SPECIAL: The Story of Woman Goes Global: Women Deliver, The World’s Largest Convening for Gender Equality

[00:00:00] Hi, Anna. My name is Benita. I'm from India. My name is Brittany Evans. I am from the United States. My name is Grace Bender. I am based in Malawi. There are so many huge pressing challenges that are facing women and girls and gender

[00:00:17] and sexual minorities around the world. So it's imperative that we come together and really focus on what we have in common and our common goals. Coming together as a collective community and seeing that other women are also facing the

[00:00:31] same issues in the same barriers and still continuing to walk that path because we're walking the path to make it a little bit easier for the women and the girls that need to walk behind us.

[00:00:40] We need to be empowered. My goal is to be a part of that someday, just help young girls and have an impact. Welcome to a very special episode of The Story of Woman where we hear the story of the largest gender equality conference in the world.

[00:01:00] The 2023 Women Deliver Conference held in Kigali, Rwanda this past July. My name is Lisa Mangoldas. The spoken word piece I'm about to recite for you is something I wrote with a similar event in mind. I think that in any sort of forum

[00:01:17] where we're thinking about what it means to be a woman and women's rights, that was sort of the inspiration behind this piece and without further ado, let me just jump into it. It's called Whose Body Is This?

[00:01:30] Whose body is this? I thought it was mine. This face, this chest, this womb, this spine. But is a woman's body ever truly her own or is that simply a question for her father to postpone

[00:01:45] till he finds her a husband? Whose body is this? Whatever we wear, you grope and you stare, you catcall and tease, you poke and you squeeze in buses on trains, in markets, on planes,

[00:01:58] in public, alone, outside and at home. Whose body is this? This is the story of an event where over 6,000 people from 170 countries came together to connect, learn, share, change our systems and

[00:02:16] change our worlds so that it becomes one where we all know the answer to the question Whose Body Is This? This is the 2023 Women Deliver Conference and that was Lisa Mangoldas, author, founder and India's foremost pleasure-positive content creator. You'll hear her full poem at the end of

[00:02:39] the episode and let me just say it is powerful. Whose body is this? I wanted to start this episode with that question because that's really what this whole movement is about, the freedom for

[00:02:55] everybody to be who they are and do as they wish with their wombs, their hair, their voice, their life. So I invite you to consider that question as you listen to this episode and really as you go

[00:03:11] about your life whether you're a woman or not but more on that later. So I had the immense, immense fortune of attending the 2023 Women Deliver Conference in Kigali, Rwanda this past July. Kigali is definitely one of my new favorite cities. Rwandan people are some of the most

[00:03:35] beautiful people I have ever met and this Women Deliver Conference was an extraordinary gathering of people from all over the world that are dedicated to improving the lives of women, girls, and all people. And I want to give a big thanks to the conference organizers who awarded

[00:03:52] me and the story of women a scholarship to be able to attend and bring you this story. Without it, I would not have been there. So a big, big thanks to the conference organizers for making it

[00:04:05] accessible to creators such as myself. The conference, like the movement itself, was absolutely enormous. So this episode by no means covers everything, not even close. But I hope it gives you a little flavor of the conference and all of the incredible work that's being done

[00:04:25] around the world in this space. You'll also get to hear a bit about Rwanda at the end, why you should visit, and what its ranking is in terms of the best places in the world

[00:04:36] to be a woman. And through it all, this episode and this conference really go to show just how important it is for women and all people who want to drive change to be able to gather in this way.

[00:04:51] Enjoy! Really at Women Deliver, we believe that coming together and convening is not optional. We have to do it to advance gender equality. This is Kim Bluffkin, the director of communications for Women Deliver. Women Deliver conferences are really safe open spaces where feminists and gender equality

[00:05:18] advocates from around the world can come together, have conversations, build trust, connect, have sometimes difficult conversations. But really in this space make the connections and co-create solutions to drive forward gender equality and identify solutions that they'll

[00:05:36] take forward once they leave. Women Deliver was started as a maternal health organization. This is Kathleen Sherwin, she was previously the transition CEO at Women Deliver and continues to serve on the Women Deliver Board. And then really it shifted over time to really be focused

[00:05:52] on how do you put gender equality on the map. This was before gender equality was even thought of or mainstreamed. Women Deliver conferences started in 2007 in London, was the first conference. From there was a conference every three years in Washington DC, Kuala Lumpur,

[00:06:09] Copenhagen and Vancouver. It's been four years since our conference in Vancouver because of COVID but we're thrilled to be here in Kigali. And Women Deliver is coming back strong. There were 6,300 people at the conference from 170 countries. Let that sink in. That is almost

[00:06:28] all of them. It's the biggest representation that we've ever had at a Women Deliver conference. And I think it's a huge credit to our host nation, Rwanda, that they have such an open and welcoming visa policy that they were happy and willing to give visas to anyone

[00:06:48] no matter their nationality, no matter if they had refugee status. Out of the six Women Deliver conferences held so far this was the first one in Africa. And the Rwandan government not only created the space for people from 170 countries to come,

[00:07:02] but also Paul Kagami, the president himself, was in attendance. I'm honored to join you today to welcome the Women Deliver Conference. Welcome to Kigali. I hope that you enjoy this day of country, please. And there were a few other pretty important people there.

[00:07:35] When a girl graduates from school, we want her to make life decisions for herself. Where does she want to go? So in the more choices that she has, the better her future will look like. Yes, that was Malala I was in the same room with. And Stacey Abrams,

[00:07:52] pioneering voting rights activist and hopefully future president was there too. What I mean is, especially in the feminist movement, we're fighting for the rights of girls and women. Our responsibility is our effort. Did we do everything we could?

[00:08:09] Did we try as hard as we could? The results may not be what we intended. We don't know what else other people are doing. And if you stand for office, you can put in a lot of effort and

[00:08:18] still not win the same dog toys. That does not still change history. It does not diminish the effort. It does not diminish the importance. So was Salawak Zude, the president of Ethiopia and the first woman to hold the position,

[00:08:35] Mackie Saul, the president of Senegal, Catalan Novak, the president of Hungary and the first woman to hold that position, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia who was the first elected female head of state, and several others. But it wasn't just world leaders

[00:08:52] and attendants. This is Kim from Women Deliver Again. We really are so proud and love to see that at Women Deliver Conferences we have gender equality champions from all sectors. Graphs Roots advocates, civil society organizations, feminist organizations. We also have LGBTQIA plus organizations, governments and governmental

[00:09:15] representatives, the private sector. So it's really just a huge gathering of so many sectors committed to our issues. Spaces was one of the three themes for the conference this year. Spaces, solidarity and solutions. And as we've just heard, a space to convene is crucial for

[00:09:34] the gender equality movement, but only if everyone is included. My name is Brittany Evans. I am from the United States currently living in Texas. I work at Women Enabled International, the first and only international organization focused explicitly at the intersection of gender

[00:09:52] and disability. The only international organization. I was shocked by this. So I asked Brittany what the status of disability rights was within the movement, how far along we are and how much further we have to go. I think that the state of the gender equality movement right now,

[00:10:09] specifically at the intersection of gender and disability is really at a precipice. It's at this moment where accessibility is starting to become part of the general conversation, but it still needs a lot of pushing. It needs to be recognized as an identity in the same way that

[00:10:29] race, LGBTQIA queer identities are recognized and needs to be included in conversations as well. So that means we need to have disaggregated data around gender and disability. We need to be able to look specifically at these issues and the lived experiences that are happening all

[00:10:46] over the world across gender spectrums as well as disability spectrums. And I asked about inclusivity of the spaces at the Women Deliver Conference. Women Deliver welcomed us with open arms. They have really worked with us to ensure that this conference, this Women

[00:11:04] Deliver 2023 is the most accessible yet. There's sign language that's included in the planaries. They have in the press pack really detailed instructions about how to cover disability with respect and dignity. And so for us, yes, Women Deliver is meeting some bare

[00:11:21] minimums and they're doing so with a lot of humanity and really trying to push themselves and others to make sure that this space is accessible for all feminists, not just abled ones. And I asked her what she would like to share with you, dear listener.

[00:11:38] We know one-fifth of the world's women are women with disabilities and we do not have comparable data on people who identify outside of the gender spectrum but we know they're there. Disability

[00:11:52] is a range. It is such a glorious and diverse range of identities and what I would love your listeners to know is that disability is not scary. Disability is not a dirty word. Disability is something that can be loved and embraced. In fact, July is Disability Pride Month

[00:12:11] and so it makes it all the more apt that Women Deliver is really pushing accessibility and centering inclusion this month of all months. Women Deliver wasn't just creating spaces for bodies of all abilities but also sexual orientation, race, gender, income and as we'll soon hear more

[00:12:30] about the next generation. So who were some of these 6,300 advocates in attendance coming together in solidarity in this increasingly important space? I am Charles Kaviswa. I am best in Uganda. I work as the Executive Director for Regenerate Africa. The focus is mainly supporting

[00:12:51] communities, government, businesses and a livelihoods transition to the regenerative development for that benefit of nature, climate and a livelihood. Hi Anna, my name is Benita. I'm from India and I'm the founder of an organization called Viva and we specialize in

[00:13:10] communication strategy. Cora McGuire-Cerrette, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Native Women's Association. We're located in Ontario, Canada and we are the oldest and largest Indigenous women's organization in Canada. For us the integration of women's health into the

[00:13:27] climate into the non-health sector is very critical. So we are calling upon stakeholders as the governments not to work in the silo. The silo mindset does not solve the problem. I hope

[00:13:39] we can join the rest of the women, the rest of the gender equality advocates and the feminist movement to ensure that we have this collective voice. My role as a communication strategist is really to create movements to use the power of communication to really further any

[00:13:57] cause that we work on. We all know the power communication has. So that's why I'm here as a content creator in partnership with the Women Deliver Conference so that I can talk about

[00:14:06] the stories that are available here and take it to my part of the world. We're also building relationships with many women from around the world now and there's so much similarities in a lot of

[00:14:16] the issues we're facing. That's what we're finding and also what's really interesting is there's also similarities to the solutions that are needed and what we're hearing is exactly that, that governments and partners and philanthropists need to invest in women on the ground in the

[00:14:33] community. That's where the chain is going to take place. Is there the experts on the issues they're facing? And I think that's what people need to recognize, like even within the United

[00:14:41] Nations space a lot of times it stays at such a high level policy, they're not including grass roots women on the ground and that's something that we're hearing feedback from is that nobody's talking about indigenous women. We're almost kind of invisible within the international space

[00:14:56] and so that's why we've made the conscious choice to say okay we're going to step into this role, we have capacity let's look at how we can amp up our advocacy efforts.

[00:15:05] We are here to share success and exchange with the rest of the world that is gathered here so that we can advance the conversation at sub-national, national, regional and international level. I want to be able to really tell those stories about breakthrough moments that

[00:15:23] women or even men have had that made them take the decision of wanting to work for girl or women empowerment. I'm here to collaborate, network, meet new people of course and to learn,

[00:15:33] learn as much as I can. Going back home we're actually re-energized in the work that we're doing because I think when you're doing work and you're coming up against so many barriers after barriers after barriers and I think coming together as a collective community

[00:15:46] and seeing that other women are also facing the same issues and the same barriers and still continuing to walk that path because we're walking the path to make it a little bit easier for the women and the girls that need to walk behind us.

[00:15:57] And those women and girls that are walking behind us were a huge part of this Women Deliver Conference. Out of the 6,300 delegates at the conference, 700 of them were youth. Kathleen who you heard from before who sits on the board of Women Deliver

[00:16:12] is also the Chief Strategy Engagement Officer at Plan International. Plan International is a child rights organization. We're over 80 years old, we have over 10,000 staff. We operate in over 80 countries. We have programming in over 50

[00:16:27] countries at any given time and we support over 60,000 communities. So our focus is really on girls' rights and girls' in crisis and so we do everything from policy and advocacy to sponsorship to direct programming always working in local communities and in partnerships with local

[00:16:44] governments and local communities. Out of Plan International's 300 delegates at the conference who came from over 30 country offices, 150 of them were youth. We are moving on our own journey to being a youth-led organization. So for us every major

[00:16:59] policy window of the year so CSW, UN General Assembly, COP and Women Deliver we ensure that our delegation is actually led by young people. It's really important that their positions are heard and that we're helping to support them. So as an INGO anchored in the Global North

[00:17:16] we should be using our platform to be able to open up and transform these spaces and make sure that they are accessible to young people, that they're properly resourced and they have the information that they need. I even had the pleasure of speaking with one

[00:17:28] of Plan International's youth delegates. I'm Honorable Yelayunis Anthony. I'm the speaker for children and people's parliament South Sudan. Yes, you heard that right. Right honorable Yelayunis. She is the speaker for the Children and Young People's Parliament in South Sudan

[00:17:47] which she helped to start along with support from Plan International. Our main objective for the children and people's parliament was to bring us who are at school and even those who are not

[00:17:57] at school together like in a safe space where we can share our ideas, we share the challenges that we are facing and how we can come up with the positive ways forward to get our rights. Plan International not only supported Yelayunis by providing ongoing training, guidance and support

[00:18:15] to create and lead the Children and Young People's Parliament. They were also the ones that inspired the idea in the first place. My name is Francis Oppong. I'm the director of programs for Plan International in South Sudan. Francis is responsible for designing programs that support

[00:18:30] youth in South Sudan like the Champions of Change Club which inspired Yelayunis' Children and Young People's Parliament. So when we go to the schools and the young people we work with,

[00:18:40] we have what we call Champions of Change clubs. Once you catch them young at that level, you get the young people to begin to understand that we cannot continue with this practice. Respect women,

[00:18:55] respect girls, you have equal rights and you must equally respect them. Once they catch it at that level, we are going to see a country where this would have significant improvement in there. So we also had that idea of forming like children and young people's parliament

[00:19:13] because the Champions of Change is only with us at school. Then we thought of not least we gain some knowledge. We cannot say educate our fellows who are not at school but how can we get

[00:19:25] in touch with them. So we thought of having the children and young people's parliament. The Honorable Yelayunis fantastic, fantastic. She's evidence of what we are doing. But Yelayunis is just one example of many when it comes to the impact Plan International has

[00:19:42] on the next generation. On average right now we serve 50 million children a year for which about 80% of those are girls. So the new things in our strategy that are worth noting is really a gender transformative approach to all of our programming. I like the way Francis explains

[00:19:58] this new approach. If you take a community, you can take a family. Within the family, children tend to be more vulnerable. So we try to focus on how do you look at children? The girl child is

[00:20:10] more vulnerable than the boy child. So what we try to do in terms of our program, our program should be such that it is able to transform the position and the place of the girl child

[00:20:21] by so doing you transform the position in place of the boy child, you transform the position in place of the mother, transform the position in place of the father and then you get to the

[00:20:31] entire community. So that is what I call the foundation of our foundation, gender transformative programming. One common theme found throughout my conversations and throughout the conference was hope. Here's the right honorable Yelayunis again. So today's lot of challenges. Sometimes

[00:20:49] we feel like giving up, giving up. But when I came here, when I saw the influential women, I got encouraged and the words, the training that giving me, I got inspired and I told myself

[00:21:04] I'll keep on keeping on until I achieve my goal where girls make decisions for themselves. And I am hoping that we'll take the solutions from here. I just told the colleague, I don't want this conference to be another conference we came. We spoke, spoke, spoke,

[00:21:21] spoke all our English, French, Portuguese, Spanish. Then we go back to sit. I am expecting that after here the first ever of its kind on an African continent will see change and I want to see

[00:21:34] more change in Africa. I want to see improvement in terms of sexual productive health and rights access to people. I was just speaking about pure poverty. I want to see change. Young people are leading now and it is not something that they're going to do,

[00:21:49] they're already doing. They are experts in their own lived experiences, particularly when we're talking about climate. For example, there should be no conversation being had without them. So really excited and motivated to see those types of conversations happening here.

[00:22:04] As Francis said, it's important to catch them young and that means ensuring girls and all children have access to quality education. I spoke with Lydia Wilbert, the executive director of learning and engagement at CAMFED which stands for Campaign for Female Education.

[00:22:20] We are 30 years old. We work in five African countries supporting girls' education in the young women empowerment. CAMFED doesn't just support girls' education by sending them to school but they've created a network of alumni from their programs that join the CAMFED community,

[00:22:38] share resources, champion the cause and financially support the education of at least three more girls, all of which creates an incredible multiplier effect. Today we are a quarter million and our target in the next five years, 2030, it's five million more

[00:22:57] girls. It's amazing. We are so ambitious and we look forward to seeing them through. This multiplier effect is increased by the fact that these alumni, before the support of CAMFED, face their own difficulties accessing school. They are so motivated and they now gain the

[00:23:16] power and connection they needed to be able to do something else for others. So we are committed to bring back that lived experience and the energy back to our communities and make sure that

[00:23:28] not other children go through the same experience that we went through. The struggle to go to school empty stomach, the lack of mentorship that we didn't have, the social support and the connection, the understanding of what children from the marginalized community go through. So we

[00:23:49] leverage this experience and bring our voices and they leave the experience into the decision making table. In fact, one of the very first girls that was supported by CAMFED was a girl in Zimbabwe

[00:24:01] called Angeline. When she was a young girl, Angeline had a crouch in toilets to avoid the inspectors because she couldn't pay the school fees. Today, Angeline is the CEO of CAMFED. When we started in 1993 in Zimbabwe it was Angeline and colleague, 13 of them that got

[00:24:22] an opportunity to go to school and ever since when they finished they formed an alumni in 1998 and they just brosoms. So there's the multiplier effect of the number of girls they're able to educate and the multiplier effect of the overall impact that comes from educating girls.

[00:24:42] When I was doing my master's degree in public health, the motto was saving lives millions at a time. So I was looking for an opportunity where I can save lives millions at a time. Where is the better place than in supporting education for marginalized girls because a

[00:25:00] marginalized girl she will be able to take care of her own children, she'll be able to support others and so all those children, all those other people that are attached to her you save

[00:25:13] them by just taking her to school. Girls education is on the rise and so are women entrepreneurs but just like the fight for equal education opportunities entrepreneurship for women is not easy. Women are underfunded, women entrepreneurs aren't receiving the

[00:25:30] lion's share of the capital especially women entrepreneurs of color. This is Lindsay Camacho who works on the government partnerships team at Acumen. Acumen is a non-profit venture capital fund. We invest in early stage for-profit social enterprises that are serving

[00:25:46] low income communities and emerging markets. Understanding the unique challenges that women entrepreneurs face especially when creating businesses that prioritize social impact over profit Acumen recently launched a new program. Acumen's first ever gender equity and

[00:26:04] advancement accelerator which was essentially a 10 week program where we took a group of very very early stage entrepreneurs through like a business boot camp to really support them with refining their business models but really doing that in a gender inclusive way. They even brought

[00:26:21] a few of the entrepreneurs from the program to this conference. Nyaakuk Jokbadeng from South Sudan. Nyaakuk founded an agricultural business startup called Southlinks Trending that fosters a fair local value chain by using solar energy to dry process and store fresh fruits and vegetables.

[00:26:40] The entire idea came in as a passion that I actually picked from my mom since I was young. I've been doing a lot of cultivation with my mom but we mostly venture into vegetables, plantation and

[00:26:54] also sometimes maize but what we were both so passionate about is planting vegetables. So in that process I came to learn how to do farming and what impact it can actually create after the post harvest. But there's a difference between being a good and passionate farmer

[00:27:13] and being able to create a successful business out of it. It's the training resources and capital that women entrepreneurs so often have difficulty accessing that makes all the difference. That's what Acumen has provided for Nyaakuk. The challenge that my mom had faced before she

[00:27:29] has been doing farming since she was young but then she doesn't know how to commercialize farm products. So it's something that I wanted to bring to our attention that you know in as much

[00:27:39] as you're doing the farming you can actually benefit from it. You can make a sale it's not that you can just feed us with it and then it ends there so there's just this value this chain

[00:27:49] that she's actually leaving out. And that in turn is what Nyaakuk is providing for the women in her community. Women especially our South Sudanese women are just so left behind in things to do with intellectual engagement. So what is lacking is basically the skills and also

[00:28:09] mentorship and some guidance. That's what our women are lacking right now and I've actually been driven by the fact that I just wish to see women excelling. I just want to see women like having this capacity to support themselves to be independent also support their families.

[00:28:28] I really feel so sad when I'm seeing a woman struggling with her family and she has nothing to do with that. So that's why I founded South Link to just work closely with women in terms of

[00:28:40] creating employment for them. That's what I'm trying to build so that they could have this ability of sustaining themselves in whichever way even if you've not gone to school you've gone to school you have a way to just you know make things happen for yourself and your family.

[00:29:12] So we've heard a lot about the importance of creating inclusive spaces and standing in solidarity with one another. But what about the third theme of the conference solutions? The most important thing is solutions. While we're not a commitment conference it is

[00:29:26] about new research, new ideas, new approaches, new case studies. So the solutions aspect is really really a practical part of every concurrent workshop and plenary. That was Kathleen again who sits on the board of Women Deliver and it's not just about coming up with new solutions.

[00:29:43] Here's Kim again, Women Delivers Director of Communications. One key way that we see progress coming out of these conferences is commitments that funders or governments or others in power make at these conferences because we do think that you know by giving them a platform

[00:30:05] we often inspire them to make a commitment. So we've seen at past conferences governments make large financial commitments donors make large financial commitments so even now we're not even finished with the conference but we have already had several amazing commitments

[00:30:22] announced here. The government of Canada just committed at the conference more than 200 million to advance neglected areas of sexual and reproductive health specifically abortion which is so critically needed comprehensive sexuality education and access to contraception.

[00:30:39] We also saw that UNICEF launched a new adolescent girl strategy and they're calling for a billion dollars in multi-sectoral investment in girls by 2025 and Women Deliver we just announced in partnership with Open Society Foundation a new anti-rights funding facility.

[00:30:59] So it's a funding facility to attempt to come together and try to push back against the anti- rights forces that are really rolling back rights around the world. Speaking of rolling back rights around the world sexual and reproductive rights were a huge part of

[00:31:16] the conference this has always been the core of Women Deliver as it originally started as a maternal health organization but you could feel the urgency in these conversations given the momentum that's been building in the anti-rights movement. I spoke with quite a few people from

[00:31:31] this space. My name is Phrase Manzi I'm from Randa I'm a volunteer at Satti an Indian company that produces biodegradable products which are menstrual products and women's health products everything that we make is from banana and bubble fibers. My name is Ryan Bortcharding

[00:31:53] I am head of methodology and training at Theater for a Change. My name is Grace Bender I am Bayzen Malawi I lead on a project called Leave No Girl Behind. Theater for a Change is an organization whose mission is the improvement of sexual and reproductive health and rights

[00:32:10] of women and girls who are marginalized in different ways. My name is Ani Ejje I am originally from Nigeria and I work for an organization called Family Planning 2030 it's a global initiative focused solely on family planning located in Washington DC. My name is Christina

[00:32:28] Lundberg and I'm the co-founder and investing partner of The Case For Her I'm based in Stockholm Sweden and I'm Wendy Anderson I'm also a co-founder and funding partner of The Case For Her I'm a Canadian but I'm based in Stockholm Sweden. My name is Lisa Mangaldas and

[00:32:44] I'm from India I flew in from Mumbai and I'm actually wearing three hats at Women Deliver. I am here representing the Pleasure Project links into my work as an educator and more recently I've also started a Pleasure brand that's my third hat so I'm the founder of

[00:32:59] Leezoo's which makes sex toys and lubricant and basically pleasure products with a focus on women and pleasure but soon it will be all genders. That was the same Lisa whose poem I teased you with

[00:33:12] at the beginning when it comes to sexual and reproductive rights education is once again at the center. For the bulk of my career I've been creating sex education videos on the internet using social media which is where most young people spend a lot of their time and

[00:33:29] learn about sex you know there's no sex set in schools in India and no one talks about it at home there's a culture of shame and silence so the internet is where people go

[00:33:37] where young people really learn about sex and porn is much easier to find and it's not always the greatest reference point I'm not anti-porn but you know it's like learning to drive by watching the Fast and the Furious so we've got to replicate those delivery mechanisms

[00:33:50] and make sex that easy to find on the internet which is what I do. And one of the best methods to base this education around pleasure. Evidence would indicate that the primary motivation is

[00:34:03] indeed pleasure right very few people of all the people having sex at this very minute globally are setting out with express intention to have a child or for you know some other reason and we refuse to acknowledge pleasure unfortunately in the public health and development world it's

[00:34:18] such an over emphasis on disease prevention and violence prevention and pregnancy prevention or assistance or whatever you know there's a very very production and disease-centric attitude to sex as if pleasure is you know shameful and it's okay to like sex I hope that you do like sex if

[00:34:34] you're having sex because otherwise why should you be having it right and I think that when you just think in a very simple way if you're looking at getting young people to for example be more

[00:34:42] likely to use condoms which article are they going to click on condom usage is correlated with reduction in disease transmission or three ways to use condoms to have the best sex of your life

[00:34:54] right what are they going to click on and it's free to make those changes to have a pleasure-based approach doesn't cost anymore but it will result in better outcomes and there's evidence for this you know and not just held outcomes but also things like consent

[00:35:07] and communication and I mean why not strive for not just the absence of disease or mitigating negative experiences also providing a roadmap for the most ideal joyful profound experience right which we don't do enough of and that's basically what all the organizations I'm here representing

[00:35:25] a stand for pleasure and Lisa isn't the only person approaching sexual and reproductive health in this way so for example they're starting to really make the case that if you tell adolescents what they want to know which is how to have great sex they'll probably remember

[00:35:42] what they need to know and we're going to be able to show a greater uptake of goods and services at local clinics so think hiv self-test contraceptives menstrual products kind of across the gamut of

[00:35:54] women's health products that was Christina her and her co-founder windy are doing some incredible work funding and investing in some key women's health issues the case for her is a blended finance investment portfolio that moves capital from grant funding philanthropy all the way through

[00:36:15] angel investing impact investing to venture capital and we do that in three investment portfolios the first one where we've been investing for over a decade is global menstrual health the second one female sexual pleasure or taking a sex positive pleasure based approach to

[00:36:33] sexual reproductive health and rights and the third portfolio where we've been investing for a number of years is focused on access to medication abortion and reframing abortion as healthcare if you look into those portfolios you'll find everything from investments in research human

[00:36:53] center design product innovation education very diverse set of investments really creating a learning portfolio so that my partner wendy and i here can be advocates to get these issues on the global agenda and get these issues on the global agenda they have here's windy one of our biggest

[00:37:15] goals of women deliver this year in 2019 menstruation wasn't on the stage we really wanted to create the space and galvanize the menstrual community which is a very large powerful community to get together behind menstruation this year we're seeing menstruation

[00:37:29] take over which is exactly where it needs to be it is an incredible opportunity to reach gender equality and we really wanted to get in the minds of the of the attendees and the decision makers

[00:37:39] and the policy makers and we believe that we've achieved that together with our partners here and so we're very happy to see the growth in understanding of menstrual health and opportunity and one more note about pleasure from lisa because i just thought this was such a great

[00:37:53] point that really isn't talked about enough i think the pleasure is the most profound indicator of gender equality i am willing to bet that in a society where women are able to say they have as much

[00:38:06] pleasure as men do that they orgasm as frequently as men do i bet that would be a very gender equal society you know i think there's a huge correlation between you know the agency you

[00:38:17] have in your life in general and the agency you have in the bedroom but i also think pleasure in a non-sexual way just pleasure in general is something that has systematically

[00:38:27] been denied of women like where made to feel guilty for eating for sleeping for you know you're not supposed to talk loudly laugh loudly wear what you like you can't do what you like profession wise

[00:38:37] and by some parts of the world it's worse than in other parts of the world but in general it's like there's you know by design we want to limit women's ability to access experience or

[00:38:45] even feel entitled to pleasure and so i really think that there could be no more profound indicator of gender equality than pleasure and we need pleasure indicators whose body is this there's another way of educating and empowering girls that might not

[00:39:02] be what you think i spoke with ryan and grace from theater for a change who explained how they do it we do that through mainly training partnerships where we train other organizations how to use approaches like interactive theater or interactive radio drama in their sexual health and

[00:39:19] reproductive health work for behavior change and advocacy and the principle is quite simple instead of us advocating on behalf of these communities and on behalf of women and girls we help to equip them with the skills and the approaches to tell their own stories using

[00:39:36] their own voices so that we're hearing the stories and the experiences directly from them and that gives the work a uniquely powerful dimension because you know we know our stories better than anybody else we know our lives better than anyone else and there are voices

[00:39:57] and experiences that aren't being listened to or aren't being heard at the moment and so our work is about creating those spaces for those voices and for those stories to emerge and that affects decision-making at local and national levels and it affects attitudes at

[00:40:11] the community level as well but maybe i'll let grace say a bit more about the work specifically in malawi and how that looks in that context thank you ryan so for theater for change we have a

[00:40:22] couple projects up the stream we have the live no girl behind projects we target adolescent girls and boys who dropped out of school we deliver sexual productive health and rights content and over the course of two years the adolescents are supported in transitioning back either to

[00:40:41] the mainstream education or entrepreneurship skills or vocational skills and overall throughout these projects we as theater for change use drama-based approaches to address the different issues around sexual productive health and rights as bindi mentioned minstrel health was a

[00:40:59] huge part of women deliver 2023 i spoke with praise from sathy who sells women's health products made out of banana and bamboo fibers it transforms people economically in the first place because we buy products that would have been trash so we're turning trash into treasure you know yeah and

[00:41:19] we get them from the farmers usually women our company is mostly for women 75 percent it's made of women and also as we go around making information sessions we make workshops on minstrel health we teach the women how to care for themselves better and i think that there's

[00:41:45] economic value there's health value and there's a sustainability value that a woman is able to wear something that they're proud of and they're able to like wear it with dignity because they know that when they're done using it that it's going to be something that is very

[00:42:04] more and of course contraceptives and abortion the ability to choose what to do with whose body our own bodies here's annie and very aptly there is a baby nearby us during this conversation who you will hear in the background family playing 2030 previously fp 2020 is a global

[00:42:28] partnership the only one that is solely focused on family planning we partner with governments cso's all around the world to galvanize the planning movement meaning a bunch of different things so increasing contraceptives be used in access at the core of it it's about choice ensuring that women

[00:42:46] and girls have the choice to decide when and whether they want to have children a lot of our work is to change people's perception on contraceptive access and use but also preventing things such as child marriages teen pregnancy ensuring that women if they want to space their

[00:43:03] births they can preventive reproductive coercion there's a social behavioral aspect to the work that we do as well as obviously the data collection the advocacy speaking with governments making sure that they're prioritizing family planning and the commitments i asked annie about the progress

[00:43:19] they've seen and the kind of impact this work has on women and girls lives we found that in the past decade over a decade of the family planning movement east the start in 2012 there's definitely been a prospective change on contraceptive use especially in the sub-saharan african region

[00:43:39] the beauty and the tricky part of the work that we do is that it takes decades long to see the kind of the change in hearts of minds of people and it takes you know meeting with

[00:43:48] the presidents meaning the governors meeting with heads of states having these conferences having these one-on-one networking events that over time ripple into the effect of a girl in malawi can go to a clinic and not feel ashamed because she needs an iud because she doesn't want to tell

[00:44:03] her parents that she's having sex the idea is that all these little networks come together in the long run and it changes the landscape of the experience of an individual woman going into

[00:44:12] clinic or wanting to get pregnant or not wanting to get married so young and wanting to continue education so once again reinforcing the importance of having these types of spaces but as important

[00:44:25] as they are this space wasn't all workshops and talks there was a wellness center a culture night and various art projects and films that were being shown throughout the conference i had the

[00:44:36] pleasure of speaking with the subject and producer of one of these films my name is connie lim and my artist name is milk m i l c k people often ask me what that is and it's my last name

[00:44:47] backwards in my first two initials it's a symbolic like taking what my family gave me and making it work for myself in a new environment as my parents are immigrants from hong kong and it's

[00:44:57] also what we give to the next generation to nourish them and help them grow so i hope my music is like nourishing for people and makes people feel like they can have a better life

[00:45:08] for themselves she gives us a little teaser to her documentary which is called i can't keep quiet the documentary documents my journey from being a domestic violence survivor to learning to use

[00:45:22] music as a healing modality and then watching one of my songs that healed me the most become the unofficial anthem for the woman's march as it went viral after january of 2017 someone

[00:45:34] walked by with their cell phone and from the performance and then my life like just had a full 180 change and what it's done is it's taught me how to use music as a device to write myself

[00:45:48] into existence write the newest forms of me into existence and also remind myself that i can trust myself i think a lot of survivors of abuse tend to lose trust in themselves how did i get myself

[00:45:59] here like i was the one that made it happen all that those types of thoughts can can haunt us and so singing in harmony is really powerful the documentary shows like how my learning to

[00:46:10] sing my own note while other people harmonize around me has become like a really powerful healing device and that isn't all she did at women deliver i'm also doing the closing performance of the

[00:46:21] whole conference i will be playing quiet live also be playing a song i wrote for john legend called stardust and then another song called if i ruled the world which has like a lot of

[00:46:30] imagining of what a world could look like if i was creating the world of my dreams which is like i think something that i'm really feeling as i'm here is this like oh man i really

[00:46:42] want to be a part of these positive changes in a deeper way and so my antennas are up i'm so inspired like all the female leaders here are just really rocking my world and

[00:46:54] all the male leaders that are allies are also like just showing us what's possible in the world so it's been great and finally before i leave you with the poem asking who a women's body belongs to

[00:47:07] let's learn a little more about rwanda and why you should visit my name is benita kizan zamui i work at ronda cooperation i'm rwandan our role is we are basically a hub for

[00:47:23] knowledge exchange so what we do is we are the gateway to randa's homegrown solutions and initiatives over the past two decades rwanda has been on an incredible journey of transformation politically economically and socially i asked benita about this journey and the kinds of

[00:47:42] knowledge rwanda has to share with the world rwanda is a very young country after the 1990s of genocide committed against tuti there was really no government left there was no structure

[00:47:56] there was it was a destroyed country where we had to start from scratch you know and not just that there was a lot of trauma there was a lot of healing that was needed and then um to kind of

[00:48:08] tap into the women deliver and gender equality we had a lot of women that were widows previously women couldn't own lands have businesses or really access to finance and then how would the country

[00:48:25] now move forward if half of the people are not empowered and these women are just as capable if not even more um more capable so it was in our own interest to have women involved in

[00:48:41] all these male dominated sectors but not just have them involved empower them educate them and really give them spaces to be able to to work and and have an impact on the country so rwanda

[00:48:54] yes as mentioned after the genocide we had to think of ways to move forward and the option we had was to look within and today rwanda was the third fastest growing economy in the world in 2019 it has 90 universal health coverage and 98 primary school enrollment

[00:49:15] rwanda leads the world in terms of female representation in parliament with 61 of parliament being women and rwanda was recently ranked the ninth best place in the world to be a woman and the first best in africa let's see what benita thinks this is the best time to be

[00:49:33] a woman in rwanda right now we are empowered as women we have 61 of women in the parliament but just to yes but just to even step away from that a little bit just as a woman myself i went to school

[00:49:51] in the u.s where most of my international student friends didn't really want to go back to their home countries but i always wanted to go back and they asked me why why would you come here

[00:50:03] and choose to go back to stay i said why would i stay here my country empowers me i'm given spaces to think and act and really influence other young girls too and i invite everyone to come

[00:50:20] to rwanda women come come here let's exchange knowledge what we've been able to achieve how we've achieved it and what's our plan moving forward how can we have women more women empowered you know

[00:50:34] because we are half of the this world if not we're more there's a lot of women around and we need each other we need to to be empowered so yeah come through rwanda come visit us come

[00:50:48] see how we work how we live and yeah uh let's let's deliver let's just have the women deliver we got this we're here for it you heard her come to rwanda and i honestly could not second that with

[00:51:06] any more enthusiasm i will definitely be back and hopefully very soon but for now lisa mong daleses whose body is this just as i wanted to ask this question in the beginning i feel this is the

[00:51:21] perfect question to leave you with women deliver was a conference of 6300 people from 170 countries the largest gender equality conference in the world and the thing we are all fighting for

[00:51:34] at the end of the day is really just for that answer to be a woman's in decisions she makes involving healthcare in what she wears and how she uses her voice it's hers and there's no doubt in my

[00:51:50] mind that we will continue convening creating spaces standing in solidarity and coming up with solutions until every body understands that and without further ado let me just jump into it it's called whose body is this whose body is this i thought it was mine this face this chest

[00:52:13] this womb this spine but is a woman's body ever truly her own or is that simply a question for her father to postpone till he finds her a husband whose body is this whatever we wear

[00:52:28] you grope and you stare you cat call and tease you poke and you squeeze in buses on trains in markets on planes in public alone outside and at home whose body is this and why must i always wax

[00:52:44] and pluck and bleach and thread and nip and tuck is it for me or for you all these things that we do in the name of beauty and femininity why am i not allowed to feel worthy of love

[00:52:58] until i have gone and done all the above to this body whose body is this why are female nipples banned on instagram sex ed videos demonetized on youtube propaganda is okay but you're offended

[00:53:13] by a boob or a simple conversation among women about lube whose body is this why can i have sex without them calling me a slut why is my body and my desire always something to be shut

[00:53:27] and why is it that men don't even want to use precaution they want sex without a condom but they'll shame us for abortion so you better wait until you're married and then you better have a son

[00:53:38] you can only get respect if you're a mother or a nun whose body is this don't my orgasms matter why does sex end when he comes i want to come too but my pleasure is a mystery right

[00:53:52] it's just too much to do we learn about erection penetration and ejaculation but ask where the clitoris is they won't know its location whose body is this every month when i bleed whose body is

[00:54:08] this oh why must i plead you don't want to touch me it's filthy disgusting can't enter the kitchen the pickles will spoil can't enter a temple even god will recoil but may i remind you that

[00:54:22] whether you were born in jan or december you came out of a bleeding vagina remember but wait a minute i'm not done yet is my wokeness performative i'm literally at women deliver right now literally performing this my activism isn't perfect in fact it's really

[00:54:43] quite messy is it bad that i wear my hair long and i like my outfits all dressy i have the t-shirts and the tote bags that say i'm a feminist but is that really activism or just capitalism wrapped up in

[00:54:58] this the future is female patriarchy is past but would i have the opportunities i do if i wasn't cishand english speaking able bodied an uppercast i haven't figured everything out yet but one thing

[00:55:12] rings true equality is meaningless if it's just for me and you if it's only self-serving then it's empty and we're all oppressors too so whose body is this these breasts these lips this womb

[00:55:27] these hips so full so fine so strong so sublime so magical so divine i hope we live to see the day that everyone can say my body is mine abortion is health care

[00:55:50] oh yeah that's a note to and and female sexual pleasure is health care yes let's close the pleasure gap yes thanks for listening if you enjoyed this episode and think that we need more of women's

[00:56:12] stories in the world be sure to share with a friend and subscribe rate and review on apple spotify or wherever you listen to help us beat those pesky algorithms follow us on socials for

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[00:56:53] to the story of humankind