At a time when there is global focus on entrenched gender inequalities, gender disparity continue to characterise the national awards. Only 11 of 41 or just about 25 percent of the this year’s National Awards went to women in a population in which women make up just over half of the population. Further, none of the three highest Award, the Order of Trinidad and Tobago went to women and no one was awarded the Medal for Development of Women which was specifically introduced to compensate for gender imbalances in the National Awards and specifically to recognise the work for gender equality. See the Newsday Article In The News below.
Gaps to Gender Equality & Equity
It might be mistakenly believed that because more and more women may be occupying leadership positions as in the Presidency, the Parliament, the University and Academia, the Media, Banking and Corporate Sectors that the business of gender equality is completed. Far from the reality, as the deeper indicators of gender inequality and imbalances persist across sectors and focus inclusion areas as research and development, digital engagement, violence among others.
About the Medal For Development of Women
Limited Recognition Women’s Contributions
Medal for Development of Women came into being as part of the Women Agents of Change initiative devised to recognise women.. Prior to its introduction women were sporadically awarded under the general awards scheme set up with Independence. This limited recognition of the work of women because of limited opportunities for women to excel in the public service and few held senior positions. In fact there were several legal inhibitors to women in the public service around limited options of promotion of married women and issues surrounding maternity leave.
First Woman Prime Minister
The proposal for instituting an award for women was passed to the first woman Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad Bissessar who was part of our campaign to achieve gender leadership parity through the “Put A Woman Campaign” to increase the numbers of women in Parliament, leadership and local government, which has also since seen women in the Presidency. That took concerted actions and efforts!
Local Focus, Global Appeal
Model for gender climate reparative justice & development transformations from rhetoric to action
The path to adoption is itself a model of successful engagement with the international community and multilateral processes and partnerships to move efforts from talk and rhetoric to action for gender climate reparative justice & development transformations that align advocacy, outreach, education, awareness raising to actionable initiatives I devised for the gender lobby that can prove instructive for the Caribbean’s current thrust for development equity across sectors, including the thrust for reparative justice, research and development, digital inclusion.
Trailblazing Pathway to Change
With considerable experiences of manoeuvring the international mechanisms for change, fresh out of preparing leaders of civil society to impact the gender agenda of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings and the Summit of the Americas of the Organisation of American States, I developed the Women Agents of Change initiative which included the recommendation for awards to women.
The proposal was piloted to and through my networks and championed by the Network for the Advancement of Women, the Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership and the Commonwealth Women’s Network and tabled at the Commonwealth Caribbean Women Agents of Change Colloquium. It was passed to the first woman Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad Bissessar who was also then the Chair of the Commonwealth Women’s Network who moved speedily for its adopting within the first year of her first term in office. The first women were awarded in 2011.
Pioneering Women Awarded
The first women were awarded in 2011. Among the first awardees were women then leading the Gender Movement: Hazel Brown who died last year, Diana Mahabir Wyatt of the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Brenda Gopeesingh of the Indian Women’s Group. That year also saw two women awarded the highest national award, the Order of Trinidad and Tobago to Helen Bhagwansingh, Businesswoman and Entrepreneur and Zalayhar Hassanali social worker and wife of former President Noor Hassanali. President Hassanali was himself awarded the Trinity Cross some 25 yeas earlier in 1987.
The National Awards of Trinidad and Tobago acknowledge the involvement of citizens and non-nationals who have had a significant and positive impact on the twin island Republic.
Get involved
You can support these efforts and get involved to help transfer these learnings and experiences by sponsoring digitisations and development of multimedia case studies like these, drawn from more than 30 years of gender education, public awareness, communications journalism, outreach and advocacy in the Caribbean, Commonwealth, InterAmerican and UN Systems and digitisation of these archives that encompass the struggle and learnings for gender development. Or make contact to fid out how you can enhance your capacities for gender justice, diversity and inclusion and social responsibility!
In the News
AT this year’s national awards ceremony on Republic Day on Sunday, no one was awarded the Medal for the Development of Women, raising questions in the minds of some members of the public.
Office of the President sources told Newsday on Sunday their only role was to host the event by way of Her Excellency Christine Kangaloo and the provision of President’s House. The selection of awardees was done by an awards committee chaired by Chief Justice Ivor Archie.
The Office of President website said the award is for “any person for outstanding contribution to the development of women’s rights and issues.”
It may be awarded in gold, silver or bronze in accordance with the assessed value of the service rendered, up to a maximum of ten awards in any one year.
Contacted by Newsday, Network of Women’s NGOs former head (sic -was actually Director of International Outreach and Advocacy) Dr Kris Rampersad congratulated all recipients and especially the women awardees.
“I am not sure why no award was given for the category of the Medal for the Development of Women. As you may recall when we recommended introduction of the award from the Women Agents of Change initiative it was meant to recognise the contributions to advancement of women and the mandate of gender equality.
“We have seen over the years that there were shifts in it being awarded in some instances to women or groups whose work was not necessarily focussed on development of women.” She had originally advocated to establish a women’s award.
A deficit still persists in the numbers of women receiving national awards in other categories, said Rampersad, who received the National Award for the Development of Women (gold) for contributions to advancement of women and journalism in 2018 and is now an international development specialist.
“While we have seen increased focus on the role of women and the drive for gender equality that work is by no means over.
“What we do need is for the many women who are benefiting from our tireless efforts and are occupying higher places in management and other positions including in the office of the President, Parliament and elsewhere to ensure that equality remains at the top of developmental agenda with targeted actions to achieve this.
“The work in relation to gender equality is by no means over and in fact we have only just begun.”
She said the Women Agents of Change initiative has now been absorbed into the development work of the UN and other international bodies.
Rampersad concluded to Newsday, “Perhaps it is best that you get from the awards committee if it felt that there were no women deserving of the award this year or why none was awarded. There is certainly need for rededication to advancing the work to bridge gender gaps and build on the achievements we have made to date as well as to concertedly address the persistent and systemised dimensions of the gender gap that is inhibiting progress and change.”
About Dr Kris Rampersad
Dr Kris Rampersad is an award-winning journalist & multimedia consultant, educator, facilitator, outreach & advocacy specialist, publisher & producer engaged in cross-disciplinary, intersectoral and multistakeholder integration of gender, culture & eco-sensitive approaches to education and lifelong learning for sustainable development.
Her work includes the seamless continuum from agenda-setting to development of strategies, policies and action planning for reenvisioning development agendas and programme actions, multisectoral partnerships and institutional strengthening, as well as development and delivery of knowledge programmes and actions for social transformation and socio cultural behavioural change, outreach and advocacy. She synergies traditional & popular cultural & multimedia forms, perspectives & approaches in agenda setting, policy development & critique, outreach and education. She devises her own models, modules and materials for education to engage multisectoral interests across disciplines to break development silos, across generations and formal and non formal sectors.
An Ambassador for Global Woman Techmakers’, Google Digital Skills, Small Island Innovators and Worldpulse, she is a UNESCO-trained heritage facilitator and National Geographic Educator, with a PhD and BA First Class Honours University of the West Indies, and the highest Patrika Award from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Indian Institute of Mass Communications. A Blogging Pioneer, she was an early winner of the BBC/UNESCO Communications Initiative for Development Policy Blogging for New Media. She has also professional upgrades through Commonwealth Professional Fellowship; Nuffield Foundation Fellowship to Cambridge University; and Foreign Press Centre of Japan.
She has participated in global think tanks for more than15 years, particularly in mainstreaming Gender Equality & Culture Sensitivity in multilateral global to local systems of UN, Commonwealth, EU, InterAmerican, Caribbean & Latin American, CARICOM & National systems. She has been involved in implementation of the UN 50-50 gender equality mandate and recommendations of the CEDAW Convention since the Beijing Platform for Women as a journalist and as a development specialist.
She is currently harnessing such knowledge and experience into developing an online global to local knowledge facility and resource (GloCal Knowledge Pot www.krisrampersad.com). It involves consolidating, developing and animating for multimedia education and outreach, interactive engagement and mapping of the thirty-plus- years since the Beijing Platform for Gender and Development. This includes original research, articles, presentations, advocacy campaigns, interviews in print, tv, radio and multimedia. She was one of the international pioneers of the field of new media communications for development and was named one of the first winners of the UNESCO BBC Development Policy Blogging Communications Initiative. Among other journalism accolades, she holds a Trinidad and Tobago National Award, Gold for Development of Women/Journalism. See Youtube: https://youtu.be/u5scj8E8Ljk
Synopsis of Experience
- Agenda Setting: Preparation, Lobby & Successful Negotiation of Resolutions, Diplomatic Texts for mainstreaming Gender Equality & Culture Sensitivity in multilateral systems: UN Agencies, UNESCO, UNDP, UNIFEM/UNWomen, WIPO, WSIS; Commonwealth, European Union, CARICOM, InterAmerican Systems. President UNESCO Education Commission; Vice President Programme & External Relations Commission, & Vice President Consultative Body of InterGovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage; Commonwealth Foundation & Summits of the Americas Media & Outreach Specialist;
- Local to Regional Gender sensitive policy & legislation-making, Institutional Strengthening: & Action Planning: Strengthen the capacity of institutions in addressing gender inequalities: Reform to the child marriage act, gender sensitive budgeting and engendered political processes.
- Education & MultiStakeholder Capacity Development: Conceptualise, Develop & Deliver Curriculum, Courses, Course Materials, Matriculation, Evaluation & Assessments
- Multimedia Technical & Creative Content Development – Conceptualisation, Creation, Publishing & Production Production: writing, design print & online
- Communications for Development Outreach & Advocacy:
a. Spokesperson on women’s issues and gender parity, shaping and supporting the work of local and international Networks for gender equity and the advancement of Women National to International Networks
- UN 50/50 Campaign, UNESCO Priority Gender Equality & CEDAW
- Journalist Investigations & Advocate to removal of discriminatory practices and revisiting entrenched notions of gender roles within social systems and cultural practices through her work with traditional and grass roots comm unities across the Caribbean.
- Led follow-up action in the provisions and recommendations that informed the Summit of the Americas for gender mainstreaming in governance
- Coordinated Outreach for Commonwealth Women Affairs Ministers’ Meetings/Commonwealth Women’s Network/Commonwealth Foundation: Campaign slogan Where is the Money for Gender Equality?
- Integration of Inclusive, Culture Centred-Development
- Gender Mainstreaming in Governance
- Articulated to build awareness as the Outreach and International Relations Director of the Network of NGOs for Women Put A Woman Campaign Slogan, A Woman’s Place is in the House – Of Parliament, that saw the drive for fulfilment of the quota of women in Parliament along with women in the positions of Speaker of the House and President of the Senate; Awareness raising led to ascension into office of the First Female Prime Ministers in Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago & Barbados and first Female President of Trinidad and Tobago, in one decade.
- Initiated and developed incentive awards mainstreaming women achievers.
- Conceptualized and piloted to national and international acceptance the Commonwealth Caribbean ‘Women Agents of Change’ Award, which was the forerunner to introduction of the Medals for Women in Trinidad and Tobago.
- Identified women to be recognized among others for the Trinidad and Tobago Publishers’ and Broadcasting Association Awards for Media Excellence.
- As editor, partnered with the United Nations, corporate community, NGOs and others to spearhead the Woman of the Year Award.
Researcher:
Develop questionnaire, survey techniques, survey sample, numerous articles & gender equality analyses in policy planning, finance & budgeting.
Spearheaded, developed and piloted the resolution for reform of global statistical classifications of Caribbean and developing countries through UNESCO Executive Board
Coordinated Spearheaded the Commonwealth Foundation Global Campaign Where Is the Money for Gender Equality with Commonwealth CSOs, Private Sector Partners’ Forum
Developed awareness campaigns on culture and gender sensitive planning and budgeting for gender equality. Input into Trinidad and Tobago national annual budget planning meetings for gender mainstreaming in budgets.
Have conducted pioneering research on gender mainstreaming & sensitization in development policy & governance agendas.
Caribbean CSO representative on EU-CARIFORUM Negotiation of EPA trade agreements for mainstreaming gender and culture centred development in trade partnerships.
Developed report and recommendations for UNDP Caribbean Corporate Social Responsibility Seminar.
Gender sensitive Journalism:
Supported the global mandate for equality of women that came out of the Beijing Platform for Women, and has a substantial portfolio of articles, columns as Woman to Woman, interviews, investigations, that tell women’s personal stories of trials and triumphs, revealing discrepancies and imbalances from data, highlighting the plight of the underprivileged, unearthing inequalities in national life, in the homes and in the work place, and the campaign against domestic violence. Impact on gender equality in the workplace – equity in treatment, promotions and remunerations; representation of women at higher levels of administration and decision making.
Coordinated Media Outreach for UN Women of the Year Awards
Blazed a trail for women in the media -being the first sitting editor to have completed a PhD & in actions in supporting women journalists.
Education & Capacity Development:
Trained women other partner in gender sensitive approaches to policy making, understanding and engaging with media.
- Conceptualise, design, deliver and assess Courses in Public Education, Awareness, Outreach, Use of Media, Computer Literacy, ICTs and New Media
- Developed and devise the Education & Training, Outreach and Advocacy initiatives of the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women and deliver on its core strategic agenda of gender empowerment women and children’s health and mortality issues, increase access to education and training opportunities , encourage self-development, and facilitate communication and disseminate information
- Drive regional and international vision and networking initiatives through Caribbean, Americas, Commonwealth, UN agencies and international NGOs.
- Modules for Professional Development of Women and other Network Stakeholders in Gender Sensitivity, Gender Mainstreaming, Education initiatives for International Women’s Day activities, Gender Media Monitoring (Develop national inputs into the GEMM Report inputs) to advance media sensitivity on reporting gender issues and coordinate media watch, UN 50/50 Campaign/Put A Woman Campaign.
- Professional Development and Public educational initiatives and media outreach on the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women (CEDAW)
- Professional upgrade initiatives with women leaders to reorient on bridging the gap between conventional and new media to empower users to take advantage of the opportunities offered by New Media.
- Strengthen networks among women groups and female entrepreneurs and professionals
- Educate women on use of ICTs, conventional television and radio and print and new media to reach women in rural and remote districts., promote cooperation and economic empowerment, to access broader local to global markets and inclusion through ICTs.
The entrenched practices of gender discrimination and inequalities takes more than just filling positions, it also involves concerted effort at educating leaders and office holders in changing the spaces for equity and equality.
See https://krisrampersad.com/in-the-news-gender-justice-and-the-national-awards/