UNITWIN Staff and Message from Sonia Bahri, UNITWIN Director - UNESCO, Paris

From left to right: Inga Nichanian, Hassmik Tortian, Sonia Bahri, Milena Caceres Valderrama, and Carmen Piñán.

From Dr. Sonia Bahri, Director of UNITWIN: There will be no sustainable development without women's empowerment. Higher education Institutions and universities have a key role to play as think-tanks and as bridge-builders between academia and local communities, and between research outcomes and decision making, in the field of gender equality.

Today, UNITWIN has 617 UNESCO Chairs and 60 UNITWIN Networks in 125 Member States. There are 11 Chairs plus one UNITWIN Network established in Gender issues.

Dr. Brenda Gael McSweeney Awarded Order of Merit First Class from Federal Republic of Germany

Dr. Brenda Gael McSweeney pictured here with the Lady Mayor of Bonn, Baerbel Dieckmann, on the occasion of the Award Ceremony in Bonn.

Brenda was awarded the Order of Merit First Class, decided by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, for her work in development with the United Nations and support of the creation of the 'UN City, Bonn.'

She was invited to give a lecture entitled "Making UN History in Bonn" to the development community in Bonn on the occasion of the award ceremony. The lecture focused on work accomplished by the UN Volunteers in the arena of gender and the environment globally, with specific reference to programs in Burkina Faso and India, and an accent on steps the development community in Bonn might take next.

UN Volunteers Article on Brenda's Award


Photo by Dr. B. Murali

University of Bonn Students preparing for the Model UN, New York

Model United Nations participants from the University of Bonn, Germany pictured with Brenda Gael McSweeney

Brenda met up on October 22nd at the Old Town Hall in the UN City of Bonn with a team of University of Bonn students who will be participating in the 2009 National Model UN delegation. This was on the occasion of the event, "Making UN History in Bonn", co-sponsored by the City of Bonn and the Foundation for International Dialogue of Sparkasse Bonn.

The UNITWIN Network on Gender, Culture and Development is currently exploring affiliations with the University of Bonn and Sparkassenstiftung, Bonn.

Photograph by Hee-Sun Helene Won

Just published by UNESCO: "Another Side of India: Gender, Culture and Development"!

Cover painting credit: © Anuradha Dey (Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India)

A Volume of Essays by participants in the UNITWIN Network on Gender, Culture and People-Centered Development. Editor - Brenda Gael McSweeney; Foreword by Gita Sen; Introduction by Krishno Dey; and a final note called 'Points of View, from the Other Side...' by social activist Aruna Roy.

Essays and Authors:

Engendering Panchayats - Niraja Gopal Jayal

She's in Charge Now: An Examination of Women's Leadership in the Panchayati Raj Institutions in Karnataka - Shiwali Patel

Public Space and Women's Rights: Fine Tuning Democracy - Kumkum Bhattacharya

Srihaswani: a gender case study - Krishno Dey, Chandana Dey and Brenda Gael McSweeney
with Rajashree Ghosh

Hold the pen-plough and till the paper-land: Success story of a movement for education and related issues - Kumar Rana, Liby T. Johnson and Subhrangsu Santra

Poverty of Choice: Gender and Livelihoods in Punjab - Yaaminey Mubayi

A Uniform Civil Code towards Gender Justice - Leila Seth

Missing Daughters: Socio-Economic and Cultural Dynamics of Adverse Sex Ratio in Punjab - Malkit Kaur

Contested Terrains: Gender Justice and Citizenship in South Asia - Shahla Haeri


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"Her Village is Named Daggo"

Left: Former BU Student Ashley Hughes with Oumima in Niger, Africa. Ashley participated in the Boston University Niamey Development Program from September to December 2007. In August 2008 she returned to Niger for a two-week trip to continue learning about nutrition activities in the country. While at BU, Ashley was a key actor in the creation of a new student club at Boston University called Students Against Human Trafficking, and served as its president.

"Her village is named Daggo. It sits 4 K (about 2 miles) away from the main road. When we turned off the main road we found ourselves without a road, just in a space between stalks of millet. The village is surrounded by the villagers' millet fields, their main crop and dietary staple. When we reached the village center we got out and found our way through the maze of mud walls to Natasha's house. She has only been here for 2 weeks, and she still has a hard time finding her house.

Her house is surrounded by a short mud wall that marks off her yard, or her concession. People spend most of their lives outside--even the cool mud houses get too hot, and there's no reason to stay inside for too long. The heat drives people to sleep outside, cook outside, rest outside, everything. The house is almost a prop, just a sign of wealth. Natasha's wealth is shown in other ways. She is the only village member to have a latrine (which is a hole in the ground). The villagers go in the sand and bury it. She has furniture (a table, some chairs, a cot). She also has a large house for just herself, compared to other families in the village.

I tried putting myself in her shoes. Here she is, in complete isolation from home and from a certain standard of living that we are used to. No one in the village speaks English or even French, forcing her to learn Hausa faster out of sheer necessity. For the first month of her service she is required to stay in the village without returning to the hostel in order to solidify her place in the village.

This one woman, Oumima, was Natasha's neighbor and "mother". She is about 60 or 70 years old, and she lives in the same courtyard with her co-wife. Their husband is dead, but the two live together with the youngest of their 18 children. They are both old enough that some of their kids are grown, but as per Nigerien tradition they take care of a lot of their grandchildren. Oumima wakes up at 4 am, draws water, goes to the fields all morning, comes back to make food for her family, pounds millet, works in the field more, comes back to draw water, pounds millet...the life is so repetitive and endless.

So it was hard to understand her smile, her warm hospitality, her insistence on feeding me, her encouraging words about learning Hausa. He eyes were bright and shining every time I saw her, in spite of the baby strapped on her back or the wood balanced on her head, whether she was bending over to sweep the courtyard or to tend to the fire. She had a patience about her that you never see back home. She's not anxious for things to change, she is accepting of life as it is. It hasn't changed for her and probably never will. But it does not break her spirit."

Shahla Haeri: "Sacred Canopy: Love & Sex under the Veil"

Following the screening of Shahla Haeri's video documentary, "Mrs.
President: Women and Political Leadership in Iran," Shahla interacts with a fellow professor and the audience at St. Andrews University, Scotland in June 2008.
For information on the video, please visit
www.films.com.

Aruna Roy sharing notes

Aruna Roy, co-founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS- a non-party people's process, working towards a just and equal society), called on the Women's Studies Program at Boston University to share notes on issues of women’s participation in governance and development. Aruna reflected on the International Women’s Day Celebration on 8 March ‘08 in her home state of Rajasthan, India. She participated alongside 7,000 other Indian women. She spoke of the remarkable change, “As we looked at seven thousand women with faces uncovered in front of the men of the village, we knew that a small revolution had occurred. The people of Khandach, including the men, saw value in celebrating women’s day. It was an acknowledgement of the political power of women, as much as of the new found power in electoral representation.” (From the forthcoming UNESCO Web Book, Another Side of India: Gender, Culture and Development.)

Aruna was also invited to participate in the Conference, Frontiers of Innovation Celebrating 20 years of Innovation in Government, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The Conference was hosted by The Ash Institute, Harvard Kennedy School, from March 30 – April 2, 2008. Aruna was a speaker in Panel 1, entitled Innovations in Governance, Ethics and Accountability in the Public Sector. Aruna spoke of the role of MKSS in gaining the Right to Information (RTI) in India. The panel overall was exploring three successful initiatives at the local, regional and national level. The aim was to share strategies increasing transparency and enhancing competence of leaders in the public sector.

Photo by Shahla Haeri

George Mathew's Briefing on Women's Empowerment Day!

Dr. George Mathew, Director of the Institute for Social Studies, New Delhi called on BU's Women Studies Program. Here he is, at left, briefing Dr. Shahla Haeri, Director of WSP, on forthcoming activities hosted at his institute. These include a symposium to be convened on 24 April 2008, Women's Political Empowerment Day, on the topic of women, Panchayats (local governance bodies) and child rights. The Institute hosts a symposium annually on 24 April, to mark this date. On this day in 1993, the Government of India amended the Constitution, giving one-third of all seats in local bodies in the country to women. Dr. Mathew explained to Shahla and Dr. Brenda Gael McSweeney (pictured below), that since 1994 the Institute celebrates that day as Women's Empowerment Day with a focus on various crucial topics. Nearly 1,000 women attend each year to express solidarity and discuss common problems. The theme last year was HIV/AIDS, women and the role of Panchayats, while in 2006 the celebrations focused on Panchayats, water and sanitation. The Institute for Social Studies carries out research projects on local governance, women's studies, the environment and contemporary economic and political challenges, which mirror the issues most important to the UNESCO/UNITWIN on Gender, Culture and People-Centered Development.

Photo Credits: Brenda Gael McSweeney and Carla Pack-Bailey

Sonia Bahri at the “60 Minutes to Defend” UNITWIN/UNESCO Session!

As of mid March 2008, there were 14 UNESCO Chairs plus this UNITWIN Network established in the field of Gender. Here we see Dr. Sonia Bahri, UNESCO’s UNITWIN programme Chief, interacting with Representatives of Permanent Delegations to UNESCO and National Commissions, and various other partners. We are all proud that the UNITWIN programme is moving from strength to strength, with activities taking place in a range of gender disciplines and countries including: Argentina, Spain, India and Poland.

Students Respond to International aspects of "Women and Electoral Politics: A New Era?"

Maria Claudia Echavarria - “It is astonishing to see that countries like Mozambique, Chile, India and Liberia all had female leaders before the United States. The United States, although a country which strongly promotes gender equality, is also one that holds the strongest barriers for women in politics… As Dr. Norris believes, in order to empower women in politics we must do more than just believe in one candidate, we must strive to break the barriers and reform the game of politics and gender around the world.”

Kimberly Fillion – “The first speaker and professor at Harvard University, Pippa Norris discussed barriers facing women leaders, primarily in developing countries. Culture and politics, both local and regional, have huge roles in prohibiting women from having equal footage on the frontline in regards to obtaining leadership. While progress is made, there is still evidence of a glass ceiling that all women face, whether in developing or developed countries.”

Anna Miller - “I gained a number of insights during the discussion of whether we are in a new era, of how women are involved in electoral politics. Professor Pippa Norris presented very interesting research that proved that when structural constraints were changed to favor women, as in Rwanda and Ireland, there is drastic increase of women in state and national legislature.”

Melinda Heavey – “I liked how Professor Norris drew examples from global trends, not just America. She relayed that women leaders are present in only 12 countries, and not just affluent countries. Some of the poorest countries including Chile, Argentina and Jamaica were among the 12 countries that did have female leaders.”