Global Gender Equality

Baroness Goudie Excerpts

Monday 17th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Goudie (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate the Minister on her speech at the Women Deliver conference. I look forward to working with her in her present position and to her taking the work further forward.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Women Deliver conference this year, but I have attended it a number of times with my colleagues from ICRW. I declare my interests as set out in the register. Women Deliver is a leading global advocate for the health, rights and welfare of girls and women and drives financial and political views of women worldwide. It started as a small organisation and has now become global. Spending very little money, this year it brought more than 8,000 people to Vancouver. That is a great commitment as people have to get themselves there. There is no other way—no payment, no expenses, nothing. People come, young and old. It gets results across all aspects of the lives of women. It is a true catalyst, leveraging its reach worldwide, reaching partnerships and investing in girls. It uses strong methods of communicating, from hard facts to storytelling, and utilising all its members and supporters at all levels. It is an organisation that communicates well through Instagram, messaging and every other way it can in an informal but positive way.

The global conference brings together a diverse group of young and old, future and current leaders, NGOs, Governments and advocates from around the world. Once when I went there was hardly a Minister there, although it was enormous. Now, every Government have a Minister there. Every institution and philanthropic organisation is there. It is an organisation worth being part of, and we must continue to support it.

Britain, Canada and the Scandinavian countries have led the way in girls’ rights, including health, maternal health and education. These countries have raised the level of awareness of the issues. Working with the Home Office, the Department for Education, the Foreign Office and the community, we must try to end FGM, honour killings and child marriages. Girls Not Brides is launching a further, tougher programme in the near future, and I hope the Government will support it.

On honour killings, FGM and Girls Not Brides, I hope that the Government will today give an undertaking that we will not go back to the Home Office charging people to bring members of their families back to this country, as it previously did. It happened to some extent but I would like to get an undertaking in this debate that it will never be allowed to happen again. It was an absolute disgrace.

We have had discussions about women’s rights being on the front line and under extreme strain. What do these people—including women, unfortunately—hate about women and girls, and about us and these issues? Do they not know that this is the future of the world? It is agreed that good education for girls and better and continual education for women around the world improves GDP by $15 billion to $30 billion a year—a figure that comes from McKinsey and the Malala Fund. It is so important that education is raised at every international meeting. I hope that the Chancellor and other Cabinet Ministers who will attend some of the G20 meetings still to be held will raise those issues and that Britain’s commitment to provide funding will encourage others to do so.

We must also put pressure on America. I know that we have a so-called special relationship with America but I often wonder how it is going these days. We must keep nagging the US, stressing that these issues are of paramount importance to that country as well as ours. We know that if we do not educate girls—and, to an extent, boys—there will be much more terrorism. That is why it is so important that education comes first, not just in our country but around the world. We must also commit more to the sustainable development goals—an issue on which my noble friend Lord McConnell has worked tremendously hard. We must continue to move forward.

I turn to one issue we have touched on a little in our debates that worries me: children born through rape and sexual violence, both in war and in camps. Those born under these circumstances carry an instant stigma, but that should not be the case. They are made to feel worthless and are not entitled to education, basic healthcare or some basic jobs. That is still happening in Vietnam and other countries, and we must act to end it now. These children must not be left without anything, and the stigma must be wiped away. I hope that this matter will be taken forward in DfID’s and the Foreign Office’s policies in the future, because it will not help us if this stigma continues. We heard recently about what is happening in Vietnam and one or two other countries, and it will cause unsettlement and envy in the world. We must promise that every child will be equal, as we have been taught in this country. Every child must be equal, whatever the circumstances in which they are born. How they come into the world is not their fault.

In the next few years there will be more refugees than ever as a result of conflict and climate change, and we must keep these issues at the forefront, along with the PSVI and the women, peace and security agenda. I acknowledge the leadership that the noble Lord, Lord Hague, the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, and my friend Ambassador Verveer have given on these issues. They now also have the support of the Countess of Wessex. I hope that the Government will support the proposal of the noble Lord, Lord Hague, put forward today by the noble Baroness, Lady Helic. It is really important, as this is where we can bring about change, and I hope that the commitment at the November conference will take it forward.

Various issues have been raised today but one thing that worries me is the lack of joined-up funding on these issues between DfID, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence. Who is responsible for ensuring that this happens? There must be buy-in from the highest level of the Cabinet Office and No. 10. It is unfair on those working on these issues if they do not have full commitment from the very top. This is also a priority for peace, so it is extremely important that the funding is not cut. It is very difficult when two and a half people in DfID, three in the Foreign Office and two in the Ministry of Defence are working on this issue. We need more funding for good, qualified people to work alongside our people. This also needs to be properly joined up so that when the Minister comes here, she can give us as well as those working on these issues an assurance.

We should look at the indexes that prove where women are unsafe in countries in conflict. We can tell this through various indexes, including Georgetown University’s Women, Peace and Security Index, which has looked at more than 100 countries. We can tell through the index whether a country is becoming unsafe; it shows where women feel unsafe in the street, at work and going out, and where their children feel unsafe going to school. We must use that index and others like it to help us judge what is happening around the world and put our funding where it is needed. We have made a commitment to various countries, but we may need to add to it. I do not want us to water down funding. We do not want to give a bit here or there where it cannot make enough difference; we have to get others to contribute.

Women have to be part of the decision-making at every table on women, peace and security issues. Britain has given that undertaking but at the same time, as many noble Lords have mentioned, women are not at the table on Syria and they are not part of the peace talks in Afghanistan or in other countries. We have to take over the leadership of these peace talks; we have to say that we will not be supportive unless local women are there. We have given an undertaking; that is fine. But we now have physically to put that measure into being. We cannot have men saying, “They don’t know”, or, “We don’t want them”. Without women at the table, we will not get education, health or inward investment for those communities. They will be left with sink schools and as sink people. This is vital.

I hope that, when we get a new Prime Minister, he makes commitments to these issues in his speeches in the next few weeks or months, or whenever it may be. I hope also that he will consider having a Cabinet that is 50% women and having more women at the table. I know that an undertaking has been given—and it is beginning to happen—that 50% of all chairmen of government bodies outside should be women, but I would like this to happen in the Cabinet and in other government positions.