WFWPI UN Advocacy Training in New York

Written by: Rachel Beth Tamayo

On March 3, 2023, the WFWPI Office for UN Relations in New York hosted a 3-day, in-person WFWPI UN Advocacy Training on the theme, “WFWPI empowering women and girls through education and training to lead the way in securing a world of sustainable peace in the age of information technology,” at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City. The training which was held before the start of the 67th Session of the United Nations Commision on the Status of Women (CSW67) aimed to equip and empower WFWP leaders with the necessary knowledge, tools and strategic skills to drive local impact to support the United Nations in achieving the SDGs. The training was also designed to inspire creative, practical and holistic initiatives that promote social transformation and foster a culture of heart and a sustainable world of peace.  

On the first day, members from WFWP gathered and were able to meet and greet each country’s representative. The dinner was an opportunity to connect and comfortably welcome the speakers and the other members. The second day was organized by five varieties of speakers headed by Mrs. Merly Barlaan, the Chief Administrative Officer and Deputy Director of the WFWPI Office for UN Relations, and Mrs. Carolyn Handschin, the Vice President of WFWPI and Director of the WFWPI United Nations Offices and President of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women in Geneva.

The session was formally introduced by a delightful and inspiring message from the WFWPI President, Dr. Moriko Hori. Her introduction was entirely heartening. She was able to extend her warm regards to all WFWP members and assured that the session will encourage each member to more fully understand the heart behind the vision of WFWP. As the session progressed, there was also a brief but precise and indeed informative orientation presented by the Administrator for the WFWPI Office for UN Relations in NY, Mrs. Grace Kisile. When the orientation ended, the participants were extremely thrilled and excited. 

The first session was conducted by Mrs. Barlaan on the topic of “WFWPI Peace Philosophy and Leadership Paradigm.” The purpose of the session was to align the WFWPI philosophy and core values and integrate the programs and projects to local and national priorities and the UN global development agenda. The participants were then split into discussion groups to further share on this topic, and a representative in each group reported on their group's discussion and key ideas.

In the second session, the presentation was led by Ms. Srruthi Lekha, a UN Representative for the WFWPI Office for UN Relations in Geneva. She tackled the overview of the United Nations and SDGs, major stakeholders and partners. Her sincerity and dedication to extend the knowledge about the topic was inspiring. 

The third session was led by Mrs. Handschin. Her topic was about, “Building Partnerships and Influencing Priorities.” The in-depth information equipped us to learn more about the United Nation’s practices and strategies in making partnerships. The session was inspiring and helpful, especially for chapters experiencing difficulties and challenges. 

In the fourth session, Ms. Lekha led a remarkable interactive activity on CSW Advocacy where all members were able to participate. She was well versed and also allowed each member to experience being the ambassadors and members of civil society as part of the group activity. This activity enabled each participant to imagine what it would be like to become an influential WFWPI UN representative in the future. 

In the last session of the day, Mrs. Barlaan presented the strategic and impact-driven community development framework. She crafted a workshop and initiated guide questions which were all helpful as we answered the main topic issues such as, identifying local and national government priority agenda, partnership and aligning resolutions and local ordinance to SDG funding.

Before the session ended, Dr. Hori was able to extend and share the recent, present initiatives of Japan Overseas Development and Humanitarian Aid Projects. She was able to express how WFWP Japan is committed and dedicated to serve and fully support the community. Overall, the speakers and the second day of the training implemented lots of activities and new knowledge aligned with the importance of the SDGs and current initiatives of the chapter. The program was highly interactive with many group activities where team members were rotated throughout different groups. It provided the framework, strategies and principles to help approach the SDGs aligned with the WFWPI vision. The participants were now well-equipped and aware of other countries chapter's projects and how they were able to manage good practices, innovation, lessons and challenges.

On the last day of the training, rather than centralizing to one topic, the facilitator mapped out a time to represent at least three current issues from 3 countries and encouraged them to share stories and present. After each presentation, the facilitator was able to make better use of analytics in order to narrow the topics or issues and encourage each participant to use innovative tools to make performance data and reports more attractive and interactive in the future such as starting by three important questions and narrowing it down. In the last part of the session, the facilitator congratulated each speaker and handed the certificate of completion to each participant. The participants were able to collaborate, exchange ideas, participate and engage in the session’s objective. 

The beauty of this 3-day session was the opportunity to strategically space an excellent way to bring the WFWP team together. Although some of the members were not able to join in-person, the virtual interaction solved that problem. Overall, the session was insightful and interactive. Presentations were interesting, the slides were powerful and creative, the videos kept us all engaged, the handouts were extremely explanatory and entailed the details of each topic and perhaps could be utilized for future references or in whichever challenging situations or projects. This session was refreshing and motivating and it aided everyone to ultimately follow the current practice and be equipped to the new word and language of the United Nations. The session and its topic crafted a great balance between theory and actual practice and each speaker's concepts were clearly and professionally explained.