A Busy Week at Women Deliver: Takeaways From the Ground

Women Deliver wrapped up last week, and my Devex colleagues Margaret R. , Rumbi Chakamba and Sara Jerving were on the ground. I'm told the scene was lively and activist in a way that conferences usually aren’t, which was an interesting double-edged sword: on the one hand, it was a proudly feminist event that convened progressive thinkers from around the world. On the other, I’ve heard that corporate stakeholders felt put-off by the anti-capitalist atmosphere.?

The conference, as I noted in last week’s post , got off to a controversial start when Hungary’s anti-equality President Katalin Novák took the stage, leading many to wonder why she was being given a platform when her politics are so clearly at odds with the conference’s purpose. As Women Deliver CEO Maliha Khan told Devex, Novák’s presence wasn’t the organization’s choice; it was Rwanda’s. That’s the nature of collaboration—no one party always gets things exactly the way they want.?

Tensions also flared after Irish President Mary Robinson expressed concern over Rwanda’s human rights record, saying that “We’re talking about open and safe space; that can be a real problem here in Rwanda, and there are other human rights issues, but I’ll leave it there.”?

Yolande Makolo, a spokesperson for the Rwandan government, fired back a sharp, pitch-perfect response on Twitter, writing :

"Where does Mary Robinson think #WD2023 should have taken place that would be acceptable to her standards? Is the West really in a position to brag about human rights??

"Rwanda, like the rest of Africa, arrived too late to the party where ppl like Mme Robinson appointed themselves arbiters of human rights. In any case, we’re not among those waiting for grades, or to be assigned value. Rwanda’s achievements in this area speak for themselves."

These types of exchanges are exactly why it’s important for such global convenings to be held outside of the usual American or European haunts. The West needs to be held accountable for its own outsized role in suppressing human rights, which is far less likely to happen tucked away in London or New York.?

Inside the conference itself, one of the key messages to emerge was the importance of including abortion in universal health coverage, Devex Senior Reporter Sara Jerving wrote . While access to abortion in many countries is either shrinking or non-existent to begin with, the conference did showcase examples of countries where access has actually improved, including Nepal, Benin, and Colombia. Furthermore, healthcare experts emphasized that abortion should be regarded as the simple, inexpensive medical procedure that it is, and that the only way to have truly universal health care is to make it legal and available at no cost.?

Another big issue: The dearth of women leading multilateral organizations. According to Devex Associate Editor Rumbi Chakamba, a report presented at one event revealed that since 1945, women have led 33 of the most important multilaterals—including UN agencies and the World Bank—only 12% of the time. And the fact that there has yet to be a woman elected U.N. secretary-general has to change. In 2016, seven women candidates were up for the job when the General Assembly opted to elect António Guterres. Will things be different the next time around??

As Dr. Flavia Bustreo, a former assistant director-general for family, women’s, and children’s health at the World Health Organization, put it:? “We should all really be thinking: ‘not another man secretary-general for United Nations,’” she said, adding that she felt the female candidates in contention in 2016 would have been preferable picks to Guterres.?

“I know him, and I know them,” she said. “They would have been better.”