Mercy Global Concern - 2006

MGC Briefing paper Number 2 – June 2006

Mercy Global Concern – UNIFEM

On Wednesday June 8, 2006 Mercy Global Concern coordinated a meeting with a small group of members of other Religious Orders at the UN with UNIFEM Ms Noeleen Heyzer, Chief Executive Officer of UNIFEM hosted the meeting.

Seated left to right: Ms Noeleen Heyzer: Stacey Hallorhan, CND; Deirdre Mullan, RSM;
Standing left to right: Evann Hunter IBVM; Sharon Altendorf, Presentation; Lucianne Siers, OP and Cecile Meijer, SSH

Ms Heyzer outlined the Women’s agenda at the UN which is;

Transformation based on Justice and Rights

Realizing that UNIFEM cannot do everything, choices are made based on what will have the most effective impact on the ground.
Levers for Change at ground level are based on 4 clear factors:

• No progress without economic Rights for Women to develop their asset base.

• Ending Violence against Women – there can be no empowerment for women in a culture of militarization which promotes violence.

• If we want change – Invest in Women’s Leadership.
See every crisis as an opportunity to promote Justice with Peace.

• The HIV pandemic is a women’s issue as it is both a health and gender issue.

What are we trying to transform?

There are 4 clear inter-linked areas:

1. Policy and Legal Framework especially the CEDAW implications. Many countries come to the UN to create a good face, to “look good” on paper. UNIFEM says – If you have policies, where are they being implemented? Implementation and Accountability are one and the same!

2. Institutional Change: How does the UN use its $$$$? The data on the ground must be monitored to tell this story.

3. Governments: Bureaucrats are afraid of change; therefore we must build accountability strategies on the outside and organize groups to monitor governments. UNIFEM does this by educating and strengthening voices on the ground. We need to mobilize our power base effectively to help bring about a new society.

4. Changes in Attitudes: How we behave/think to change society? Change by itself is NOT enough. We need to work in partnership with ALL – women and men.

Ms. Heyzer then gave some examples of UNIFEM at work:

1. UNIFEM: MIGRATION and TRAFFICKING

As we look at globalization and what is happening in our world– the flow of capital, the trade agenda, investments and the role of technology, we can see that our lives are much intertwined. The speed at which things change including VALUES means that communities are breaking apart. While on the one hand we have the technology to bring people together, we do not have the social capacity to build community. Why? We are afraid of what we do not know and therefore build walls of protection to keep people out.

Another notable phenomenon is that the workplace itself has shifted and as a result highly skilled and qualified people can move without difficulty. The semi-skilled have more difficulty in movement and this in turn creates illegal movement and a criminal economy which uses people drugs to create wealth. In relation to Migration and Trafficking UNIFEM has developed a strategy to work in both sending and receiving countries. It was noted that most trafficking takes place within migration. Working with CEDAW on the gender recommendations of migration, UNIFEM has built in country accountability.

In addition, UNIFEM has visualized trafficking in women and girls through education and by working with the border police watch.

2. UNIFEM – Trust Fund to end Violence against Women.

• Home based violence – honor killings, dowry related violence
• Violence and health issues i.e. FGM
• Violence in war – Rape as a weapon of war
• Economic Violence – Migration; Orphans; Trafficking of women and girls.

Working at the local level in regard to FGM, UNIFEM created the educational climate which involves men and faith based organizations to work for social change. Because FGM is seen as a rite of passage, they tried to work with local communities to support the ritual but remove the harmful practice.

3. UN Reform:

Who is shaping the narrative at the UN? “Gender Mainstreaming” is a call to collapse UNIFEM. On the other hand UNIFEM needs to be strengthened on a scale akin to UNICEF.

So who are we?

UNIFEM is a low cost –high delivering organization and does what need to be done.