How do we make it...make sense?

In the opening of the NGOCSW Forum (March 13 EDT), CSW66 Chair and South Africa's permanent representative to the UN, H.E. Mathu Joyini asked, what informs policy?

Activists will remind us that policies must reflect communities. Communities will say that no one listens to them. And politicians will sometimes prove that point by refusing to host consultations.

But as H.E. Joyini says, \"I don't see how you can look at any issues and not go out and seek the positions, views of the people on the ground dealing with the issues.\"

For us as the Shifting the Power Coalition (StPC), it's about making sure our partners and their networks have access to resources that enable them to reflect, to communicate and to put forward recommendations that benefit them and ensures protection for their communities. 

\"CSW66 is about women-led localisation that must be recognized, resourced and sustained. Even the simplest innovation needs to be recognized and we need to link local, regional and international action,\" says StPC Regional Manager, Sharon Bhagwan Rolls.

For the 13 partners of the Coalition, it's about collaborating and learning; creating a space to share and strategise for the next steps towards gender equality.

As UN-member states and intergovernmental committees review the Zero Draft Outcomes document  (that paves the way for governments to action in the pathway to gender equality), the language of the draft and subsequent revised versions will be closely scrutinized.

This CSW will put the focus on women on the frontlines of climate change and disaster risk reduction. While climate change becomes the biggest threat to most - if not all - Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), the influence by those with power, connection and *resources* can almost guarantee that the language will not reflect the will of communities, let alone women from SIDS.

Already, there have been pushback from many who suggest that conversations around climate change, loss and damage, and humanitarian action must be conversations left to COP. But this doesn’t mean a step back.

“It is strange to think of women’s rights and climate change as separate. There are interlinkages,” said Cécile Ndjebet, African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests (REFACOF) (Cameroon) in an expert panel at the NGOCSW Consultation Day.

“We need governments to understand that they cannot tackle these issues in silos. We need a feminist and green new deal.”

As CSW begins, the role of civil society to hold governments and negotiators accountable will be seen in the outcomes of the final document:

“We need the reality check to get away from the diplomatic niceties. What’s the point of spending hours and passion and then no government checks back on their responsibilities?” asked former CSW Chair and Irish permanent representative to the UN, Geraldine Byrne Nason.

This is where and why the roles of CSOs in these negotiation spaces are critical:

“The quality of solution is much more real when women are involved. Civil society are living with the experiences on the ground. CSOs continue to be the societal check of governments,” says H.E. Joyini.

As Lopa Banarjee, Executive Coordinator, Generation Equality & Director, Civil Society Division at UN Women, shared at the same event, “There is joy in disrupting because there’s joy in creativity, in solidarity.”

*CSW66 - 66th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women 

Written by a very cold and very fluffy Fijian on her first trip to CSW and New York