WUNRN
Gender - Building Global Partnerships for Ensuring Stable and Peaceful Societies
Thematic Debate of the
General Assembly - April 24-25, 2014
“Ensuring Stable and
Peaceful Societies”
Statement by Nagwa Gadaheldam, Global Partnership for Local Action on behalf of the Post 2015 Women’s Coalition for Panel 3:
I am speaking today on behalf of the
Post 2015 Women’s Coalition and in particular on behalf of stakeholders in
Sudan, my home country, Africa, Arab States and the entire world.
The international community must create an enabling environment
for sustainable peace and development by strengthening people-centered global
partnerships to achieve sustainable development.
Today
everyone talks about how many partnerships exist, with little substantial
impacts on humanity and development. Yet what is needed is to change business
as usual and promote people-centered development[1][1] .The next development agenda should focus on a sharing
common vision, with space for different solutions for different contexts,
taking into consideration the responsibility and accountability of each actor
in the partnerships.
An enabling environment must transform modes of exploitation
to regeneration, recognizing that People and Nations comprehend that their
fates are highly linked and we share one planet with limited resources, while
we are all global citizens, where villagers should learn to respect each other
in a world without borders.
We
also recognize that investing in private sector institutions is not a remedy
for economic stability and peaceful societies. Instead, the current business
model focuses on prosperity for some, and in these times of economic
uncertainty, strong social protections and services have been increasingly
destroyed through privatization, militarization, and non-regulation. Furthermore,
despite the popular rhetoric of “social corporate responsibility” the guiding
principle of business is profit and too often this means trading human rights.
At
this critical stage, we believe that we collectively should reexamine the
national, regional and global approach of partnerships, even among the
communities and cross border. Regional societies have many things in common,
not only language, ethnicity, but also threats and opportunities. Cross border tensions can lead to conflicts
and unstable societies, and at the same time, weakness of service management
across borders can lead to corruption and abuses of authorities, which
particularly affects vulnerable people across board.
To build peaceful and stable societies for sustainable
development, we need different level of capacities, which should be based on: Profound understanding of the history of national and
regional conflicts; promoting inclusive and equitable conflict resolution;
reducing military spending; awareness of the economic interests behind interventions;
knowledge of the different paths for mediation of conflicts of interest,
including strengthening the role of women –led civil society in peace
negotiations and post conflict governance; understanding of how to achieve exclusion of all
interested parties to promote, particularly minorities, in an equitable
framework; preparedness to prevent violent/armed/military interventions
understood as attempts to influence, sidetrack or derail reconciliation based
on mitigation of conflicts of interest, with expectation that it would result
in common action of all stakeholders involved and justice, reconciliation,
development and peace
Partnerships for building
peaceful and stable societies for Sustainable Development must be based on an
integrated approach that addresses root causes of conflict consistently across
multiple implementing institutions, and facilitates inclusion of diverse
stakeholders especially women in planning, implementation and development. A
wide range of partners should be involved, including: national governments;
local political authorities; opposition to these political authorities; civil
society including women-led civil society; authorities for
environmentally sound development, impact assessment and mitigation of conflicts
between economic and ecological interests, including to address climate change
triggered conflicts; trade unions; commercial and private sector; banking sector and private investors; and national and international
agencies and institutions. For equality, development and peace, it is critical
that both state and non-state actors are held accountable to international
obligations to respect, protect, and fulfil the human rights of all people
including women.
Global
Partnerships must be defined inclusively in ways that ensure human rights and
respect to the dignity of human being. In addition, it should not be limited to
private-public partnerships as usual. Such partnerships should include national governments; local authorities
for building bridges between governments and communities in terms of executing plans and setting priorities; multilaterals institutions; international financial
institutions; International Unions of governments and regional Institutions;
private sector and business communities; foundations,
other philanthropists as investors in social impact; scientific Institutions including
international acknowledged universities and independent research institutes. But particular attention should be
given to strengthening partnerships with civil society including women-led
civil society.
People
and citizens are central to peace and security. Putting people at the center of
development is critical to acting genuinely in the interest of supra national
peace and security for all. Gender equitable social developmental and
environmental sustainability is critical from national, to regional and to
global levels.
The international community must recognize that
societies are highly interlinked, then independent mediation for stabilizing
national economies is highly needed to reduce poverty caused migration;
establishment of development programs targeting stabilization of borders and
cross border relations and participation; promoting dialogue among people and
different players, such as policy actors, business sector, multilateral
institutions, sub regional and regional institutions, civil societies and
communities; improving of controlled interventions, which can lead to
protection of civilians and communities from abuses and demands in terms of
sexual harassment by security forces.
Preventing
conflict is vital to promoting sustainable development and peace. The next
development agenda must address this key gap left by the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and minimize factors
fueling conflict including economic and political policies that stimulate
discontent and often translate to full-scale violence.
At the global level:
All global
partnerships will have to focus on development; otherwise we might loose the
original ultimate goal. We should move away
from business as usual and focus on people over profit and those of the margin
must be at the center for development.
Address, the imbalance of world market prices for local and imported products; examine the artificial shortage of import products[2][2], while tackling the murky interest of external powers in exploiting local resources.
Reinforce
transparency, accountability and democratization of the global economic
systems, while setting mechanisms for international quality
standards for local and imported products. That would contribute to
minimizing the negative impacts of an imbalanced economy on peace and security
and would reduce global migration.
Reduce neocolonial influence on former colonies. This includes
addressing neocolonial relationships which either press local governments for
unbalanced trade with the former colonial power[3][3] or
support opposition/rebel groups by providing weapons, military equipment,
training and influencing media and public opinion while imposing new values of
manipulation.
Regulate
in a win win approach, the rising presence of powerful commercial
interests in continents like Africa. Such unregulated interests lead to global
growing security challenges due to political instability and criminal
activities, including threats to local national security and governance, as
well as private investment and personnel.
Support reform and regulation of the international global monetary system and the foreign investment institutions to uphold human rights and gender equality through reexamination of such policies as structural adjustment that disproportionately impact women and already at risk groups.
Strongly
call for a target reducing military spending to reduce violence and free up
resources for gender equitable social development. Member states should
regulate, monitor closely and hold accountable “industrialized countries” for
the arms trade as well as military interventions. The $1.7 trillion arms trade
fuels violence and exacerbates armed conflicts, should be redirected to promote
inclusive conflict resolution, development and peace.
At the regional and sub
regional level:
Strengthening the
coordination of regional and sub-regional institutions to promote an integrated
approach to conflict prevention, development, and peace building. The
Regional economic communities (RECs), such as COMESA IGAD CEPGL SADC ETC),
could and should play a vital role in minimizing the high risks of conflicts. While, Regional
and continental organizations need to be included in the partnerships too (AU,
EU, Arab League, etc).
Creating new mechanisms to uphold human rights
obligations for both state and non-state actors, and regulate inherent power struggles and conflict of
interests between governments, business sector, and civil society, even among
the large corporations and the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Supporting
the establishment of early conflict warning systems at sub-regional and
regional level for identifying and analyzing signs that can trigger conflicts,
and develop collective and holistic responses. The world can’t afford another Rwanda’s Genocide!
At the national level:
Facilitate an enabling environment for development
and peace by enhancing national action to strengthen inclusive participation, justice,
and rights, while moving from global commitments to local action. Such an inclusive approach would
provide a dynamic stimulus to engage in dialogue with officials and
non-officials actors, including
civil society as well as women-led civil society. A
constructive and trust building attitude will lead to a mutual awareness and
understanding the complexity of the matter.
The current sanctions
approach, impacting negatively on societies and communities, need to be
thoroughly and urgently addressed, with particular focus on vulnerable
communities including children, youth and women.
Establishment of new
financing mechanisms to build national resilience to conflict through debt
relief and debt workout mechanisms, reduction in military expenditures, and
reform of macroeconomic policy to promote human rights and gender equality.
Addressing corruption, exploitation, human
trafficking and harassing, which affect society’s most vulnerable groups while
building culture of peace and solidarity; through education, research and
innovative, affordable access to technology and other means.
Recognizing all people and in particular minorities
right to prevent violence and conflicts based identity issues, while taking all
actors involve including multilateral institutions, accountable.
Recognizing traditional knowledge in mediation
and reconciliation and strengthen the capacity of indigenous local communities
including women to continue their vital role in reconciliation and sustaining
peaceful communities.
Mr. President, Secretary General of the UN, distinguished member states, colleagues from civil society and the private sector, friends of equality, peace and security: Without a substantial and structural change, the current development model will continue to fail.
No Security, No Peace
No Peace, No Sustainable Development
No Sustainable Development, No Security
Let us break the cycle by reducing
poverty, creating enabling environment for gender equality and peaceful
societies!
Let's break it together!
[1][1] Based on the Maastricht Principles and Rio principles of universality, equity, sustainability, solidarity, human rights, the right to development, and common but differentiated responsibilities.
[2][2] Petroleum products, wheat, machinery, spare parts etc.
[3][3] Export of raw products cheaply and import of processed products costly