Katja Iversen, the President of Women Deliver, a global advocacy organisation that champions gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women was in Kenya recently and she talked to JECKONIA OTIENO about the state of gender equality globally as the world heads towards the Women Deliver Conference mid next year in Vancouver, Canada.
What should we expect in the upcoming conference in Canada?
First of all the conference focusses on solutions and what works. We seek to find different ways how equality can be achieved. We shall therefore be pushing to have more investments in girls and women as well as to create new partnerships.
Why is this conference important?
This conference is one of its kind because it is egalitarian in nature. Everyone who attends has a chance to meet and network with the others regardless of position, status, gender or social standing. The conference, in short, creates, an environment where different delegates can engage freely without boundaries to discuss issues of women.
What should the world expect at the conference?
This is one of the world’s largest conferences bringing together about 7,000 people including world leaders, influencers, opinion shapers, academics and journalists. It has a total of 150 side events and is run by hundreds of organisations. Three channels have been dedicated to cover the event live for three days.
What are some of the challenges facing the match to gender equity?
We have seen conservatives attack women’s rights. Even as we seek to put data and numbers behind our push we realise that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in order to achieve the aspirations of women.
How will this be done?
Women Deliver will put power in the agenda in a new way. We have realized that there are three ways in which women rights can be achieved – individually, structurally and using the power of masses. Individually, we ask what the hindrances are and what can enable individual power; structurally, we look at the economies, policies and breaking gender norms; and finally, on power of masses, when a lot of people come together and say no then there will be change.
What does this shift of power portend?
Power is not given; it is something that we have. What the world needs to understand is that girls and women have been underserved and there is a need to change this because this will have a positive impact on the world generally.
How does reproductive health rights contribute to women’s rights?
We cannot leave out women’s sexual and reproductive health because reproductive health defines how a woman can be useful to the society. There is need to understand that women spend 35 years trying not to become pregnant and five years trying to be pregnant. Thus reproductive health choices will affect the success of any society.
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Why is the place of women important in health?
About four in every five health workers are women but on the other hand less than ten per cent of leaders in the health sector are women. This is a difficult place to be since we find that it is mostly men who are making decisions on the health of women including reproductive health.
What is your take on sexuality education?
First of all it is important to state that knowledge at every stage of life is important. Health education to make critical decisions is equally important and sexuality education has been proven to induce healthy behavior, bring down sexually transmitted infections and lower cases of teen pregnancies as well postpone sexual debut among young people.
How does this affect maternal health?
One of the leading causes of maternal death is unsafe abortions. With information and reproductive health services cases of abortion will reduce significantly and this can only happen if it is made safe and legal as it will become rare and the lives of many women and girls will be saved. Research has proven this.
But abortion is a controversial subject and taboo in some cultures, what next?
From research it has been shown that unsafe abortions existed throughout time. If we are serious about bringing down maternal mortality and seeing economic progress the reproductive health rights have to offered. Looking at data, you will see that those who die from unsafe abortions are the young, poor and desperate women. We also know from research that abortion is a health, economic and empowerment issue.
Which other issues hinder gender equality?
Inequality about women are interlinked with early marriages, lack of reproductive health rights and female genital mutilation. Most of the time inequality revolves around these three before it gets to subtle issues like segregation at other levels of societal interaction.
In your opinion are there countries that have achieved equity?
No country in the world is yet to achieve full gender balance. Most countries still have laws that discriminate against women. It takes deliberate effort politically, financially and programmatically to achieve this balance. However, countries like Iceland, Canada, Colombia, Rwanda and Ethiopia have made great strides in equal representation. And research has shown that countries that have more women in power are doing better socially and economically.
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