‘Grand Strategy’ to resolve the unfinished Gender Agenda and as methodology for ALL SOTF Agenda items.
When I look at the SOTF agenda I think there is one theme which is inherently required as a methodology for its success. Having being trained by the best at SciencesPo Paris in La Grande Strategie (courtesy General Vincent Desportes – do read his latest book in French if you can https://www.amazon.com/Visez-sommet-r%C3%A9ussir-devenez-strat%C3%A8ge/dp/220716490X ), I have my own thoughts on it.
I want to concentrate in today’s blog on how Grand Strategy can help Gender’s unfinished Agenda. I maintain at the outset that UN strategists must implement each of the Agenda items through this lens. Not just Gender. However, to explain its efficacity as a methodology for now I am taking gender as a case study.
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Women empowerment is unfinished business. But the good news is that there are enough people out there who now believe that without addressing certain key reforms on women empowerment they cannot succeed themselves in society. So yes, they are legislating and taking women empowerment initiatives that are in themselves role models. We need more of them learning from each other’s experiences only then can we say we made a difference to the unfinished agenda on women empowerment.
Women empowerment has been a struggle millions have been a part of since time immemorial. The subjugation of women, them being treated as commodities to feast on, as a man’s ‘property’ to serve their masters, or to produce next generations, and thus as spare parts, has stained the collective memories of all nations alike. No one is free from this crime against humanity. It is as rampant in 2023 in so called educated elite houses of the west as it was in the 7th century.
In this collective struggle some women have suffered silently against the injustices meted out to them and others have fought vociferously trying to save themselves and in effect have affected change for their future generations. The survivors, and victims alike have a place in history. We owe it to them to legislate better to protect them from getting violated in the future. We also owe it to them to build sustainable CSR projects for their upliftment. This combination will ensure we make a difference to the unfinished agenda on women empowerment.
The violation of women across continents and geographies have taken many forms and to this date have not ended. In my humble opinion, their character assassination is the biggest violation. It destroys their credibility without giving them a chance for a defence. From a Prophet’s wife to ordinary women this has been the single largest violation. Next comes, physical, mental, economic, emotional violations to subjugate them to subservience, to name just a few. Attitudes continue to remain patriarchal, chauvinistic and subjugate versus being based on ‘equal partnership’.
The concept of ‘equal partnership’ needs to be the new normal in the gender equality journey. It is achievable if the rules are actually the same for both parties. That can only be achieved through a singular goal of ‘Grand Strategy Legislation and Sustainable CSR for Women Empowerment’. This is not simply about feminism. It is about ‘equal partnership’ based on certain key values: trust, respect, honour and dedication and love for humanity.
In my humble opinion the gender world is full of tacticians and less grand strategists. There are too many causes and indicators that define gender inequality that we have espoused. We have picked up too many battles at the same time. The world has neatly defined what it wishes to see as a gender equal world. However, as a very well known French Philosopher and children’s writer (one of my absolute favourites!) Antoine de Saint Exupery rightly said “As for the future the point is not to predict it but to make it possible.” How does one make a gender equal partnership world possible? Through a Grand Strategy and nothing less.
I had made a reference to this before in an earlier blog, and I do it again, since I believe in it passionately….There is a dire need to collect good gender legislative and sustainable CSR reforms and practices from different legislative parliaments, International financial institutions, development partners and corporates alike, and present them as an easy reference for decision makers from all states to adopt, edit and improve upon them for their own specific localized needs and peoples. There is little point re-inventing the wheel. It is best to learn from each other and adopt what works best in one’s localized environment.
As legislators and former legislators we owe other decision makers our experiences of what has worked and what has not, what remains to be done and what the best procedural and strategical tools to get there should be in our opinion and based on our skill sets and experiences. Benchmarks need to be set on key prioritized legislations and CSR initiatives. We cannot achieve it all. That is the biggest fallacy of any gender movement. Or for that matter any Agenda item on the SOTF. Not being strategic and targeted enough. Not prioritizing enough. Clarity is required on which causes will tip the scale in favour of more gender equality versus others so that they can be targeted more aggressively thus deriving impactful results from them.
And now a bold question. Some introspection. We see so much violation of gender equality everywhere that one is forced to ask the question. Where are we exactly on this global gender movement? With all the organizations in the entire world making their individual efforts has there been enough collective Strategic action is the question to ask. Yes, we have seen collaborations. However, it is time to question the fact that they lack strategic direction despite very clear SDGs on the same. The UN SDGs have certainly forced countries to relook the way they present their gender statuses to the outside world. The failure perhaps has been more about prioritization and strategic collaboration. In fact the UN SDGs have set targets for 2030. The women empowerment related ones can be tracked for each state. Countries have shown visible improvements on some women empowerment related SDGs. Others have paid lip service. However, in the current environment it is becoming more and more difficult to ignore women empowerment issues for authorities.
There is a reason why Gender SDGs are perhaps not pursued as vigorously as other SDGs: some states see them as imposed by the international community as per their own minimum human rights standards. The most effective way of pushing Gender on any state’s agenda is to monetize it. When gender causes are translated into GDP growth and economic necessities only then will they be pursued strategically.
Moreover, when Gender losses are measured as per Agenda item 4 then progress is sustainable: “Measure human progress more effectively: agree on metrics beyond GDP so that decisions on debt relief, concessional funding, and international cooperation take account of vulnerability, well-being, sustainability, and other vital measures of progress.”
When ignoring gender inequalities translates into lost dollars for economies struggling with budget deficits, only then will the value of gender equality become clear. Which brings us back to the point that we need a two prong Grand Strategy on gender. There is an urgent need to moving beyond short term political cliches and onto gender and life cycle approaches through gender legislation and sustainable gender CSR.
The fact that the goals are spread too thin has taken us away from the prioritization element. It is about choosing the right battles. The battles which create the right domino effect, the right leverage to create more impact for one’s ultimate goal. As Napoleon rightly said “there are lots of good generals, but they see too many things at once, I only see one.” The gender equality goal, namely ‘equal partnership’ is the single target goal we need to target.
As Winston Churchill states: “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Whilst international organizations do chart state results on gender scales often giving them rankings on certain indicators there is a tendency to use those for short term advantage by states and news cycle feeds. Root causes and life cycle approaches are often not center stage in the projection of such crucial data.
The Grand strategy we need to create should follow those tactics which all identifiable stakeholders can link SMART goals to. The Unique Selling Proposition is creating an alliance around the concept of a two prong strategic effort. Namely the merger of MODEL Legislation with purpose driven sustainable CSR. A filtration of the most major effect ones will get us to our goal of ‘equal partnership’ more efficiently.
An anecdote is important at this juncture which has shaped my world view. An Israeli journalist seeing my visible uncomfortableness at a New York reception hosted by the Jewish community for the former President Musharraf in 2005 once told me something important. It has stuck with me since. “Ms. Memon when you wish to look for differences you will find them and when you wish to look for similarities you will find them far more easily.” I have since tried to find commonalities for humanity’s sake and for the gender equality journey I am personally on. And finally the ultimate instructions given to me by my biggest political leader namely the Sufi saint, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai rings true: “Alam sub abad karai”. Meaning, it is humanity which needs to be made prosperous. And for this dictum of my Sufi saint to become a reality, 50% of women cannot be left to the sidelines of history in a hit and miss tactical game for gender equality with conflicting organizational goals.
This gender struggle is happening in the middle of globalism. My generation born in the cold war has been trained in the values that promote multilateralism and globalism. And yet honestly I have seen resistance to that change and especially in 2023 we see more exclusion, marginalization, populism, xenophobia, hatred and fear of the other; versus an appreciation of the common agenda or the common good. This does not disturb me or surprise me since history runs full cycles oscillating from one to the other.
When one glances at the current realpolitik nature of internationalism and globalism, it never fails to disappoint. History is a constant reminder of treaties and alliances being made for safeguarding or aggrandizement of resources, territory, and power. A question arises, whether the new trend post UN of creating alliances, signing international conventions, for the greater good has carried enough traction or ends up being dominated by power politics. The SDG goals have been a useful tool for keeping all nations in check on what matters the most. However, in the background of this great effort to police the world, is the trailer of real politic which overshadows humanitarian concerns quite conveniently.
Spheres of influence, racial prejudiced refugee crisis, pandemics, climate change disasters, territorial aggrandizements make headlines because they bleed. The common gender agenda for the greater good is lost behind national priorities. We need to boil it down to a few specific items on the gender agenda which can make the most difference for visible difference.
Grand strategists believe that the present is deduced from the future; it is not the consequence of an overwhelming past. In Gender everything is the consequence of an overwhelming past. The narrative revolves around the injustices of the past and then gets rooted there. There is a need for a deduction of a future from the present in Gender. A narrative which marches towards a goal in unison.
As grand strategists for each thematic or women empowerment cause, goals need to be defined; short term from a long-term objective which then need to be inserted into a vision of evolution. Whilst gender goals are identified clearly by SDGs on certain counts, states often find the sustainable charting and monitoring of short term and long-term goals difficult because of regime and political government changes. The vision of evolution also gets disrupted when ownership of executing, monitoring and implementing gender goals gets spread so thin across stakeholders that central control and command structures disappear.
To avoid this, as General De Gaulle famously stated we must have a ‘curved gaze beyond the horizon’, thus ‘inserting future in each of our decisions’. In Grand Strategy Gender terms, we must identify the root cause and tackle that within the Model legislation and sustainable CSR. In the general drive towards achieving certain goals the root cause of those issues must not be forgotten.
Our strategic space for gender is filled with uncertainties or a multiplicity of variables. Opposition to gender goals within a society is at best a reality one must live with. With sustainable CSR and model legislation the aim is to turn this opposition into an ally by showing the economic gains from the gender equality alliance. Lack of credible information, mis-information, and lack of data segregation are a challenge which creates more uncertainty in the strategic gender space.
Whilst it is difficult to envisage all solutions to women empowerment causes, the concept of creating a format for legislators across all nations is important. Something they can all associate with, in their respective parliaments whether they are in developed or developing countries. That format is of model legislation which gives stakeholders options to choose the most relevant ones from for their own localized issues. The strategic space is thus made tighter with such legislative efforts. Its challenges remain unchanged patriarchal attitudes. Thus, the strategic ‘end’ becomes to change these attitudes. The ‘way’ becomes the model legislative reforms combined with sustainable CSR and punitive action or implementation of legislation. The adaptation system in the strategic space is the force of the implementers of the gender reformers. However, in the final analysis General Charles De Gaulle is right: every situation has a different creative solution. Thus, every state must have its own set of legislation and CSR to get to the unified goal of equal partnership based on its strategic space.
The vision in the strategic space is often not clear because legislative reforms are not black or white. Whilst it would be ideal to have an overall blanket model legislation per women empowerment cause, it is important to remember that legislative reforms are negotiated positions. The opposition in the strategic space is the struggle of wills which in the legislative world is a very lengthy legislative process. Every country has its own legislative process from inception of an idea for a bill to the Act of Parliament or the Law of the land. Finally, the rarity of means in the strategic space means that budgets for gender mainstreaming are problematic since they are strategically not linked to economic growth yet. Once stakeholders are cognizant of the financial benefits of pursuing gender reforms only then will they sign onto a profitable gender driven vision.
In the final analysis as mentioned earlier the Grand Strategy requires certain key major effects, leverage points, tipping points. In essence a close study of those women empowerment causes which if pursued will produce the domino effect and create the largest gains in the gender movement. Based on my own personal read of the prioritization required which will cause the tipping point to happen, it is the following causes which are most critical:
- Financial and economic inclusion
- Gender Based Violence
- Meaningful participation in democracy
- Climate smart livelihoods
- Child care.
These are the ‘big ticket’ items in the gender world and if tackled well through the Grand Strategy can create the right momentum for equal partnership. We require legislative models which need to be championed as well as CSR projects which are most relevant for each of the 5 thematics.
The unfinished business will I believe remain unfinished for a long time if the above prioritization does not take place fast inside and outside states through partnerships. However, if states take their commitment to resolving the above causes correctly a lot can be accomplished in a short time. We don’t need to wait another 100 years for the gender equality gap to be finished. We always say in the women empowerment world that we have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. I don’t want to say that, hear that, or embrace that. I have personally witnessed too many gender inequalities to have that kind of patience. I would rather say, here is a hit list of what works. Let’s collaborate and do it together. And let’s achieve equal partnership now versus tomorrow collectively. SOTF is around the corner. It will have consequences for future generations. Let us focus on what can tilt the balance better and faster.