Welcome to DPI NGO! This is the third of a series of special
blog reports that will be posted over the next few days about this 64th
Annual DPI/NGO Conference: Sustainable Societies, Responsive Citizens. Here, Anusha Santhirasthipam, SI’s Assistant Programme Director, shares her experiences at the UN Environment Programme consultations which took place in Bonn immediately before DPI/NGO.
Soroptimist International is relatively
unknown within the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) network of NGOs
and public sector partners outside of Nairobi. This became apparent when both Dr. Alice Odingo (SI’s UN
Representative to UNEP) and I made introductory statements and engaged in
policy-making sessions at the UNEP
Special Global Consultation meetings on 1 & 2 September 2011 in Bonn,
Germany, held immediately prior to the UN DPI/NGO Conference from 3-5
September.
We were there to provide inputs on
environmental governance issues, poverty eradication and green economy
challenges. We had to first and foremost introduce SI and our global role in
educating, enabling and empowering women and then go onto establish how SI is
promoting sustainable development and alleviating poverty especially among
rural and indigenous women through SI club projects.
Angela
Cropper, Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of UNEP and former Deputy
Executive Director of UNEP who delivered
the Keynote Address, was so impressed by our introduction to SI, that she
sought me out during the morning coffee break and said “Soroptimist
International can play the forefront role in women’s awareness and education to
make informed consumer choices, influence changes in consumer habits and better
manage our environment through your projects. You have enormous capacity
building potential.”
Gender mainstreaming is becoming a
central pillar of UNEP policies and programmes (See www.unep.org for more details). The UNEP International Consultation
meetings coordinated by WECF (Women in Europe for a Common Future) was ample
proof of this.
During the morning session, Martina Bianchini Vice-President, EU
Government Affairs & Public Policy/Head Brussels Office of The Dow Chemical
Company stressed the importance of complementary partnerships between
corporate sector and NGOs to eradicate poverty. Martina also chatted with me
over morning coffee and said that Dow Chemical Company is interested to learn more about SI best practice projects.
Julia
Pippig from the Federation of German Scientists told me that she was delighted to
learn of Soroptimist clubs’ commitment to education of the girl-child. She has
a special interest in ensuring that girls excel in science and technology.
Annette
Groger, an economist with ECOSOC-NGO Committee approached me to
keep her informed about SI’s socio-economic programmes.
Carole
Excell, Senior Associate of Institutions & Governance Program, World
Resources Institute (WRI) is interested to
explore joint advocacy programmes with SI and is especially interested in SI’s
Global Impact Report.
WRI has more than 50 major international projects on climate
and ecosystem protection and is best known for its biennial publication,
the World Resources report, a well-regarded collection of data and
in-depth analysis on current environmental issues. The most recent edition of World
Resources, entitled The Wealth of the Poor: Managing Ecosystems to Fight
Poverty, explored the importance of good ecosystem management for the alleviation of rural poverty. The
report is a collaborative product of WRI with the World Bank, United Nations Environment Programme and United Nations Development Programme (See http://www.wri.org for more details)
WRI is responsible for bringing together a core team of civil
society organizations from around the world to establish The Access Initiative (TAI), the only global
movement committed to improving citizen access to information, participation
and justice in decisions that affect the environment. SI will now have the opportunity to explore information sharing with WRI and The Access Initiative.
Amb. Dr Irma Loemban
Tobing-Klein, Co-Founder/President MDG
Global Watch asked me to ensure that SI sends regular SI news to MDG Global Watch about SI clubs’
programmes and projects that help to meet U.N. Millennium Goals. MDG Global Watch publicises and promotes
NGO activities through all available news channels and annual reports to U.N.
organisations (See www.mdg-globalwatch.org to learn more).
Ambreen Waheed, Executive
Director of Responsible Business Initiative (www.RBipk.org) an affiliate of SAFoRB (South Asia Forum on
Responsible Business) an active participant at the UNEP Global Consultation
meetings, informed me that she used to be a member of a Soroptimist club in
Pakistan and was surprised to now learn of SI’s advocacy and awareness work.
Even though she currently has a busy international profile, Ambreen is keen to
rediscover SI and become a Soroptimist once again!
Rose de Lima Ramanankavana,Coordinator of Africa Projects of International Association of Charities (See www.aic-international.org) was full of praise
for work done by Soroptimists in Madagascar and gave me gushing accounts of
television news stories that covered Soroptimist projects in Madagascar. Rose
said she was so delighted “to meet a Soroptimist in person at last!”
At
the end of the day, I was virtually “walking on sunshine” going from explaining
to people WHO Soroptimist International is to experiencing the WOW feeling
people got when they realised WHAT Soroptimist International is all about and
HOW we make things happen! And
this was only my Day One at Bonn. I will share more news in my next
SoroptiVoice blog!
Anusha Santhirasthipam
International Assistant
Programme Director