Two ICRW Staff Join Official Government Delegations to the 65th U.N. Commission on the Status of Women
16 March 2021
Lindsay Bigda, Communications Specialist, ICRW
ICRW is pleased to announce the selection of two staff as official members of their national delegations to the 65th session on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which kicks off this week. These non-Government Advisers are individuals tapped by countries to join their official delegations as a sign of support for both civic engagement and the issues advanced by delegates in their civil society organizations.
ICRW’s Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, Lyric Thompson, has been selected as a non-Government Adviser on the U.S. delegation, which will be led by the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and include Vice President Kamala Harris—marking the first time a U.S. Vice President has addressed the body and the most diverse U.S. delegation to the CSW in U.S. history. ICRW’s lead consultant Generation Equality Forum in Kenya, Catherine Nyambura, has been serving on the national CSW65 committee for Kenya.
Thompson, who will be joined by seven other U.S. civil society delegates, said, “It is an honor and a privilege to serve the United States in this capacity, at the Biden-Harris Administration’s first major opportunity to demonstrate America’s renewed support for women’s rights and gender equality on the global stage. The fact that Madam Vice President delivered the United States remarks to the Commission is itself unprecedented in so many ways. I look forward to supporting the U.S.’ return to leadership and cooperation on the issues ICRW holds most dear.”
The designation of adviser to country delegations is based on a number of criteria for selection, including that members preferably have “expertise in one or more of UN Women’s priority areas and represent diverse developmental and human rights perspectives”; are “drawn from gender equality networks, women’s and grass-roots organizations, development and social policy think tanks and academia”; and are “committed to the core values of the United Nations.” All members serving in an advisory role are expected to take part in their personal capacity.
“Moving CSW to a virtual space has provided an opportunity to reflect on how global policy making can be related to national contexts,” said Catherine Nyambura. “The CSW65 committee has been an incredible opportunity to conceptualize what ‘bringing CSW home’ would look like. This is especially important as CSW has not always been an accessible platform when hosted in New York, with many young women from Africa denied visas or excluded from these discussions—despite a commitment to leave no one behind through the SDGs.”
This year, in addition to these two advisory roles, ICRW is hosting a series of side events on feminist foreign policy (globally and for the U.S.), gender-based violence in the workplace, and the Biden Administration’s potential role in the global women’s movement.
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ICRW is the premier applied research institute focused on women and girls. In 2016, ICRW merged with the U.S. research organization Re:Gender (formerly the National Council for Research on Women) to create a global research platform.Headquartered in Washington, DC, with regional offices in India and Uganda, ICRW provides research and analysis to inform programs and policies that promote gender equality and help alleviate poverty.