Brahma Kumaris at United Nations

On Day One of the Informal Interactive Hearings between the General Assembly representing countries and the Civil Community representing the worlds peoples, the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon addressed the gathering saying that “The voices of those most affected by MDGs must be heard if we are to achieve our promise. Vision has the power to inspire us to achieve the MDGs. With that vision we can discuss case studies, highlight best practices and suggest action oriented strategies for their achievement.

To receive important input as member states prepare for the MDG Summit in September 2010, it was asked that these informal interactive hearings with NGOs, civil societies and the private sector take place. The resolution in which this was based (A/RES/64/184) encourages Member States to actively participate in the hearings at the ambassadorial level in order to facilitate interaction between Member States, and the representatives of NGOs, civil society organisations and the Private sector. It was unfortunate to see such poor representation by Member States at this event.  The ‘reserved’ seating for NGOs was filled to capacity, the vast majority of the country seats remained empty. I counted maybe 20 out of 192 member states. The presentations and dialogues from these Hearings will be issued as an Assembly document, constituting a formal input into the political process leading to the Summit.

“You have already made a real different by mobilising international support and driving concrete initiatives to expand…. use your advocacy, help others keep their promises, focus on what works, promote leadership, emphasis accountability government and solidarity. I encourage a truly interactive dialogue and active participation.” Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon

The President of the General Assembly, in close consultation with the Task Force and using the recent report of the Secretary-General as guidance, established specific themes for the four sessions. The themes attempt to highlight key aspects of the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs, while also emphasizing the interrelated nature of the MDGs and the international development agenda more broadly. The four Themes were:

Thematic Session 1, Building a better tomorrow: local actions, national strategies and global structures

Thematic Session 2, Equal and inclusive partnerships: accountability in the fight against poverty

Thematic Session 3, Sustaining development and withstanding crises

Thematic Session 4, From voice to policy: 1660 days left

Reiterated in all the sessions, was the systemic problem of gender bias that NGOs civil societies and the private sector argued is a key problem to achieving the MDGs. Small communities, typically agrarian, and the majority of whom of women, are still consistently ignored by governments and donors. This reality was brought to light by a remarkable and beguiling speech from peasant farmer Constance Okollet from the Osukuru United Womens Network: “Climate change is destroying our villages. Now we have abnormal rain. It never used to rain in these months. Now the water takes the village away. Children are dying. Where are the next generation of strong women? I am a strong woman, so why do you give me corn flour? Why do you not help us to mobilise our own activities? We can do it. But we cannot do it alone.” Others following her said that governments and donors do listen, but if there is any criticism of policy, governments often backtrack, putting in place cumbersome bureaucratic systems making it impossible to move forward.  Nurgul Djanaeva from Forum of Womens NGOs of Kyrgyzstan said “In my country we just saw the destruction of an important institutional mechanism in less than a year. The National Gender Equality entity was moved from the Presidents Office to the Office of Immigration where it now has no state budget allocation. Gender equality entities are key to implementing the MDGs, if we are serious about it.” Countries where women are given the opportunity to open business or engage in economic activities, and where there is a high degree of female participation in politics have less poverty across the board. Reports from those representing global societies though, says that as people find strength and voice then the governments back down. This statistic that is repeatedly shown to affirm the need to involve women at all levels of project design, management, application and decision making if the MDGs are to be realised.

The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University had three representatives attend the event. The Brahma Kumaris support the need to properly include the voices of all peoples, if the MDGs are to be realised. The systemic issues of gender (discrimination) and access (to health, education and food) were highlighted during the sessions. And the process of analysing and attempting to resolve complex issues, is likely to reveal systemic problems. We suggest that a powerful element of the structural difficulties hindering the MDGs is an awareness based solely on a physical paradigm of difference. The heart of any change, whether at the level of personal life, family relationships or government policy, is that of awareness. Our awareness of others as being part of global family brings the problems to light, and an awareness of others as different, therefore Other and therefore of inherently less importance, blocks the resolution of the problems. If we treat the worlds peoples as if they are our family members, our approach becomes collective, inclusive and productive. It is unfortunate that often this is still seen as the ’soft approach’ despite the failure of other approaches to solve the worlds greatest problems, and despite the increasing body of scientific research, particularly in the field of health, that identifies and affirms the impact of attitudes and behaviour on patient outcomes, therefore impact directly on cost. If it works in health, it must apply to other spheres of fundamental human existence.

Presenters over the two days, from all forms of NGOs and sectors of civil society and the private sphere conch that there must be a greater voice for civil society in order to achieve the MDGs. That the reason we are here at the UN is to remind policy makers of the core tenets of human rights - remove discrimination. A gender balance is crucial to implementation of MDGs. Any attempt to alleviate poverty and achieve sustainability must focus on the underlying problem of gender issues.”

Conventional wisdom does not constitute conventional policy… and we have yet to see adequate investment in MDGs that would deliver this conventional wisdom.” Charlotte Bunch

Tamasin