Leaving Norwich

Today I am setting off from my University home in Norwich, to stay overnight with my Mum before taking off for New York tomorrow - safe to say I'm very excited about the trip and about setting out on this adventure on World Thinking Day!

World Thinking Day is celebrated by Guides and Scouts around the world as a day to think and learn about fellow members of the movement. It's held on the 22nd of February as this was the joint birthday of Lord Baden Powell and his wife Olave (World Chief Guide in her lifetime).

I awoke this morning to more 'Happy Thinking Day' messages in my friends statuses than several other minor holidays combined! This fills my with a sense of pride as a member of this movement, but also with a sense of hope. All these people commit to one movement, to common goals, and by these 10 million members across 145 countries taking a small action each, over time, it will really change the world - I know this because it already has.

This year there is a theme of environmental sustainability - take a look at the website linked above for more info. But regardless of whether or not you are a member of this movement, today join in the call for collective action - tweet #GirlsSaveOurPlanet, explore the website, and share this blog post with families and friends. The internet connects us together in a way to inspire action from others if you are willing to take that action yourself.

I'm currently on the train, listening to 'It does get better', and I want you to join me in looking out at our beautiful planet. And then do ONE thing today to help preserve it for future generations.

Thank You.

Preparations for CSW 56 Continue...

My apologies for the gap since my last blog entry - but be assured that the preparations for CSW 56 are coming along at pace!

I am part of discussions with World YWCA, with whom WAGGGS is co-hosting the Young Women's Caucus at the CSW event. Getting such a group together regularly during the event will allow us to be able to speak as a united voice on several topics - representing the voice of young women to the governmental delegations and other NGOs.

The whole WAGGGS delegation are taking part in many tasks through our groupsite platform as preparation for our work in New York, and the key messages we'll deliver are being formulated. This week's task for example is to research a little on the Millennium Development Goals and understand how the challenges a particular goal seeks to address may impact on rural women (the priority theme of the CSW).

I'll be back soon with another update and some more discussion of the issues.

Sustainability and Rural Women in the UK

Research announced by my university this week had some good and bad news - whilst they say that high carbon emissions are not a requirement of high life expectancy (citing Costa Rica and other nations), low carbon emissions pretty much always correlate with poor life expectancy etc.

The sustainability issue is the focus of the Rio+20 summit later this year, but I can't help but think it will be raised at the CSW as I see it as intricately tied to the livelihoods of rural women in all countries. Whilst my previous post touched on how the environment is key to women in African nations, environmental issues are definitely important for rural women in the UK to.

In a time of funding cuts, it's difficult for a rural woman in the UK to prioritise sustainable transportation methods as bus services are reduced. Less buses (and more expensive tickets) not only impacts on carbon emissions, but also on the employment and social opportunities of rural women. The council in the above example say they targetted evening and weekend services - clearly with the premise of the working week running 9-5 Monday to Friday - but women in the UK are more likely to be part-time employment which often requires working outside of the usual 9-5. Women are also more likely to be in insecure work (and make up a greater proportion of those claiming job-seekers allowance) with the gap between women and men growing since 2008.

These statitics are reiterated for rural women across europe and this same report highlights the importance of women in the process of sustainable development. The male dominated rural networks can exclude women from decision making processes simply by being places that they don't want to be. Rural women need to be given a voice for sustainable development in their communities.

Thoughts on the Rural Environment

"The world’s population is going to stop at nine billion and go down. It’s an enormous achievement. And it’s largely an achievement of women, and particularly poor women who have been able to get hold of contraceptives or say, 'No'. Literacy is the best predictor of this. As soon as you see tiny improvements in female literacy, women gain more control of their own lives and you see dramatic falls in fertility." - Danny Dorling,  2010

Women in rural areas, in most countries, often face more barriers in getting an education, in getting access to contraception and thus controlling the size of their families. I'm simplifying here, but the basic human geography mode suggests that without education, the labour value of people is their main asset, and so the more children you have the more labour your family work force can do. So there may be little impetus to overcome these barriers.

But what sort of labour are these families doing? In Kenya, where I did my fieldwork, and in Ghana, where I taught English a few years ago, the vast majority of families were reliant on agriculture for their subsistence. So much so that in Ghana we wold be covering lessons for Ghanaian teachers because they had gone to tend their farms that day. In Kenya, labour has a strong gender divide: men are in charge of the animals (though women sometimes took charge of chickens and goats) and women do the majority of the agricultural labour. In terms of how these contribute to feeding the family, it's fair to say the majority of the food came from the women's efforts. And it is those who depend on agriculture for daily living that are hit hardest by a changing environment. The whole East Africa region has suffered with drought, and when the rains do come the soil is degraded and large gulleys form, dividing up the village.

These environmental issues have some similarities and some difference to those faced by rural populations in the UK...

56th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

After lying dormant for a while I will be picking up this blog once again - this week I heard the fantastic news that this spring, I will be once again going with WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) to UNHQ in New York! This time I will be taking on a mentor and training role within the delegation, and I'm excited for a trip to London this Tuesdey to discuss the event.

The priority theme for CSW 56  will be:
"The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges"

Doing a research project in a rural Keyan village back in March 2011, and then spending June through to September living in a small village in the Norfolk countryside has given me a flavour of the impact of geography (particularly rural v urban) on achieving gender equality.

One such issue is gender based violence and whilst a WI study in the UK, has shown that the amount of violence against women is comparable in rural and urban areas (though other studies have shown certain types of violence to be higher in urban areas) there is a distinct lack of relevant services in rural areas shown by the Map of Gaps project. The area I lived in over the summer has 0 such services.

In Kenya, violence against women is arguably even more of a concern. This 2003 report on progress towards UN goals in the Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEDAW) demonstrates that pervasive cultural norms are a significant barrier to easy implementation of such aims. Female Genital Cutting has been outlawed in the country since 2003, but in rural areas the enforcement of such laws is difficult - and often not a priority.

And it is here where the environment and sustainability is a becoming an increasing concern...till the next post.

Videos

Just stumbled across these 4 videos of the side event with Soroptomists International. Doesn't include the WAGGGS part, but is a good taster of the session.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAeYNDJF92Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=331rwAJ3XEg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjQ84CZndvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XNXSYjW-uQ

6 Weeks Later

Since returning from the Comission on the Status of Women you will have seen additions to this site and to out facebook page.

You can see the highlights of the trip and what other delegates have been up to since at http://bit.ly/eogiP3

Back in the UK

The journey back was relatively smooth and i have just about caught up on sleep. Now I just need to work through what I have learnt and process how I a going to go forward.

WATCH THIS SPACE!

Thursday and Friday

Again, yesterday was so busy that I did not get a chance to write a blog entry.

Starting with a UK NGO briefing at 9am, I then attended a number of side events on education before "Girls Speak Out About Violence Against Girls" which was an amazing event run by the Salvation Army. Three teenage girls each gave a story on what they knew and had learnt about violence against girls, before offering a creative contribution - throguh dance or music. It was a very moving event and the three young women were clearly very passionate.

The afternoon was spent filming messages and getting others to give messages for a number of WAGGGS video projects.

Today I managed to attend a panel on education delivered in Portuguese (muddling through with a powerpoint in English to guide me) before an extremely informative session on new technologies and free technologies which may be useful to women's organisations and other NGOs.

This left time to grab some lunch and book a table for a delegation meal out this evening before the second WAGGGS side event on violence against girls. We partnered with Soroptimists International, World YWCA and UN Women to deliver an interesting session combining case studies, questions and policy outcomes. During the session I took lots of notes in preparation for a blog I then typed up to go on the UN Women website. Other members of the delegation filmed the speeches and I was also able to put together a short video - also to be put on the UN Women website.

We finished the day with a delegation meal out - though Fiona from New Zealand sneaked off to a Bon Jovi concert instead.

Tommorrow we have a day of debriefing before I will depart for the airport in order to get a flight to the UK. My time here has gone so fast and I have so many ideas of what I want to advocate to change!

Wednesday at the UN

Today I went to many sessions - lots outlining specific situations in certain countries. This morning I attended a session on Ghana, the impact of violence against girls on their life chances and also the impact of climate change.

Then I went to the UNICEF building where there was a panel on the use of technology for educating girls and women. They provided an excellent lunch, and this was followed by an very insightful panel with speakers from Plan International and CISCO. I was intrigued by the statistic that by 2014 the majority of internet traffic will be through video, and also the affirmation that the radio and flash drives shouldn't be overlooked in distributing information to rural populations.

We then went for a look around the UN building - finding our way to the very old school library with a card index.

This afternoon I attended a panel at the Finnish Consulate featuring the Nordic Ministers and they presented the situation on equality, education and employment in Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They raised several interesting points including the priority of childcare and men taking on domestic responsibilities for getting women into employment.

In then briefly called into the Soroptomist International reception to say hello before rushing to the UK mission to attend their briefing on their position on UN Women. I finally made it to an event on homophobia and how that relates to gender inequality before heading back to the hotel for a debrief on the day.

At some point I hope to give more details on the content of the sessions - perhaps once I'm home and not rushing from place to place!