The landmark "Breakthrough" summit at the National Cathedral had a clear goal; to bring together faith, development, and women's organizations in order to create a powerful new force for reducing poverty by improving the lives of women and girls around the world.
The event, held April 13-14, had two distinct parts. The first was a grand and moving show that drew in the crowd in both a spiritual and sensory way. In the morning a forum in the Cathedral nave featured Thoraya Obaid, who heads UNFPA and the sermon at the 11:15 service was preached by Agnes Aboum, who heads the All Africa Council of Churches. At 2pm the 2,000 person audience in the National Cathedral was treated to inspirational speeches with Madeleine Albright standing out: her comment "some people call domestic violence cultural; I call it criminal" was perhaps the most memorable of the day.
Desmond Tutu's inspiring video message was also superb. His general theme was the need for vital new action to fight poverty with much sharper focus on women and girls. He highlighted the need to translate rhetoric into action and to involve men. During the speeches, statistics and moving notes about the meaning of poverty were presented to the audience via several large monitors. The themes of moral arguments for fighting poverty and the merits of investing in women were reoccurring.
In many respects the Summit was framed in terms of "Commitments' which were generally summed up as monetary pledges, said to total over a billion dollars. While some are indeed exciting new engagements from institutions, companies, and individuals, there was, as is always the case with such "pledging' efforts, considerable smoke and mirrors. The veterans grumbled a bit about this in private and noted that it remains to be seen what it all will amount to in terms of the fervently promised "change".
The program was quite long and ran roughly four hours. Unfortunately, many people melted off after Madeline Albright’s speech and missed Ashley Judd’s interesting presentation targeted at young people.
The basic framing of the event was three groups, however fuzzy at the edges: the Women's group was composed of feminists and semi feminists, with Women Thrive the leading voice; the Faith Group, with WCRP very much in the lead (it has organized a quite unique and impressive Women of faith Network over roughly two decades); and the Development group, coordinated by Interaction, included the UN Foundation, CARE, World Bank, and others. As an aside, the Catholic presence was not large, though Ken Hackett from CRS was an active participant Monday. There was a mix of women and men in attendance, with women predominating, though less obviously in the faith contingent. Different colored banners and dancers symbolized the three groups. The three groups processed in, and the program (video available on Washington National Cathedral website) was largely broken down by the three groups, with a symbolic weaving of banners at the end.
The second event, located on Connecticut Avenue on Monday, was a 200+ person discussion focused on a new "alliance" (WFDA - Women Faith and Development Alliance), led and moderated by Mary Robinson, former Prime Minister of Ireland, and Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada. The warm tone and personal quality of their interaction was symbolized by their repeated references to themselves as "old broads", as in: "if you need to get a hard job done get an old broad". Their leadership was material to the success of the event overall, as was Madeleine Albright's consistent support.
The discussion was based on moderated table inputs and focused on next steps, with a host of ideas emerging from a generally enthusiastic group. The tensions between a global "movement" geared towards mobilization and the need for capacity building and activism at the community level was woven throughout. We received a tabulated "voting" on priorities among the many ideas that emerged. Obvious areas for action are to gear the alliance towards upcoming global meetings like UN meetings, the G8 and global meetings on HIV/AIDS. The question of how to engage more conservative, less converted, groups was on the table but not fully addressed.
The Berkley Center's primary support was the report "Challenges of Change"; the fliers and reports were widely distributed; our work to support the intellectual foundation was both needed and appreciated.
My sense is that the Alliance has indeed formed and will move forward. The Berkley Center and WFDD can be supportive in two primary ways: by publishing and following thorough with the Gender report and building the organization database on which it is grounded; and by convening targeted and largely private dialogue sessions aimed at advancing dialogue and bringing together groups that may harbor doubts or questions or disagree with the broader "consensus".
