The Shrinking World: Global Citizenship & Digital Literacy

Three speakers came together from different backgrounds doing different tasks toward one common goal: improving the status of women through digital literacy.

The technological advancement and the increase of access have provided more opportunities in education and shifted the ways in which we look at communication.

The first presenter described global citizenship as a threshold concept which opens new ways of thinking and perceiving things. It is the acquisition of "troublesome, transformative, integrative, and irreversible" knowledge about the world. She presented a success story of a project in which student participants were from different parts of the world connecting with one another using online tools. They collaborated on research projects by reviewing journal articles and engaging in complex discussions about challenging topics related to injustice and inequality around the world. The project built community and compassion among participants.

Global citizenship is an arguable term, but a participant of the project said, "The right approach is perhaps not to pursue the real definition of global citizenship but to never stop looking."

Shifting the focus to digital literacy, the second presenter, who works at a university in New Zealand, provided a framework of conditions to become digital literate as stated below:
          1. Sustainable energy
          2. Digital transporter
          3. Hardware
          4. Software

It was stated that technology helps enhance women's participation in research and innovation. While women's participation in research has been improving, their status in innovation is still lagging behind. While providing some resources (listed at the end) as examples of how technology can be used to improve women's lives, the presenter also brought up the dangerous side of technology, especially the internet. She emphasized that women need protection to avoid the misuse technology which may lead to threats such as non-consensual pornography, cyber bullying, and identity fraud, just to name a few.

The last presenter, whose project is based in several West African countries, highlighted the importance of analyzing the context of where a project is based because that could unveil a number of underlying issues which need to be addressed as they prevent women from gaining access to technology education. Those problems may include the lack of affordability, the unfamiliarity of the usage, the gender barriers, and the lack of awareness of the benefits.

To sum up, the session provided a variety of ways to look at digital literacy, and how it looks like in different contexts for different groups of individuals. Even though, different approach is required in each context, what seems to be applicable in every situation is that education should be inclusive and technology in education should be introduced with caution.

Resources:

ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education): https://www.iste.org/
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses): http://mooc.org/

Soroptimist International – A Global Voice for Women

Soroptimist International – A Global Voice for Women: Lifting Women from Poverty Through Lifelong Learning.

Presenters: 

Mariet Verhoef-Cohen, President.

Elizabeth Nyadwe, Vice President Advocacy. 

Hafdis Karlsdóttir, President’s Appeal Chair.

Soroptimist International’s aim is to educate, empower and enable women all over the world and ensure that their voices are being heard. SI have a network of clubs in 122 countries, with each club administering their own projects. Projects that were highlighted were educational programs in Nepal with focus on female leadership, women’s groups, gender equality training, menstruation hygiene, emotional healing, and more. The STEM field in the UK is another project where Soroptimist International encourages girls to pursue a career within engineering, math and technology. 

Long Life Learning for Women is an important project led by Soroptimist International Europe (SIE). Three projects were highlighted involving young women who were empowered in the work field in Italy and Turkey. Female prisoners got work training while in prison, while another project provided job placements for women who had never worked before.

Two other projects that have an ongoing education component is the SPOT project in Malaysia and the Ger project in Mongolia. The SPOT project seeks to fill gaps in Malaysia’s sexual health and education of young people, especially young girls. Despite over 18,600 cases of underage pregnancies per year there is no formal sexual health and education program in Malaysia. The Ger project enables women to grow their own fruit and vegetables and be self-sustainable.

Women, Water and Leadership is a program where women learn how to store, obtain, irrigate, plant, sell their products and manage their business. By managing water resources, and learning water leadership, women gain social and political power.

For more information about SI's work, please visit their website:  https://www.soroptimist.org/

Breaking the Silent Codes on Domestic Violence in Australia

The talk was held by Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) on the topic

Specialist Women's Services Against Violence as Essential Infrastructure.

AWAVA is responding to and preventing domestic violence against women and their children. Their role is to ensure that women’s voices are heard within government and policy development. AWAVA is a program by WESNET – Women’s Services Network – the peak body for domestic and family violence services who is the lead agency and contract holder.

They provide specialist women’s services through Essential Services Packages which is developed in partnership with UN Women, UNFPS, WHO, UNDP, and UNDOC. This ensures greater access to coordinated multi-sectoral services for women and girls who have experienced gender-based violence. These packages include crisis information/ counseling, help lines, safe accommodations, material and financial aid, community information and education and more. The packages are victim/ survivor centered with safety being paramount.

So far this year, 14 women have been killed by domestic violence in Australia. AWAVA recognizes that aborigine and indigenous women are 5 times more likely to be the victims of domestic violence than other women. In addition, these women have been systematically isolated and excluded from the society, so their voices have not been heard. They have a deep lack of trust in the government, the police, the legal system, social services and the health care system.

The women’s services have developed a close partnership with aborigine workers in order to get access to women in the communities, and hence create trust. The main focus behind all their programs is to break the silent codes surrounding domestic violence and get women across the pacific to talk about sexual assaults. They emphasizes community education and outreach programs and see the necessity of teaching women what a loving and healthy relationship entails.

They showed a video clip called Let’s Change the Story: Violence Against Women in Australia which illustrated and underlined their work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLUVWZvVZXw

Re-framing Social Protection Systems at CSW63

From left to right: H.E. Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ms. Sherine Tadros, Dr. Phumzile Mlamo-Ngcuka       

            On the morning of March 10, 2019, the 63^rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) kicked off with an opening event also known as the Consultation Day attended by hundreds of participants from all over the world. A theater located in Borough of Manhattan Community of College was filled with powerful voices and occasional mix of applause and silence. The theme for this year CSW is "Social Protection Systems".

Following the welcome message by Dr. Susan O'Malley, the chair of NGO Committee on the Status of Women/NY, the stage around the theme was set by a dialogue with Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women and H.E. Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, the Permanent Representative Mission of Ireland. 

"The infrastructures that supports care for women are missing in most countries." - Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

The conversation underlined the progress that the United Nations have made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 5 which focuses on gender equality and in putting forward the issue of lacking social protection services in public sectors in many countries. The dialogue also highlighted the history of struggles women faced, such as being forced to resign from work due to marriage; the guest speakers also emphasized the impacts of civil society on changing government policies and designing new social protection frameworks.

Continuing the discussion on the main theme, four panelists from various organizations engaged in a meaningful conversation to provide explanations of the definition, contexts, and vision of social protection. The deputy director of International Labor Organization (ILO), provided a broad definition of social protection as basic social security guarantee, but he emphasized the importance of focusing on what is needed within specific contexts, rather than what it generally is. The contexts of United States, Africa, and Latin America were brought to the table. 

"26 wealthiest people own as much as the 50 percent of the poorest in the world." - OXFAM

Most interestingly, the context of United States, as explained by the head of OXFAM Washington office, illustrates the unfair taxation policies which benefit the big corporate companies and wealthy individuals but hurt the disadvantaged groups due to the legal element of tax evasion which, she said, requires a progressive reform to identify and eliminate the loopholes. 

The event committee did a wonderful job in setting a stage for the upcoming two-week conference. The event served as a great platform where conversations were encouraged and language was provided for an active engagement in some challenging topics regarding the issue of social protection for women.

"Gender inequality is not just an economic issue. It is an issue of injustice." - Ms. Nadia Daar (Head of Washington Office, Oxfam)