CSW 66 is continuing in this second week beginning on Monday March 21 – with the formal program within the United Nations and Parallel Events as hosted on the NGOCSW Website. It is still not too late to register and gain access to all that is happening at the NGOCSW Forum including our Virtual Booth displaying the event that are happening this week in Asia Pacific and Latin America. The Congregational Event took place on March 16th with an attendance just short of 300 participants sponsored by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Republic of Korea. We pay tribute to the panelists who shared from the wealth of their experience at the grassroots and the moderator Cristina Duranti, CEO from the Good Shepherd International Foundation.
Another event that Good Shepherd Co-sponsored was “My Voice our Equal Future” a girls hosted events. We are very proud of all the girls presenting and marvel at their knowledge, creativity, ingenuity and engagement within the CSW 66 processes. This programme includes a Good Shepherd girl student from India of whom we are all very proud. This was her second panel presentation – a much more comprehensive sharing than the first day. How exciting to see Good Shepherd girl advocates from around the world joining with other girl advocates for gender equality, sustainability and the future of our planet. Jasmine presented on Climate Change and Technology and the concrete steps she is taking at local level. Congratulations Jasmine!
Winifred was a panelist at the Religions for Peace Parallel CSW 66 Parallel Event entitled ‘Multi-religious Collaboration: The Tipping Point for Engendered Climate Change Policies ‘ where she addressed the issues of the issue of Human Trafficking.
“The root causes of human trafficking can be attributed to the inequalities caused by economics systems particularly the neo-liberal capitalist systems that exploit people and planet. … quoting Pope Francis “the Amazon today is a wounded and deformed beauty, a place of suffering and violence. Attacks on nature have consequences for people’s lives. ” Read the full text French Spanish
Girl events from Asia Pacific and Madagascar Africa were held on Saturday March 18th The event from Asia Pacific was a collaborative event across countries. This year the GSIJP Office worked to ensure that girls are present in events and present within the CSW 66 process. We have had girls from India, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Latin America take part in Girls’ Statement Writing, moderating and facilitating process and meetings with UN Member States and being part of the delivery of the Girl’s Statement to the CSW 66. This is scheduled for Tuesday 22nd. All this was made possible because of the zoom platform, internet connectivity and the facilitation of Mission Partners in all regions of the world together with the dedicated follow through and skilled approach of my colleague Alexis Schutz. It is impressive to hear girls from Asia Pacific witness to their engagement on the global stage. Indeed they are the policy makers and political leaders of tomorrow ensuring gender equality and sustainability. It is indeed a source of HOPE for the congregations to have the privilege of engaging with Girl ‘Mission Partners’ in addressing the structural and systemic issues facing our world. They do so with ease while addressing various topics displaying both breath, and depth of knowledge – social protection, gender equity, social inequality, economic justice, climate crisis and the digital divide – all intersecting and interconnecting issues that require a new paradigm to address. The global community needs to move from a mindset of scarcity to abundance, from profit making to equitable sharing. We must seek to change the current data indicating that the top 10% of adults hold 85% of the world’s total wealth, while the bottom 90% hold the remaining 15% of the world’s total wealth. and in relation to gender equality ‘the ten richest people in the world are men’ this too must change! The crises facing humanity today are facilitated by the systems and structures of patriarchy seeking to control, usurp, own, and exploit both people and the planet. This system has to give way to one of equity, human rights, gender equality, sustainability and sharing – with the implementation of universal social protection for all; – access to medical care for all, universal child benefits for every child; a sustainable income for every person unable to work, and pensions for all older people. The power struggle is equally at work in the dominance of the global north and its institutions over the global south – this too has to change! Enjoy the progamme entitled ‘Sirius Talk’. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. These girls are the brightest stars in our future!
This event was followed by a program from Madagascar, equally impressive and inspiring with new a learning for me on ‘Aquaponic Agriculture’. Aquaponics is a food production system that couples aquaculture (raising fish, with the hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) whereby the nutrient-rich aquaculture water is fed to the growing plants. Olivia presented aquaphonic agriculture which she had learned from an expert Mr Anton Lavale who works on this in Madagascar. Sambata and Hasina both sophomore students presented on social inequality and the threats and devastation caused by weather related events in Madagascar, so relevant to the CSW 66 theme ‘achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster reduction policies and programmes.’
Some events are continuing for the rest of the week – do join in if you have the opportunity. A girls event will take place from Latin America tomorrow.