Do they want to work? A woman member of Geneva’s diplomatic community asked me the other day. We were discussing work and business opportunities for the 32 million refugees, internally displaced and stateless people UNHCR is mandated to care for. Of these, 80 percent are in their region of origin. A majority are women and children. Women refugees have few possibilities to work in a safe and dignified way. Heart-breaking news stories reach us about Iraqi widows who have to sell sex to feed their children, be it in displacement in Iraq or in an asylum country.
Trafficked Somali women have found themselves in the same prison cell as their violent trafficker on arrival in a European country. Refugee and internally displaced women all over the world know too well the horrors of exploitation. It is often illegal for refugees to work even though it is a fundamental human right enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Its 60th anniversary celebration this year rings hollow to all those who are denied the right to work. My interlocutor may not have been aware of the obstacles to work that refugees face.

In a world that is changing fast, Rwanda’s parliament is the first to count over 50 percent women. The African Union enforced its gender equality policy in 2003 and appointed five women and five men commissioners.
Other organisations, such as the UN Secretariat and most of its agencies, count 80-90 percent men among top managers. Decades of parity policies and an intake of 50 percent women and men at the entry level for the last 20-25 years have not helped. However, organisations which operate much like they did when they were set up decades ago may be going out of style. At least if we take to heart the trends analysis of Jolanta Bak, Polish-French author of The Mosaic Society.
In a whirlwind presentation to 600 mainly business women who gathered at the Women’s International Networking Conference (WIN) conference in Barcelona last month, Ms. Bak threw everything oldfashioned, rigid, hierarchical, sexist and monolithic in the dumpster. She explained how the world today is shaped by diversity, flexibility, innovation, concrete results, environmental issues and women’s strong influence on all aspects of society.
As opposed to traditional centralised decision- making, the world today is a mosaic of people, markets and movements, Ms. Bak said. How can Ms. Bak’s insight translate into concerted action for refugee and internally displaced women? How soon can the UN and its agencies adapt to the changes she describes, if she is right, and if the UN should adapt? It is UNHCR’s job to advocate for refugee women’s protection and to find lasting solutions for them. We do this in cooperation with countries, partner organisations, companies and media.
The UN cannot operate in an outdated way while all our partners move forward and in various directions at warp speed. Global changes and trends need to be on our radar if refugees are to benefit fully from new developments and opportunities. By participating in international business women’s conferences UNHCR learns about trends and builds new partnerships among influential women – and men - dedicated to humanitarian issues. Women in public and private sectors are discovering that they face similar workplace discrimination.
Another speaker at the WIN conference, Avivah Wittenberg- Cox, founder of the European Professional Women’s Network (EPWN) and co-author of the book Why Women Mean Business displayed statistics from the private sector that showed a longstanding entry level recruitment of 50 percent women and 50 percent men. At the management levels she found that 80 percent were men, however. The chart could just as well have depicted the UN situation today. UN participation is still modest in annual business women’s conferences such as the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society in Deauville and the WIN conference.
It is an irony that these events ostensibly and in very constructive ways address global “UN” issues and not least diversity and women’s empowerment— yet UN participants are largely missing. A pricey participant’s fee is perhaps one obstacle. It is also possible that the 80-90 percent male top UN managers are not particularly keen to join nearly all-women conferences to discuss women’s empowerment.
However these UN managers are responsible for advocating for UN policy and conventions on gender equality, so they would probably be warmly welcomed. Some top male managers return to the forum in Deauville year after year: Renault Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn appears to enjoy addressing the crowd. He has gained vast popularity in executive circles for his openness on diversity challenges and his will to resolve them. Participation in high-powered conferences is often seen as a luxury reserved for senior UN staff – hence mostly men. Insight and alliances that emanate from major events are however key to push the gender equality envelope globally. The UN would benefit from diversifying its participation in conferences and include business women’s fora.
A concrete example of how a senior group of business women have helped shape and fund UNHCR’s work with refugee women is the initiative Women Leading for Livelihoods (WLL).
It started as an idea launched to 400 executive women at a 2005 Female Future conference in Oslo, Norway. Thanks to prominent business women’s response and guidance UNHCR field offices have generated some 40 livelihoods/entrepreneurial projects for refugee women all over the world. Several are up and running with funding from Princess Haya of Jordan, Soroptimists in Japan and private donors in Australia. One of the projects is the first business activity in an isolated Georgian village, Omalo.
Refugees come from neighboring Chechnya. There were no incomegenerating activities in Omalo besides animal husbandry and agriculture, and therefore women refugees - the principal caregivers in their families - had almost no opportunities to gain income. Entirely staffed and managed by women, the sewing workshop produces bed linen, mattresses, blankets, prayer carpets, prayer gowns and dresses, all of which are in high demand in the area.