Day Two in New York

Today I have had my daily intake of vitamins many times over in an attempt to not get sick. Last night I slept for over 9 and a half hours, and I'm hoping for more tonight to get my immune system bck in shape. Physical and mental exhaustion on the second day isn't particularly helpful for UN advocacy. Despite my attempts to take it relatively easy so that I can acclimatise to the time zone, I still attending two events today.

Two Very Different Events

The Group Photo from Yesterday's Youth Blast

This morning Mitch and took the subway downtown to the People's General Assembly in Thomas Paine Park. It was an interesting set up, with some really passionate speakers, and Mitch, a Philippino Girl Scout, managed to get on the Philippines TV news within five minutes of our arrival. The combination of different kinds of messages was nice to see - a photograhic exhibition abot Bangladesh Garment Workers was there to look at between an alternating programme of speakers, comments from the crowd and creative performances.

There were lots of valuable messages spoken about, but I struggled to see how the calls for a development agenda reflecting the needs of the people were going to be heard by the UN decision makers when the crowd was largely made up of active members of the NGOs who were putting on the event. I think it was a valuable event for the people involved but I'm not sure what the outcome is on a larger scale.

After my pharmacy trip to stock up on vitamins, we headed to the Beyond 2015 campaign's meeting to organise civil society for the coming events. I don't think I could have been to 2 more opposite civil society events in one day. The highly organised network, with key messages based on thorough consultations and participatory research, started out with an outline of where we think the process will go from here, how we can influence it, and who's able to give insight on the current position of various countries. It was great to see a diagram on how the various different strands of the process might ultimately combine, helping me to envisage how the WAGGGS Post-2015 Ambassadors might engage with the process.

What Can I Achieve?

We also heard that the negotiations of the outcome document from next Wednesday's Special Event on the Millennium Development Goals, have already concluded. The good news is that gender equality is mentioned. However, it does make me wonder about what impact we will be having here in New York without the tangible document to get our key messages into. I had a little 'it's time I should be going to sleep in bed at home' crisis of confidence about this to my partner on Skype this evening. And I think sometimes I can be to involved in the details to see the big picture.

I've realised that actually I need a little perspective on what I've even already achieved from this trip. Through this blog, social media and press coverage in local media, I've already brought the topics under discussion to a fairly wide audience. Would you be following the events in New York this weekend usually? Some of you, perhaps, but I doubt most of the readers of the Northamptonshire Telegraph would even have thought about it. 

So, back to my thoughts from last night - what do I want to get out of this week for WAGGGS, Girlguiding and myself?

1. WAGGGS. I can raise the visibility and reputation of WAGGGS as an advocacy organisation by being present and by communicating. I think there is a point where people remember they need to think about girls and young women, just by seeing a WAGGGS delegate - sometimes we don't even have to speak.
2. Girlguiding. I want to raise awareness of what opportunities you can have through WAGGGS with members of Girlguiding. I'd love more people to have a chance at put themselves forward to get involved in international advocacy work. It's also great to see some recognition of the advocacy work done across the organisation already, and I hope getting some media coverage achieves that at least a little. 
3. Me. This is perhaps the hardest one to quantify. Why did I want to come? Because I have the insatiable desire to always be part of the next step in this long and ongoing process. Because I believe I'm good at what I'm trying to do. Because the adrenaline rush is somewhat of an addication. But, really knowing what I will take away is something I'm not so sure of. 

For Me?

Come Wednesday I will leave New York with a great story for the next time I play one of those ice breakers where you have to guess which improbable statement is a truth. I'll also have more contacts and more knowledge of the process. But what I need to figure out is how to use those in my daily life.

If I had a criticism of the WAGGGS UN Events programmes it would be the support for delegates after they leave the events. I know this is often left to the member organisations (of which mine is Girlguiding), but the specific skills and knowledge I have got is difficult to work out where that fits. Participating in these events has trained me to know how to participate in these events, and I've tried to impart that knowledge to the subsequent UK delegates (whether Haley, Maggie or Rosy really wanted to listen to me or not). I need to make these skills transferable and use them in different places.

I guess what I am is impatient. I know I cant change the world overnight, and I need to come to terms with the fact that I can't use every skill I have in my daily life straight away either. I have a dream - to have my own social enterprise combining my skills in some form of pop-up musuem scheme bringing interactive exhibitions and programmes on social justice issues to broad audiences - and I need to take the baby steps to keep working towards that.

Yes, come Thursday, I'll be back at my desk focusing on the marketing of a historic house. But that is teaching me other skills I need to reach my dream. Whenever I come to the UN, I meet people, and I come to understand more about many complex social justice issues that are both every so local and also completely global. When I go back to my day job, I will be learning the skills that we teach me how to reach and entice so many different kinds of audience to come to a heritage attraction. There are themes of biodiversity, good governance, ending discrimination, peace building and political participation - my current job will help me to learn how I can build those connections between historical artefacts and talking about the social justice issues of today.

And that was probably my longest blog yet.