As I travelled to Bangkok to the 15th 2024 AWID Forum, I was apprehensive: Would I understand the concerns of younger feminists? Could I justify my presence? Would the themes be relevant to me?
What eased my worries somewhat were the impeccable logistics for travel, communication, interpretation, navigating the programme; and above all the attention given to accessibility, mutual care, and safety.
The banner of the Forum was Rising Together: Connect, Heal, Thrive and this shaped its structure and the selection of the myriads of sessions. But I felt the absence of a solid framing of the context we are facing (to very different extent and manners) as feminists: one of overlapping crises, spanning environmental, economic, political and social domains.
This does not mean that the Forum ignored crises, on the contrary. Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and many others were centred, not simply as ‘humanitarian emergencies’ but as results of processes of militarization and patriarchy, aimed at the destruction of entire peoples, failed by both their governments and international actors. The focus was always the recognition of feminist collective response and resistance, against the scarcity of external support.
Two or three sessions gave me most food for thought. The one on Structural Analysis of Gender, Climate, Economy Nexus (see the briefing paper A Structural Analysis of the Gender-Climate-Economy Nexus) wove the links between capitalism and colonialism - as systems of oppressions - and the climate and biodiversity crises in their joint impact on women’s care work, displacement, and reproductive freedom. Demanding Reparation Towards Climate Resilience in the Caribbean offered a deep analysis of reparation due from colonialism and slavery, debt and climate, with tourism at the core. I learned a lot also from the panel discussion on Building Women-led Crisis Response: Learning from Sudan, especially on the details of the Sudanese women groups' strategies as they led the response prior to and after the 2023 conflict.
But not even feminist gatherings can be perfect. Too many activities and too little time (to meet old friends and make new ones), and a too large and imposing venue….so at times I was lost and confused. There were gaps from my wish list: I would have wanted more on the refugee crisis, the growth of the extreme right, as well as technical aspects of gender in emergencies. There were painful disputes (https://tinyurl.com/FeministSWANA-awidstatement). All perhaps proof that AWID remains a space where we continue to explore and learn with courage and humility both about the difficult realities we face, and the ways in which we come together to do so.