Migration across different goals of the Agenda 2030

Author: Vani Saraswathi

During the second day of the global meeting, we took part in multiple conversations, in the format of talk shows and world cafe, to discuss the interaction of migration with development objectives on Health, Gender and Decent work. Below a reflection from Vani Saraswathi specifically on the aspect of gender as a transversal theme.

Whom are we speaking to? Whom are we speaking for? Who are WE?

The most vulnerable continue to be excluded from discussions that directly affect their well being and security. As a South Asian migrant woman, my understanding and sensitivity is still limited by my privileges.

Today’s discussions on gender, health and decent work, as interesting as it was, seemed to be abstract. The discussions presumed to understand the issues facing women. The expertise on the table still will be outweighed by the lived experiences of the women for whom we seek to provide solutions.

These are women who leave home and family to become the breadwinner. Women who are left behind with a home, aged and young family in need of care. Women from traditionally patriarchal societies and political systems who have to swap gender rules, and yet subvert their own agency to be able to fit a pre-determined stereotype.

How do we, with the privileges our education and work, understand their lives and decisions?

Even in countries in West Asia, domestic workers who have managed to form associations still have to do so under the auspices of a male-controlled trade union movement.

At the end of the talk show and world cafe, I wonder if this set up is the problem? Have we, in the smugness of our expertise, forgotten that thesis and research can only ride on the back of strong grassroots movement?

We have seen in South Asia that the most successful sexual and reproductive health programmes were those that used women from the community as peer educators. It was not the state-of-the-art health facilities that clicked, but the empathetic understanding of a community health worker.

Similarly, some of the successful financial literacy programmes in Nepal involve returning migrants. It’s not from a banker in a conventional bank.

When we look at the 17 SDGs that cross cut issues of migration and development, it would be interesting to see who tailors the agenda to reach the goals and connected targets. Whose goals are these? How do you make citizens take ownership for these goals? What if these (commendable) goals get lost in the jargon of bureaucracy and political obtrusion.

As a CSO and media representative, I know that in this day of too much information the messenger is as important as the message – and the resolver is as important as the resolution.