THE SUNDAY GLEANER, MARCH 6, 2022 | IN FOCUS F2 WAR CONTINUED FROM F1 AS THE world moves ahead to mark International Women’s Day, the clock on women’s rights is moving backwards. All of us are paying the price. The cascading crises of recent years have highlighted how women’s leadership is more crucial than ever. Women have heroically confronted the COVID-19 pandemic as doctors, nurses, and public-health and social-care workers. But at the same time, women and girls have been the first to lose out on jobs or schooling, taking on more unpaid care work, and facing skyrocketing levels of domestic and cyber abuse and child marriage. The pandemic has highlighted even more starkly an age-old truth: the roots of patriarchy run deep. We still live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture. As a result, in good times or bad, women are more likely to fall into poverty. Their healthcare is sacrificed and their education and opportunities are curtailed. And in countries enduring conflict – as we see from Ethiopia to Afghanistan to Ukraine – women and girls are the most vulnerable but also the most compelling voices for peace. As we look to the future, a sustainable and equal recovery for all is only possible if it is a feminist recovery – one that puts progress for girls and women at its centre. We need economic progress through targeted investments in women’s education, employment, training, and decent work. Women should be first in line for the 400 million jobs we are called to create by 2030. SOCIAL PROGRESS We need social progress through investments in social-protection systems and the care economy. Such investments yield huge dividends, creating green, sustainable jobs while supporting members of our societies that need assistance, including children, older people, and the sick. We need financial progress to reform a morally bankrupt global financial system so that all countries can invest in a woman-centred economic recovery. This includes debt relief and fairer tax systems that channel some of the massive pockets of wealth around the world to those who need it most. We need urgent, transformative climate action to reverse the reckless increase in emissions and gender inequalities that have left women and girls disproportionately vulnerable. Developed countries must urgently deliver on their commitments on finance and technical support for a just transition from fossil fuels. The successful, stable economies of the future will be green, gender-inclusive, and sustainable. We need more women in leadership in government and business, including finance ministers and CEOs, developing and implementing green and socially progressive policies that benefit all their people. We know, for example, that having more women in parliaments is linked with stronger climate commitments and higher levels of investment in healthcare and education. We need political progress through targeted measures that ensure women’s equal leadership and representation at all levels of political decision-making through bold gender quotas. Gender inequality is essentially a question of power. Uprooting centuries of patriarchy demands that power is equally shared across every institution, at every level. At the United Nations, we have achieved – for the first time in the organisation’s history – gender parity in senior management at headquarters and around the world. This has dramatically improved our ability to better reflect and represent the communities we serve. TAKE INSPIRATION Every step of the way, we can take inspiration from women and girls pushing for progress in every sphere and every corner of our globe. Young women climate campaigners are leading global efforts to pressure governments to live up to their commitments. Women’s rights activists are bravely demanding equality and justice and building more peaceful societies as peacekeepers, peacemakers, and humanitarians in some of the world’s trouble zones and beyond. In societies where women’s rights movements are vibrant, democracies are stronger. When the world invests in expanding opportunities for women and girls, all of humanity wins. As a matter of justice, equality, morality, and plain common sense, we need to turn the clock forward on women’s rights. We need a sustainable, feminist recovery centred around – and driven by – women and girls. n António Guterres is the secretary general of the United Nations. This article has been penned on the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8. Send feedback to columns@ gleanerjm.com. AP A woman with a child who fled from the war in Ukraine reacts as they reuniting with their family after crossing the border in Medyka, Poland. A sustainable feminist recovery GUEST COLUMNIST António Guterres “INVASION” OF Ukraine. These events have already had a terrible human cost. Putin has fired rockets at blocks of flats and bombarded civilian targets. The number of refugees leaving Ukraine is now over a million, and UN agencies predict that up to five million could leave. Families are being torn apart, communities and livelihoods needlessly destroyed. Civilians, including children, are dying, alongside many Ukrainian and Russian soldiers. But some here in Jamaica might yet ask, Why should all this be a concern of ours? Jamaica is thousands of miles away and without direct interests, would it not be better to keep our heads down? ON TENTERHOOKS Absolutely not! First, because in 2022, the world is now smaller, more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. The pandemic demonstrated that, and so has this unprovoked conflict. Like everyone in Jamaica, I was on tenterhooks as we followed the progress of the Jamaican students trying to leave Ukraine and shared your relief as the evacuation operation came to a successful conclusion. We have similarly urged our own nationals to leave Ukraine and assisted their return home. Second, this invasion could set an appalling precedent. Prime Minister Holness was right to stress Jamaica’s “support for the universal respect and adherence to the principles of international law and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all nations”. For without these principles, what is stopping other states from being swallowed up by a belligerent, larger neighbour? And where would accepting such behaviour leave the long-term security of any UN member state, large or small? Third, this invasion of a free, sovereign country is not only a tragedy, but a colossal mistake from which we can all learn. Putin told his people and his troops that they would be cheered in the streets and garlanded with flowers. That lie is crumbling in the face of extraordinary, courageous Ukrainian resistance, delaying the entire invasion plan. The open, democratic systems and free speech we enjoy in both Britain and Jamaica enable us to work together to ensure that we listen to a range of views and adjust our policies accordingly, whether that be in the fields of violence prevention, pandemic recovery, or in building a resilient economy. As part of a global network of liberty, the UK and Jamaica must cherish, value, and sustain our democratic traditions and systems. CALLING OUT MISINFORMATION Fourth, we have a shared interest in calling out misinformation. While convoys of tanks and armoured vehicles bear down on Kyiv, the Kremlincontrolled Russian media refuses to tell the Russian people that their soldiers are being ordered to attack their Slavic brothers and sisters in this ancient capital. Instead, they concoct a tissue of lies and claim that Russia is merely conducting a “special operation in the Donbas” to protect their own citizens. This shows the importance of a free and open media environment. Jamaica currently ranks 7 (out of 180) globally for media freedom – something of which this country is rightly proud. Were the Russian media able to “speak truth to power” as the Jamaican media does, there would surely be much higher levels of popular dissent about the war Putin is unjustly waging on Ukraine, and his position would look different. Finally, the UK and Jamaica, as democratic countries, must accept that this crisis will impose costs on us and our electorates; that the unprecedented level of sanctions imposed on Russia will have consequences for us, as well as for Russia; and that no step we take is free of risk. But if the current nightmare is to end, then Putin must be made to understand that his savagery will be met with unending economic pressure and that the world will stay united in its support of Ukraine. We must be ready for a prolonged crisis. The international community must maintain the extraordinary unity shown so far and press ahead with a strategy of economic, humanitarian, and diplomatic assistance to Ukraine, along with defensive weapons. This, together with the extraordinary courage and patriotism of President Zelenskyy and his countrymen, will mean Putin’s adventurism ultimately fails. Jamaica’s voice is a strong and influential one and has already added weight to the overwhelmingly loud chorus condemning Putin’s actions. Your part in this coalition is vital, and the UK will continue to work with Jamaica to support the government and people of Ukraine in any way that we can. n Judith Slater is the British High Commissioner to Jamaica. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com AP An apartment building damaged following a shelling on the town of Irpin, 26 kilometres west of Kyiv.
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