Women's Crossroads

UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, is the only U.N. fund devoted specifically to empowering women in developing countries, through financial and technical support of innovative programs that help women become central players in their own socio-economic systems. UNIFEM has offices all over the world, staffed by local experts, who evaluate proposals and implement successful programs.

UNIFEM programs range from working with the government of Jordan to educate women in e-commerce and launch them in the digital economy, to working to bring women into the peace negotiations in conflict and post-conflict regions in Africa, to strengthening women's participation in politics and government in places like Iraq and Timor-Leste, to fighting the social causes of rampant HIV/AIDS infections in women throughout the developing world.

Working directly with governments, under the banner of the United Nations, it's fair to say that no international women's organization is as well-known and well-respected throughout the developing world as UNIFEM.

Not so here in the U.S., however, where hardly anyone knows what UNIFEM is or does. I've been on the board of my local Berkshire Chapter of UNIFEM/USA for several years now, and I'm constantly having to explain to people what UNIFEM is all about.

I put the blame for this on the U.S. Committee for UNIFEM, one of 15 or so national committees in the developed world that support the work of UNIFEM at the United Nations. The governments of countries like Canada, Denmark, Italy, France and Germany, to name just a few, each contribute funds to UNIFEM, and in addition each country has a civic arm of women, organized in chapters, who work on educational outreach and fundraising, contributing additional millions of dollars each year to UNIFEM.

Sadly, the United States is one of the countries in the developed world that contributes the least to UNIFEM, both as a government and through the grassroots. Recently, after much pressure, the U.S. Congress doubled the annual allotment to UNIFEM, from $1 million to $2 million. Given the hundreds of billions being spent annually to wage war, this is a paltry sum indeed to help the women of the world wage peace.

And the U.S. Committee for UNIFEM has been able to raise only $50,000 in the last year to help the world's women. This is truly a pathetic sum from the women of the world's most powerful nation, to help women in the world's most ravaged and impoverished nations.

What's the problem? Not surprisingly, it has to do with poor leadership. I have been serving on the Board of the U.S. Committee for the past two years, and I have been dismayed to see the lack of real commitment on the part of the executive council of the Board to increasing membership and communicating with the existing membership about the goals and mission of UNIFEM. This is another case of an organization trying to maintain a hierarchical power structure, with all the power concentrated at the top, and finding that--surprise!--there's no one there at the bottom to prop them up anymore.

Under the current leadership of the U.S. Committee, the organization has alienated members and actually lost chapters. It's hard to believe, but UNIFEM/USA only boasts six active chapters throughout the U.S., in New York, Washington D.C., the Berkshires, Florida, Atlanta and southern California. Nascent chapters in Boston and northern California have either become disenchanted with the national leadership and shifted their energies elsewhere, or have failed to get off the ground.

There is currently a movement afoot to dislodge the leadership of the U.S. Committee, and get new, more focused and talented leaders in to turn the ship around. The board president, Sheryl Swed, and her executive council, are digging in their heels and refusing to leave, despite clear signals from the United Nations that a change of leadership is desired.

It's interesting to watch the battle unfold, mostly in the form of a series of increasingly vituperative global emails among board members. The sad thing is that as the Board of the U.S. Committee fights for power, our focus on the women of the developing world wavers, and we end up squandering precious energy on in-fighting. Sometimes, however, there is no other way. Let's just hope the transition will be fairly swift, and that the new leadership of the U.S. Committee will be much more effective and vibrant than the old.