#CSW63 - Teachers Love a Report Card

 Tuesday 12th March 2019

Education International co-ordinated an informative delegation seminar which helped to put #CSW63 into a wider context, in the global language of education.

We were presented with the Secretary General's 2nd year report card from the Feminist U.N, Campaign.  Compiled by the International Center for Research on Women (www.icrw.org) and presented by Teresa Casale.

We were told how the ICRW hold the Secretary General to account on issues of Gender Equality and Women's Rights.  When he was elected he made a statement that he is a feminist, and they are holding him to it.

They take into account his words via social media, speeches, articles, interviews but they also review his actions.  They look at appointments to his team, the balance of women on committees and official UN actions.

ICRW use the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as set by the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)  to set their success criteria. These are assessed using 6 recommendations as a measure:

1. Implement a Feminist Leadership Agenda for the UN
2. Ensure Feminist Implementation and Accountability for the SDGs
3. Finance for Gender Equality
4. Utilize Feminist Leadership
5. Enable a Feminist Transformation for CSW and UN Women
6. Promote the Freedom of Information in the UN System

It was fascinating to hear how the office of the Sec-Gen are constantly sending them evidence to improve his grade, that they are fully engaging with the report card process and how the grading system work.

Overall the Sec-Gen got a B- which is an improvement compared to his grade of a C+ last year (2017).  His individual grades were as follows (2017 - 2018)

1. Implement a Feminist Leadership Agenda for the UN - B to a B+
2. Ensure Feminist Implementation and Accountability for the SDGs - D+ to C
3. Finance for Gender Equality - C+ (Stayed the same)
4. Utilize Feminist Leadership - B+ to A-
5. Enable a Feminist Transformation for CSW and UN Women - C (Stayed the same)
6. Promote the Freedom of Information in the UN System - D+ to C

So overall he has improved, however he still has areas of focus to improve.  There was a concern raised that as he was working too slow in some areas and faster in others. It's good to make declarations but without assigning people, time or funding then you are going to find resistance to change.

We discussed about the need to not just promote women to positions to say 'check' we've done that; actually organisations like the UN have to consider the power balance for that position and whether the new appointee can influence change.  There was also the very real issue of promoting women for promotion sake, and not necessarily putting the 'right' woman in the position.

On the other hand he is on schedule to hit his deadline for parity, this is an ambitious agenda and as a result he has also faced pushback from some of the UN staff trade unions.  The worry is that (as with other large organisations) the UN is essentially policing itself, so the scrutiny from civil societies is a strong measure of true impact.

The idea of a report card for a leader of an organisation led us to discuss whether this would be transferable as a method to other leaders, or organisations such as the EU or the Canadian Minister and we were able to start seeing where it could be a useful tool however it does need the co-operation of the institution/individual to an extent.

One of the very interesting discussions was about the use of the word 'Feminist' and how it is used, not just when talking to an audience of women but how this translates into action when that person is in a position of power or influence.  It's 'easy' to say you are a feminist in a room full of feminists, it's what you do when you are not.

Thank you EI for an insightful presentation, in the language of teachers!

Feminist UN Report Card - Read the report here