SID-Washington s Gender and Inclusive Development Workgroup Presents: Date: Thursday, April 9, 2015 ocation: Time: Panelists: 6:00 8:00 p.m. Chemonics, International, 1717 H St NW, Room#1, Washington, DC Kathy Hendrix, Senior Advisor, Conrad Hilton Foundation and Former Associate Director of the President s Interagency Council on Women at the White House Lissa Muscatine, Co-owner, Politics and Prose Bookstore, and former Presidential Speechwriter, Director of Communications to the First Lady and Deputy Assistant to the President at the White House Alyse Nelson, President & CEO, Vital Voices Global Partnership Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security and former U.S. Ambassador for Global Women s Issues Moderator: Indira Lakshmanan, Senior Correspondent, US Foreign Policy, Bloomberg news Gender & Inclusive Development Workgroup Co-Chairs: Jennifer Collins-Foley, Senior Inclusive Development Advisor, World Learning Cristina Manfre, Senior Associate, Cultural Practice Help with this series also provided by: Stefany Thangavelu, Senior Development Officer, Juárez & Associates (J&A), and SID-W Education for Development Workgroup Co-Chair
On April 9, 2015, the Gender and Inclusive Development (SID-GID) Workgroup of the Society for International Development Washington, DC Chapter, held an event entitled A Special Evening to Celebrate Voices from Beijing. In recognition of the 20 th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, the SID-GID Workgroup celebrated the men and women who attended the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The event was part of a year-long discussion organized by SID- GID on what progress has been made since 1995 and the challenges and opportunities for moving forward. Ms. Susanna Mudge, Chemonics, welcomed the attendees, gave a brief statement of Chemonics work related to gender rights, and honored the attendees who had been at the Beijing Conference. Ambassador Donald Steinberg, World Learning, first greeted the audience. He then highlighted the significance of the Beijing Conference. In particular, he mentioned how prior to the conference, the global community was failing to provide resources to women and empower them, especially in conflict areas. After the conference, people became more aware of the need to integrate gender considerations, making the Beijing Conference a huge moment for women everywhere. Ms. Jennifer Collins-Foley, World Learning and SID-GID co-chair, made a few comments about the 12 upcoming workgroup events related to Beijing+20. She also provided some other logistical information about the event before handing things over to the moderator, Indira Lakshmanan. Ms. Indira Lakshmanan, Bloomberg News, introduced the panelists and described how the evening s discussion would focus on: (1) what it was like to be at the event, (2) what has been accomplished in the last 20 years, and (3) where progress still needs to be made going forward. She then turned the discussion over to the first panelist. Ms. Lissa Muscatine, Politics and Prose Bookstore, started by describing some of the opposition that Hilary Clinton faced when trying to attend the Beijing Summit, including the arrest of activist Henry Wu earlier that year. She also mentioned that part of what enabled then-first Lady Clinton to attend the conference was her strong desire to do so. Following that, Ms. Muscatine discussed the process of writing the speech that then-first Lady Clinton gave at the event. She explained that while writing the speech required collaboration, only a few people saw the speech before it was given, and it was this unfiltered aspect of the speech that made it so successful. Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security, summarized the process required for Hilary Clinton to speak at the Beijing conference. Ambassador Verveer mentioned how it was difficult because both the left and the right opposed her going, and this was further complicated by the arrest of Henry Wu, who was fortunately released before First Lady Clinton attended the conference. The Ambassador then highlighted the importance of Hilary Clinton s speech, saying that it made waves and catalyzed the international women s rights movement in many ways. For example, when then-first Lady Clinton listed the many abuses against women world-wide, such as rape and honor killing, and said that each of the abuses was a violation of human rights, she connected with her audience. It was this connection that led to action after the conference and is the reason people still quote the speech when they meet Mrs. Clinton. Ambassador Verveer concluded by summarizing opinions about the speech, saying that they were mainly positive, despite some concerns about the speech before it was given.
Ms. Kathy Hendrix, Conrad Hilton Foundation, focused mainly on comparing the Beijing and Nairobi conferences. She began by saying that since both were policy conferences, they forced governments to decide on a policy, which in turn led to intra-government arguments. In the lead up to both conferences, governments also faced pressure from non-governmental organizations (NGOs). She mentioned how the NGOs were particularly important for raising awareness of women with disabilities. Ms. Hendrix also mentioned how some NGOs faced difficulties in getting visa s to attend the Beijing Conference. She also stressed how while the international women s rights movement was in its nascent stages at the Nairobi Conference it had become a full-fledged movement immediately after the Beijing conference. She used the issue of violence against women to highlight this distinction; during the Nairobi conference, there was a phrase about domestic violence that legitimized it as an issue, but the Beijing summit created a world-wide movement against domestic violence. After Kathy Hendrix concluded her remarks, there was a short discussion about the speech. Ms. Alyse Nelson, Vital Voices, focused on what it was like to be a young person at the event and the great lengths she had taken to attend the conference, including using a fake NGO to try to get a visa. She described how she ultimately had to go as a tourist, but still managed to connect with the other NGOs and journalists at the Conference. Ms. Nelson then stated how the experience was transformative because she saw the difference between her situation and the situation of other women attending the conference. When then-first Lady Hilary Clinton used her platform of power to voice the issues of women around the world, Ms. Nelson realized that she too could use her voice to make a difference. Ms. Nelson then wrapped up her comments and the discussion turned to what progress has been made and what still needs to be done going forward. Each of the panelists expressed their opinions about where progress had occurred and which issues still need to be addressed. Ambassador Verveer believed that girls education had made significant progress and female genital mutilation had shifted from being just a cultural practice to being a criminal matter. Both she and Ms. Nelson stressed that violence against women is still a major issue. Ms. Nelson also emphasized there has been great progress on including girl s issues when talking about women s issues. Ms. Muscatine highlighted that while there are still a number of issues facing women, only 20 years have passed since the Beijing Conference, and progress has been made including reducing maternal mortality rates. Ms. Hendrix pointed out that there a still a number of men who do not take women s issues seriously or even consider them a foreign policy concern. Subsequently, Ambassador Verveer stated how people have realized that protecting women s rights is the smart course of action because the data supports doing so, particularly in the economic sphere. However, she also reiterated how there are still too few women in politics, and how in some places, women have to risk their lives in order to enter the political sphere. Going forward, Ambassador Verveer recommended not calling it women s issues anymore because these issues really affect everyone. Ms. Nelson recommended mainstreaming women s issues by including them in the Sustainable Development Goals in a meaningful way. She made this recommendation because she believed that the overlap between the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals helped mainstream some women s issues and helped with progress, particularly in getting more girls enrolled in schools. Following this riveting discussion, Indira Lakshmanan made some closing remarks and Cristina Manfre thanked the panelists, SID-W, Chemonics, and others involved with this event.
The Society for International Development, Washington DC Chapter would like to thank Chemonics and Vital Voices for all their help with this event. A recording of this event will be available shortly. Click here to view pictures from the event. For more information about the SID-GID 2015 Discussion Series, please click here.
Speakers Biographies Jennifer Collins-Foley is a democracy, governance, and inclusive development specialist with 25 years of experience in democracy assistance, capacity building and training, gender integration and program design and management. Collins-Foley currently serves as the Senior Advisor for Inclusive Development for World Learning, a non-profit organization advancing leadership through education, exchange and development programs in more than 60 countries. Collins-Foley works to position World Learning s Civil Society and Governance portfolio to effectively promote and draw from the full contribution of all voices in society in the political, social and economic life of their countries. Collins-Foley also serves as senior practitioner faculty with the SIT Graduate Institute Master s in International Sustainable Development program in Washington, DC where she teaches Issues in Sustainable Development, Program Design and Management and Gender, Human Rights and Development. Jennifer has worked in Azerbaijan, Burma/Myanmar, Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya, Libya, Mauritania, Palestine, Russia, Uganda, Ukraine and the US. Kathleen Hendrix has served as a Senior Advisor to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation's Humanitarian Prize, evaluating NGO finalists for the Hilton Prize around the world and also serves as Senior Advisor to Vital Voices for Programs. She has also consulted with several U.S.-based NGOs and government contractors on international development and humanitarian projects, especially focusing on gender-related issues. During the 1990s Kathy worked at the U.S. Department of State and was involved with policy preparations, participation in, and follow up to the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Later at the White House and at State, she was Associate Director of the President's Interagency Council on Women. A former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, where she wrote about domestic and international social and political issues, Kathy served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sarawak, East Malaysia. Indira Lakshmanan is a senior correspondent for Bloomberg News, covering U.S. foreign policy from Washington. Indira has reported from more than 50 countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe. For 12 years, she worked overseas as The Boston Globe's Asia Bureau Chief in Hong Kong and Shanghai, its Latin America Bureau Chief in Bogota, Colombia and a Bosnia War correspondent. She started her career on the foreign desk at National Public Radio in Washington, and lived in Chile, reporting for NPR during the transition from dictatorship to democracy. Indira joined Bloomberg in 2007 as a senior political correspondent, writing features during the 2008 presidential campaign, and traveling with the campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Mitt Romney. She has profiled sea pirates in Southeast Asia, Maoist rebels in Nepal, a matriarchal society in southern China, child miners in Bolivia, and Muslim radicals in Indonesia and the Philippines. Indira graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where she was a National Merit Scholar and a Radcliffe National Scholar. She attended Oxford University as a Rotary Scholar, and did graduate studies there in Latin American studies. In 2003, she was awarded a Nieman journalism fellowship at Harvard.
Cristina Manfre is a gender and development specialist with more than 10 years of experience assisting organizations integrate and mainstream gender issues in their work. She is a Senior Associate with Cultural Practice, LLC where she provides support to Lutheran World Relief, USAID, the Center for International Forestry Research and other CGIAR centers, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on gender integration at the nexus of gender, agriculture, and economic growth including ICT, technology design and dissemination, and value chain development. She has a M.Sc. in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a bachelor s degree from Goucher College in French and Spanish. Susanna Mudge joined Chemonics in 1992 and has served the company in many key leadership roles, including as president and CEO since 2013, executive vice president (2005 to 2013), senior vice president of the Latin America and Caribbean region, acting chief of party, and as director of several of the company s larger programs. During her seven-year tenure as executive vice president, Ms. Mudge led several critical corporate initiatives, including leading the Transaction Committee that resulted in Chemonics becoming 100-percent employee-owned. She brings in-depth global expertise in strategic private sector development, organizational development, trade and investment promotion and sustainable natural resource management. Susanna also serves as chair of the Council of International Development Companies, and is an Executive Committee member and Board member of the Professional Services Council. Susanna began her career as a regional development and tourism specialist for the Organization of American States, then as a privatization specialist with Ernst and Young, responsible for managing marketing and investment projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and an MBA from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Lissa Muscatine has spent her professional career in government, politics, and journalism, serving most recently at the State Department as Director of Speechwriting and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State. She was a senior advisor on Hillary Clinton s 2008 presidential campaign and was co-collaborator with Senator Clinton on her White House memoir, Living History, published in 2003. She joined the Clinton Administration in 1993 as a Presidential Speechwriter and later was named Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Communications to the First Lady. During a 15-year career as a journalist, she worked at The Washington Post, The Washington Star, and the Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Ms.), and has contributed to The New York Times and various magazines. She has won several journalism awards and honors for public service and teaching. Muscatine graduated from Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. She grew up in Berkeley, California and now resides in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and they have three children.
Alyse Nelson is president and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership. A cofounder of Vital Voices, Alyse has worked for the organization for 17 years, serving as vice president and senior director of programs before assuming her current role in 2009. Under her leadership, Vital Voices has expanded its reach to serve over 14,000 women leaders in 144 countries. Previously, Alyse served as deputy director of the State Department s Vital Voices Global Democracy Initiative and worked with the President s Interagency Council on Women at the White House. Alyse is a Member in the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the Secretary of State s Advisory Committee on Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society and is a Board member of Running Start. Alyse is a part of the Expert Group for the B Team and is on the Advisory Board of Chime for Change. Fortune Magazine named Alyse one of the 55 Most Influential Women on Twitter. Alyse is the author of the best-selling book Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change Around the World and has been featured in various international and national media. She completed her graduate degree work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Donald Steinberg is president and CEO of World Learning, an international nonprofit organization that provides education, exchange, and development programs in more than 60 countries. Previously, he served as deputy administrator at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where he focused on the Middle East and Africa; organizational reforms under the USAID Forward agenda; and the inclusion of women, people with disabilities, LGBT persons, and other marginalized groups into the development arena. Steinberg served as director of the U.S. Department of State s Joint Policy Council, special Haiti coordinator, U.S. Ambassador to Angola, and the president s special representative for Humanitarian Demining. He has advised the Women's Refugee Commission, the UN Development Fund for Women, the UN Civil Society Advisory Group for Women, Peace and Security, and the Institute for Inclusive Security. Steinberg has authored more than 100 articles on foreign policy, African development, gender issues, post-conflict reconstruction, children and armed conflict, and disarmament. He holds M.A. degrees in journalism from Columbia University and political economy from the University of Toronto, and a B.A. from Reed College. Stefany Thangavelu is an international development specialist with 15 years of experience in program management, training, operations, and business development. Her areas of specialization include: early childhood education, gender, HIV/AIDS, child & maternal health, community engagement, youth workforce development, public private partnerships, and entrepreneurship. Prior to working with J&A, in both the Secretary s Office of Global Partnerships and the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator at the Department of State, Stefany advanced public private partnerships and collaboration with various private sector organizations. Ms. Thangavelu also led the early advancements of Global Development Alliances as an innovative approach to work with the private sector at USAID. Stefany s commitment to grassroots and community driven development goes back to her days as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kasungu, Malawi. Ms. Thangavelu holds a joint MA/MBA from George Washington University and completed her undergraduate studies at the College of William and Mary and the University of Ghana, Legon.
Ambassador Verveer most recently served as the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women s Issues, a position to which she was nominated by President Obama in 2009. She coordinated foreign policy issues and activities relating to the political, economic and social advancement of women, traveling to nearly sixty countries. She worked to ensure that women s participation and rights are fully integrated into U.S. foreign policy, and she played a leadership role in the Administration s development of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. President Obama also appointed her to serve as the U.S. Representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. From 2000-2008, she was the Chair and Co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international NGO that she co-founded to invest in emerging women leaders. During the Clinton administration, she served as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady. She also led the effort to establish the President s Interagency Council on Women, and was instrumental in the adoption of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. She is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the World Bank Advisory Council on Gender and Development. She holds several honorary degrees and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the U.S. Secretary of State s Award for Distinguished Service. Ambassador Verveer has a B.S. and M.S. from Georgetown University.