The Role of Women in Making and Building Peace: Reflections on Timor-Leste

Last June in Suai, a small town in Timor-Leste, I held an open day with local women and men to mark the tenth anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. This resolution recognizes the unique impact of conflict on women’s lives and highlights their often overlooked contributions to resolving and preventing conflict. It also calls on the international community to involve women fully in every aspect of our work for peace and security.

The discussion at the meeting was lively. Women presented their achievements and shared their ideas on how the international community could better help them reach their goals. Topics ranged from community policing to cross-border reconciliation with communities in Indonesia to domestic violence. I was struck by the energy and diversity of the more than one hundred people who came to voice their concerns. Police officers, local government officials, and community leaders joined scores of ordinary women—mothers, wives, breadwinners, and heads of household.

My lasting impression of the women of Suai was that they were not demoralized by their past. On the contrary, they radiated energy and resourcefulness. Their stories and work helped me understand that if the United Nations were to make a lasting contribution to peace and stability in Timor-Leste on my watch, it would be by building on the initiative and resilience of these women and helping them become fully involved in determining the country’s future.

Women’s involvement in decision making is particularly important in Timor-Leste, where men and women are building the economic and social foundations of a stable society and resilient institutions, following a twenty-four-year struggle for independence which claimed the lives of 183,000 Timorese.

One of the women taking on this challenge is Madalena Bi Dau Soares, a former, long-serving fighter in the Timorese guerilla army. I met Madalena in her home in the Liquiça district to which she had returned in 1999 to set up and run two kindergartens that she financed with her small veteran’s pension. When asked why she did it, she gave a simple answer: “I wanted to achieve something good, leave a mark in the community. After fighting for independence, men found other things to do. I wanted the same for me.”

Filomena dos Reis is another independence fighter turned grassroots peace activist. She trains Timorese women in mediation, negotiation, and conflict-resolution. In 2005, Filomena and her colleagues organized a cross-border dialogue between Timorese and Indonesians. The initiative was in response to conflicts between communities, due to cattle straying across parts of the border that were not clearly demarcated. To resolve these disputes, the two sides selected sixty people to participate in the dialogue, which was watched by five hundred observers. The talks, which took place over three days in September 2005, resulted in a set of recommendations that were submitted to the Timorese and Indonesian Governments. One of the recommendations was to conclude ongoing negotiations about passes allowing women to move freely between markets on either side of the border. This became a reality in 2010, when the two Governments issued the border passes.

Madalena’s and Filomena’s achievements are even more impressive in light of the Timorese women’s history over the past decades. In fact, women played a significant role in Timor-Leste’s struggle for independence. During the Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste from 1975 to 1999, women were guerilla fighters and members of the clandestine front. In Timor-Leste and abroad, they advocated against the Indonesian occupation. They brought resistance fighters food, ammunition, and messages, and gave them shelter. Women’s organizations also contributed by training ¬women in survival and teaching vocational skills.

The women of Timor-Leste now have a huge stake in reconciliation and peacebuilding initiatives. They want their country to learn from its history in order to have a peaceful and stable future. Nevertheless, women were largely absent from high-level dialogue initiatives to end outbreaks of violence in 1999 and 2006. The situation may, however, be changing. Throughout Timor-Leste, women are leading grassroots reconciliation initiatives, and they are moving into the corridors of power. Indeed, female political participation in Timor-Leste, now comprising 30 per cent of parliament members, is the highest in Southeast Asia. Women also lead the ministries of finance, justice, and social solidarity. Across the country, women are carving out a space for themselves at the national, district, and village levels to address domestic violence, economic hardship, and other issues that affect women and the population at large.

Bearing in mind this history of strength, suffering, and survival, what can the United Nations do to help those women in Timor-Leste and other countries who fight for peace and security for themselves and their families? I think one of our most important roles is to provide positive role models for women’s involvement at all levels of decision making. My experience as one of three female Special Representatives of the Secretary-General leading peacekeeping missions is that the presence of a woman in high-level discussions can make a difference. The presence of a female leader can inspire other women in international, national, and local institutions to seek high offices. This was an important motivator for me when I worked in Afghanistan and Sudan, where cultural norms often kept women from holding decision-making positions.

We need female role models at every level of the institutions we support. That is why I encourage police-contributing countries to send a higher proportion of female police officers to Timor-Leste and other countries. The presence of women in uniform sends a clear signal to the population that women have a central role to play in maintaining public safety and security. Timor-Leste is leading the way for the United Nations in this regard—today, women make up almost 20 per cent of the country’s police service, while women represent only 6 per cent of the UN police in the country.

In other areas, however, Timor-Leste can make further strides. For example, only ten of the country’s 442 village chiefs are women. The United Nations should do all it can to help women reach such positions of responsibility traditionally reserved for men.

Women in decision-making positions can also ensure that women’s concerns and interests are taken into account when choices influencing peace and security are made. From my work in different conflict areas, I know that decision makers often fail to include women’s knowledge and interests when making policy. In Afghanistan, for example, the international community did not act as agriculture moved from traditional crops to narcotics. Women were not part of that decision-making process. Another example pertains to the methods used by disarmament programmes to identify combatants, which exclude women associated with or providing support to the armed forces. At the same time, reintegration programmes fail to take into account women’s specific needs for livelihoods. This happens even though we know that women’s abilities to make a living and provide for their families is a crucial factor in bringing a society back from conflict.

By failing to take advantage of women’s thinking and contributions in rural economies, and by underestimating the role women can play in averting the economic collapses that are often at the root of cycles of conflict, we miss important parts of the peace puzzle and risk investing in peace and security solutions that are likely to fail.
The international community has much to learn from Madalena Bi Dau Soares and Filomena dos Reis and their readiness to seek new ways to contribute to the security and well-being of their communities. If peace and stability are to be sustainable, women like them must be involved at every stage, from setting government strategy to carrying out projects, and from voting on laws to implementing them in the communities. As members of the United Nations, we must listen to women, recognize their transformative powers, and defend and promote their inclusion in every way that we can. If we are serious about peace—and we are—it is the only way forward.

The Millennium Development Goals In Action: Part I (Eradicate Extreme Poverty & Hunger)

The Millennium Development Goals In Action: Part I 

Eradicate Extreme Poverty & Hunger

We hear much about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but just exactly what are they and what are some real life examples?

Our eight part series, The MDGs in Action, looks at real life examples of each goal and the people working to achieve them.

MDG Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty & Hunger

A Programme In Action: United Nations World Food Programme


Your Action: Sign a petition, play an online game, answer six quick questions!

What is MDG 1?

From Africa and Asia to Latin America and the Near East, there are 925 million people in the world who do not get enough food to lead a normal, active life.

MDG 1 is: Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger

MDG in Action: United Nations World Food Programme

Photo: WFP/David Gross

The World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.

In emergencies, we get food to where it is needed, saving the lives of victims of war, civil conflict and natural disasters. After the cause of an emergency has passed, we use food to help communities rebuild their shattered lives.

WFP is part of the United Nations system and is voluntarily funded.

Born in 1962, WFP pursues a vision of the world in which every man, woman and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life. We work towards that vision with our sister UN agencies in Rome -- the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) -- as well as other government, UN and NGO partners.

In 2010 we aim to reach more than 90 million people with food assistance in more than 70 countries. Around 10,000 people work for the organization, most of them in remote areas, directly serving the hungry poor.

WFP's five objectives:

1. Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies
2. Prepare for emergencies
3. Restore and rebuild lives after emergencies
4. Reduce chronic hunger and undernutrition everywhere
5. Strengthen the capacity of countries to reduce hunger

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Feed a hungry child free!                                                                               

Click here to play the quiz.

Are We On track With MDG 1?

You can download a PDF of the UN WFP Hunger Map. The map provides invaluable information that helps school teachers and children learn more about the biggest single risk to global health.

Though success was somewhat delayed by both immediate and longer lasting effects of the Global Financial Crisis, prior to the downturn, the depth of poverty had diminished in almost every region and it appears that the world is still on track to meet the poverty reduction target.

But while optimism is an important feature in facilitating dialogue and action to help achieve alleight of the Millennium Development Goals, the bleak realities must be acknowledged in order to establish where resources and attention are most urgently needed.

Threats to progress

A report detailing the progress of the MDGs in 2009 stated:

‘The declining trend in the rate of undernourishment in developing countries since 1990-1992 was reversed in 2008, largely due to escalating food prices. The proportion of people who are undernourished dropped from about 20 per cent in the early 1990s to about 16 per cent in the middle of the following decade. But provisional estimates indicate that it rose by a percentage point in 2008.  Rapidly rising food prices caused the proportion of people going hungry in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania to increase in 2008. When China is excluded, the prevalence of hunger also rose in Eastern Asia. In most of the other regions, the effect was to arrest the downward trend.’

What is needed more critically then ever is a commitment to action for the next five years – in 2015 when the MDGs are supposed to be fulfilled – and indeed beyond, with a focus on all economies, including those of the very poorest nations. There is a dire need to achieve a full, production and legitimate workforce for all, particularly one that encourages woman into stable employment.

A global community The eight MDGs are inherently intertwined, and with small successes in each division will come slow but long lasting success that will contribute to the stability and security of a now truly global community.

In a recent report, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, in the lead-up to the UN Summit in New York (September), was quoted saying:

‘Billions of people are looking to the international community to realize the great vision embodied in the Millennium Declaration.  Let us keep that promise.’

It is this commitment and vision that, despite some failure, will lead to the ultimate realization of MDGs in coming years.

Article written by Isabelle Tolhurst

Source: http://makinghealthglobal.com.au/millennium-development-goals/mdg-1-eradicate-extreme-poverty-and-hunger/

Source: http://www.wfp.org/about

U.N. Call Home!

Aid Workers get Skype App for Refugee Hot Spots

Dec 6th, 2010 @ 07:13 pm › Susan Carey Dempsey

It’s a problem as old, you might say, as humankind: the plight of refugees seeking sustenance, protection and guidance as they flee their homes in times of crisis. From Adam and Eve on down through the ages, through wars, natural disasters, famine and drought, men and women have gathered their families and braved the unknown to escape the unthinkable. A partnership announced today by  the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Skype will deploy customized technology to enable aid workers in some of the most remote, dangerous locations  in the field to connect with colleagues and access support.

Skype has developed a customized, low-bandwidth version of its communications software, for deployment across 120 hardship locations served by UNHCR staff members around the world.   The new software has been tested successfully in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan and is now available to 1,010 staff stationed in remote locations in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Chad, Congo, Iraq, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Uganda. By the end of 2010, Skype and UNHCR plan for that to grow to more than 2,072 members of staff across 60 UNHCR locations including Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.  By the end of 2011, the aim is for Skype to be in at least 80 percent of UNHCR hardship locations and available to more than 3,000 staff members.

UNHCR aid workers are typically separated from their families for months at a time, sometimes with very little notice, and have limited opportunities for communication.  In addition, all UNHCR employees have to pay for personal calls. Thus, the UNHCR-version of Skype will provide both free and low-cost voice and video calls over the Internet even when accessed through low connectivity networks.  This will enable communications for humanitarian workers in some of the world’s most remote postings on the one hand, while lowering the cost of calling home on the other.

In a subsequent phase, Skype and UNHCR will explore the development of a communications solution that will benefit refugees more directly. Using the knowledge and experience from the deployment of Skype to UNHCR staff, the solution will aim to allow refugees to reach family and friends across borders and will also be used to facilitate protection operations, including repatriation, resettlement and family reunification.

“Skype has removed, at a very practical level, some of the most challenging barriers to communications that we experience in these locations”, said Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.  “This will benefit not only UNHCR staff and their families at home but, potentially, the tens of millions of refugees and other displaced people in the world today.”

 Understanding the need to secure financial resources for refugees and to further support this partnership, Skype is contributing financially to UNHCR and will begin a campaign to increase public awareness of UNHCR operations and help raise additional funds. The campaign will initially deliver messages via Skype to connected users encouraging them to make a difference to the lives of refugees beginning this holiday period.  To find out more visit www.unhcrskype.org.