.png?sfvrsn=6d0e27cd_1 "Partnership for Change - v7 (1)")
With over 600 registrants, an official side-event to the HLPF "Choice, Voice and Autonomy: Women’s political leadership for health in a fragile world" was held on 13 July 2022.
The live web event was chaired by Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, PMNCH Board Chair and Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and featured a discussion from global policy makers, government representatives, youth representatives and global health experts in the context of the halfway point on assessing progress on Sustainable Development, particularly focusing on Goal 5 on gender equality and Goal 17 on partnerships.
The event was hosted by the Government of Estonia, and organized by PMNCH, Women in Global Health, UHC2030 and Global Health 50/50.
Concerns were raised about the reversals of women’s fundamental rights and health, and speakers examined the roll-back on progress for women in decision-making roles since the start of the pandemic two years ago. As stated by H.E. Kersti Kaljulaid, "Women, although fifty per cent of the population, are not the ones making the decisions."
They also addressed the root causes of the systemic barriers to women’s professional advancement and how it was necessary to tackle those barriers to progress, including learning poverty for girls which has the potential to hinder the growth of an entire generation. A clear gap is the allocation of funding for gender equity issues at national and global levels. Through powerful interventions and personal stories, speakers advocated for effective leadership. "We need more bold political and legislative actions especially regarding women's bodily autonomy and reproductive rights," said Anita Bhatia, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. "This is especially crucial in the wake of the ruling on Roe vs. Wade in the US. Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services added some perspective: “We need clear national action plans that protect women first and foremost and help those who need access to fundamental care like abortion. We need to keep SRHR at the center of the discussion and LGBTQ rights as well."
There are however grounds for hope with positive momentum on women’s leadership worldwide, and reason to celebrate women’s influence in decision-making. Moira Forbes, Executive Vice President, Forbes offered a perspective from the private sector. “Women have the power to move the world today. Female leaders are at the forefront of some critical areas of the pandemic response and women’s influence is being leveraged in more areas than we’ve ever seen before.” Edlam Abera Yemeru, Director for the Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) representing Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary, UNECA agreed. "Even through these crises, women continue to lead and solve problems daily at all levels of society and we need to recognize and celebrate this."
But we need to go further for transformative action. Women must not only have equal participation at the decision-making level, they need equal opportunity in the selection of leadership positions in the first place. "To me feminism is not only about gender identity," said Mohamed Ali Raddaoui (Dali), Founder, NAFAS, National Gender Youth Activist in the Generation Equality campaign, Tunisia. "Feminism is about the impact of patriarchy on everyone. Being a Man a non- binary or women doesn’t change the fact that patriarchy exercises violence on every human life to different degrees."
Currently, women hold just 25% of leadership positions, despite making up 90% of the frontline workforce and 70% of the health and care workforce overall. "If we can place women at the centre of our decisions, if we are able to give women a voice, a vote, a say, then we are going to see the changes that we urgently need," stated Gabriela Cuevas Barron, Co-Chair, UHC2030 Steering Committee and Honorary President of Inter Parliamentary Union. She continued, saying that "if we really believe that the 21st century is going to be the century for women, we have to build it."
A rendition of Voice, Choice, Autonomy, by spoken word poet, Mumbi Macharia, further stressed the overarching sentiment of the event with the words "we are tired of this dance, two steps forward, fifty years back, I am young, a woman, and black, so you can imagine, everything that my freedom is hanging onto is under attack."
As Diene Keita, Deputy Executive Director, UNFPA put it: "Equity is more important than ever. We need to speak up and 'walk the talk'."
