Learning, Sharing, and Building at Women Deliver 2023

?“I learn from you, you learn from me.”

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These words, spoken by Lisa Simeon , Abt Associates’ Chief Operations Officer, during our morning workshop titled “Inspiration Starts Here: Supporting the Leader in You” perfectly sums up both why our delegates came to Kigali, and how we entered each experience from start to finish. For some, this was a chance to reunite with friends and invigorate relationships made across every Women Deliver. For those who hail from Africa or travel regularly in the region, it allowed for new connections with peers working on similar challenges. For others, it was a week of firsts: our first Women Deliver, and our first visit to Rwanda. It was a chance to meet colleagues from across the world who we had only known digitally. And, above all, it was an opportunity to engage with and learn from the collective knowledge and stories of the 6,000+ leaders in attendance.?

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We were immediately inspired by the week’s theme of solidarity, spaces, and solutions. Through each conversation, every connection made, even within moments of controversy, there was an urgency to create community and cohesion. Specifically, we were called to denounce divisive ideas that our passions and beliefs are in competition with each other (whether for resources or attention). Instead, we affirmed and found new evidence for Abt’s long-held belief that gender equality, climate justice, health equity, civil rights, economic growth, and resourcing local change-makers are all interconnected and interdependent.?

Strengthening Solidarity

“One cannot stand against oppression if you are hand picking which oppression to address” - Ene Ijato, Communications Director, CHEVS | Queer Youth Collective , Nigeria

Throughout the exhilarating, exhaustive (and, at times, exhausting) array of panels and plenaries, one message was clear: the work to dismantle patriarchal systems and decolonize development requires actionable and intentional intersectionality. It was a week of “and,” not “or.” Feminism and Climate. Reproductive Health and Economic Growth. Holistic Wellness and Political Resistance. Each workshop called for collective action, collaboration with multidisciplinary local change-agents, and co-creation with those most impacted. To facilitate this community-building, Abt was proud to sponsor the Women Deliver Solidarity Space, which hosted leaders from across the world who convened on issues such as the global state of LGBTQIA+ organizing, women in public health, and feminist movements in the Middle East. One gathering focused on bridging the intergenerational divide, gathering insights and best practices on how to share knowledge and stories between activists who paved the way, and youth who are forging new paths.?

Building Spaces

“A leader needs to facilitate the ideas of the team. Remember: Nobody alone is as intelligent as the team.” – Midori de Habich , Sr. Health Systems Advisor (former Minister of Health of Peru), Abt Associates

Abt proudly created space for delegates to learn, grow, and network, whether at our booth, our virtual panels on “Transformative Leadership in Global Development,” “Climate Change and Women’s Well-being in Tajikistan,” and “Ukrainian Women’s Leadership Under Fire,” and especially during our live session on leadership and career development. In each interaction, we demonstrated the power of teamwork to build on each other’s advice, inspire new ideas, and reinforce relationships. At our booth, we offered services that resonated with attendees. These included career mentorship, resumé support, and free professional headshots which, according to a delegate from Sierra Leone, “was one of the most thoughtful and useful offerings she had seen” as portraits are often too expensive, especially for the many young professionals who came to get their picture taken. These spaces demonstrated Abt’s forward-thinking approach to building capacity by sharing knowledge and resources that equip people to lead and ignite innovation within their own movements.

Co-creating Solutions?

“We have to knit together our expectations of our future. But, more importantly, we have to concretize how we get there. We don’t have to go for the same reasons, we just have to go in the same direction” - Stacey Abrams, Political Leader, USA?

Sustainable solutions are only attained through solidarity working across sectors to build and protect spaces where all are empowered to enable the change on which our lives depend. Everyone and everything at Women Deliver was directed towards solving interwoven problems. Some insights, proposals, and discussion themes include:

-???????Continuing support for private sector and recognizing that "investing in SDGs is good business"?( Ozonnia Ojielo , UN Resident Coordinator in Rwanda)

-???????Noting that though gender equality and women’s rights on the global stage has moved from a second thought to a top priority, it has led to backlash from anti-rights movements, which demands that we keep vigilant and raise our collective voices ( Delphine O , Ambassador and Secretary General of the UN World Conference on Women)

-???????Investing in strategies, policies, and platforms that actively combat misinformation regarding climate, health, gender-based violence, and equity ( jac sm kee , Numun Fund , Malaysia)

-???????Removing barriers to resources by modernizing and simplifying funding applications and processes ( Caroline Kouassiaman , Executive Director, Initiative Sankofa, d’Afrique de L’oues, West Africa)

-???????Acknowledging that rest, wellness, and joy, though often dismissed and overlooked, are critical to activism especially when addressing burn-out and sustainable movement-making ( Lily Dong Li Rosengard , Youth Advocacy Officer, Plan International )

Why is this work important to Abt? Because the forces that would further dilute equity, degrade the Earth, and diminish our dignity, are determined, loud, and well-resourced. They are systemic in their oppression, and persistent in their structural attacks.?

And so we work to strengthen solidarity, protect spaces, and co-create solutions with organizations like those with which we engaged – and will continue to engage – at Women Deliver. Why? Because we deserve a better world today, and we know that a brighter tomorrow is ours to build, together.?