When Women Save Seats for Girls at the United Nations...Big Things Happen
On Day of the Girl 2023 Être was invited into the room at the UN, and a lot happened.
We actually found ourselves in a number of rooms – each one showcasing women in power.
Women of influence.
Women with impact.
And it felt good.
Because during a week of unspeakable horror, when helplessness and fear streamed through our feeds, women holding seats for us in rooms of action gave Day of the Girl extra purpose and meaning. It was the right trip at exactly the right time.
Our first stop was the headquarters of the UN Global Compact, an international initiative based on CEO commitments to support UN global goals. Encouraging companies to align their operations with ten principles across labor, environment, anti-corruption and human rights, and with over 15,000 companies and 3,000 non-business members in 162+ countries, the UN Global Compact is self-described as the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.
Taking their seats in the Kofi Annan Boardroom with Global Compact leaders Sianne Powe, Sophie Kacki, Herrana Addisu, Mary-Kate Currey and Lina Al Qaddoumi, Être girls learned about career paths and goals, obstacles faced and overcome, and why the Global Compact’s work with the UN means more now than ever before. On a break between panels, heads leaned towards each other and I overheard one high school junior murmur to another, I want a job like this – that matters. How do I do that NOW?
One answer came in a zoom with Larissa Schelkin from The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) while we still had a few minutes at the Global Compact offices. You can do anything, Schelkin told the room of rapt girls emphatically, and you can start today. Here. Right now.
“If someone like me, who was born in a town nobody can even find on a map, can have the job I have and speak to the United Nations General Assembly, you can too.”
Noting that she heads UNITAR’s Global Diplomacy Initiative Fellowship and leads the UN General Assembly President’s Fellowship but had to leave our zoom in time for her next call with NASA, this mentor moment had girls clicking through UNITAR’s resources and marking their calendars while they followed Global Compact on Instagram and accepted Schelkin's invitation to pursue fellowships.
They looked ready to start.
In fact, they talked about it all the way as we walked two blocks to the United Nations.
“I liked that her dad kept telling her not to go for it [this job] but she totally went for it.”
“I think I would like working for global goals every day. And making sure companies did too.”
“We should tell every company we visit to do this. The CEOs too.”
Suddenly we could see the iconic row of 195 flags appear along the skyline, and voices grew quiet. The solemnity of the compound and the heft of the buildings – images they had only seen on television above serious news crawlers – came into focus and we walked through multiple levels of security in awe.
Chatter and laughter filled the air once more as we convened in the courtyard outside the main entrance to wait for our tour guide. Posing with the #UNGA sign, circling the huge brass sphere within a sphere and snapping pictures throughout the sculpture garden, girls were ready to be in the room.
And then it happened.
Elizabeth O'Connell, Être’s Chief Content Officer, and I had been prepared for tours to be canceled, for select wings to be blocked off, and for guides to be hesitant. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Paired with Brazilian born Silmara Roman, a UN Ambassador to the public and perhaps the most engaging tour guide ever, she took the import of Day of the Girl to heart and treated each girl like a future UN delegate.
Info sessions that felt like mini security briefings gave color to every room we entered, and whether we were standing in front of the Trusteeship Council Chamber, at the back of the Economic & Social Council Chamber while members milled about on break, or outside the UN Security Council Chamber before top officials met there (we got a fast glimpse), you could feel the gravity of the decisions weighed in these rooms.
Nothing quite prepares you for the UN General Assembly Hall, though, and it felt right that Roman saved it for last. Look around, girls, she told them with seriousness in her voice and a spark in her eye, you are the only ones here. This is where leaders negotiate for peace. And more and more those leaders are women. Perhaps you will be next. I hope so.
Oh, I hope so too.
It feels like we have never needed fresh leadership more.
At this time of global unrest and unimaginable grief, when we try to answer the next gen’s questions fully and truthfully, the need for hopeful leaders is real. What we found last week was that the UN is teeming with accomplished female role models, all ready to champion today’s girls with full hearts.
We are endlessly grateful to the women at United Nations Global Compact, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the United Nations and UN Women for meeting with us on Day of the Girl. And given that this event was the kickoff for a series of quarterly visits for Être girls at the UN starting in 2024, more thanks go to UNA-USA, UNA-NYC and UNA-LA as we look ahead.
Looking ahead is all we can do right now - and I am finding hope in the knowledge that our girls, armed with UN resources and and unparalleled role models, will usher in the era of peace we need.
Looking forward,
Illana
ÊXTRAS: Three more ways you can get involved with the UN you won’t want to miss: no matter your size, sector or location, companies can participate with the UN Global Compact here; youth can find out about and join the UN Global Goals Torchbearers here; and students can learn more about the UNITAR Global Diplomacy Initiative Program here – or DM me for details. Leaders aren’t lucky…they’re ready.
