by Menka Goundan, Senior Programme Manager

As the cool Kigali breeze hit my face, I was still in disbelief that I had arrived in Rwanda. A land so foreign that I had only read about the tumultuous history of the struggles of oppression that the Tutsi people had once faced. I drove around with a local taxi service, as did most of the conference goers. We had various meetings, side events, receptions and an array of pre-conferences that had happened in venues other than the official Women Deliver 2023 Global Conference venue; Kigali Convention Centre.

The Kigali Convention Centre symbolised a beacon of hope and progress for Rwanda post the 1994 genocide. The Rwandan colours of yellow and blue beaming in the night was a reminder of the resilience journey of this African nation. More than six thousand women’s rights activists, advocates, feminists, politicians, philanthropists, funders, and donors had arrived. This conference was the largest of its kind after the COVID-19 pandemic and for many of us, it was the first time we were meeting our sisters, allies and accomplices that we had only communicated with on the screen for more than two years.

Movement building and Solidarity
The Women Deliver Conference was a gathering of the women’s rights ecosystem. The ecosystem has many aspects to it and various actors representing each part of the aspect were present. For the first time, the ecosystem was represented with so much diversity. Women (and men including gender diverse people) of colour were notable in the crowd. It was heart warming, but it also irked me to question the meaning of ‘presence’. The significance of our presence was known, but the significance of meaningful engagement in plenaries, panels, concurrent sessions, high level receptions and side events was where the gravitas was.

I was content, I spoke, I intervened, I said my truth, the experience of the regions I represented. In the Climate and Gender pre conference and plenary, I was able to say that the climate crisis is here, it is affecting our women and girls now. We are drowning in the depths of the ocean, we are searing in the heat of our droughts, we are rebuilding from the wrath of constant floods. Our lands and oceans divide us but our experience of the climate crisis is shared. We must not let neo-colonial capitalism and imperialist development ideals divide us in our fight. We must remember our shared pain, the loss of our land, the loss of our farms and crops, the loss of our livelihood, the loss of our ancestral graves and the loss of our bodily autonomies.

In the face of frequent and more intense climate induced disasters, women’s access to SRH services is compromised. Women in many instances are not able to access proper maternal care during and post pregnancy in these settings, let alone other critical services. Whilst our collective voice is important, our voice is being systematically silenced. The rise of opposing sentiments devaluing women’s right to their bodily autonomy and our human right to choosing whom we can love and partner is increasing. Women and gender diverse people are constantly threatened by anti-rights sentiments dressed in pro-people propaganda. Our presence is real, it is authentic, but is our presence safe?

The Women Deliver 2023 Conference brings us to an important time of reflecting, re-strategising, re-stocking and reclaiming our battles and spaces as a movement and in solidarity.

Money Matters
It is farcical to say that capital does not breed in development spaces. The truth is that personal and money is both political. It was great to see the collective effort, the resource flow and power of convening that culminated in a diverse Women Deliver. The regionalisation process that began a few years ago bore fruits, the resource pooling and sharing was evident in the number of delegates from low- and middle-income countries. This is a beginning; we must continue to strive to get access for grassroot narratives into plenaries. For women’s rights champions in openings and closing ceremonies, we must investigate the political ideologies and commitments of host governments to ensure that politicking and money does not dictate representative spaces.

Money also matters as spaces of resources are still closed to small island developing states, the Pacific region, and parts of Asia. We must continue to analyse funding flows, hold governments and multilaterals to account on gender money spending and re-energise our efforts to flip the funding paradigm so that more resources flow to grassroot women.

The ‘hangover’ of this conference is real. It is not just the jet lag but also the realisation that our tired bodies have more work to do. Perhaps it is time to take a breath, re-fuel, re-focus and redeem our convening power.