International Women’s Day 2021: A year to refocus

This year the theme of International Women’s Day is ‘Choose to Challenge’, with this in mind I wanted to use this opportunity to remind us all about key areas that cannot slip off the agenda, especially in a year where the world continues to be faced with so many obstacles.

Those forgotten during the pandemic

The Yazidis community

The Yazidis community, who were subject to genocide, rape and torture by the Islamic State group are one group that have been forgotten. The Islamic State’s 2014 genocide created adversity long before the pandemic ever did. Many people from the community have been displaced and have been living in camps for over 6 years.

The aid budget to this desperate group has been cut by not only the UK, but other countries as well. The British Government had promised that 92% of their aid would be spent in Yemen on nutrition, health and education for the Yazidis community, we now realise that this has been cut back significantly. 

This community needs our attention consistently. They deserve justice, jobs and the support to return home. We cannot forget their sacrifices.

The refugee crisis

Across the world there are millions of people being driven from their homes as a result of climate change. According to the IDMC (internal displacement monitoring centre). At the end of 2019, around 5.1 million people in 95 countries and territories were living in displacement as a result of disasters that happened not only in 2019, but also in previous years. (IDMC, 2020a). The countries with the highest number of internally displaced persons were Afghanistan (1.2 million); India (590,000); Ethiopia (390,000), Philippines (364,000) and Sudan (272,000) (ibid.). 

There are also asylum seekers being displaced by war, waiting for their cases to be considered, which often takes years despite the promise of assistance from countries.  These families live in barely adequate, unsanitary tent cities with both elderly family members and young children. In these circumstances we will also loose generations of children, whose lives are dictated by their lack of education, healthcare and the right nutrition.

Despite the pandemic, we cannot turn our backs on these victims. They have found themselves refugees not through any fault of their own, but as a result of war and climate change.

A global human trafficking crisis

We have seen cases of human trafficking, particularly in the garment industry, again and again. Where many countries - including the UK and US who have legislation in place, turn a blind eye to factories producing garments where workers aren’t paid a decent wage and are working under deplorable conditions. 

Governments should be enforcing and ensuring for consumers, that garments and other household goods are from factories with a stamp of approval, ensuring that those goods are not developed through human trafficking.

Another problem is the trafficking that exists. Women and young children are often taken by traffickers to be sold as sex slaves, or babies are sold on the illegal, underground market for those families looking for a baby to adopt.

The only long-term way to tackle human trafficking is to follow the money. This is the key way to inhibit traffickers and hold them legally responsible. We know that this is a cash business and it is countries offshore that accept cash into their banks that are the key. Stopping the money here is how we can hold the violators responsible and stamp out human trafficking in the long-term.

Women's leadership

Time and time again we have seen how women have lead the charge in successfully navigating challenging situations, especially this year. I’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate leading women who are driving us all forward.

Professor Sarah Gilbert - Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford and co-founder of Vaccitech. She lead the team that developed the COVID-19 Oxford vaccine.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, leader of the WTO

Christine Lagard, President of the European Central Bank

Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of IMF

Ursula Von Der Leyen, Head of the European Commission

Moving forward from the pandemic

As a result of the pandemic, women have had to face career altering decisions. Many women have had to scale back work obligations in order to focus on a family at home 24/7. What will be the long-term implications of this and the pipeline of women into senior positions?

As we progress through 2021 and celebrate International Women’s Day, we must challenge what could become expected norms. We must continue to take big strides in ensuring the number of women in leadership positions continue to grow across the world. Women from all cultures need to continue holding positions in the board room - as there is a place for everyone at the board table.  The diversity of a board table will have the largest impact on corporate culture and decision making. It is critical that we continue to strive for 50% representation of women and men on boards, management teams, Parliament, and government, and for those men and women to be  diverse and from a wide range of creeds and colors. The past 10 years has seen some progress, now it is time to raise the stakes, and be even more ambitious for the next 10 years.

So on this International Women’s Day I encourage you to also challenge what is going on around you and look for ways to help us all continue to drive towards equality for all women, men and children.