Power Of...

Episode: 3 Part 2

Podcast Title: Power Of...  

Episode Title: Feminist Leadership Beyond Gender Binaries: Perspectives from Guyana – Part 2

Tune in to the Power Of…podcast, a series that dives into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to drive gender equality and improve global health. Johanna Riha hosts this podcast and works at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health in Malaysia, where she is passionate about seeing true transformation occur in these areas. 

While improving the representation of women in leadership roles is one important step toward institutionalising change towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in health, deep seated patriarchal norms mean we need more than gender parity, we need leadership that goes beyond gender binaries and authority, to responsibility grounded in feminist principles and values. In this mini-series, Johanna continues conversations with Kobe Smith on the power of feminist leadership. Kobe is a young, black Guyanese male leader, who has held various local, regional and international leadership positions. 

In the previous episode Kobe shared what feminist leadership means to him and insights from his roles in various leadership positions, highlighting the importance of leadership that champions responsibility, inclusivity, and representation for achieving gender equality and global health equity. 

In this episode, the conversation continues as Johanna asks Kobe how he remains grounded and focused staying true to feminist principles and values, given his different roles in positions of power and-decision making. Kobe explains that he continues to be motivated and inspired by personal relationships and experiences. For Kobe, feminist leadership is about being empathic to friends, family and others who may need care and support and being mindful how decisions may affect their lives. He also discusses the importance of finding meaning in work, but also prioritising self-care, which includes mental, physical and emotional dimensions of one’s wellbeing. As the episode concludes, Kobe discusses how we can do more for communities of people through feminist leadership if we consult and really try to understand the needs, the aspirations, the desires of the people we're trying to serve. He encourages as to ask, “When we sit down in rooms to craft policies and programs, are we engaging the youth? Are we engaging gender diverse people? Are we engaging persons who have health challenges? Why I say consult and engage - it really helps us to be more informed. And yes, consulting can take time. It can also take money. But it's better to consult than to take a decision that is not meaningful, that is not sustainable, that is not impactful.”  

This marks the end of the mini-series on the power of feminist leadership. If you haven’t already, listen to the first part of the conversation with Kobe and read Srilatha Batliwala’s think piece on feminist leadership – what it is and why it matters.  

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Kobe’s mother, who shaped him to become the leader he is today.  

Please keep liking, sharing, and subscribe! 

Links:

Download the Think Piece  

Visit our website  

Learn more about Johanna Riha   

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website  

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter  

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter  

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]  

Episode: 3 Part 1

Podcast Title: Power Of...  

Episode Title: Feminist Leadership Beyond Gender Binaries: Perspectives from Guyana – Part 1

Welcome to the Power Of…podcast, with host Johanna Riha. Working at the Gender and Health Hub at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health in Malaysia, Johanna is passionate about stimulating critical, thought provoking, and contemporary conversations that aim to drive gender equality in global health. In the previous two episodes, we heard from Simone Hill, a lesbian activist and founder of PETAL, Promoting Empowerment Through Awareness for Lesbian and bisexual women in Belize, about her leadership journey and experiences. In the next two episodes, Johanna continues on the theme of the power of feminist leadership, countering the misconception that feminist leadership is solely about women’s leadership. 

In these episodes, Johanna speaks with Kobe Smith, a young male leader from Guyana who has held various local, regional and international leadership positions, including being the co-founder and Vice President of the Sustainable Youth Network in Guyana, Director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, and a member of Fos Feminista's Board of Directors, co-chairing its advocacy committee.   

To kick off the conversation, Johanna asks Kobe what feminist leadership means to him and how he feels about the label of feminist leadership. In response, Kobe highlights the importance of having these conversations with men and boys who may be working to advance health equity but might not view themselves as feminist leaders. Kobe shares that his journey as a feminist leader was motivated by personal experiences and in particular the loss of his mother to ovarian cancer due to insufficient and inadequate health services. This experience made him realise the devastating effects of social inequalities on one’s health. Since then, Kobe has actively worked towards addressing the unmet health needs of vulnerable populations, such as women, girls, LGBTQ+ individuals, and others. For Kobe, feminist leadership is informed by personal experiences, but also it is also about centering the lived experiences of those who have been marginalised, to ensure health for all. Kobe further explains that this is accomplished through collective action to develop responsive programmes and discusses the significance of providing flexible funding to grassroots organisations to ensure the delivery of essential services. 

As the conversation continues, Johanna asks about the challenges of deep rooted harmful social norms within organisations, including those working towards social justice, and how these may be overcome. In response, Kobe discusses that feminist organisations are not free from challenges, as all humans bring their own traumas into a space and may perpetuate the inequalities they aim to address. He stresses the responsibility of the organisation to ensure accountability and maintain high standards of conduct. As the episode concludes, Kobe further emphasizes the need for meaningful and non-tokenistic diversity and inclusion within leadership boards to better represent and serve the communities they aim to support. 

This episode is dedicated to Kobe’s mother. 

Look out for the next episode where Kobe will continue to share his story and discuss the importance of wellness and staying grounded when serving in positions of power.  

In the meantime please like, share, and subscribe! 

Links: Download the Think Piece  

Visit our website  

Learn more about Johanna Riha   

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website  

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter  

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter  

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]  

Episode: 2 Part 2 

Podcast Title: Power Of...  

Episode Title: Feminist Leadership Beyond Gender Binaries: Perspectives from Belize – Part 2

Welcome to the Power Of…, a production by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). In this collection of conversations, we dive into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to stimulate debate and dialogue with the aim of driving gender equality in global health. Host, Johanna Riha, works at UNU-IIGH in Malaysia and is passionate that the bold commitments towards gender equality in health be met with commensurate action.

In this mini-series, Johanna focuses on the power of the feminist leadership and how this type of transformative leadership can be used to advance gender equality and health equity. In this episode, Johanne continues to speak with Simone Hill, founder of the organisation, Promoting Empowerment Through Awareness for Lesbian and Bisexual women (PETAL), in Belize.

Simone shares her experiences and the challenges she confronted, both in her personal life and those faced by PETAL, in efforts to advocate for the rights of lesbian and bisexual women in Belize. At the start of the episode, Simone candidly discusses the discrimination and difficulties she and her family encountered after publicly coming out as a member of the LGBT+ community on national television. However, she explains that her resilience, knowledge and previous achievements continue to motivate her to overcome challenges and work to fight ongoing discrimination.

As the conversation continues, Simone highlights the need to empower women through education, especially in light of challenges posed in the current climate of regression of women and LGBT+ rights, both within Belize and globally. As she contemplates these issues, she further discusses interconnecting issues around patriarchal power, trauma and the limits of gender parity in leadership, and emphasizes the importance of empathy, reflexivity and inclusivity to overcome these challenges at an individual and organizational level. Through this approach PETAL has achieved various successful outcomes including providing mental health support and legal assistance to lesbian and bisexual women in need.

The episode concludes with Simone discussing ongoing efforts of self-improvement and growth to advance the rights and well-being of lesbian and bisexual women in Belize, including pursuing higher education and studying law in Barbados to better serve her community. Simone is a trail-blazer and continuously looking to grow and better herself. Listen in to Part 1 of her story if you missed it.

In the next two episodes we’ll hear from Kobe Smith, a young male leader from Guyana as he shares how he understands and practices feminist leadership to improve health and wellbeing for women, girls and structurally marginalized populations in Guyana and globally.

In the meantime please like, share, and subscribe! 

Links: Download the Think Piece  

Visit our website  

Learn more about Johanna Riha   

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website  

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter  

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter  

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]  

Episode: 2 Part 1 

Podcast Title: Power Of...  

Episode Title: Feminist Leadership Beyond Gender Binaries: Perspectives from Belize – Part 1

Tune in to the Power Of… Podcast, a conversation that dives into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to drive gender equality and global health. Johanna Riha hosts this podcast and works at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health in Malaysia—she is passionate about seeing true transformation occur in these areas.

In this mini-series, Johanna continues conversations on the power of feminist leadership and how this type of transformative leadership can be used to advance gender equality and health equity. Through this series, Johanna aims to facilitate critical conversations, on what feminist leadership is, its relevance in the current social, political and economic climate, and how it is practiced in different contexts. The first episode set the tone by centering the discussion around the think piece on the topic of feminist leadership authored by Srilatha Batliwala, a senior advisor on Knowledge Building at Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), and an exceptional group of panellists who shared their thoughts and experiences on implementing feminist leadership into their practices.

In upcoming episodes, the focus shifts towards debunking widespread misconceptions concerning feminist leadership being synonymous with ‘women’s leadership’ by exploring what it means to LGBT+ leaders and men. Over the next two episodes, Johanna talks with Simone Hill, founder of the organisation, Promoting Empowerment Through Awareness for Lesbian and bisexual women (PETAL), in Belize. In this first episode, Simone begins by sharing how her incredibly rich leadership journey started, how she was a reluctant leader who founded PETAL because she recognised the high levels of discrimination lesbian and bisexual women were facing in Belize and the lack of organisations supporting their rights.

She goes on to explain how the organisation has grown and what her leadership style is like. Simone describes herself as a laissez-faire leader who proactively includes diverse opinions, she is also transparent and has moved away from competitive leadership to one that focuses on the greater good. Simone has also been very conscious of the need to look after the well-being of staff, especially in the current climate where funding is scarce and there is increasing hostility towards LGBT+ groups. As the episode ends, Simone describes how easy it is to unconsciously reinforce harmful patriarchal norms and stereotypes and stresses the importance of being self-reflective and empathetic to change oneself for the better.

Look out for the next episode where Simone continues to share her story, the challenges PETAL has faced and how she has grown as an individual and a leader. In the meantime please like, share, and subscribe! 

Links: Download the Think Piece  

Visit our website  

Learn more about Johanna Riha   

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website  

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter  

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter  

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]  

Episode: 1 

Podcast Title: Power Of...  

Episode Title: The Power of Feminist Leadership: From Rhetoric to Action

Welcome to the Power Of…podcast series, a production by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). In this collection of conversations, we dive into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to stimulate debate and dialogue with the aim of driving gender equality in global health.  Host, Johanna Riha, works at the UNU-IIGH in Malaysia and is passionate that the bold commitments towards gender equality in health be met with commensurate action.  

In this mini-series, Johanna focuses on the power of the feminist leadership and how this type of transformative leadership can be used to advance gender equality and health equity. In this episode, you will hear more about what feminist leadership is and why it is important, as well as practical examples from those who have been striving to put feminist leadership into practice. At the start of the episode Srilatha Batliwala, senior advisor on Knowledge Building at Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), introduces the think piece she authored on the value of transformative feminist leadership in global health. Srilatha highlights that feminist leadership is a good starting point to facilitate the kind of change needed to transform deeply imbedded power structures. This is because, fundamentally, feminist leadership is a process of self-transformation, one which recognises that to achieve the type of social transformation and justice we advocate for, we need to engage and mobilise individual and collective power to dismantle oppressive power structures to build a better world for all. However, as Srilatha points out, this may seem simple, yet there are many challenges to overcome. Leadership is not practiced in a vacuum – we need to address the organisational deep structures and practices which serve to (unconsciously) reproduce biases and hierarchies within organisational spaces. To better understand the navigation and action required to advance deep organisational transformation, Srilatha discusses the application of the Gender at Work framework which highlights the interlinkages between gender equality, institutional change and institutional practices which are framed by power dynamics. The framework is divided into 4 quadrants focusing on the informal to formal on the x-axis and the individual to systemic on the y-axis. To transform organisations, we can use the framework to uncover what changes are needed within each quadrant and identify opportunities and barriers to achieving gender equality.  

Following this, an amazing group of panellists – Rudo Chigudu, a Zimbabwean feminist, activist, artist and current board member of Zimbabwe's Women's Resource Centre Network, Bettina Baldeschi, the CEO of the International Women's Development Agency in Australia and Lucy Kombe, a women's rights advocate and program assistant at Zamara Foundation in Kenya – share their thoughts and experiences on implementing feminist leadership within themselves and the spaces they work in. For example, Rudo shares how her experiences working in a feminist organisation led her on a journey of self-transformation to question her own biases, insecurities and reactions following rising tensions within the organisation. As Rudo states: ‘It doesn't matter what the space is, you carry yourself whatever space you end up in... if we really want them to transform, we really hope for that kind of transformation, how do we get to the individual being?’.Similarly, Bettina reflects on the role she followed as a CEO when confronted with accusations of racism within her organisation and how her perceptions and actions changed once she stopped ‘listening with her head’ and learned to ‘listen with her heart’ instead.  

The conversation then moves on to explore how feminist leadership is something everyone can strive towards irrespective of either sex or gender. The next panellist, Gagan Sethi, the founder of Janvikas and board member of Oxfam India, provides a personal reflection on the need for men to engage and seek help to transform themselves and address power dynamics and hierarchies that are present in our roles and relationships. As the episode draws to a close Geeta Misra, the Executive Director of CREA, continues on this theme but stresses the importance of solidarity and inclusivity within feminism and the need for feminist leadership to commit to principles and values that advance the rights of all people, especially LGBTQI+, given the global rise in anti-gender and anti-democratic forces. As she stresses, this is precisely why it is important to engage with diverse groups of people, to learn about their experiences and struggles and how we can work together for change that is inclusive. Therefore, the biggest transformation we can hope for is increased solidarity driven by feminist leadership and mentoring. As Geeta states ‘feminist leaders and movements need to understand how movements are stronger together’.  

Look out for the next episode and in the meantime please like, share, and subscribe!  

Links: Download the Think Piece  

Visit our website  

Learn more about Johanna Riha   

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website  

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter  

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter  

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]  

Episode: 3 

Podcast Title: Power Of...  

Episode Title: The Power of the Collective: UN System Coordination for Gender Equality

Tune in to the Power Of… Podcast, a conversation that dives into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to drive gender equality and global health. Johanna Riha hosts this podcast and works at the United Nations University in Malaysia—she is passionate about seeing true transformation occur in these areas.

In this episode, Johanna continues the conversation on the power of the collective and is joined by Florence Hamimi, the Coordinator Advisor and Deputy Director of the Coordination Division in UN Women. Florence starts the conversation by sharing that her interest and passion for coordination came from seeing how effectively North African civil society actors worked together to drive change and advance gender issues in the region.

Florence then goes on to share her reflections on the think piece authored by Zineb Touimi Benjelloun and Joanne Sandler beginning with her thoughts on two of the obstacles mentioned in the think piece: 1) size and status mattering more than technical expertise and 2) the ‘high cost of coordination.’ Florence reiterates that despite the triple mandate of the UN women and their skills and legitimacy to coordinate gender equality and women’s empowerment across the UN system, there is a lack of recognition of the role and responsibility of coordination entails, especially at the country level. Florence also shares her views that if coordination is done well it should actually reduce costs, highlighting the need to improve reporting and accountability mechanisms to assess the actual cost of coordination in relation to the impact. Florence raises a third obstacle she believes needs to be considered – the competing thematic interests and prioritisation of different population groups vis-à-vis gender equality and women’s empowerment. She points out that issues on gender equality for women and girls are often framed as if they relate to a minority group, when in fact women and girls make up half of the global population.

 As the conversation continues, Johanna notes that the UN’s gender architecture is currently under review and asks Florence what points the review should focus on and interrogate to ensure that gender equality architecture is strengthened across the UN. Florence provides four points that she would like to see highlighted in the review, namely: 1) enhancing, clarifying and strengthening UN Women’s coordination mandate, 2) more clearly delineating and articulating what coordination means and looks like at the different levels of the UN system (global, regional, and country-level), 3) improving existing accountability mechanisms within the system, and 4) providing more evidence on the costs and potential cost-benefits of coordination.

In line with this, issues around accountability were raised – specifically, what steps can and should be taken to improve existing accountability structures to improve collective action, rather than create new ones. Florence points out that we should move beyond simply telling people that they are accountable, but rather we need to ensure that they know where to access accountability tools and that they have the technical expertise to implement these tools effectively to enhance a gender-based approach.

In conclusion, Johanna asks Florence how the UN can be more inclusive of feminist civil society actors – not only in terms of their role as implementers, but also how the UN can learn from their experience and expertise when it comes to coordination and collective action. In response, Florence states that there is a need to draw on feminist expertise to transform the current hierarchical culture of the UN system to incorporate and develop horizontal leadership structures. She ends off by stating that while the feminist and civil society movements have their own challenges, they are able to overcome these by shifting focus to achieve their goals – similarly the UN should learn from this to put aside differences that arise within the system to better serve the people.

This is the end of our mini-series on the power of the collective. If you haven't already, please visit the Gender and Health Hub website where you find Zineb and Joanne’s think piece on the Collective Power for Gender Equality: An Unfinished Agenda for the UN. Look out for our next think piece and podcast miniseries which is focusing on the power of feminist leadership.

Links: Download the Think Piece and Executive Summary 

Visit our website  

Learn more about Johanna Riha   

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website  

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter  

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter  

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]  

Episode: 2 

Podcast Title: Power Of...  

Episode Title: The Power of the Collective: Country Level Perspectives from Honduras 

Welcome to the Power Of…podcast series, a production by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). In this collection of conversations, we dive into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to stimulate debate and dialogue with the aim of driving gender equality in global health.  Host, Johanna Riha, works at the UNU-IIGH in Malaysia and is passionate that the bold commitments towards gender equality in health must be met with changes to the underlying structural and systemic drivers for true transformation to occur.  

In this mini-series, Johanna focuses on the power of the collective and explores how collective action is currently framed in the UN to advance gender equality and how this could be enhanced. In the last episode, Johanna was joined by Zineb Touimi Benjelloun and Joanne Sandler to discuss the think piece they co-authored titled ‘Collective power for gender equality: An unfinished agenda for the UN’. This week Johanna engages with guest speakers Xiomara Bu, the National Coordinator of Forosida, theNational HIV/AIDS Forum Association in Honduras and Alice Shackleford, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Honduras, to continue the conversation by discussing what collective power for gender equality means at the country level within and outside of the UN system.  

Johanna begins the conversation by asking her guests to reflect on what critical factors they believe are necessary for promoting better collective action on gender equality at country level. Alice starts by explaining that leadership and political commitment, especially at the higher levels of authority across all UN agencies, are essential in facilitating a cultural change to advance gender equality. Xiomara goes on to highlight the need to recognize that the rights of women and girls are also human rights which are fundamental to drive action. To this point, Xiomara emphasises the need to improve government accountability and leadership. According to Xiomara, building relationships with different actors is also essential as collaboration with political, faith-based, human rights and community organisations, allows the pooling of resources to address the embedded social factors which can improve the lives of women and girls. Within this context, organisations like the UN play a key role in building capacities and can use their position to influence change. However, there is a need to improve dialogue and communication across the UN system. Additionally, Alice explains that we need to counter the current approach whereby organisations and sectors differently frame the issue of gender inequality. This division of an interwoven, multidimensional issue defeats the collective power that can and needs to be mobilised for change. Alice insists that we all must build better collective visions with a more holistic view of what gender equality looks like and means and not separate out and piece-meal solutions.     

The guests then go on to discuss lessons learnt from the UN-EU Spotlight Initiative, which is the world's largest targeted effort to end all forms of violence against women and girls. Xiomara, shared her views as a member of the Spotlight Initiative Civil Society National Reference Group, and Alice, through her role as Resident Coordinator responsible for leading this country-level implementation of the Spotlight Initiative. 

As the episode draws to a close, our guests discuss some practical steps the UN can take at country level to support and advance collective efforts for gender equality. These include: 1) the need for a cultural change within the UN system with leaders being held responsible for changing cultures, norms and attitudes, 2) working against the normalisation of gender inequalities such as femicide in Honduras, 3) being inclusive by working with partners outside of the ‘usual suspects’, including the voices of men, 4) improving accountability structures 5) and recognizing the leadership value of feminist and civil society organizations. They argue that to accomplish this, we need to create more spaces for sustained dialogue with relevant organisations and stakeholders.   

Look out for the next episode and in the meantime please like, share, and subscribe!  

Links: Download the Think Piece and Executive Summary 

Visit our website  

Learn more about Johanna Riha   

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website  

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter  

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter  

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]  

Podcast Title: Power Of...  

Episode Title: The Power of the Collective: Collective Power for Gender Equality - An Unfinished Agenda for the UN 

Welcome to the Power Of…podcast series, a production by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). In this collection of conversations, we dive into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to stimulate debate and dialogue with the aim of driving gender equality in global health.  Host, Johanna Riha, works at the UNU-IIGH in Malaysia and is passionate that the bold commitments towards gender equality in health must be met with changes to the underlying structural and systemic drivers for true transformation to occur.  

In this mini-series, Johanna focuses on the power of the collective and explores how collective action currently is framed in the UN to advance gender equality and how this could be enhanced. In this episode Johanna is joined by guests Zineb Touimi Benjelloun and Joanne Sandler, who co-authored a think piece on the topic based on decades of experience working within the UN. In their think piece, Zineb and Joanne reflect on the role the UN has played in advancing gender equality through coordination among the different levels UN agencies work on – however the UN has yet to fully utilize its collective power to advance gender equality, especially as it relates to global health. The think piece therefore sets out to stimulate honest and critical discussions on the nature of collective action in the UN and highlight the need to re-think what collective action in the UN should entail, drawing on lessons from feminist principles and action.  

As the episode kicks off, Zineb and Joanne share that the current piece was inspired by their involvement in the UNU-IIGH Gender and Health Hub’s ‘What Works in Gender and Health in the UN' project, which involved interviews across 5 UN agencies (see link below). As Joanne mentions, it was striking that collaboration, coordination and cooperation were rarely referred to or mentioned during interviews, considering the time, tools and investment spent in improving coordination across the UN over the last few decades. This catalyzed their inquiry into why coordination was not more widely reported as a critical ingredient of success despite the millions invested. 

As the episode progresses, Zineb and Joanne reflect on these questions and discuss how coordination is supported in the UN and what impedes this. They describe three enabling factors: (1) a shared vision on gender equality crafted by multiple stakeholders, (2), the pooling of UN non-financial resources and capacities to establish minimum standards for performance on gender equality and (3) the availability of donor resources to support coordinated action. Following this, they talk through five challenges they identified which disrupt coordination: (1) a pay-to-play approach in which competition for funding discourages collaboration, (2) situations where size and status matter more than expertise which results in quality gender experts being excluded despite their technical expertise, (3) a follow the leader approach which runs counter to what is learned from feminist action of collaboration, of horizontal collaboration and accountability, (4) the high cost of coordination, and (5) the UN as a members-only club. Lastly, Joanne and Zineb propose five ideas for strengthening collective action on gender equality, learning from feminist principles and action: (1) Reframe notions of top-down coordination, (2) Re-think notions of inclusion, (3) Re-prioritise what aspects of the UN’s work on gender equality require a collective approach, (4) Resource the UN’s backbone for gender equality to build a world class gender architecture, and lastly (5) is to Re-negotiate ideas about accountability.  

The authors close by reflecting on the role of the UN itself as a colonial, patriarchal and hierarchal structure which creates tensions that members need to navigate as they work towards visionary human rights commitments. Finally, they invite people to come forward with more positive examples of successful collaboration, cooperation and collective impact and highlight the need to invest in learning opportunities to advance collective action to respond to gender inequalities.   

As the episode concludes, Johanna invites listeners to join her for the next conversation with a UN Resident Coordinator and feminist partners on the ground to hear what UN coordination looks like, means at the country level, and very importantly, what UN coordination means from outside of the UN.  

So don’t miss the next episode and keep challenging yourself to think, question, and do more to drive gender equality in global health!  

Please like, share, and subscribe!  

Links:  

Download: Think Piece

Download: What Works in Gender and Health Report 

Visit the UNU-IIGH website  

Learn more about Johanna Riha  

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website  

Follow the UNU-IIGH on Twitter  

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter  

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]  

Podcast Title: Power Of…

Episode Title: The Power of Feminist Civil Society: Rebuilding partnerships in the Field of Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls

Welcome to the Power Of…podcast, with host Johanna Riha. Working at the Gender and Health Hub at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health in Malaysia, Johanna is passionate to stimulate conversation about critical, thought provoking, and contemporary content that aims to drive gender equality in global health. In today’s episode, she continues on the theme of the power of feminist civil society. Diving back into the field of violence against women, we are joined by two longstanding experts and advocates, who discuss the need to rebuild connections between feminist civil society activists and other health actors. We also explore the transferable insights for those who are in other health areas. Today's guests are Tina Musuya, the Executive Director of Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention in Uganda and Lori Heise a Professor of gender, violence and health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the co-founder and the Technical Director of the Prevention Collaborative. Join Johanna, Tina Musuya and Lori for this crucial conversation!

Johanna begins by asking today’s guests to elaborate on the growing tension between feminists civil society actors and researchers in the field of violence against women and girls. Tina highlights how much of the longstanding work feminists have been doing for decades has recently been hijacked by newer institutions and actors. She stresses that calling these newer actors champions further sidelines the critical work women’s rights organisations have led in the field.

Lori explains that feminists of all stripes have been instrumental in putting violence against women on multiple agendas, such as health, development and human rights agendas. Hoewever, as the needs in the field of violence against women have shifted, so too have the people who hold the power in the movement. She says, the root of the tension comes from people with an informed and longstanding feminist background compared to those who are less familiar with the history.

In addition to the tension, Johanna shares her observation of historical memory loss in terms of the lack of recognition, acknowledgement and celebration of the substantial contributions of feminist activists in the field. Tina chimes in that much of what is considered credible documentation in the field is written in a certain way by certain standards. According to Tina, the real question is who is setting these standards for documentation? Unfortunately, this is linked to hegemonic power which typically amounts to exploitation and retirement to poverty of feminist actors who often work for peanuts. Very little is being done to profile and celebrate their achievements, let alone ensure they are properly paid for their work and leadership. From Lori’s perspective, we are entering a phase where some division of labour does actually make sense. The biggest current challenge is in how to keep the various strands of feminist work in conversation with one another.

Johanna then goes on to ask Tina and Lori to identify some concrete steps which can be taken by different partners within the prevention space to rebuild partnerships in a more meaningful and sustainable way. Lori says that a large issue is that the people who are heavily involved in the movement are not in communication with those generating the evidence.  The conversations which need to take place are about how to maximise collective impact towards the same shared goal. For these crucial conversations to take shape, we need the proper space and funding. Tina adds that it will require a deep level of honesty and humility to openly discuss old wounds, what went wrong, and how to move forward together in the cause. Learning is a two-way street. Additionally, the topics of accountability, partnership and solidarity must be addressed and defined on both ends.

 The conversation moves to the health system more broadly and how it has found it difficult to digest and accept its role in terms of perpetuating gender inequalities. Tina states that if the health sector has a deeper recognition of their impact, we would be in a much better position. She then goes on to give an example of how a health policy related to the provision of antenatal services in Uganda has had huge repercussions and negatively impacted pregnant women. As the episode draws to a close, Lori and Tina provide advice of key takeaways or transferable lessons for those working in other health areas to better engage with feminist civil society actors and build more meaningful partnerships.

Please like, share, and subscribe!

Links:

Visit our website

Learn more about Johanna Riha

Connect with Tina on Twitter

Connect with Lori on LinkedIn

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]

Podcast

Title: Power Of…

Episode Title: The Power of Feminist Civil Society: A Mexican Case of Gender Equitable Access to COVID-19 vaccines

Welcome to the Power Of…podcast, with host Johanna Riha, who works at the Gender and Health Hub at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health in Malaysia. Johanna is passionate to stimulate conversation about critical, thought provoking, and contemporary content that aim to drive gender equality in global health. In today’s episode, she continues to focus on the power of feminist civil society. Two guests from Mexico join the conversation, Karla Berdichevsky Feldman, Director General of the National Centre for Gender Equity and Reproductive Health in Mexico and Raffaela Schiavon, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, as well as a feminist and public health expert with a long-standing commitment to political activism in reproductive health. In today’s discussion, Karla and Raffaela share their experience of how an effective partnership was formed between government and feminist civil society actors to ensure more gender equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. Join Johanna, Karla, and Raffaela for this insightful conversation!

Johanna kicks off the episode by asking the guests to talk through how pregnant women were included in Mexico's national COVID-19 vaccination strategy and how an effective partnership formed between the Ministry of Health and feminist civil society actors was a critical driver in achieving this outcome. Karla begins by explaining that COVID-19 quickly became the leading cause of death for pregnant women in Mexico, unlike many other countries worldwide. A technical advisory group for COVID-19 vaccination was rapidly established to guide the national vaccination policy. At this juncture, where pregnant women were significantly at increased risk, it was important to bring in civil society and especially feminist women in this technical group, to inform how the policy can respond to the needs of pregnant women and be built with a gender-sensitive lens.

Raffaela goes on to explain how she was invited into the technical group and emphasises that Mexico has had a long history of collaboration between government and civil society. She explains how she contributed towards justifying the inclusion of pregnant women in the national COVID-19 vaccination strategy, both as a member of the Bioethical National Committee as well as a member of a civil society organisation. Raffaela points out that the lack of data at the beginning of the pandemic, about the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant women, is part of a larger problem, namely the exclusion of pregnant women from phase two and phase three clinical trials. This larger problem means pregnant women are always left out of clinical trials and therefore automatically excluded from receiving the benefits of these trials. Instead, Raffaela makes the case for giving pregnant women the autonomy and the capacity to give informed consent to be included from the beginning in these clinical trials to increase both safety and effectiveness. Listen and learn the difference in viewing women as objects to protect, rather than subjects of rights who have their own choices.

Johanna then turns the conversation back to the partnership with feminist civil society and asks what lessons can be learnt from this experience, particularly to avoid tokenist inclusion of feminist groups. The guests reflect on how important it is to move away from simply filling quotas to ensuring the degree of participation and the quality of participation is evident in the process and the end result, especially from a gender equality point of view.

Johanna continues the conversation by asking how the national COVID-19 vaccination policy has been implemented. Karla and Raffaela discuss the challenges of acting with very limited information at the early stage, especially in recognising the national context is very different from USA and Europe—both in terms of the epidemiology of the virus and the impact on pregnant women, but also in terms of the types of vaccines that were available. They stressed the importance of not simply mimicking other countries but really developing contextually informed policies. Other challenges they raised included vaccine hesitancy not only from the population side but also from the healthcare provider, with many being not fully convinced to recommend vaccination despite the epidemiological evidence of the benefits.

Karla then gives a very powerful example of how the pandemic has reinfored siloed approaches to women’s health, lacking a gender, human, and sexual rights perspective, which feminist civil society often brings. The guests call for the development of policies that consider the broader social context and impact of women’s health.

As the episode draws to a close, they discuss where things currently stand, the next steps looking to the future, and how they are seeking to evolve. Don’t miss the importance of the critical role feminist civil society actors are and can play in shaping better health policies to advance gender equality in health. They argue that we need to keep this lense on to provide sustainable solutions for everyone as we rebuild our health

systems!

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