Morocco: Women inspiring change

We ordered our food, watching the waves lashing at the rock barrier used to keep the water at bay. We were there to attend the eighth meeting of the Women’s Advisory Panel of the Islamic Development Bank IDB. It held between March 5-9 2014 with the Ministry of Family and Development providing a solidarity message. […]

We ordered our food, watching the waves lashing at the rock barrier used to keep the water at bay. We were there to attend the eighth meeting of the Women’s Advisory Panel of the Islamic Development Bank IDB. It held between March 5-9 2014 with the Ministry of Family and Development providing a solidarity message. The Chair-man of the Panel, Mrs Aicha Bah Diallo reminded members that they would be celebrating International Women’s Day IWD while the meeting was on. She also reminded us that the theme of this year’s celebration is Inspiring Change. Each year International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. The first International Women’s Day was held in 1911. Thousands of events occur to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women to celebrate the day.
This led us into discussion on how the day is celebrated in our various countries. The lady sitting next to me was May Ali Babiker, a gender expert from the African Development Bank ADB. She shared a copy of a handbook on gender mainstreaming in project cycle developed by her organisation. It should be a project manager’s companion and was an appropriate gift for IWD.
In reviewing how International Women’s day is celebrated, I told her that for those of us working in promoting empowerment of women, every day is a celebration. I then told her that my celebration for this year’s IWD began a week earlier February 25-27 while I was still in Nigeria. I had spent the previous week at a capacity building workshop for government officials and a women’s peace network. The Nigeria Stability, Reconciliation and Peace project supported  by DFID which supported the event ‘believes that investing in peace is strategic means of promoting development. Equally important is addressing grievances around economic opportunities and the distribution of resources, reducing the impact of violence against women and girls, and increasing the participation of women in institutions relevant to peace building.
The participants at the workshop and the development partners are convinced that ‘this will help promote conditions for inclusive economic growth and therefore lift poor Nigerians out of poverty. NSRP project is therefore designed to support strengthening of conflict management institutions in order to reduce violent conflict through four inter-related areas of work – each taking place at federal, state and LGA-levels. It is a strategically designed project supporting women and girls and all peacemakers who are men and women to work with government as partners for development. May Ali Babiker could not agree more.
          Our discussion then moved to the global level and Mrs. Bah Diallo recommended that we should link up with the global community of activists at the UN office in New York who were working to draw global attention to our issues. I did and also celebrated with them in spirit and through the social media. Below are the voices I heard from that celebration platform. The advocates highlighted the fact that ‘Women’s equality has made positive gains but the world is still unequal. International Women’s Day celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women while focusing world attention on areas requiring further action. In his message, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General said ‘this year’s theme Inspiring Change encourages advocacy for women’s advancement everywhere in every way. It calls for challenging the status quo for women’s equality and vigilance inspiring positive change.’
The vast array of communication channels, supportive spokes people, equality research, campaigns and corporate responsibility initiatives means everyone can be an advocate inspiring change for women’s advancement.  
He further said “To every girl born today, and to every woman and girl on the planet, our message is that human rights are not a dream. They are a duty for which we must all work until they are universally realized’. This International Women’s Day, we are highlighting the importance of achieving equality for women and girls not simply because it is a matter of fairness and fundamental human rights, but because progress in so many other areas depends on it. Countries with more gender equality have better economic growth.  Companies with more women leaders perform better.  Peace agreements that include women are more durable.  Parliaments with more women enact more legislation on key social issues such as health, education, anti-discrimination and child support. The evidence is clear: equality for women means progress for all. This simple truth must be central as we work to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals by next year’s deadline and craft an agenda for the years beyond 2015. Important gains have been made in access to primary education for girls and political representation by women.  But progress remains far too slow and uneven.’
Former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said “We are aligning our efforts with UN Women and with many others in order to go back and take a look, nearly two decades ago now, at the historic Beijing conference, to understand what we achieved from the platform for action that was adopted there, and to work together to set the agenda for the future.”
“Just as women’s rights are human rights, women’s progress is human progress. For all the achievements made, this is the big unfinished business of the 21st century.”
The President of the 68th session of the UN General Assembly, John W. Ashe spoke about male involvement in supporting gender issues. He said “the road to achieving gender equality cannot and must not be travelled by women and girls alone. Just as we know that we cannot achieve sustainable development without women, we also know that we cannot achieve gender equality without the full engagement of men and boys.”
The UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka: “the response we need is bigger and bolder actions. So that women’s equality can be a game changer for women and girls and for humanity. Together we can choose to be liberators or risk being footnotes in history. That bold action is to embed women’s rights, women’s empowerment and gender equality in all we do, now and beyond 2015 and provide measurements and modalities that will give us significant impact that is also transformative.”
The Vice President of the World YWCA Board, Andrea Nunez underscored the critical aspect of the issue,  “Invest in young women and girls. You know what we need to do. Provide quality education to women and girls, so that they can get decent jobs. Create opportunities so that young women can be decision-makers, bringing innovative ideas to political and social challenges.” Happy women’s day to all of us.