WOMEN RISE: The To-Do List for Gender Equality | United Nations | Women's Day

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hello and welcome to the sdg dialogue on

gender equality my name is nala valjee

and i will be your moderator for the day

the sustainable development goals are

the world's roadmap for a better future

we like to call them the world's to-do

list

on the occasion of this year's

international women's day we will deep

dive into the to do's for sdg number

five on gender equality

joining me today are six amazing women

leaders titans of gender equality

amina j muhammad u.n deputy secretary

general who is our host today

sima bahut u.n women executive director

hajir sharif gender equality and women's

rights activist

nurchat afridi the ceo of godiva company

and paloma costa

a socio environmentalist and a member of

the un secretary general's youth

advisory group on climate change

welcome to you all

our discussion will be centered around

the secretary general's five

transformative actions for gender

equality

one realize women's equal rights

everywhere

two

ensure equal representation of women in

every sector at all levels of decision

making

three

invest in women and focus on economic

inclusion

four take emergency action to end all

forms of violence against women and

girls and fifth listen to the voices of

young women

before we dive into each of these topics

let's take a look at how gender equality

is fundamental to achieving the sdgs

foreign

the pandemic has increased inequalities

for women and girls in all areas of life

and yet there's never been more momentum

to overhaul the power dynamics of gender

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there's so much left to do

and soon is not soon enough to get the

world's to-do list for gender equality

done we must if we want to achieve the

social government goals if we want to

have a better world we must have women

and men in full equality

now is the time to get specific

every global citizen owes it to every

citizen on the globe to fight for

more women in positions of power an

urgent end to violence against women and

girls sexual and reproductive health

rights quality education for all girls

women equal in law equal pay and

economic empowerment

achieving gender equality for the

sustainable development goals is

bringing the 50 of our population in the

world

into the picture what we need to

understand is a fundamental right for

all human beings let's get this done

gender equality

everywhere

now

as we just heard soon is not soon enough

and that is the urgency that is going to

guide our conversation today

to set the frame and ambition for

today's conversation i am joined by

united by the united nations deputy

secretary general amina muhammad dsg you

recently traveled to haiti costa rica

and ethiopia

reflecting on these trips and the women

that you met what is your message for

international women's day

i think a really strong message that

came for me all three countries is that

women are leading

women are strong women are survivors

but they in every context need to find

the enabling environment

to excel to achieve those rights

and to be present in the 50 that's

missing

and so for for haiti very exciting for

me to see

you know in a place where gangs had

taken over the schools and the minister

of education had decided no he was

opening up he opened up with mothers in

the community

and what we saw there were girls who now

could see the future and they were

already asking what next

um and so you know just restless and and

full of um uh i think energy to just get

through to the next space where they

would actualize their dreams but not

just for themselves they were talking

about haiti

in ethiopia of course the context

matters so much

and a lot of the times we're talking

about contexts where there is

inequalities and poverty and

an environment um where the economies

are not doing so well and so women are

not even there but in ethiopia this is

conflict and to see women bearing the

brunt of the conflict without even

asking for it and then being cast aside

when you see the brunt of rape

gender-based violence uh cast aside um

thrown

to to to what i don't know to the future

that they don't know um and i think for

me coming back and

being in the position i was to speak to

the men to say that you know these are

your wives your mothers your sisters

when a man comes back from war he's a

hero and and yet when women are the

victims and sometimes are able to

survive the war then they're cast out

this is not acceptable so again you know

the position that we have is is one that

is

dispensable and that that shouldn't

continue to happen

last but not least uh costa rica young

people um and leadership and seeing a

country that

quite frankly the sky is the limit now

they have got good foundations but how

do they involve

women in leadership we saw amazing

people in the cabinet uh certainly the

vice president of costa rica is an

inspiration

and has spoken to indigenous people

people of color um inspiring in the way

in which she does it she's not asking um

she's uh assuming

and and and getting on with it and i

think that it's it's it's marvelous so

for me i think the messages um

for international women's day are

central rights of women um in everything

and whatever we do that that must be up

front and center representation and it's

not just about percentages or numbers

it's what position you hold so looking

at decision-making

responsibilities

and then the investments investments to

empower women so we don't have to keep

giving handouts they're perfectly

capable if empowered economically and we

need to see those investments happen

i would say last but not least the the

silent pandemic is the gender-based

violence and we have to take that

head-on thank you so much dsg and just

to pick up the opportunity to realize

their rights the opportunity to lead and

i want to pick up on that question that

you asked what's next

and i think that's important for us to

to come back to in this conversation

today so thank you for framing uh the

discussion for us today with that let's

begin with the first topic women's equal

rights

executive director women's rights are

human rights by 2030 over 150 million

women and girls could emerge from

poverty if governments implement

positive and comprehensive strategies

for economic inclusion what are some of

these strategies what is you and women

advocating for and how can we ensure the

promise of the sustainable development

goals particularly in this moment when

the impact of cobit 19 has been has been

so acute for women and girls

thank you thank you narla and thank you

dsg for uh

inviting me to be here today to mark

international women's day um you know

the the numbers of you and women and

also the numbers from un statistical

division is is showing us that

that we are not where we need to be on

the sdgs for example on the sdg 5 in

particular of the 18 indicators that

that we

you know we are targeting uh to to reach

only one is almost there and not even

there and this is the participation of

women in governance and therefore we

need to accelerate everything uh on the

sdg five but also on all sdgs because

all sdgs in the end

sdg 5 is is the

docking station as we say but the old

sdgs include gender equality and gender

and women empowerment and women

participation also the the pandemic

itself has

has also as we know

negatively affecting affected women and

we need to ensure that we

tackle this and that we also bring back

the sustainable development goals on

track and therefore you and women has

identified three major areas where we

would like to work on which is one is

care

two is job and three is climate

we must see policies

better policies new policies new actions

and investments to both recover from

kovitt and also to advance the sdgs

first on care if we want to speak on

care we we know that the pandemic has

seen that women were at the forefront

they were putting endless hours numerous

numbers of hours taking care of the

society taking care of the elderly

taking care of the children and

sometimes being teachers at home for

their children at the same time this

went uh unnoticed unpaid and the hours

were accumulating for for these women

and this kind of labor is also labor

that is a social good for our society so

we need to take action on that we need

to see that policies are put in place

investments and put in place so that

women are integrated into the the

economy in such a way that they are

recognized their work is recognized and

that also the the coveted recovery plans

that we are putting take care of women

of their social protection and also of

the elderly and the young people as well

so that we can continue to move forward

with the with the sdgs and with the

well-being of our economy

i think also

there are so many new jobs that can

are being uh how shall i say forecasted

for

coming after kovit and i think there

will be many of them will be green jobs

and we need to ensure that women are

included in those green jobs and that

they are trained and ready to go into

those jobs for their own livelihoods

this brings me to the job situation and

also the job situation we need to know

that women

lost their jobs during covert at a much

faster rate than men and there are

regaining these jobs as a much slower

rate than men and this is this affects

society it affects their families it

affects the economy and we need to be

sure that we re-include them back into

the formal economy and ensure that they

are able to handle their own livelihoods

and that they are empowered to do so and

this means that again

this links us to the climate crisis i

mean we are going from one crisis to the

other the climate crisis is now

a crisis in in the world and we know

that both gender equality and climate

crisis are as the sg of the un has told

us they are the most challenging

challenges of the time today and we need

to see how best to to to address those

on on climate we have the csw coming up

very soon this uh this march it is going

to have the priority theme as climate

and

gender equality and we need to ensure

that we really uh work together all of

us as un as member states as ngos as

civil society together to be able to to

to keep women at the center of the

climate crisis we know that women

are leaders on that we know that women

have indigenous knowledge in how to deal

with climate we know that women can do

it and we know that once empowered once

given the opportunity once given the

right policies once given the right

investments they are able to move

forward so they are not always the

victims but many many many times we see

that women are the leaders and they can

take us forward on that and we really

need to to ensure that we invest in that

and that the policies the actions the

finance comes so that women are more

empowered and eventually we reach not

only the sdg 5 but the different other

sdgs that we need to bring back on track

and this will also help us

also have a recovery from covet that has

women and gender equality at the center

of it and this is beneficial not only to

women but to the whole societies that we

we lead and we want to see

flourish so

basically we need more finances for

climate crisis and we will also need as

the secretary general has highlighted

many times and so did dsg amina

the issue of financing for climate this

is extremely important we need to see

that the whole world comes in solidarity

with this and that the whole world comes

to help with financing and financing

solutions for the developing countries

in particular where they need to be

supported on that on the policies on the

action on the investment and on the

financing

getting back on track thank you so much

for that thank you uh ed and for

spelling out not just the challenges but

the road map for recovery climate jobs

and care absolutely we know that uh the

challenges that you that you spoke to

with regards to getting back on track

are even more challenging uh in in

conflict uh context hazard let me let me

bring you in here in recent history only

a small fraction of negotiators

mediators um and signatories in major

peace processes were women and in fact

about seven out of ten uh of every uh

peace processes do not include women uh

mediators or women's signatories at all

as a peace and human rights activist can

you tell us a little bit about the

implications uh for this exclusion both

for women's rights as well as for

sustainable peace

well first of all

happy international women's day i hope

you will all enjoy it and celebrate the

progress we made and make

personal commitments to carry on

our work our collective work forward

nala the question you asked is extremely

important and i wonder how many times

we've asked this question

um how many times women

um even decades ago asked to ask these

questions and we're still asking this

question right the fact that women are

still not equally participating at the

negotiation at the peace table how does

that affect us and how does that affect

women generally well first of all it has

definitely a negative indirect effect

this is something that we cannot counter

argue there is no way around it if women

are not sitting at the table it affects

them directly and negatively

as we all know the nature of

negotiations and those who reach the

peace table and the negotiation table

especially those who are representing

the different political actors or the

fighting parties on the ground

they are there to fight for their

interests they are there to fight for

their ideology they are there pretty

much to fight for themselves whether

this is something for the good or for

the bad this is the nature of any

negotiation so in simple words if you

are sitting at the negotiation table and

you're representing one of the fighting

parties because logic says if you picked

up

your arms and you're fighting someone

else then you're definitely fighting for

yourself in the sense of like you need

to ensure that what you believe in is

going to win so the question then is who

is representing the woman who's

representing the needs of women who's

representing the beliefs of women so in

order to actually ensure that women's

rights are addressed properly

comprehensively we need to have women

sitting at the decision-making table not

only in track 2 not only in

supplementary conversations but at the

decision-making table itself and we also

need to remember that when we're talking

about women's rights we're not only

talking about women we're talking about

the rights of 50 of the society we're

talking about human rights so having

women sitting at the table

it's a way even for the mediator the

facilitator to ensure that the

conversation is not only about power

sharing settlements it's not a

conversation that is narrowed but it's a

conversation that reflects the society

itself and this takes me to another very

important

factor that when we're saying that women

need to sit at the table we're also

saying that we need to have feminist

voices at the table so we need the

voices that will be present at the table

that will say and that will speak out

loud gender equality those who are going

to ensure that the outcomes of the

negotiations are gender sensitive those

who are going to ensure that the

negotiation itself and the agenda of the

negotiations once again reflect 50 of

the society so we're not really asking

for for much you know when we say that

women need to be part of formal peace

negotiations and peace processes we're

talking about 50 of the society so it

sounds fair

and on this day i just want to

um really request

mediators and facilitators of peace

processes to please remember that if you

are acting as a mediator or a

facilitator of a peace process and you

are responsible on convening the whole

process then you have an important role

to play when it comes to safeguarding

women's equal participation

and this role is a drew role you can

first of all play a role when it comes

to directly including women to the peace

negotiations and sit and to have them

sitting at the peace table and you can

also play a role when it comes to

ensuring that women are equally and

meaningfully participating and i'm

excited by the but by what we've heard

so far in the sense that you know it's

really urgent and it's time to start

talking about what's next

wonderful hajer thank you so much for

that and for reminding us that when we

talk about women's rights we are talking

about the rights of half of society and

that those are intrinsically linked to

building peace

in conflict settings as well

let's turn now to the issue of girls

rights to education and paloma if i can

bring you in here

out of school girls face increased risk

of violence child labor child marriage

and teen pregnancies and we've

particularly seen this in the context of

cobit 19 in the past two years and yet

only 42 percent of countries had

programs to support girls returned to

school in 2021

as an activist working on

on youth involvement how important is

girls education to raising youth voices

and activism

thank you so much for this question i

think it's very important and i could

not agree more on with the woman that

spoke before me we need more

representation

and for that for a meaningful and

effective participation we need three

main things

access to information deliberative and

blinding spaces for participating and

education education is key it's

fundamental it is true education that we

make it possible to understand the

informations that are shared it is true

education that we empower and teach

women about the colonialization about

patriarchalism

it is true investing in education that

we can boost solutions that are already

happening on the ground

and it's true investing in people that

we guarantee our future as

humanity

and

woman and girls still doesn't have the

same opportunities as you even shared

which is unacceptable

how many women do we really see like as

the dsg said really occupying this

decision-making spaces

every child every girl every woman

should have the right to be free and to

live in freedom that's why

women like you like me like us that are

present here we

have this duty to make sure that we are

opening more and more spaces for women

to participate in this entire process so

i congrats all of you for taking the

lead and how much it's needed for us to

keep opening those spaces for all the

women for other young girls that are

coming around

thank you so much for that polo man also

for speaking to education not just in

the sense of school buildings but really

investing in half of society and ongoing

education

as we have just heard gender inequality

is deeply rooted in many societal issues

and it's clear that only by ensuring

equal rights and an investment in

education that we can build the

foundation for sustainable development

thank you so much all of you for your

insights we will now continue the

dialogue with our second topic but an

issue that we have already begun to

touch upon and that is women's equal

representation and inclusive economic

growth in other words investing in women

deputy secretary general this year's

international women's day is being held

under the theme gender equality today

for a sustainable tomorrow and it's

focused on the climate crisis and

disaster risk reduction and gender

equality at the heart of that

as we know in the context of climate

change women are particularly vulnerable

to the impacts of

of climate change due to the

difficulties in adapting because of

inequality

economic insecurity

intersectionality between the

sustainable development goals couldn't

be more obvious and you often speak

about goal 5 as the docking station for

all of the goals

why is it so important to include a

gender perspective across all of the

sdgs and how can we achieve a better

acknowledgement and visibility of that

why is a no-brainer i mean without women

in the picture and in the results of the

2030 agenda there won't be a 2030 agenda

and what we need to do about is that

every plan and strategy that we have we

need to look at it to see how are we

involving the impacts that we need to

see in women in girls lives whether it's

in food systems or it's energy

transitions or the digital world in

every single strategy we have for the

sdgs there is a component there that we

have to ask the question where are the

women

and in every single case it's not the

same country by country region by region

so we must not um put this in a cookie

cutter it's not the same for everyone

and we have to look at the context we

have to look at where people are

in development in that particular region

country society and take them with us

and i think that's the sustainability so

plans are important strategies are

important and they shouldn't just be

words on paper they need to go past the

sterile consultations that have been had

in the past and to be really

i think engendered in

what we intend to be moving forward as

an investment plan

the second is that we need to find the

youth voice in our plans

this is something that we speak about um

you know youth are with us they're at

the center of things they're important

it's about their future okay it's all

now um how do we

find the space

for youth not just in the consultation

but in the workplace

we have young people in the u.n are they

around the table of decision making so

it's the same question that we ask of

women we need to ask about the youth um

and if there is to be an

intergenerational transition if we're

not listening to what it is they're

going to be in the future we're setting

up the wrong solutions which will fail

and there will be no sustainability um

so i think it's very important for us to

be listening to be engaging to be

involving and freeing up the space that

we need to have them there to make

sufficient input to shape the future

now and then the last thing i would say

is really really important for us to

find a set of metrics that hasn't gone

through

a process

500 times that it comes out meaning

nothing there are some very basic

metrics in the lives of young people of

women and girls

which we should be able to use to

measure whether we're making any impact

or not we've been waiting for baselines

and data

well since 2015

we still don't have a full set of

baselines around the world in terms of

our statistics and data for gender just

the gender goal

and so i think that we need to develop a

set of metrics that tests us pushes us

um and and and calls us out uh when

these basic um issues have not and it's

those metrics that we should use to

define whether we achieved a result or

not

and and i i think that that's something

that we need to push ourselves with many

people are not asking or putting on the

table some of those metrics so if for

instance you are saying you have

increased employment in the job market

by 5 million of that 5 million how many

are women and of those women where are

they what level of society are they at

and really ask those tough questions so

that you put

women and girls behind the percentages

and the figures

that seem right now to sort of fly over

the top of people's heads so being

informed by data statistics uh and

evidence uh and centering the youth

voice and perhaps we can stay on that

thread of centering the youth voice and

paloma bring you in here if you can tell

us a little bit about why is it so

important as the dsg has said that we

have the youth voice at the center of

this conversation on climate change and

perhaps you can share with us an

anecdote from your own experience on

this

thank you so much and i feel like the

dsg said everything

for youth people for woman we cannot

think on a long-term strategy without

involving the voice of the people that

are going to be there that are going to

be impacted we need to share this power

we need to change for

for real for good

and

i will tell you a story about like how

important it is uh that we share here

for example in brazil with the

representation of different womans in

politics and decision making spaces

during pandemic it was those a woman

really fighting for access to vaccine

for changing and for taking care of the

needs of the communities and i feel like

that this happens because we naturally

care and nurture the environment that we

innovate

it's like we fight because we know how

essential it is to have at least respect

the our only woman deputy and indigenous

here from brazil for example it was

essential to bring vaccinations to bring

the basic needs for the indigenous

communities and because she was there

leading that into the congress and i

feel and from this secular pain

that we've been feeling as womans at

some point we started creating spaces to

heal

as we are constantly and constantly

threatened we've grown with a natural

disposition for cure and we empower the

community around us i'm seeing that not

only in the congress but also the young

activists that lead the marches that

lead the changes that hold up the

society that was falling apart because

the structures were not sustainable at

all

and i feel we can no longer accept that

there are still people having their

existence threatened even youth even

environmentalists even women we need to

invest in people we need to stamp our

diversity on decision-making spaces

we need to guarantee this right for 50

of our population and we need to empower

marginalized groups for building

collective solutions

i mean

we as women we as young people we've

been

of our world that surround us and we

still we don't have the space so how are

we going to guarantee that our voices

and that the solutions that we need the

actions that we are taking on the ground

they are really taking seriously they

are really taking forward

and i mean for that we need the space we

need to be respected and i feel as woman

we've been leading that because we've

always been fighting for respect and now

we are empowering each other and this is

very very important

paloma thank you so much for that and

it's so interesting to hear you talk

about the intersection uh between care

and and climate uh and i'm actually

going to use this as an opportunity

to turning to you nurtush

already before the pandemic women only

held 28 percent of managerial positions

in the workplace worldwide

in addition women were already doing

three times the unpaid care work and

domestic housework that men were doing

and of course that's only increased in

the context of covet 19 although we have

also seen increased visibility to this

challenge

can you tell us a little bit reflecting

on your experience and passion for

organizational development

why is it important to have equal

representation of women in the workplace

of course thank you very much having me

today about

our mission at godava to empower women

it's an organization that also

lives

according to the namesake of lady godiva

who 1000 years ago according to the

story empowered the people to have equal

rights and to defend for the fairness

and for that we also have strategically

unorganically built equal rights in our

company in fact

we have currently 60 percent of our

companies managers and directors women

and notably 53 percent of our senior

executives are women

when it comes to women leadership

kodaiba is leading and serving as an

example for the industry

in fact if you look at the top-level

executives at kodava more than

two-thirds of the executive committee

are female myself included

and in our parent company ethil this

holding uh they also serve a we build

also an initiative

for the women platform in order to

empower women for their equal lights

in addition to this powerful

representation of women inside kodava

our organization has also achieved

external success in uplifting

communities around the world through the

lady godiva initiative which we launched

last year

in five countries we are operating in

canada us belgium

uk

and china we selected non-government

organizations that empower women

and we are continuing that program each

year we are supporting these

organizations and these

comp these organizations are selected by

our employees for their contribution to

the empowerment of women why is it so

important for us it's very important

first of all because it's not logical to

exclude women from

economic life from business life it

doesn't make sense if you think about

all the women in history in the current

world in your families in your close

circles and the impact they make to your

lives how can you exclude them

it's not logical how can you exclude all

that power all that contribution they

bring they support they raise families

they take shopping decisions they

they contribute in a way also to the

economy even if they are not in

professional life i can exclude half of

the talent in the world if we are

currently in this world living with the

scarcity of talent it is not logical so

if he would like to be make smart

choices it's it doesn't make sense to

exclude women

also economically

if you would like to add women's

productivity to the economic life their

contribution to your company to the

world to the

country's economies

you need to have down products if you

cannot leave a women with dependence

economic dependency to others you need

to bring them

with their powers with their

contribution and talent economic life

and i must say that many of our

female leaders have been the leaders of

our success so far and we strongly

believe that without women we wouldn't

be able to achieve that

we will continue to um to be pioneers of

female leadership in our company

in the environments that we will support

wonderful nartosh thank you so much for

that uh amazing to hear 53 of your

senior leadership uh are women um this

is also uh an achievement that the un

secretary general has achieved uh in the

u.n system for the first time in seven

decades we have parity and senior

leadership uh here in the u.n and we can

really see the impact uh that it is

having inside the institution as you

said it's simply illogical to exclude

half the talent uh of the world and i

think that really makes the case for uh

this second segment on on women's equal

participation uh and economic economic

inclusion

i'd like to turn now to the third uh

topic for discussion today which is

taking emergency action to end all forms

of violence against women and girls

executive director if i can turn to you

on this violence against women and girls

during coven 19 has increased

exponentially you and women's own

research

shows this according to recent estimates

245 million women and girls over the age

of 15 have been subject to sexual or

physical violence in the past 12 months

the secretary general has called for an

end to all forms of violence from war

zones to people's homes and is now

asking every member state to enact an

emergency plan to address and end and

drive to zero all forms of violence

against women and girls can you tell us

what would an effective emergency plan

look like

well thank you thank you

i think

what i can say initially is that we all

always need to be prepared for any kind

of pandemic for any kind of emergency

that might affect women and girls this

is something very important that we have

learned from kovitt 19 from the onset of

the pandemic we were unprepared to

handle the issues of violence against

women we were unprepared to ensure that

the services continue and that the

prevention programs also continue thus

we see as you mentioned that many women

were subjected to violence against them

we have done some studies in 13

countries around the world it shows that

seven out of 10

women

reported that they have been subjected

to some kind of abuse during the

pandemic and also we we found that four

out of ten women feel unsafe in public

spaces and this is something that we

really need to address and as soon as

possible uh we we need to ensure that

women are not subjected to that we need

to ensure that their equal rights and

feeling safe in having safe environments

safe homes is is uh is something that is

realized and addressed as soon as

possible i think we have only eight

years to go to the sdgs and to the

implementation and the realization of

all sdgs and therefore we really have to

accelerate all these programs that will

ensure that women are safe and are

empowered and are

continue to be included as all the young

ladies here with us on the screen as

they have suggested inclusion for us is

extremely important and also making sure

that the voices and the

agency of younger women is coming to the

fore on all issues including on violence

against women and girls and how they

experience and i think one of the major

issues that we need to look at as well

with our young generation is violence

online because after during the pandemic

when everything shifted to online we saw

a rise in violence online against young

women against women

human rights defenders against women

even who were just expressing their

opinion and against women also who were

running for office or for public

participation in any way shape or form

and

this affects mental health it affects uh

you know productivity it also affects

participation in so many ways in society

and including poli politically and this

is something we don't want to see halted

by women because we were short of

addressing the issues of violence

against them in the common agenda as you

as you mentioned his the secretary

general of the un have asked that we we

every single country puts an emergency

plan to deal with this emergency of

violence against women and to see how

best we we can

put the policies the laws the resources

and the political will which is most

important to ensure that violence

against women

is not only

addressed but that it is prevented and

that is end in the end because this is

the objective the objective is to end

violence against women in every corner

of the world as much as we can and as

quickly as we can and to be able to do

this as well we should not only

concentrate on women and girls we should

concentrate on men and on boys and this

something brings me to also the

education that was mentioned earlier

in this discussion education of boys and

how to be positive masculine

young boys in society how they can

influence and learn to be positive in

their culture about women how to how to

be able to live in the same spaces with

women as equal after all we talk about

gender equality you know gender equality

is about men and boys at the same time

so we need to be able to ensure that men

and boys are included and at the same

time to ensure that women do have social

protection that women do have livelihood

opportunities and are also better

integrated politically and economically

in their societies and in the in the

world that they live we need also to see

partnerships how we can bring

partnerships to bear to help us prevent

and end violence against women and here

i give an example of the spotlight

initiative which is an initiative that

is being

implemented by the united nations and

the european union to help bring about

laws and policies and action on the

ground to prevent violence against women

and to help you know the society also

understand what needs to be done

in terms of laws and in terms of

all kinds of

of actions needed and resources to be

put in local communities to help

address violence against women and this

is something

very successful to date

the project has been able to to change

many laws or to affect positively about

80-something laws in the throughout the

countries where we are working and many

many

also

perpetrators of violence against women

up to about 22 percent were also

subjected to uh you know to trials and

to justice and

and

the the measures that that they need to

face once they do

these kinds of violence against women

so i think also the un is is extremely

ready to support

all member states any member states that

want to look at

how to prevent and how to stop violence

against women including not only the

governments but also civil society youth

groups young people

and these are important and i call on

all young people who are with us

here on the screen and who are watching

also as well to see how best we can

always put the lens

of uh of gender equality and violence

against women as we are doing the work

that

any one of you is doing in your own

field to see how best you can make sure

that this does not happen and that

inclusion of women and girls

who can help and or who have survived

this can be also part and parcel of the

programs that we work on and the

initiatives that we

we want to achieve so addressing

violence is important preventing

violence is important most important is

to end violence against women and as

soon as possible

absolutely and so strengthening

partnerships acting with urgency greater

investment voices of of young people um

and engaging men and boys and i wonder

if on that last issue dsg if i can just

turn to you in the in the course of the

pandemic uh last year uh you taped a

video for social media

engaging uh with um uh and and speaking

to young men uh in your home country of

nigeria

and i wonder if you could tell us a

little bit about that video what what

prompted it and what was your your

message through that video

well thank you and just listening to

sema um it did remind me that at that

particular time there was such a

pushback against young women who came up

with what we would say is absolutely

zero tolerance for rape for

abuse for harassment and the backlash

that these young women got from

their male counterparts was of more

concern to me

than in fact what they had said because

it was like wow okay does my son think

like this um and and he was the one that

i i went straight to to say this is you

know i mean what do you think about this

of course he thought that it was

completely wrong

um i wasn't sure till he said it but

then i thought okay we need to speak

about this and he needs also to talk to

his um folk and um and and and stand up

with you know with their partners the

other part of of humanity to it

so but but a realization that you've got

to bring the boys into it and maybe just

to say targeting for me targeting the

policy space is important but be very

specific that we're speaking about our

homes so in the community i mean it

starts there it starts in the home the

way in which um parents community build

up um a acceptance that it's okay to

push or shove a girl to begin with and

then to say well you're the older

brother so that you can

hit her i mean you you cannot do that

that's where it begins um so i think

it's very important for us to look at

that look at the workplace

it's also acceptable in many cultures to

be despicable in workplaces there are

different you know the range from here

to here um as i've found out in the un

is huge so some people will say well

this is cultural well

what is cultural about abusing a woman

um and and so you need to you need to

step back and think okay what kind of a

workplace do we want um and and and

respect for each other and then online

as she said in politics

in politics i mean this is where we're

asking for women to be in politics it's

not possible and yet you know sometimes

i hear men say well i don't want my wife

to be in politics because a the time is

really late at night and b i don't know

what they're going to be doing there and

it's not a it's a cd place to go to so

change the environment of politics

you you said you don't want your wife to

go there so stop being 3 a.m in the

morning let's talk about politics at 3am

3pm in the afternoon so i think some of

the

the ways in which we um we see

uh uh where gbv is had we need to change

that environment um perhaps last um two

things nala

the security

agencies the people in the security

agencies there is a really important

role for us to play that the leadership

of security police army wherever you

find them needs to be more women

and we really need to see in those

forces that it is women that go out to

women and not the men that go out to

women this is this is not going to work

if you want to change that environment

the unconscious bias is huge that you

deserve it

because you wore this or because you're

in the wrong place at the wrong time

who's every space should be free and

safe

so i think the security agencies we need

to tackle and the legal system the legal

system also either

you know in the best case scenario they

want to protect you so they don't even

allow you to have your day in court

because they say it's going to be so

terrible for you it's better that you

don't talk um but we should be making

environments in a legal system that it's

okay for you to go there and get justice

and so i think that we on the

gender-based

violence

it's really important that we tackle

these in a granular way

and that

we start to make champions of the men

i'm not just talking about for the he

for she which is a great campaign and

they wear the badge but you don't know

what they do at home what i want us to

do is to take a leader who sits at the

helm of affairs and every day asks the

men so what about the zero tolerance for

violence against women it's not

acceptable so unless men are championing

this course in real ways as some did

with hiv and aids it's when they did it

with hiv and aids that the stigma went

aside we started to get drugs there we

started to see a difference so i think

men to have to be champions some in this

and they should do so without being

asked they should also appreciate that

there is a pandemic out there it's

silent um and it's pretty deadly for

many women absolutely so we need

leadership at the at the highest levels

and dsg you spoke about um the impact

the implications of violence in the home

uh in in the workplace in school online

in the political space and of course we

know that all of this is aggravated and

escalated in con in in context of of

conflict and i think executive director

as you said we need to always be ready

for for that crisis um because we know

that uh that crises escalate violence

against women and girls hasher i wonder

if i can just bring you in here um and

and speak a little bit to that what can

we do we know that violence escalates in

context of crises what more do we need

to do to prevent respond raise awareness

on this issue

absolutely as as a general note um

it seems that the issue of gender-based

violence although

as dsg mentioned some might say you know

it's culture um it's fine that it's

happening let's say in libya or in in

other countries but it's not happening

in in country xyz because it's not our

culture right um and the thing i want to

say to that is that

in order for us to really fight and end

and prevent gender-based violence we

need to first all of us admit and

recognize that it's actually a universal

issue it has nothing to do with culture

and in order for us to actually address

it address the core issues first of all

collectively we need to stop making

gender-based violence cool and sexy

because these are things that we still

see on the media we see we listen to it

in songs we watch it on movies for to

for some reason the notion that you know

it's fine to perform any sort of

gender-based violence or or violence

against women

in some forms it seems to be still

accepted and unfortunately it could even

come across to some people as

cool it's something sexy to do right and

we see that a lot on social media

and even in conflict-affected countries

um as you can imagine the forms of

extreme violence that women go through

it's it's unimaginable we're talking

about levels of extreme violence that

could can end up being kidnapping women

torturing women um assassinating women

you know um and this is also a form

um when it comes to the gen the violence

that is performed it's also targeted for

an example you see in libya but in other

countries you see targeted violence

against powerful outspoken woman and

this is not only going through the

individual woman per se but it's also

sending a signal it's sending a message

that you know if you dare to speak out

if you dare to say the truth

then we're gonna just shut you down and

unfortunately in countries that are

affected by conflict it's almost

difficult to start speaking about the

role of state because for an example in

libya but also other countries that are

affected by conflict we're talking about

countries where there is no rule of law

so it's almost really difficult to

imagine that you can talk to the state

and say well you need to do something

about it and here by no means and i'm

saying that the state for example the

state of libya does not have

responsibility but what i'm saying is

that if we really want to address

prevent and end gender-based violence

against women in conflict then we need

to start thinking smartly and we need to

start to think outside of the box for an

example

one of the things that could be utilized

is diplomatic power because we all know

that the fighting groups on the ground

the armed groups but also the different

actors they are still part of the

international community right because at

the end of the day we are a globalized

world it doesn't matter if there are

borders that we can see on the map it

doesn't matter if we see walls it

doesn't matter if we see checkpoints

passport control

we're still a globalized world we're

still very much connected so there are

ways to leverage some sort of power some

sort of it could be diplomatic it could

be soft forms of accountability just

don't let it pass through as if it's

it's fine to assassinate a woman on the

street and then for this particular

group for an example to imagine that

they can still sit on the negotiation

table they can still gain international

legitimacy so we really need to start

thinking creatively and thinking outside

of the box

what can we really do it's not about

looking at our current books and looking

at the rules we've written now and

trying to enforce them only because if

these rules are unenforceable

then the issue is just going to remain

and then also another important issue

which has been mentioned i think by dr

sima

the issue of social media i think we st

we need to start talking to social media

companies and i know they are aware of

that i know we are talking to them but

they really need to understand that

their platforms it's utilized in a very

horrible way to give you an example

there's been a couple of campaigns

against women activists in libya for an

example and there's been a photo of a

women's rights activist a very private

one you know she took a selfie with her

phone and someone hacked her phone and

published the photos and i was one of

the people who reported it to facebook

and i thought well great they're going

to look at this and they're going to

understand that this is an intimate

photo

that woman did not publish it herself

and after a few hours i got a response

you got a report for your reporting and

i thought well this is great they took

quick action

and then i was extremely disappointed

when i read the result of their report

to my reporting by saying well

when we checked the photo it seemed that

it didn't violate our facebook rules our

community rules but we suggest you to

unfollow the page that published a photo

and i was just thinking

how come did someone look at this photo

and assume that it does not violate the

rules it's clearly a photo that no one

would have published on their own so we

need to start talking to social media

companies and make them understand that

you cannot solve certain issues with

algorithms or you know quick checking of

photos and with with rules you also need

to understand the context this photo if

it was for an example published in in

germany or another country it might have

been fined but in a context for a libyan

woman that was really horrible and still

it it passed the test you know so we

need to start addressing gender-based

violence not by the rules we have now

only but we need to be creative and

leverage all the power we have in the

sense of what can we do how can we solve

it not what are the rules we have right

now that enable us to solve it because

unfortunately

we don't really have enough rules for

that

sure thank you so much for that for

reminding us that uh violence against

women and girls is still incredibly

pervasive uh universal um and that the

stigma too often still attaches to the

victims rather than the perpetrators uh

but also that we that we need to engage

uh uh in new ways uh in in ending this

and for being very concrete uh in what

it is that we need to do going forward

the last uh the last two years and the

pandemic has been a particularly

difficult time for for women and girls

and it's encouraging to know that we

have such strong leadership uh from uh

from women leaders uh committed to

ending all forms of violence against

women and girls

dsu thank you so much for convening us

for this conversation today and i want

to turn over to you to uh conclude and

to share any

uh takeaways and to come back to that

question for us of what's next i hope

that what's next will be about us

accelerating to achieve the 2030 agenda

there's no reason why we shouldn't

there's an amazing number of women

already in leadership in places where we

never expected them

you know uh i think today i'm meeting

for the first time nurtash i'm meeting

the first time i wish i'd met you a long

time ago because the only thing that

anyone can bribe me with is chocolate um

but it's it's great to hear your

thoughts on women in leadership and

business and how that can open up that's

something that we should take into the

space of accelerating the 2030 agenda on

gender-based violence on youth

participation i think what worries me

most today is that i need to see the

women's constituency coming together

much more strongly and not to be diver

not to be a divided because we will fail

um our diversity the voices that we have

in the women's constituency of feminists

of politicians of indigenous people of

youth all bring a value proposition to

getting the other 50 visible

and right up front and center and i

think that that's what i hope that we

will

focus on in the division of labor as we

go forward in the next eight years to

attain the 2030 agenda it's really

exciting there are many problems out

there but we've got far many more

solutions and that's what we need to get

behind is the solutions and do them

country by country community by

community region by region and and just

go for it and and you know we are here

with our fearless leader from un women

sema um so she'll be leading the charge

and i hope all of you will join us um

you know not not behind us

at our side in front if you're faster

because i can tell you we'll be faster

than sema and i because you know we're a

little

a little over the age so you've got more

energy and more vision so um you know

nala thank you very much it's been a

fantastic get together

and we should just do more of this you

know replicate this wherever you are

women's voices are important at this

time of our history thank you so much

dsg and before we conclude so we now

have our to-do list we have a sense of

urgency we have a roadmap for the next

uh for the next eight years uh but

before we conclude i would just like to

ask each of you to give us one word that

you are going into this international

women's day with uh and that you would

like us to take away from this uh from

this conversation and nartaj i'm gonna

begin with you

the one word is respect

respect

wonderful thank you her chair

i would say fast

do it fast

fast urgent absolutely paloma

i would say real fear

sorry say that again

we are found

as our mother nature our mother our fear

of your conscience your heart absolutely

everything you need to come back again

what a great word

executive director

my word is urgency

absolutely ndsg final word to you

i have so many words that i want to use

but i would say ambition just go for it

the sky's the limit ambition wonderful

thank you again everyone for joining us

and a special thank you to our friends

at project everyone for collaborating on

the to-do list for gender equality

we are stronger together when women rise

for all

thank you

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you

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you