Bold actions for gender equality and women’s empowerment in food systems - World
BY JEMIMAH NJUKI
Somewhere in a rural South Asia, a very enterprising woman toils for about 18 hours a day to feed and care for her family. However, despite working to the point of endangering her own health, she only gets a fraction of her labour. The bulk of her returns go to the landowner.
I met Kapilaben during the South Asia Dialogue on Women, Work and Food Systems in April this year. In a very passionate plea, she talked about the lives of women smallholder producers in India, their struggle to farm on land that they do not have rights to, the lack of access to financial services that work for them, and the exploitation in markets.
But she also spoke of the power of women organising and amplifying their voices. The power of women owning their businesses. She has hope that those that work in food systems can hear them and support them. That this will be the moment for women and girls.
Kapilaben’s experience is not unique to her. This is the story of millions of women.
Over the past 10 months, we have held dialogues with women in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia.
The resounding message by each and every one of these women is that today’s food systems do not work for them. These food systems perpetuate gender inequalities which are reinforced by harmful social and gender norms.
They called for clear commitments and urgent action to make food systems gender just, transformative and equitable. The women are already doing their part, they are counting on our support to make their actions transformatively visible.
These women were very clear that it’s no longer a man’s world. They were also clear that it’s not a woman’s world either. It is OUR world!
Like Kapilaben in India, these women, from Antigua to Zambia, Belize to Nepal, Finland to Kuwait, in cities and villages, are looking to us all to deliver bold actions.
But what does a gender just and equitable food system practically look like?
A just and equitable food system is one in which women’s roles change from being invisible to being visible.
One in which women’s voices are heard, and their leadership is amplified
It is one where food systems roles, responsibilities, opportunities, and choices available to women and girls are not predetermined by restrictive gender roles. And it is one where social and cultural norms and power imbalances are not entry barriers for many women and girls. A just and equitable food system is one where women thrive, and not just survive.
Women are calling on us to take intentional action to implement solutions that will make our food systems gender just, transformative and equitable.
From talking to women across the world, and from expert consultations, the Gender Lever of the UN Food Systems Summit has identified game-changing ideas. I will mention five priority ones.
The first is to close the gender resource gap and increase women’s access and rights to resources and services. These include extension services, security of tenure of land, access to technologies including digital technologies.
The second solution is the establishment of a global mechanism to monitor progress and hold food systems organizations accountable for gender equality in their leadership, their internal workplace policies, and their outcomes. We are calling it the Global Food 5050 and we will be launching this later this evening
Third, is the creation of an alliance of global and national financial institutions to design and implement gender- transformative finance mechanisms that meet the needs and priorities of women, and that support their empowerment
Fourth, is the establishment, by Member States of governance commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment in food systems by adopting feminist food systems policies that are hinged on gender budgeting, women’s leadership, and monitoring of gender outcomes
Fifth and last is guaranteeing decent jobs and a living wage for women working across the food system.
The women we spoke with are clear about these being the solutions they want. They are clear that women are not the problem to be fixed. It’s our food systems that need fixing.
So, what is our ask to make this transformation happen?
We are looking for commitments by governments, civil society, private sector and donors, both those present here today and beyond, to support these solutions through a coalition to make food systems work for women and girls.
The urgency to act on gender inequality on food systems has never been higher. Inaction is not an option.
Dr Jemimah Njuki is Director for Africa at IFPRI and Custodian for the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Lever of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021.
Olympic Runner Caster Semenya Wants To Compete, Not Defend Her Womanhood
Olympic Runner Caster Semenya Wants To Compete, Not Defend Her Womanhood
Enlarge this image toggle caption Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images
As track and field competition gets underway at the Tokyo Olympics, you won’t see one of the sport’s brightest stars: two-time Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya of South Africa, the world’s fastest woman in the 800 meters.
That’s because of new rules from track’s governing body, World Athletics. Under the rules, Semenya and other female athletes who refuse to lower their naturally high testosterone levels are barred from competing in races from 400 meters to 1 mile.
Female eligibility rules have been fought over in court for years and have raised heated debate about fairness and inclusion.
The debate hinges on this question: Should women athletes with what’s called a difference of sexual development (DSD) — who have XY chromosomes and elevated testosterone levels — be allowed to compete in the female category?
Or does their genetic makeup give intersex athletes an unfair advantage in a world of sport that’s divided along binary lines of sex?
Advocates argue that Semenya was just born this way
In defense of Semenya, one of her sponsors, the beauty brand Lux, recently launched a “Stand With Caster” video campaign.
It opens with a cascade of voices doubting Semenya’s fundamental identity.
“I have to say, it’s hard to believe Caster’s a woman,” says a man.
“Identifying as a woman doesn’t make you one,” adds a woman.
The chorus goes on: “There’s nothing feminine about her.” “That’s not a woman. She is a he!”
But Caster was simply born this way, the narrator says, with “special gifts.” The video ends with this message: “Lux believes that women should not be judged for how they look — that no woman should ever be stripped of being a woman.”
Lux YouTube
Defenders of the testosterone regulations argue that the rules have nothing to do with how athletes look and do not strip away any athlete’s womanhood.
Instead, they contend, the rules are simply tailored to create a level playing field and ensure fair competition for women in sport.
“We know that there is a difference between male bodies and female bodies,” says Duke University law professor Doriane Coleman, a former elite runner who was an expert witness in the Semenya case, testifying in support of the regulations before the international Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“We know that without sex-segregated sport and eligibility standards that are based in sex-linked traits, we would never have the chance to be elite athletes,” Coleman says.
Semenya has been in a long legal battle to “run free”
Under World Athletics' regulations, to compete in the restricted events, the affected DSD, or intersex, athletes are now required to lower their testosterone levels with birth control pills, hormone shots or surgery.
Semenya has refused.
“No freakin' way!” she told an interviewer on South African television. “Why? For who? For who? No!”
Semenya, 30, was raised female, identifies as female and is legally female. She was just 18 when she blew away the field to win her first world championship in the 800 meters in Berlin. Her blistering speed and physique raised suspicions, and afterward, she was required to take a sex verification test. The battle over her eligibility, along with that of other athletes', has been waged ever since.
Ultimately, Semenya took her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled against her in 2019, judging that the testosterone regulations were “necessary, reasonable and proportionate” to “[preserve] the integrity of female athletics.”
Her subsequent appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal also failed. This year, she launched a new appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, which has not yet ruled on the case.
In a tweet announcing her latest appeal, Semenya wrote, “All we ask is to be able to run free as the strong and fearless women we are!!”
This fight is not just about me, it’s about taking a stand and fighting for dignity, equality and the human rights of women in sport. All we ask is to be able to run free as the strong and fearless women we are!! Thank you to all of those who have stood behind me✊🏽 pic.twitter.com/0PdBiujH8b — Caster Semenya (@caster800m) February 25, 2021
Semenya has long claimed that the rules are specifically designed to keep her out.
Speaking at a women’s empowerment conference in Johannesburg in 2019, she said, “When you’re the best in the world, people get obsessed, you know, with what you do.”
Former Olympic racer Bruce Kidd agrees with Semenya on that: “I don’t think it’s unfair to call this the Caster rule,” he says.
Kidd is a retired professor at the University of Toronto and a longtime advocate for gender equity in sport. In his view, the Tokyo Games will be seen as an “asterisk Olympics” since some of track’s best female middle-distance athletes are not competing.
“Some women have been excluded simply because of a very narrow definition of their gender,” Kidd says. “And I think because the Olympic movement prides itself on its support of human rights, we have to call their exclusion a stain on the Tokyo Olympics.”
Why, Kidd asks, is this exclusion acceptable?
“Sport has always been about embracing difference and including, you know, the celebration of diversity,” he says. “Most outstanding athletes are outliers. Most outstanding athletes have longer reach or more fast-twitch fiber or they’re taller. And we admire them for that. We admire them for what they’re able to accomplish. But it’s only in the case of women’s sports where this drive for biological sameness is carried to this extent.”
Who decides what is “woman” enough?
So, what criteria should determine who can race as a woman? And who draws that line?
Those are questions on the mind of Tlaleng Mofokeng, a doctor in Johannesburg who focuses on sexual and reproductive health.
She also serves as the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images
“There is a definite history of people seeing certain women as not woman enough,” she says. “This idea, right, that some women are more woman than others. … It’s a visceral problem, the issues of femininity: Who owns femininity, and who gets to decide what that looks like?”
Consider that the women who have publicly run afoul of the gender verification rules are all from the Global South.
In the Tokyo Games, along with Semenya, the other runners who have said they’re affected by the rules are all African: from Kenya, Burundi, Niger and Namibia.
That includes all three women who won medals in the 800-meter race at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics: Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and Margaret Wambui of Kenya.
“These binaries that we have in sport don’t match up to the world,” says Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of history and African American studies at Pennsylvania State University and co-host of the feminist podcast Burn It All Down.
“Sports must maintain this really, really violent binary at all costs, no matter who it hurts,” she says. “And right now, that burden, that pain, that harm is most keenly felt by women of the Global South. … It’s just been heart wrenching to follow.”
For Mofokeng, the female eligibility rules amount to the policing of Black women’s bodies: a remnant of what she sees as patriarchal, colonial power.
“It’s racism!” she says. “And we must ask those people who are doing this why they are doing it … and why is it so sustained and so cruel?”
Defenders of the rules say they level the playing field
But Duke law professor Coleman, who is biracial, calls that charge of racism “really disturbing.”
“Black women know,” she says, “just like all other people, that without sex-segregated sport, whether you’re a Black woman or a white woman, you don’t have a chance.”
The rules, she says, preserve competitive space and podium opportunity for women, since sport is divided by sex for very good reason: Testosterone provides advantages in strength, power and endurance.
“When there’s a podium sweep by [intersex] athletes,” as there was in Rio, she says, “you’re not keeping your commitment to providing sex equality and competitive sport. And you’ve got a failure of the regulations.”
World Athletics declined NPR’s interview request for this report but sent a lengthy statement saying in part: “Our female eligibility regulations do not target any single athlete or race…. There is copious evidence that black women are thriving and being celebrated in our sport, that it is in fact the most accessible sport for black women.”
Without sex-segregated sport,…you don’t stand a chance.
Earlier this year, Semenya attempted to qualify for the Tokyo Games in the 5,000 meters, an event that’s exempt from the testosterone rules, but she fell short.
That could spell the end of Semenya’s Olympic career. But for many South Africans, her impact remains powerful.
“She’s inspiring,” Justin Abrams told NPR this week, in an informal sampling of public opinion among residents on the streets of Cape Town. “She should run no matter what.”
“Pride of South Africa,” said Edith Brown.
“She means a lot,” added Thuleka Muvalo. “To me, they defeat her rights.”
Mofokeng considers Semenya a hero.
“Absolutely,” she says. “She is, she was, she will always be. She will have her own chapter in our history. Caster still has the heart of many of us.”
Meanwhile, as Semenya awaits the delivery of yet another court ruling in her long-running case, she anticipates another arrival: last week, she announced that her wife, Violet Raseboya, is pregnant with their second child.
In an Instagram post, Semenya wrote, “Ten little fingers, ten little toes. With love and grace, our family grows. This precious soul that God decided to bless us with. We all can’t wait to meet YOU!”
Generation Equality – What’s Next for Displaced Women and Girls? - World
By Stephanie Johanssen, associate director of advocacy and UN representative, Women’s Refugee Commission
Earlier this month, UN Women, France, and Mexico convened the Generation Equality Forum, Paris, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Women and its Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The organizers intended this conference—more than two years in the making—to capture a moment to both celebrate progress made on the Beijing Platform and for governments, UN agencies, civil society, and the private sector to outline how to advance this agenda further.
The Forum launched the Global Acceleration Plan, a comprehensive blueprint outlining steps to achieve progress by 2026 in areas such as economic rights, gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and climate justice. A coalition of UN agencies, member states, and civil society organizations also launched the Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action, a framework with action items building on existing commitments in humanitarian policies and the women, peace, and security agenda.
Stakeholders made policy and program commitments, as well as nearly USD 40 billion of “confirmed investments” to advance gender equality. This funding represents an impressive and welcome achievement, recognizing that efforts to advance gender equality remain chronically underfunded and are frequently sidelined, including during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
While these developments are encouraging, whether the Forum can translate to real action for displaced women and girls remains to be seen.
At the Forum, activists from around the world made strong calls for gender justice. Ashrafun Nahar, Founder of the Women with Disabilities Development Foundation in Bangladesh, reminded us that “we should not overlook the importance to empower refugees from host communities” and called for the “systemic redistribution of power and dismantling of harmful structures, including patriarchy, homophobia, and transphobia.”
Displaced women and girls remained largely absent from the Global Acceleration Plan, which makes no explicit mention of refugee women and girls, in contrast to the Beijing Platform for Action, which references refugees over 60 times. This is a missed opportunity to recognize and advance the rights of refugee women and girls and makes it all the more important that sections where the Plan mentions humanitarian settings are fully implemented. This is particularly true of the section on addressing gender-based violence, which asks that30% of humanitarian funding to address GBV go directly to women’s rights organizations by 2026, and the section on economic rights and justice, which mentions fragile and conflict situations.
The Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action, which currently has over 130 signatories, is more consistent in centering displaced women and girls throughout, including refugees and stateless persons. Building on existing frameworks, the compact offers a list of action items that will be critical to implement if it is to lead to real change for displaced women and girls. This entails addressing discriminatory legal and policy barriers, including those denying refugees economic opportunities in host countries; ensuring humanitarian aid is sensitive to different ages, genders, and disabilities of displaced populations; lifting restrictions on sexual and reproductive health services in foreign assistance; and building inclusive social protection systems in collaboration with humanitarian agencies that provide cash assistance.
The Forum rightly drew criticism for not being accessible to all women and girls, in particular to women and girls with disabilities. Organizations mobilized in solidarity through the Inclusive Generation Equality Collective, as well as an affirmation of feminist principles advocating for stronger inclusion, including of individuals with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics, and affirming that the realization of the human rights of one group must notcome at the cost of the rights of any others.
What’s next? Promises made at the Forum must be followed by concrete action.
For starters, pledging entities should ensure the majority of funding goes to diverse feminist movements, including refugee-led women’s rights organizations, and is disbursed transparently. Funding to feminist and grassroots movements, in particular in humanitarian response, is critical to providing them with sustainable resources to bring lasting change. During crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or conflict, refugee-led organizations often provide direct support to affected populations and understand best the needs of their communities. Using existing funding mechanisms such as the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund can help ensure resources go directly to women leaders and their representative organizations, including those facing barriers to their participation in peace processes.
Commitments are important and it was promising to see major humanitarian donors, like the United States, renew their support for initiatives such as Safe from the Start and the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies. But pledges alone do not let governments off the hook from fully implementing their obligations under human rights law, refugee law, and international humanitarian law, as well as UN Security Council resolutions on women, peace, and security.
Twenty years after the adoption of Resolution 1325, which called for women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation, the UN must finally make the direct participation of women a requirement in all UN-led and co-led peace processes. Concrete steps outlined in the roadmap by the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security are still waiting to be implemented and are as urgent as ever with increasing attacks against women speaking out for peace and justice.
Generation equality means gender justice for all, including displaced women and girls.