 Now, I'm going to be joined on stage by Dr. Ella Murrowbit. Dr. Ella, please come here. She doesn't like podiums. Yeah. She's an SDG advocate. When she comes on stage, have a seat. When people ask you what you do, what do you tell them? I think she's someone. It's supposed to be working. I tell them that we create the necessary partnerships and the necessary conversations. And we create the necessary connections for people to actually understand what the sustainable development goals are, what they mean, and how they impact your life. So a good example is this morning we were talking about impact investing. And I was asked the question, well, why invest in women? Because that, strangely, is still a question we have to ask. What does your face do when you ask that question? Because my face is this. I have 10 brothers and sisters, five brothers. So I've gotten very good at schooling my face when something ridiculous is being said. But no, I think the immediate reaction is, we all make assumptions. And honestly, in a lot of our work, we stay in silos, where everybody tends to agree with us. Everybody thinks, yes, we need to support and invest in women or the sustainable development goals or whatever it may be. And I think the reality is that's not how it actually is on the ground. There are a lot of people who don't even know what the sustainable development goals are, who don't recognize the connections between girls' education, women's reproductive rights, and climate change. So I mean, we have to be able to draw those connections. And this morning when I was asked about investing, almost every person, every company, every government, every organization has an interest. And what we need to be able to do is tap into that interest and connect it to the larger picture. So if your company is interested in climate change, we need to be able to say, listen, empirical data shows that it's actually girls' education and women's reproductive rights are the single, most cost effective, practical solution towards action against climate change. That's why you need to invest in women and girls because using the moralistic approach, using the anecdotal approach, hasn't worked. It hasn't worked. We know we're 51% of the world's population. We know we deserve equal rights and education. We demand it quite regularly. Now I think we need to be very strategic about it. What's the strategy? What's one strategy where you think, I know this works, I've seen this work? I honestly think local leadership is underestimated. I think the power, you know, in most of our meetings we go to and people say, well, we need to empower local leaders. And I find that that actually reduces their agency and it's, in my opinion, a bit arrogant. We don't need to empower local leaders. If anything, if we wanna work in a local community, the people who have the power, who have the access, who have the credibility, who have the authenticity, are local leaders. And what we need to do is start listening to them and start actually saying, what do you need in your community? I mean, there have been time and time again, I've sat, you know, on some of the boards I sit on and some of the projects we've done, where I'll hear from a funding group, you know, we wanna educate X amount of girls in this community. And they'll say, so we need to really talk about cultural, you know, belief on education. And you go to that community and they say, no, no, no, we agree, we wanna educate our daughters, but the schools aren't, they don't have toilets. There's no sanitation, the facilities are poor, or militias enter the schools. So it's not an issue about cultural education, it's an issue about infrastructure. And the only way you know those realities is with local leaders. So I think really listening and recognizing that we're not the authorities, and I know that's difficult, but the big difference between the sustainable development goals and the millennium development goals are that these are non-prescriptive. There is no one country in the world that's doing well on gender equality. I mean, we can all say, yes, my country's doing great for men and women who may be nationals. No way. But those are for the nationals. Let's talk about the immigrants, let's talk about refugees, and let's talk about the treatment of minorities. And we have a very different picture for minority women than we do for nationals. And that's the reality any country you're in. I'm born and raised in Canada, the treatment of indigenous women in Canada is appalling. And we need to be able to have those honest conversations and say, we're not the leaders on this, we need to listen to local leaders, and we need to give them a true seat at the table. Not say, we've created this program, we're gonna go and do outreach, where we can say we've spoken to X amount of people, but we haven't actually taken their authentic input. Let's break this down. There are lots of people here who want to be at the table. They're pretty close, but they're not there. How do they do it? I think, so for me, I'll tell you the story of the first time I was at the table. So the UN does this thing where they put like these wooden name plates out and they etch your name in white and you think you've made it. And I was 21, so I was like, dang, I made it. So I went in and I was so excited. I said, Dr. Alamurabit, I thought I was fancy. And I sat at the table. And I went earlier than everybody else because I'm a minority woman, so we show up earlier because we have to. So people recognize why we're there. And so I had done all my reading so that I could, if anybody ever questioned why I was in the room, I would completely validate it by knowing everything I needed to know and having all the answers. All the women are nodding, yes. And I sat down. And within the first two minutes, and this was a big deal for me. I took a picture. I sent it to my mom. My mom was in Libya in North Africa. I was so excited. And within the first two minutes, a young woman came up to me and said, no, no, this is Dr. Alamurabit's seat. And I heard he's very difficult. And I didn't, and I was like, okay. And you know those moments when you're kind of just frozen and you don't know how to act? And I felt very frozen. So I picked up my stuff. She told me you need to go sit in the back with the interns. I picked up my stuff and I went and I sat in the back. In retrospect, I don't know why. But you named Dr. Alamurabit. I know. You thought there was another one? No, no, no. No, no, I knew it was me. I just, I thought maybe I had misunderstood my place. It was a very, I was 21. I've gotten a lot smarter. And a lot more sure of myself, I suppose. But so I went and I sat in the back. And you know, I don't know how many of you replay an argument in your head and like think about what you would have said in that moment. So when everybody else came in and they were like, Alla, why are you sitting in the back? Come sit at the table. I was like, okay. So I went and I sat on the table in the entire meeting, which was my first big high level meeting. I sat there thinking of all the things I should have said instead. And I was like, you could have said this. You should have said, I belong here. You should have. So I have this kind of mantra. But what stuck with me over the course of that two hour meeting was as I looked around the table, I was the only woman and I was the only person under the age, I would argue of 45. And I think that realization that it wasn't necessarily her fault, she was operating under the assumptions of the system in which she worked in. This is what she saw day in and day out. And so I went and I spoke to her after because I had been fuming for a good hour. And then I had kind of been like self aware for an hour. And she said, honestly, I never expected you to be in that position. And that was I think the day where more than anything, I realized the importance of mentorship. I have never walked into a room to be frank and seen somebody like me. And I've seen and I'm sure you've all seen it in meetings where a male colleague, for me it glares out, but a young male colleague will say something. And even if it's ridiculous, he'll get a tap on the back from like an older male colleague. Like there's a solidarity there. And there's never been enough people who look like me to give me solidarity in a room. And oftentimes if there are women in the room, they tend to be hesitant to bring up the gender is particularly because I work in security. They don't necessarily always want to talk about gender. So I started a mentorship program for young minority women. Because I figured I have been put in a position and I've worked hard to be put in a position of influence where I am at the table. And I think we've taught young people that they need to wait to be at the table. And I think that's nonsense. It's nonsense. The world does not operate well now. It doesn't operate well now because we have about 1% of people who can make decisions making decisions. And we cannot keep telling women to wait because they're not the right women. And we can't keep telling youth to wait until they get older and more experienced. You are experienced enough. You are qualified enough in your space. And so I think we need to start telling people when you are in a position of authority open the door for somebody else. Take them to meetings. I have two young Oslo scholars here today who were selected by the Oslo Freedom Forum, both still in university, who got to go to a meeting with the UN secretary generally yesterday. And the reality is when those doors are open, when they can give their business cards, when they can talk about their ideas on equal footing, it changes the relationship. It changes the dynamic. And it changes the perception. I never thought I belonged at the table until I realized that the table wasn't necessarily, it wasn't good enough for me to sit at yet. Until I was, until more people were there, until more ideas were there. So I think mentorship is definitely something that we can do for one another, find somebody you respect, whose ideas you respect, whose morality you recognize and values you recognize, and email them, reach out to them. If they don't reply, they're not the right person. And among each other, I mean, create networks and I think one of the greatest strengths we have is create a network of like-minded people and elevate your ideas. If you have suggestions on how New York transport could be better, because I have a lot of suggestions. You know, send those in. Create an organized system of engagement where you're not waiting for somebody to invite you, but you're demanding that you be there. I mean, the first time I met the UN in Libya, they were sitting and having lunch in a hotel. They never came to my city. I didn't live in the capital city. So I waited until I saw a lot of older white men in suits. Surprise, surprise, they were the UN. And I went up to them and said, I run a women's rights organization and I'd like to talk to you. Nobody invited me. And to be quite frank, had there not been one particular individual who wanted to know more about my organization, I would have, I would still be here, but I would just be here in a different route. But because he was there, you know, we had a very authentic conversation and there was that, there was that reciprocation and that realization that sometimes you're not gonna be invited in and you just have to make your own way. What do you think are the qualities that you need to do what you're doing right now? Because it's, there needs to be more of you. Not exactly the same, but more people. Thank you. I don't want a whole table full of alas. That would be a lot. The world would operate much better. I agree. Different kinds of young advocates at that table. What are the qualities that they need? So, and I'm sure you've had this feeling before. Oftentimes when I walk into a meeting or I walk into a room, somebody beforehand tells me, oh, you're gonna be sitting with these kind of people. So, you know, maybe talk quieter or you're gonna be sitting with these kind of people. Maybe use more statistics or, and so, and I used to actually kind of follow those. But listen, and now I don't. Because I don't think I'm ever in the place to go up to a group of people or an individual and tell them this is how you should operate and this is how you should engage. If you have the experience and you have the know-how and you have the knowledge and you are sure of that, then you do it. And I think that your work always speaks for itself and we have a tendency to tell particularly young women, especially young minority women, how to conduct themselves in professional spaces and I find it aggravating. I don't need anybody to tell me how to conduct myself. My path to where I am was much harder than your average male. It was definitely harder than an average white male. And so I've learned how to conduct myself in a way that I see fit. So I don't think there's any specific quality. I think if you have done the work, if you have the experience, if you recognize that yes, and I remember I once years ago told a woman, a pioneer of the women's movement, I don't need to prove myself. And she said, yeah, you do. Yes, you do, we had to prove ourselves. And I think recognizing that proving myself meant waking up earlier, getting to meetings earlier, doing twice as much reading, doing all my research, holding my jobs while I did my masters in PhD and medical degree and recognizing that I needed to show up in every room more qualified to be taken at the same level of legitimacy until I reached that level. But I would say that's about it, that's the quality. You need to work hard and have the conviction that you need to be at that table, that without your voice, things will not go in the right direction. And if you genuinely believe that, and you believe it for the right reasons, and you're in the room for the right reasons, then I don't think you can be stopped. I don't think there's a magic quality you need to have. And I truly believe almost every quality in the world can be cultivated and can be honed if you work hard enough. And it always helps if you learn a lot of languages. I didn't do that, but I mean, if that's a quality you want to start learning now, good luck. So the theme for this conference is the world in 2050, looking ahead for sustainable development. What's the last thought that you would leave this conference with about that, looking ahead? Looking ahead, I mean, so tomorrow, as I said this morning, I was in an impact investing session and they talked about why invest in women. And I think I tend to be, people joke glass half full, glass half empty. I always say what's in the glass is more important. And I think for me, the fact that we were still talking about why women and where 12 years away from 2030, I'm a little concerned, right? And so I suppose looking ahead, I would say we need to be unrealistic. We need to start saying, listen, we need to know the reality of today, but we need to be unrealistic and say, we're not actually gonna get farther if we continue to operate in the systems we operate. And unfortunately, if we continue to say that we're going to actually be able to invest in these goals while we're simultaneously investing in a global arms trade and we're saying that security actually comes from your military and your weapons rather than education, gender, quality and health, then I think we're on the wrong path. So looking ahead, I think we need to challenge ourselves, our politicians, our businesses on where their money is going and if they recognize the true meaning of security and if they recognize that you cannot, on one hand, sit in a meeting and sign arms contracts that bomb women in Afghanistan, Syria, or that allow for the degradation of rights globally and on the other hand, say, you have a feminist foreign policy. Those two things are contradictory to me. So I think looking ahead, we need to challenge ourselves on who we elect and we need to challenge them once they're in those seats of power and if they're not doing a good job, run, run. Like we need the fact that we have two or three options for heads of state that in my opinion are not that fantastic means we're not getting everybody. So run, take the opportunity and recognize that your voice doesn't, I just need to be at the table but maybe you can just head the table and tell everybody else what to do. Dr. Alamorovic, SDG advocate, thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you.