 Well, we have one more very special guest of the morning session and to introduce that special guest I have a special guest and I'm delighted to have with us this morning the president of the United States Institute of Peace Richard Solomon Good morning. I suspect that You early on heard that we're we're delighted to be able to welcome you here in our new home we've been here in the new Institute building for just about a month and We're still tweaking the sound systems and otherwise Getting the place working right, but which shall I say? To have held this event in the cramped quarters of the National Restaurant Association building, which is where we were For many years I would have not highlighted the significance of this and of course Much of the other work that the Institute carries on so we're very pleased that we could convene you all here today and We're also very indebted. I mean as Tara indicated. I'm here as a guest We are very pleased that under her leadership and that of Kathleen keenest who Overseas our gender and peace building effort that we've been able to I think play a significant role in highlighting this this very important issue and To add to the morning's discussion. I'm very pleased to introduce Don Steinberg who was a a member of our family apart from His current position as Deputy Administrator of USA ID Don was a J. R. Fellow here at the Institute and did Some important work looking at the the challenge of dealing with the internally displaced persons He has a very rich experience in public affairs that have well Prepared him for the advocacy role the leadership role that he has played on on many gender issues it was ambassador to Angola and I think became very well aware of on-the-ground challenges of The role of women in trying to stabilize a country that had been ripped apart by by civil war he was deputy president of the international crisis group again exposing him to all the turmoil That's going on in the world and the challenges of political stabilization Through the United Nations in particular He was involved in a civil society group on women peace and security He was on the board of the Women's Refugee Commission and The an advisor to the UN development fund for for women and as I think you know For those of you who have a copy of the women in war book that we've just published He was the author of the final chapter Which develops an agenda for action to try to realize the goals of Resolution 1325 so I don't see Don I suspect he's out there somewhere or is he going to be on the screen again. Oh Don you're hiding there. Please come on up in the podium is yours Thank you, I really do feel a debt of gratitude to this wonderful institution I left the State Department after some 30 years in 2004 and moved directly to a fellowship program where I spent much of the year studying and living in IDP camps around the world and and in particular Sudan and Sri Lanka and Columbia and Kosovo and I can't imagine an institution that would have allowed me that privilege accept the US Institute of Peace and under Dick's leadership it has gone from strength to strength and this is the symbol of the commitment of the United States Not only to the US Institute of Peace But to peace itself It's an honor to be here today for the launch of this this book I wanted indeed to begin by thanking Kathleen and Chantal and Helga for their stewardship of not only this program But the book itself and the US IP Priya and the Norwegian Embassy for their support for this process This event couldn't be happening at a more timely moment for those of us who have spent Literally decades working on issues of women's empowerment and protection in the context of armed conflict. These are heady times There's a growing awareness not only of the personal cost that women pay for their exclusion their abuse during periods of armed conflict, but also of the Cost that we pay as an international community For our failing to achieve the goals of building peace pursuing development and reconstruction post-conflict settings I Think it's truly tragic that it's taken pictures of girls having acid thrown in their face in Afghanistan for daring to return to school or pictures of women being raped and subsequently Treated in the Eastern Congo by a wide variety of different forces But it is true that this has prepped the international conscience and the world is responding United Nations, I think it's best symbolized by the creation of UN women as well as UN action against sexual violence and conflict the creation of a special representative for eliminating violence against women and Plethora of UN Security Council resolutions not just 1325 but 1820 1887 1888 and so on within our own government Indeed, I think the milestone came as the land was referring to when the Secretary of State went to the United Nations last October and declared that the United States is Going to prepare our own national action plan to accelerate our efforts in all of these fields And I would stress to you that that process is being taken very seriously not only by Milan Not only by the White House where Samantha power is Directing the exercise but by a wide variety of US government agencies, and this is where its real value comes I've often said that what's in a national action plan isn't as important as the process of putting one together And as I go over to the Defense Department and go over to our Justice Department And even go over to our Health and Human Services Departments and talk to them about what their commitments are going to be under the national action plan It is clear that there's an excitement that's building and I'm very excited in particular about what our Defense Department will be committing to in the Announcement of our new national action plan Which we hope and we have committed to and the Secretary has committed to Announce on the 11th anniversary of 1325 to take place in October and We have also committed to make this an inclusive process where we not only include recommendations and advice from our own civil society activists But perhaps more importantly from the women themselves who are affected by violence who are looking forward to participating in peace processes Women like being to de-op the head of the FAM African Solidarity. I'm delighted to see that been to is recognized as one of the hundred most influential people in the world in the latest time magazine article and We are working with her as well as others on the ground to make sure that their views are fully incorporated As being to as often said nothing about us without us For me these issues are are indeed deeply personal I've often told the story about my experience in Afghanistan. It's in the book as well but essentially I was sent out to implement a peace agreement that we all call gender neutral and It took me not so long on the ground to realize an agreement that calls itself gender neutral is By definition discriminatory against women. We didn't have a single woman at the peace table There were 40 men who sat around and discussed issues that Really needed the other 50% of the population and including those with particular ground truths to be contributing to Closest thing we had to a woman at the table was the Russian ambassador's interpreter and She would raise her eyebrows every now and again when these men would be discussing these issues that even she could realize We were getting wrong more importantly We because of that absence did not address a whole set of issues that were most important to People on the ground issues like reproductive health care issues like girls education issues like domestic violence We didn't have an accountability mechanism for people who had committed crimes and in particular crimes against women during the conflict in fact We had 13 separate amnesties that forgave men for anything that they had done during the conflict. It was even one Amnesty that forgave you for anything you might do six months into the future and What that meant was that men with guns were forgiving other men with guns for crimes committed against women we didn't have adequate facilities for women in IDP camps and refugee settings and so every time they went to use the latrine They were literally risking their lives any time they would go out to get firewood. They would be risking their lives We didn't have adequate demobilization benefits for the women who had fought in the battles and I guess in particular We made a very clear statement through our actions that this process was designed for the men with the guns It wasn't designed for the people of Angola and it wasn't designed certainly for women We recognize these problems. It's pretty obvious when you're on the ground That you're losing a peace process as Milan was referring to about half of them do go bad And so we did alter our programs and we brought out gender advisors and we put in place demobilization packages for women and we re-looked at the structure of our IDP and refugee camps to have separate latrines and to have Guards go out with women as they collected firewood. We put together livelihoods programs for girls we put together girls education programs etc and Indeed when the process started to falter when the political Elements of the of the process and the military elements started to slow down It was important to be able to call on civil society to to help us in this effort to keep the men committed to the process this all was five years before 1325 and the lessons that we learned from that experience as well as the lessons we learned elsewhere were incorporated into 1325 But I think we all have to recognize that 1325 as a resolution was adopted in a different era It was adopted in an era where the UN Security Council and even the rest of the world was uncomfortable Going into internal developments within countries, especially in thematic issues And therefore the whole resolution is written with we urge people We encourage we stress the need as opposed to we demand we order We call on And because of that it has in fact achieved less than we would have hoped the resolution itself also has suffered because of a lack of Clear accountability mechanisms. It has suffered because of a lack of measurable Criteria it has suffered because we don't have a single entity that owns this this resolution all of that said With the announcement by the secretary of the development of a new national action plan we at a id For one have taken this agenda Very very seriously and I wanted to focus on a variety of things that we are doing both in the women and armed conflict area, but in the broader area and We are in that context Focused on what we call a five-pillar approach To begin with we're focused on women's empowerment women's economic political and social empowerment This means support for political caucuses. It means support for safe schools for girls It means reproductive health care systems. It means building women's civil society groups It means engaging women not just in micro enterprise Which they often are shunted into but in small and medium and large size enterprises as well It means all of these programs have to be taken to scale as well It's not just a question of 200 Safe schools in Liberia. It's a question of 200,000 safe schools throughout Africa In that regard as I said before our efforts and empowerment are drawing on the wisdom of the women Who are actually affected by this program? We are involving them as planners as implementers and as beneficiaries Secondly we have committed ourselves to full gender integration into all of our large initiatives What this means is that as we proceed with programs in food security Global health climate change we recognize that women are key to the success in these areas and So in the food security program that we are now running feed the future We have five full-time people just focused on gender considerations in our global health program We have three people who are doing this full-time in Afghanistan. We have five full-time people Focused on gender issues. There's a recognition throughout our agency that this isn't in some sense a Outside or a pet issue that is to be addressed once we've achieved other objectives It is part and parcel of the success of any initiative that we're taking The third area is a commitment to Include gender considerations in the policy debates Too frequently at the principal's committee meetings and the deputy's committee meetings and all of the other meetings that take place in Washington, there isn't a voice for gender considerations and so it falls to Frankly Milan Vivier's office as well as USAID to be saying Hey, we're going to be putting together a program for Egypt here. Where are the women? When we look at Libya when we look at what we're going to be doing in the eastern Congo when we're looking at Afghanistan It is important to have the voice of Secretary Clinton saying we will not sacrifice Women's rights on the altar of peace in that country as she has said And so what we are saying to all of our participants in the interagency process is if no one else raises it You raise it Fourth we need to walk the walk-in house We need to look at the role of women within USAID itself I think we do fairly well here, but every agency has to be on the guard Are we being fair in our recruitment policies? Are we as we bring women and men on board? Are we treating them equally but also responding to their individual needs? Are we mentoring? Do we have performance evaluations that reflect a? commitment to gender equality are we looking at our promotion processes and assignment processes to make sure that we're walking the walk-in house and Finally is the whole area. We're talking about today, which is participation and protection of women in conflict and emergency periods. Yes, it's about the whole 1325 agenda, but it's also about Trafficking in women in girls. It's about addressing sexual and gender-based violence in conflict and food security and other emergency situations It's about collaborating with you and women. It's about making sure that peacekeepers when they move to the ground are doing What they should in the gender dimension and in this area? I wanted to highlight just a few of the programs that were Adopting at USAID Because it's not just about structures. It's really about changing norms and about instituted programs So we have indeed as Milan referred to laid the groundwork for all of our work in this area in the QDDR That was published in December if you go through that document women are on every page of that document We've as I said contributed to a national action plan We have strengthened our criteria to require every single Proposal for a project to NAID to have a gender impact statement With time-bound goals and with accountability mechanisms and metrics We have expanded our mandatory gender awareness programs for all of our officers I do an hour-long program with all of our junior officers coming in as part of a day-long program that we do on gender issues Last month. We instituted a tough new code of conduct for all AID employees and Our development partners with respect to trafficking in persons. I Also had the pleasure in a five university a couple of weeks ago that great institution Women's University in Partoom, I don't know how many people have been there, but you walk around that campus in the middle of a Islamic and very male-oriented society and you feel like you're at Radcliffe or Wellesley or You see a la actually But a fabulous institution and I've had the the privilege of addressing people at that institution a number of times And this time I got to announce that USAID has put together a 14 million dollar program Where we are supporting women's participation in peace processes around the world We're providing them not only stipends to take care of their families when they're gone, but travel Resources we're going to be providing them training to participate in peace processes And we're even going to be addressing the issue of security for them Because we all know that one of the worst most dangerous professions in the world is a woman peace builder These programs are available around the world We have now gotten an amazing response to the the proposals And I'm very excited that if we as an international community can open the door of these peace agreements to women's participation that they will now be able to sit at the table and have the capacity to To contribute most significantly The final thing we've done at USAID and this is probably the thing I'm most excited about is to Assemble what I think is a dream dream team of senior officials I am Absolutely delighted That our we now have a senior coordinator for gender equality and women's empowerment Carla co-pell who will be talking to you later coming from the Institute for inclusive security She's been on the job for two weeks and she's already made a major impact on our institution at the same time we brought in a senior advisor for gender integration to make sure that indeed Gender is fully integrated in all of our presidential initiatives and in that regard I'm equally delighted that we've been able to bring in Karen groan who is from American University and in fact one of the most superb gender economists that I've ever met and we've also brought in a watchdog for full incorporation of gender into our democracy governance and human rights programs and Sarah Mendelsen from CSIS is filling that role equally successfully So I think we're on the right road. I think we've made some progress But I wanted to conclude by telling you the two things that keep me up at night the first is a I Concerned that all that we're doing Isn't really touching the lives of women and on the ground. I want to know that we have indeed Prevented at least one woman from being raped in Eastern Congo or prevented one girl from having acid thrown in her face in Afghanistan for daring to return to school This is a reminder Always that we can do whatever we want in Washington or even at our field missions But unless we're touching the lives of individuals Doesn't really matter Thank you for your remarks and for being here. My question is about Changing the institutions and norms which you mentioned I was wondering if you had any information or perhaps successful approaches or could comment generally on How to change the institutions and norms so that women can be economically empowered which will ultimately lead to more Peaceful societies. Thank you Yeah It's it's a very difficult question But it's actually one that I'm more encouraged about than the actual Implementation of programs on the ground as I was suggesting You cannot have a UN Security Council resolution right now on peacekeeping for example that doesn't include language on 1325 on Civilian protection on the need for peacekeepers to be out there preventing sexual and gender-based violence You cannot have a major Peace agreement that is silent on these issues anymore And if you look at the history We have had a situation where most of the major agreements in the past have just not even talked about these issues And that's not occurring anymore. You can't have a situation in Afghanistan for example where the government or civil society can ignore women Where they can as I've suggested sacrifice women's rights on the altar of a peace process That simply cannot occur right now. So I think in the norms area. We're doing pretty well I think in the institution area. We're doing equally well. We have so many organizations now out there whether it's civil society groups or advocacy groups or government institutions and certainly on the in the United Nations whether it's the work that Michelle Bachelet is doing at UN Women, Margaret Walsstrom as the representative for Sexual violence a whole variety of others the problem for me is taking those norms and those institutions and translating them into action and I would I would say I mean one area that I've done a lot of work on is protecting women in the context of displacement in this Stemble in large part from my work at US IP But in 2005 the interagency steering committee for the United Nations Prepared some of the most fabulous guidance that you could ever imagine on how to make sure that women are safe in the process of having been driven from their homes and in refugee or IDP camps around the world and I keep hearing people say hey, we need guidance. We need Norms we need institutions. Well, it's all there. The problem is we're not doing it You know you go down to Haiti and we all knew that there was going to be a problem with sexual violence in the wake of the earthquake and yet 24 out of 26 IDP camps that we set up as an international community did not have differentiated men's and women's latrines That's an invitation. We know to sexual violence and rape yet we Convinced ourselves. I believe that hey, we got to get down there. We got to set up these camps We'll worry about these sort of women's issues or gender issues later and that's a prescription for disaster that's a prescription not only for sexual abuse and rape, but it's a prescription for failure of the process itself and again, I point back to Milan's Reference to 50% of our peace agreements failing I Would also add that this is the reason that we Frequently use the efficacy or efficiency argument on these issues as opposed to the human rights arguments or the fairness or the equity arguments Because if you go to the man who negotiate these peace agreements and please remember we still have never had a UN led negotiation that was led by a woman if You go to the men and you start talking fairness and equity and oh 50% of the population And oh, they've suffered so much if you use the victim hood card Doesn't work if you say to them Your personal reputation as well as the credibility of this whole process is threatened By your ignoring women in the process sometimes you get through Let me go to Ginny. I think I see Ginny in the back Thank you. Welcome back Don. It's a delight to have you here and to See your leadership within a ID from afar on these issues I have a couple of questions. The first one is was there a moment when the gender issue clicked for you? How did it happen? And secondly, where do you see resistance to people understanding the gender dimensions of conflict and security and peace? And finally, what can we be doing or what should we be doing to get more men in the room for the conversation? Thanks For any person man or woman involved in these issues as a major part? Yes, there is usually an aha moment that moment where you finally sort of get it I would say I was I was pretty much primed for that because when I was 16 years old my mother bought me a lifetime membership in the national organization for women That would do it. That would do it. That would that was a help I would also say I was really influenced when I graduated from college Shirley Chisholm came to speak to our graduation and she said and articulated in great detail The fact that she had experienced much more prejudice in her life for being a woman than she did for being black and So that you know the variety of issues sort of primed me for it But I will say that it probably happened in in the Central African Republic I was 22 years old a junior officer in the Foreign Service and sent out to the province of WOM to put together a Rural health program and I would face that why they entrusted me with two million dollars I will never know But they did and we went out and we talked with all the men who we were instructed to talk to by the government all the mayors and the governors and civil city council people and We could get nothing done they were more concerned about who had the power who got the money and then after Having done that for literally weeks. We started to meet with women's groups And frankly we started to assemble women's groups since there weren't that many Institutions out there and they would come and they would tell us exactly what we needed to do they told us you need to focus on Immunization they said you need to focus on water and sanitation And you need to focus on maternal and child health care And they said the single most dangerous thing to be in our society is the pregnant woman It's a pregnant woman and so we did and We went back to the men and we and we and we claimed that from our discussions with the men We had discovered That these were the things that they were advocating and we spent Two years implementing that program when I left You could already see declines in infant mortality declines in maternal mortality. You could see people thriving because of our programs and what that said to me is Not only that you can make a difference But that if you're listening to people on the ground and in particular if you're listening to women Who have ground truth who really know what's important for human security as opposed to some broad concept of national security? That's when you get the jobs done so I would I would basically say that that was it obviously there been a lot of Reinforcing elements throughout my career my experience in South Africa watching A&C women. I was there during the Movement from apartheid to non-racial democracy Watching the A&C women step forward and play the role that they were supposed to be playing my experience in Angola Obviously was influential as well Again if you're talking about how to Get more men involved in this exercise I just go back to my previous comment. You cannot use it as A oh be nice to women. You also cannot use the victim hood card. It is pernicious Women aren't victims. They are Survivors and they are the key to rebuilding strong stable societies and as soon as you put a label of victim hood It's it's done and then you get Men adopting paternalistic attitudes where they think they know better as to what ought to be done in one or another situations Now I'm going to count contradict what I just said a little bit because I also believe that it's important to have Women who are trusted by those men Play a role and I describe in the book how we got UN Security Council Resolution 1820 And I'm not exaggerating that it was really this is the resolution that established the office of a Special advisor for addressing sexual violence in conflict What really happened here was that the 15 wives of the 15 members of the Security Council all got together and said We have to do something to influence our husbands They got copies of some great movies documentaries on rape in the eastern Congo Etc they forced their husbands to watch that they forced them all to go to a conference in ditchley in the UK just in advance of the resolution being considered and Yes, you know their governments all came along Yes, there were big Geological issues at play and power politics and whatever but the truth is the reason we got that resolution is because of that effort and so Bringing it home to people telling them. This is your sister. This is your mother. This is your daughter Can can often work as well Let's take one more question right up front Hi there lyric Thompson with women for women international. Thank you so much for Your commitment always in your comments today Just wanted to ask briefly if you have had a chance to speak with your colleagues at state at all in developing the US National Action Plan about the carrots and sticks that were able to provide to Operationalize some of these aspirations. I found the secretary general's seven-point action plan that was released last fall to have some Interesting lessons learned and emphasis on how can you incentivize these parties to bring? Women to the table and change these numbers commitment from his office to naming a woman a woman negotiator of a peace process these sorts of things I Know legislatively we do have some provisions at least for Afghanistan tying aid to women's rights What are what's the thinking on how we're going to do that? Now it's a great question because it's one that gets to the heart of changing behavior And let me start by saying something relatively controversial, which is I don't really care What's in the minds of the men and women who are implementing our programs overseas? I do care about their behavior Martin Luther King once said I can't make that white racist love me, but I can sure make him stop lynching me and so I'm more concerned about doing the incentives and doing the directions Then I am about winning the hearts and minds of people that I think will come I think it's changing already. I think the all these norms are changing. You cannot have overt Sexual discrimination in the workplace anymore. You just can't do it You can be subtle about it, but you but and and that's where a lot of this happened But we have changed norms. We have changed values. So the real question is how do you change behavior? For me, there are two keys here. One is individual incentives and individual Punitive measures and so it is all about putting into our performance evaluation criteria how well did you do on bringing in an inclusive development approach and we have just restructured our evaluations for Determining who gets to be a mission director in USA ID and that's the equivalent of an ambassador So it's a really high position and the very first item is are you an inclusive leader? Are you drawing in? Other agencies the government etc. But are you also reaching out to all the communities out there? Including most prominently the 50% of the population who is normally excluded from the development dialogue You also change this in that same regard by Individual behavior. I now go out whenever I travel the very first thing I say to my mission is put together a Round table with women's civil society groups on the ground. We just did it in southern Sudan We just did it in cartoon. We did it in Cairo. We did it in Haiti. I'm about to go to Georgia next week We're gonna do the same thing the message gets across To people that this isn't a pet rock that this is part and parcel of everything you're doing Carla Copel now sits in our small group meeting every morning at the State Department at USA ID and She is a constant voice and a constant reminder of the importance of these issues, but it's not just Carla It's making sure that everyone else in the room Understands the importance of these issues. I've always said it's great to have a Minister of women's issues, but you want the minister of health to be thinking about these issues constantly And you want the minister of defense to be thinking about them and all the rest the final point is It's all about Monitoring and evaluation. It's all about accountability. It's all about measurement It's nice to put these this language in but I say to every program that we're doing in this area and more broadly I want to see four or five things. I want time-bound goals So tell me what you're going to do, but tell me when you're going to get done with it I want to see accountability mechanisms. Who's responsible for this and when it screws up Who deserves the blame and when it works? Well, who deserves the credit? I want measurable criteria So it's not just a question of focusing even on the inputs for the outputs. It's the outcomes So it's not just a question of having more women at the table. It's a question of having that process work more effectively Very fascinating case and I know I'm using up too much time here, but at the State Department there was a lawsuit against the Department for its failure to incorporate women in its all of its programs and It was lawsuit that lasted some some 15 years and When it was ultimately decided in favor of the plaintiffs It said we're not just asking you to change the numbers We're not asking you to change the rules We're asking you to prove that the full integration of women is Producing the best foreign policy for the United States that it can do You have a constitutional requirement to produce that best foreign policy You're blowing it by not fully utilizing half of your population and because of that the State Department Couldn't just jigger the numbers. They couldn't just appoint a few ambassadors as women They had to form fundamentally change the whole structure and they're actually doing it, which is a very encouraging sign The last thing I want to say is follow the buck Unless we're putting money behind this stuff It's all just words on a on a piece of paper or words from We've got to have money behind it and it's going to be a tough budget environment But we have prioritized this at USA ID. I know at the Defense Department. I know it's state They are prioritizing this hold our feet to the fire ask us a year from now How much have you put into this area? Frankly, we don't know right now and one of Carlos principal Assignments is going to be to do an inventory of what we're actually spending You know, what are we doing in health and education and housing and all these areas to promote women's issues? So hold us accountable and follow the buck I want to thank you For this wonderful Conversation, I know there are still hands going Shantel will tell us what is next and I'm sure there'll be an opportunity to grab speakers as you can