YouSaid · the spoken record

Maite

lines on the record
12
first
2019-10-07
most recent
2019-10-07
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “The South African Women in Dialogue forum has been progressively evolving and continues to champion the interests of South African women. However, due to the lack of adequate resourcing, its scope has been dwindling. That diminished presence has once again created a void, and South African women are yearning for the forum's revitalization. The rate of violence against women and children, including femicide and rape, have reached unprecedented levels in South Africa, and we occupy a low ranking on the Global Peace Index. Those are just a few indicators of why initiatives like the South African Women in Dialogue forum must be preserved, especially at the grass- roots level.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  2. “Those are important issues to prioritize; however, it is essential for Governments to recognize that the project of rebuilding societal links, acknowledging the pain and trauma of citizens and actively investing in the healing of nations is also of paramount importance and is by no means a soft matter. Investing in constructive dialogue mechanisms at all levels of society may be a saving grace for fragile and volatile communities. However, we would caution that, despite their efficacy, those dialogues should not be a grand one-off effort. Our biggest lesson from the South African Women in Dialogue interventions is that dialogue must be consistent and sustained in time, otherwise the positive benefits of the understanding and agreements reached during the dialogue can become diluted and violence can re-emerge.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  3. “Through the use of dialogue, SAWID has contributed to strengthening solidarity and social cohesion with the aim of promoting and consolidating peace, security and stability in local communities and on the continent, thereby creating a conducive space for socioeconomic development and the eradication of poverty. In closing, I would like to emphasize that SAWID believes that dialogue is an important tool for both conflict prevention and the overall consolidation of peace in developing and post-conflict societies. Most often, initiatives like SAWID are looked upon as soft approaches to maintaining peace and preventing conflict. As a result, most post-conflict strategies neglect such initiatives, often prioritizing the military, infrastructure and other development issues.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  4. “SAWID also led and lobbied for the establishment of a women's ministry and lobbied for and presented a poverty eradication model, which it implemented jointly with the Government. Under its pan-African peace and reconciliation dialogue programme, SAWID also went on to facilitate peace dialogues with the women of Burundi, shortly before the 2004 elections, and with the women of the Sudan in 2007. It also facilitated an African Peer Review Mechanism dialogue in 2006 and has participated in election observer missions in various African countries. Through those dialogues over the years, the efforts of the SAWID forum can be summarized as having facilitated partnerships between women and national and international bodies to shape community, provincial, national and continental agendas.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  5. “The third guiding principle was the facilitation of a private, self-reflective space away from the glare of the cameras, where women could unburden themselves, albeit momentarily, of current traumas and stresses. That created a communion of sisterhood and shared understanding of our commonalities and became the foundation of honest and effective dialogue. From that moment, SAWID grew to become a formidable brand that was adopted wholeheartedly by South African women. It went on to host 10 national dialogues, which cascaded into many more provincial and community-based dialogues that adopted the SAWID model. Major local successes of SAWID include facilitating the inclusion of women's voices and experiences in the national development plan.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  6. “First was the creation of a non-partisan platform where women were encouraged to express their own individual views and not those of the organizations they were affiliated with. Second was the issue of diverse participation, which stems from the realization that women are not a homogenous group and that we are divided by many issues, such as ethnicity, religious beliefs, class and political affiliations, just to mention a few. It was also a way to move away from the global tendency of educated and middle-class women setting the agenda for and speaking on behalf rural and poor urban women. Such inclusion is the backbone of the model as there can be no legitimate outcome from a process that is not inclusive.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  7. “The women realized that post-1994, they had handed over their agency to Government, creating a void, particularly at the grass-roots level, and that there was an urgent need for a collective voice representing the interests of women in the new South Africa and enabling women to play a more active role in ensuring that we contribute towards nation-building and sustaining peace. That is what led to the birth of South African Women in Dialogue, an event held in July 2003 and attended by approximately 1,000 South African women from all walks of life. Our carefully crafted dialogue model was based on three key guiding principles, which were largely influenced by the lessons learnt from our interactions with our sisters from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  8. “Through the dialogue process, Congolese women, in spite of deep-rooted and historical divisions, demonstrated that even if one is affected by or a party to conflict, that does not mean that it is impossible to work towards a common goal, namely, that of peace and stability in their country. Emanating from these interactions with the Congolese women was the realization by South African women of the need to reflect on their own journey since achieving democracy. The process with our sisters from the Democratic Republic of the Congo revealed to us that we had assumed the existence of our cohesion and unity, which was not necessarily the case.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  9. “As one can imagine, the women came from different warring parties and factions and dialogue was therefore difficult and almost impossible at the start. The second purpose was for the South African delegation to share experiences and strategies on institutional mechanisms and laws with a View to providing an environment for women's emancipation and equality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Following the success ofthe dialogue, the Congolese women resolved to hold a follow-up conference, which took place in Kinshasa in May 2003. At the conference, they collectively created a framework for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue to integrate women and ensure their effective participation in the transitional process. Through the newly created collective, they pressured the various negotiating parties to sign a final agreement.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  10. “Having experienced their own political transition just eight years prior, that handful of South African women understood first-hand for whom the shoe pinches and what it feels like to want peace yet not to have a voice. The small civil society delegation was well received, which gave birth to a number of activities. Chief among them was the Congolese and South African women's dialogue, held in Johannesburg in March 2003, at the request of Congolese women, and endorsed by the leader of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue facilitation team, the late Sir Quett Ketumile Joni Masire. The dialogue was attended by approximately 120 Congolese women and 180 South African women and its purpose was twofold. The first was to facilitate dialogue among Congolese women. Tensions ran high at the start of the dialogue.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  11. “We as South Africans, like the rest of the world, watched the proceedings on our television screens, hoping that a common peace agreement would finally be achieved. However, the marked absence of ordinary South Africans in and around the talks gave a group of women the idea to organize themselves and to drive to Sun City. On their arrival, the intention was not to meddle in the affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They came with one very simple message, namely, to pledge their solidarity with the struggle of the women of that country. For them, it was agonizing to watch the tensions and anxiety among the women participating in the process and how they were not central but peripheral to the talks. As recognized in resolution 1325 (2000), in times of conflict it is women and children who are the worst affected.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source

  12. “Ms. Maite: I thank you very much, Sir, for the opportunity to address the Council. My name is Naledi Maite and I represent an organization called South African Women in Dialogue, commonly known as SAWID, which I became affiliated with at the age of 18. SAWID is an independent South African women's forum committed to providing a platform for every woman to be heard through dialogue in order to improve the status of women in our country. SAWID was born out of an organic process of sisterhood and solidarity. The journey began in 2002, at the time of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, which took place in Sun City, a conferencing and holiday resort in South Africa. As it may be recalled, this was the second attempt as the initial dialogue in Ethiopia had collapsed.”

    2019-10-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8633 (2019) · source