African Woman and Child Feature Service

The old adage “another man’s food is another man’s poison”, reverberated the predicament non-government organisations faced during the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, that also commemorated 15 years since the Beijing conference on women.

The NGOs had applied for spaces within which they could hold parallel events to what governments were doing at this global women’s meeting. However, many found themselves without room to hold side events within the United Nations Complex in New York.

“The CSW is taking place at a time when the United Nations is implementing its Capital Master Plan where they are re-building the UN complex from inside out,” explained Ms Jackie Sharp, former chair of the NGO CSW in New York and a member of the organising committee.

This state of events created tremendous restrictions on the number of people who could get access into the building as well participates in the side events.

But even though many NGOs events were registered for the second week after the conference started, many felt that it was going to be too expensive to stay in New York for such a period and by that time many people would have left or opted to find new spaces for engagement.

The UN Assistant Secretary General and Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, Ms Rachel Mayanja, while acknowledging the challenges the NGOs were facing in terms of space and effective participation, was happy with the manner in which the organisations were quick to find alternative space.

“By reaching out to organisations like the Salvation Army, who kindly offered their space to be used not only for the Global NGO Forum for Women, but also for the daily morning briefings during the conference period, the spirit of the Beijing has not been lost and the NGOs participation has also not been watered down,” she said.

According to Mayanja, despite these challenges, there were over 2,000 NGOs events taking place in addition to the 70 parallel events at the UN.

“The restriction of space has proven to be a big lesson for the NGOs especially those from Africa that were not able to get slots within the first week for their events as well as those that are not affiliated to NGOs at international level especially within the USA,” said Ms Bisi Adaye, Executive Director Africa Women’s Development Fund. She added: “And since most NGOs from Africa do not have such affiliations, they missed out.”

However, Adaye reasoned that even though majority of the NGOs found alternative space, this could be looked at as a blessing in disguise, as it enabled African NGOs to find alternative platforms for engagement especially within the international space.

“Let us stop this business of always approaching international issues with regional experiences,” Adaye advised.

The same sentiments were echoed by Ms Judy Lear, Director of Grey Panthers and a member of the NGOs organising committee in New York. She said: “It is a blessing in disguise in that it has taught us that it is not the place that matters but importance lies with the issues that we are discussing and advocating for.”

The over 1,400 NGOs who participated at a two day conference at the Salvation Army came up with a Call to Action communiqué which they presented to governments during the Beijing +15 review meeting.

An AWC Feature