Blog by Champion Caitlin Kraft-Buchman: Happy IWD from Geneva !

Currently numbering close to 100 Champions from the Director General of the United Nations Office in Geneva Michael Møller, and the US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Pamela Hamamoto who are leading the charge with civil society co-founder Women@TheTable.

Already the GGC Panel Parity Pledge has begun to change the complexion of panels. Every Geneva Gender Champion has taken the simple Panel Parity Pledge in which they promise not speak on all male panels, (or all female panels dealing with ‘Women’s Issues’ dealing with the other 50% of the population).

We are told no male Champion has had to forego a speaking engagement since they took the GGC Panel Parity Pledge. 

Evidently, when Champions and staff have alerted panel organizers that Champions have pledged not speak on all male panels, EVERY Champion in our network got a response to remedy the situation when the panel was previously all male. Excellent female speakers were added to each of the events that formerly were all male.  Would that all change is so simple!

(We are seeking to evaluate this impact in a measurement scheme; more back on this soon.)

Champions also make two additional individual commitments for themselves and their institutions from the  UK commitment to become a gender champion in the UK government’s overseas network expanding the Champions’ network to at least 5 other posts or departments; to France‘s pledge to support resolutions of the Human Rights Council strengthening gender equality, provided the language is ambitious enough ; the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s global survey and research on the situation of women in the world of work to identify aspirations obstacles and action; the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)’s commitment to encourage gender balance among delegates attending ITU conferences and to track and publish those numbers of female delegates attending; the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) commitment to ensure that at least 30% participants in IPU Assemblies are women (and that all decisions making structures of the IPU comprise a minimum of 30% women by 2017 and reach 40% by 2020), Ireland‘s ensuring strong participation by men in debates and events on gender related issues; the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) creation of a Gender Equality Seal for the Union by the end of 2016; the World Health Organization gender equality and human rights e-learning series on mainstreaming competencies launched with 80% of new HQ level staff having completed the module by September 2016; Plan International enrolling all staff members regardless of their function in the Planting Equality Training by Dec 2016; Switzerland‘s improving by 10 points the percentage of women in management level at the Permanent Mission by Sept 1 2016;  UN International Computing Centre (UNICC)’s creation of a gender equality policy to change the current 2:1 ratio of contractors; UN Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) developing a checklist on gender-sensitive disaster risk reduction;  UNAIDS commitment to the implementation of the UNAIDS Gender Action Plan which goes beyond numeric targets to increase the number of women in leadership positions; to the High Commissioner of Human Rights commitment to meet with at least one women’s organization or woman human rights defender in each of his field visits.

Take a look at all the other commitments here from The World Trade Organization, World Meterological Organization, the World Bank Group, World Intellectual Property Organization, UNRISD, UNITAR, UNIDIR, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNECE, UNCTAD, Interpeace, International Trade Centre, International Organization for Migration, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, CERN, GAVI, CARE International,

and the Permanent Representatives to the UN in Geneva from

Viet Nam, Uruguay, Turkey, Thailand, Sweden, Malta, South Korea, Slovenia, Singapore, Senegal, Philippines, Pakistan, Norway, New Zealand, Mozambique, Mexico, Latvia, Japan, Italy, Israel, Ireland, Iceland, Greece, Germany, Finland , Fiji, European Union, Denmark, Croatia, Costa Rica, China, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Belgium, Austria, Australia, and Albania

We are forming Impact Groups and programming for change within and without our organizations. Externally looking to international fora, and internally to workplace culture and human resource policies that constrain.

We’re working together for impact enlisting International Organizations big and small, Ambassadors and their Missions from East and West, South and North, civil society from one person NGOs to the largest International NGOs, Academia, and our first corporate sistren and brethren. We’re trying to move the needle.

Talk to us next year and let’s see how much we have changed.

In the mean time Happy International Women’s Day! Let’s #StepItUp #Planet5050 #IWD2016 #GVAGenderChamps #genderequality is an all year-action. #GVAGenderChamps