they also accepted and complimented her recommendations. 

It was clear that the girls appreciated the stakeholders’ willingness to engage and listen to them as equal partners. However more is needed from them – a guarantee that girls’ voices were heard and that their wellbeing is ensured. 

3 girls from Latin America – Andrea, (Bolivia) Genesis, (Equidor) and Keiry (El Salvador), 2 from Africa Athible, South Africa, and Rose from Senegal together with Jasmine (India) were participants in the session. Isabel and Jasmine were members of the planning team but not selected as speakers.

Read more HERE about the 1.8 billion young people for change and the Global Forum for Adolescent ’23. October 11 and 12th are the big days. Join the world’s largest-ever gathering for adolescent well-being! The Forum will be a key milestone for the 1.8 Billion Young People for Change campaign, bringing together youth and adolescents, advocates and global decision-makers. Through national events and a two-day virtual mainstage, the Forum will promote political and financial commitments toward improved adolescent health and well-being. 

Read more about the campaign

English,

Spanish

French

Voice – UN DESA Monthly Newsletter for July 2023

The July edition of VOICE a monthly newsletter from UN DESA (Department of Economic and Social Affairs is filled with information about the upcoming High-Level Political Forum. The first article is about turbocharging the SDGs. This is followed by how action for climate change and the SDGs create synergies that reinforce each other.

In my last posting, I did not mention anything about the call of the Secretary-General for an SDG stimulus. There is a section in Voice entitled 5 things you need to know about the SDG Stimulus to deliver the 2030 Agenda. In February 2023 the Secretary-General called for the G20 to deliver US $ 500 billion annually to Sustainable Development. The crunch will be on September 18 and 19 when the SDG Summit is taking place – will the call be answered? Will the money be provided? If one does a tour of the UN one sees the amount spent on military expenditure – currently at 5 Billion a day. This is a steep increase from November of 2022 when 1 Billion a day was recorded.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report will launch on July 10 at 12.30 EST. You can watch live on UN WebTV

As I write this piece I am reminded of the working document or ‘instrumentum laboris,’ towards the Synod released at the end of June. The document outlines the current reality as characterized by too many wars, the threat represented by climate change, the cry to oppose an economic system that produces exploitation, inequality, and a throw-away culture, the desire to resist the homogenizing pressures of cultural colonialism that crushes minorities, persecution to the point of martyrdom, and emigration that progressively hollows out communities. This is the current reality that is at the heart of the High-Level Political Forum and the global framework outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals. This desire for implementation is often thwarted by counter-systems that are war-mongering, that demand to invest in militarism and fossil fuels.

These counter-systems uphold neo-liberal capitalism, maintain inequality – including gender inequality, profit from the exploitation of child labour, migrant labour, bonded labour and human trafficking, maintain a throw-away culture, crush minorities, harass women leaders, to the point of murdering women’s human rights defenders and others calling for change. The Global NGO presence and voice at the United Nations call for, propose and witness to an alternative reality – a reality informed by dignity and human rights, inclusion and respect for all people and our common home opposing and resisting the dominant narrative. Read More

HLPF – High-Level Political Forum 2023

Change is possible! The problem is political will!

The High Level Political Forum will take place July 10 – 19 at the UN Headquarters in New York. Part of the session will be given over to an in-depth review of Goals 6 on clean water and sanitation, 7 on affordable and clean energy, 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure, 11 on sustainable cities and communities, and 17 on partnerships for the Goals.

Forty countries will carry out Voluntary National Reviews – Good Shepherd are present in the following: Belgium, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Ireland, Portugal, Singapore, Syrian Arab Republic, and Vietnam. The EU is also presenting a report. All reports can be viewed at this link. Click on your country and you can see the report that your country has presented. It surely is admirable that member states comply with reporting procedures – 2 presenters will present for the first time, 37 for the second time, and 1 for the third time and this within 7 years. It is mid-way on the journey to 2030. The picture painted of implementation to date is discouraging. Quoting from the Secretary-Generals Report paragraph 4 ‘at the mid-way point on our way to 2030, the SDGs are in deep trouble. A preliminary assessment of the roughly 140 targets with data show only about 12% are on track; close to half, though showing progress, are moderately or severely off track, and some 30% have either seen no movement or regressed below the 2015 baseline.’ A second report entitled the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) 2023 is more interesting with its color codes of progress and lack of progress. It is still in draft form and will be published just before the SDG Summit on 18 and 19 September 2023. This summit is held every 4th year under the auspices of the General Assembly.

JCOR (Justice Coalition of Religious) has prepared a PowerPoint Presentation to facilitate navigation around the two weeks program of HLPF (High-Level Political Forum. It is available in four Languages English; French; Spanish; and Portuguese.

It is a rich resource compiled in 20 slides containing links to access events taking place and towards the end, there is social media information – including handles, #hashtags, and samples of social media messaging in relation to SDG 6, 7, 9, 11, and 17. This page is a handy page for reference with regard to side events and special events. This graphic from Side 10 shows the date when each of the 40 countries is presenting – if you go to the slide, the links are live, bringing you directly to the report of the country.

Ernestine Lalao from Madagascar is at the GSIJP Office and will attend the two-week HLPF program with a special focus on Africa. Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the two countries from Africa presenting Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). Ernestine is following in particular with the sisters in Burkina Faso and I will focus on the elimination of child labor with reference to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

JCOR is presenting SDG LABS beginning on July 10 and focusing each day on a different SDG that is under review. These sessions are open to anyone and are largely perspectives and experiences from the ministries. They start at 8.00 am EST Monday to Thursday and again on Monday, July 17th. Register: https://bit.ly/3CNY8Do
Details: https://bit.ly/3PnzzEM
Interpretation will be available in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish

Above your team at the HLPF! Left Ernestine from Madagascar; Top – Ernestine on a tour of the United Nations in the General Assembly Hall where the opening of the HLPF will take place; Middle with Sude, an intern in the office, with Nelson Mandella in the backgorund and bottom Winifred, Sude, and Kimberly Moloche. This is what our compiled schedule looks like over the two weeks.