The UN should not be beyond women's grasp....

And yet, to so many of us, it is.

The UN is often seen as a huge lumbering beast, that only looks to its own self-fulfilling concerns. Yet most recently, talk of reform has been on the table. Reform of the UN's funding and its structure.

Part of this reform has been a discussion about setting up a dedicated UN Women's Agency, which could affect the lives of women the world over. Much has been done. Many countries have agreed the need for it. A resolution has been put forward to the UN General Assembly. However, it is mired in the horse-trading and geo-political discussions that accompany the signing of any resolution. It is in danger of not being signed at all (see Mark Tran's article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/11/ratification-un-women-agency-threatened).

The resolution must be passed by today, 14th September, 2009. Who knows what will happen. If it is passed, we are on our way to creating an autonomous, fully funded, dedicated agency for women, that has vowed to work in partnership with CSOs on the ground and have the proper level of leadership needed for this important body.

It is most desperately needed.

A quick glance at UN statistics (courtesy of GEAR) show that the women's agencies spend is a terribly low $221m - and this against a global UN spend in 2008 of $27bn. This means that fewer than 1% is spent on gender equality within the UN.

Rather than give a whole level of detail about the background, you can access the campaign here: http://www.un-gear.eu/home.shtml. The home page has some sobering statistics:

• Every minute of every day, a woman dies in childbirth - a statistic that hasn't improved in two decades
• 70% of the world's poor and 67% of the world's illiterate are women
• In 141 countries, marital rape remains a legal activity
• Only 9% of HIV+ women in the developing world have access to treatment that blocks passing their HIV onto newborn

And yet still, we have no dedicated body in the UN that is responsible for women, or responsible for delivering the Millennium Development Goals that affect half of our population.

As someone on the ground, simply campaigning for a better life for women, I'm still wholeheartedly shocked at how our global hegemonies spout the rhetoric, yet do so little in practice. This is a prime example.

For those who argue that we will simply be creating a whole new UN instrument in the form of its predecessors, I would argue that in order to beat the system, sometimes you need to infiltrate from within and play with the same orchestra....

Let's all hope today's vote goes the way we need it to.

A lot of talk about Africa and AntiChrist

This week, two talks about "moving Africa out of poverty". The first with the rather beguiling, measured Dambisa Moyo et al and the second, at "Business Fights Poverty" with, amongst others, Simon Maxwell of the ODI, Baroness Chalker, Sunil Sinha and Edward Bickham (Anglo-American).

Two very interesting debates - which outlined the absolute breadth and difficulty of the discussion. At least the IRC event with Dambisa speaking attracted a smattering of African attendees, who were able to put their viewpoints. The latter event had barely anyone there who was able to talk fro the perspective of what might work for Africa.

The first event exhorted the donor community to give up aid and let the free market prevail, the second event seemed to be casting around to find ways of meaningful engagement for business. There was a definite gap in the middle.

And then yesterday, a quick coffee with Mike and much discussion about film and how it's used. We are approaching a second round of a funding application for some of our young girls to make vox pops and two shorts on FGM; he was kind enough to be open to the opportunity of mentoring us through this process.

But to my horror, he places in front of me an article in the Observer Film Monthly about von Triers' new film AntiChrist. There is a discussion about the shocking moment when Charlotte Gainsbourg cuts off her own clitoris with a pair of rusty scissors.

This has been playing on my mind ever since. I wonder about whether to comment more widely than this - along the lines of: "whilst we appreciate that film plays a role in entertainment, this issue is a real-life horror story for the 3 million girls at risk each year from FGM" - does engaging at this level undermine the reality of the debate?

Does a Danish-based film director, making a comment on the grief-stricken horror of one character that leads her to do this to herself, have any resonance with the real fight against FGM? And if not, is it even right to make the connection?

The communications person in me says that if the media is writing, even obliquely about FGM, (and even self-FGM??!!! which I need to find out more about) then it is an opportunity.

Any thoughts?

Tuesday 2nd June, King's, London

I know, I know - I've got my days back to front. Today IS Thursday, but this post belongs in a Tuesday.

So, better late than never.

I was privileged to be an interloper at a day's training at King's College, London. Training for midwives. There were about eight motivated participants and we sat through a number of lectures about the impacts of FGM. Some wonderful presenters.

The Met Police outlined Project Azure, which really concentrates on prevention of FGM, both in this country and outside of it. It is:

1. An offence to commit FGM
2. An offence to assist a girl to commit FGM on herself (boy - some sort of arcane loophole that had to be closed here!)
3. An offence for someone in the UK to arrange or assist FGM outside of the UK, even if not a UK national
4. Any act done outside of the UK, by a UK national

The example we were given was if a girl's father makes a phone call to his country of origin to arrange FGM, then the mother takes the girl back to the country, then the grandmother/cutter commits the offence - who in that line of perpetration can be prosecuted?

Answer - all of them.

In reality, there has not been one single prosecution for FGM in the UK. There is now a £20,000 reward (£10k from the Met, £10k from the Waris Dirie Foundation) for any evidence leading towards prosecution. I imagine this figure will go unclaimed for some time. The stigma in communities about disclosure will be strong and no doubt, the mistrust of authorities will run deep.

Another chasm between reality and actuality came from the talk given by the Chair of the London Safeguarding Children Board - when they came to compile statistics, there were only 2 cases of FGM recorded in London. Given that a recent report by Forward (A Statistical Study to Estimate the Prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation in England and Wales, 2007) identified up to 20,000 girls under the age of 15 at risk to FGM in these areas, it can be seen that the reported figures show anomalies.

Christine mentioned in her talk that the DoH may be close to appointing a National FGM Co-Ordinator. Hmmmm - watch this space.

The vivacious and heart-warming Prof Jacqueline kept us motivated for over an hour, with her talk on FGM and health promotion. In response to one of my questions, she replied that her touchstone was working with women like the midwives I was sitting with. That those in the front-line of healthcare would always be the touchstone of what was really going on. This struck me as so true.

As we spilled out into the summer Waterloo sunshine for lunch, I had a long chat with Cath, a fellow VSO returned volunteer. She spent her placement in North West Kenya, a place called Pokot. She spoke movingly of the circumcision rite that she was invited to attend all those years ago. Of the girls, aged around puberty, dressed up, draped on stones, with the entire village amassed to watch the proceedings, but far away, up on the crest of a sort of hill. The girls legs were held open and one by one, the cutter went quickly towards each and in one stroke, removed the labia and clitoris. One trainee cutter was clearly having her first go, because as she removed the genitals, she held them up in the air and whooped with achievement.

Later, Cath was invited by a conciliatory woman, beckoned through the bushes and came across the girls, all lying down, legs parted, for further cutting. Now the ceremony had passed, they were being "tidied up." She spoke of one girl whose face held such fear, whose mien had huge dark beads of sweat all over it as she was held and cut again.

Cath then told me of going back this year, to an event with Traditional Birth Attendants where a local chief spoke out against FGM, where the 80 or so TBAs were thinking of not cutting any more. One of the things she outlined was that TBAs were seeing the effects first hand of what cutting did to the girls, who were now old enough to be mothers and had problems delivering.

I asked her to see if she could follow up to see what led the village chief to speak out on FGM. For this surely is a huge part of it. If community elders are involved, then locally decided change can empower people. One of the TBAs told Cath that her church was preaching against it and this led her to change her mind - God had created us with these parts, who were we to remove them? Cath mentioned the juxtaposition of how normal the rite was with the horror of witnessing it. And of how the girls asked her afterwards to buy them soft drinks, as if as a reward for what they had gone through.

So, that was Tuesday. Off to Hil and Verity's for a summer supper overlooking the common as the light fell gently across the green and the day faded. Talk of capitalism, fires, Kenya and FGM interspersed and we all thought of our chum Julia, close, close, close to her due date. The sweet peas I bought in a careless, fun interaction about men with the flower seller outside Clapham Junction, glowed pinkly, as luminous as the dusk sky.

137 bus home in all of 20 minutes and thoughts of young girls and Africa flurry through my mind and take me to sleep.