Global Gender Equality

Baroness Osamor Excerpts

Monday 17th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Osamor (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a great privilege to participate in this important debate secured by the noble Baroness, Lady Sugg, and I welcome her to her new post.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opened the conference on 3 June. He argued:

“Gender equality is under attack”,


and expressed sympathy about,

“how hard it is to be a feminist on the front lines”.

He highlighted the negative role of social media and suggested:

“Individuals and interest groups are trying to roll back women’s rights … politicians are giving into the pressure, shamefully campaigning to undo women’s hard-won victories”.


Such a reversal of rights has been conducted by some of our closest historical allies, and it is only right that the UK uses its position to lobby our global partners. Will the Minister detail what recent representations the Government have made to our closest allies over women’s rights?

The global fight for women’s rights and equality must involve partners from across the world, rather than our international allies. It is disappointing, then, that many invitees to the Women Deliver conference from African countries had their visas declined with little explanation. In the developing world we see some of the greatest challenges for women’s rights, so we must work with the leaders and representatives of these states if we are to realise equality. As the UK is expected to host later this year a global summit to end sexual violence, can the Minister confirm that such a conference will involve representatives from across the world?

One thread that binds together powerful movements that have sparked social change in recent years is that young people are at the centre. The youth at the conference asked:

“Why meaningful youth engagement? Today’s world is too often divided—between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ … the ‘global north’ and ‘global south’ … ‘developed’, ‘under developed’ and ‘developing’ … ‘donors’ and ‘beneficiaries’ … What if people in positions of power could co-create with young people the policies, programs, and tools that best fit their community’s wants and needs?”


What is not to like? A gender-equal world would be wealthier, healthier and more peaceful.

Storytelling in New York during the 63rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, CSW, a young woman from Botswana, Lorato Modongo—who, with her male siblings, was brought up by her grandmother—told the conference:

“I witnessed inequality in everyday life: in education, in access to health services, in transport, in political power, and in … family life. But it clicked and became … clearer when I was recruited to participate in research project during my 3rd year at University of Botswana.


During this project, we explored access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services for young girls like me. We explored how girls showed up in my world.


Hushed.


Invisible.


Respectful.


Nice.


Ambitious but with a limit.


Aware of self, but not too self-aware so as to not scare men off.


We explored how the world showed up for girls like me: With violence and rage and policing.


We explored our reality. The prevalence of sexual violence and rape and all types of violence upon our bodies. Although gender-based violence is prevalent across the world, in Botswana, over 67 percent of women have experienced abuse—which is double the global average. Research shows that 40 women are raped each week in the country.


We explored the policies and laws that sought to either protect us, or further our plight in the patriarchal society. We explored all this and own existence and agency in the world.


I better understood how access to SRHR and agency over women’s bodies are all linked to gender inequality. But it all began when I was 8. Access, or lack thereof, to SRHR services is linked to a need to police, dominate, and control women’s bodies.


Until we … dismantle patriarchy and gender inequality at the core within a family and community, we will not make progress at a societal, national, or global level.


In the words of Tapiwa Mugabe, ‘My ancestors live and breathe vicariously through me.’ Unlike my grandmother’s generation, I have the space to speak up and speak out.


Being here today, I know she would be proud. Her defiant, rebellious granddaughter who at 8 refused to clean the house, stands before you today at 29 refusing to accept how the world shows up for women like me, for women like us”.


Lorato was born and raised in Botswana. She earned a Mandela Rhodes Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in research psychology. She is also a Women Deliver young leader from the class of 2013.

The World Bank has called violence against women and girls a “global pandemic.” Does the Minister agree that this issue is a top priority for her department, and that the only way substantially to reduce these figures is to work alongside women in their own communities who are tackling the root causes of gender inequality and the structures that uphold it?

HIV remains the number one killer of women of a reproductive age. What steps is the Minister taking to invest in new public health-driven research and development to find effective and affordable treatments for diseases in the developing world? To realise the vision and reap the benefits of a gender-equal world, we need to redefine power on every level—politically, economically, collectively and individually.

Governments hold a big piece of the puzzle when it comes to shifting power in favour of gender equality, and some are already moving in the right direction. For example, Iceland has made the gender pay gap illegal. In Norway, there is paid mandatory parental leave, while France is a global leader in educational attainment.

On women and international development, with the Government’s review of progress towards the sustainable development goals expected soon, can the Minister confirm that the UK is on track to meet the women’s equality and empowerment targets?

On the eve of the Women Deliver conference in Vancouver from 3 to 6 June, Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan interviewed Dr Olfat Mahmoud, a Palestinian refugee and women’s rights advocate. Dr Olfat grew up in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Princess Sarah spoke with Dr Olfat about what the humanitarian system would look like if organisations such as hers could help to shape it, and the message that she hopes to bring to Women Deliver. She said:

“I established the Palestinian Women’s Humanitarian Organization (PWHO) to fill these gaps and fulfill the needs of refugee girls and women so they can lead better futures. Not a single international organization stepped up to do this important work—so I knew that change had to come from those of us within the community … This includes respecting and upholding international agreements, including UN resolutions, which support and protect refugees. It also means addressing legal restrictions that keep refugee women from working, obtaining formal education, and exercising other basic human rights in their host countries … The alternative—excluding refugee women from decisions that affect their work and lives—isn’t acceptable and isn’t working. When we are engaged, we make humanitarian policy and practice stronger and more effective …At the same time, I hope to learn from other advocates around the world, and build networks so we can collectively push for a humanitarian system that puts girls and women at the center. Solidarity is our strength and our power—and we need to be stronger together to achieve a better world for all of us”.


In its most recent annual commitment to reducing inequality review, Oxfam recommends that all countries develop national inequality action plans if they are to achieve sustainable development goal 10 on reducing inequality. What efforts are being made in the UK to develop such an action plan, and how is DfID working alongside Governments in the countries where it works to support their inequality action plans?