we can presume there is any facet of our lives were having women at the table and making the choice to do better does nothange everything for us. >> i would say looking around the world today, for me it's hard to escape the conclusion that the world would be a better lace ore leading countries, leading companies, leading, leading at the highest level of every profession. it is not going well in many ways and i think if women were running more things that it would be better. as frustrating as this work can be, we have to stay in it.

deserve to be there although we do, because the world would be a much better lacemo innovative, fair and humane if we are there and that is why as long as we have been doing it that we have to stay committed because we owe it to one another to make sure women get the fair share. thank you. >> good evening, everybody, it's my distinct leisure to be here evening for this next panel about women and girls and their essential participation in peace

process's. it's been a fantastic afternoon so far. afternoon so far, i am frustrated we are still having to say women's rights are human rights particularly when it comes to conflict abroad. we have been focused on the u.s. so far and we're going to take you overseas with the extraordinary panel. i want to help you woke us your minds about what it means to talk about conflict abroad. could think about faraway complex, but i would■ think of places where you have complex that deal with the same issues and biases, gender pay■t gaps ad

on top of that, conflict. the panel we have will help us figure out how we canl advice tt to conflict to solve them and include women in the peace process. i will start by introducing the panel. everyone here has an illustrious biography. i will keep it short. we have a co-founder and president of the school of leadership in afgnistan, the first and only boarding school for afghan girls that operated 2016 and 2021.

she divides herthe executive die georgetown institute was named by president obama as ambassador out large for global wom' in 20, and virtually you can see there in the corner is the president and ceo of the foreign■m secrety distinguished fellow. i want to start with you, there is a startling statistic that says more than 600 million women and girls live in conflict affected countries.

a 50% increase. more conflict when it comes to the■ violence, health and safet. we heard some granular and approaches that people are taking to help women participate in the work worse. how do we apply hands-on thinking to change the reality for women around the world? >> it's a perfect question and

one we should be thinking about. takehe mentioned. you mentioned the caricom he and cara, the extraordinary efforts for women and as most of you know, this to test are that 75% of caregivers are women , we really dominate as women. wouldn't it be wonderful if the world had primary health care clinics everywhere in the world? this very practical to go to a clinic that could be a few hoursy, not days away, get on a bus and have health air. women tend to beh$ leaders and e

main people who take their children to health care clinics. will save time, effort. you will help their lives. if you can do primary world, i know very well that we can focus on healt the secondary is security. secretary continues an interesting phrase whoaid women could be agents of peace and we are. in africa, there■/ is silence gs which has prevention of conflict. lots of young people become peacemakersevent conflicts.

i know that some of us work together but this has enormous possibilities. the third area you mentioned was economics in one of the lessons you had is the number one desire by every girl in the world to have a good education. if you can educate a woman, you just have to educate the girls. we have to try to educate, there international trade commission's are extraordinarily warned and then we could be on the same level for being able to learn.

economy but we also need to do something else. we have to get pubcrk. i worked on this for 40 years. i don't know it's going ime. if we're going to be part of the economic driving,÷ progress, you have to type public and private funds. there is one last hope that i would have, which is when i first went to unicef i was in south sudan, you can see how many militias and conflict have meant that women and children have run away from the farms and headed to the refugee camp because there is shelter and fo and the ability to live a life.

someday, and this could be a project, we need to move refugee camps. if we could move them they would have all of the economic vibrancy, health and security and economic opportunity for everyone in thethose are a few . >> did you also face the pushback when you're talking about women and girls? when you are working with young people and children, people don't separate tm there are somn which the status of women is not a legal issue, it's the customs

and country they can keep the girls back.in most countries, ie found an opportunity ahead of you, so the opportunity is they want to look after that group of smart people. >> afghanistan is the exception. when the taliban regained power, we saw peopleyou relocated the g school you founded and you have to adapt the model provide online education for girls back in afghanistan.

access to internet, safety issues, how many students are in your network? what have you learned from the experience of having to move, and what could we learn from how your model is working at the moment? >> absolutely. when we were operating and with that came a lot of responsibilities. knowing that we could never submit to the telegram vision for afghanistan,girls and wome'. a lot of people are forced to

live under the regime and for us, the opportunity -- we knew it would be a matter of time before he received way more applications so we looked at our priorities and arrived at three major ones. on so many levels, we talked about imagining refugee camps, we are building camps to accommodate more than population rwanda.

we are looking at a time that we would go back to afghanistan. we are for pairing to return one day to afghanistan. we received an application for only 30 spots. you could imagine about, it is e emotionally devastating to speak with girls from all over the world and yet,, they do not have

the financial means. we thought about our second strategy. how can wewe're looking at two t possibilities. what it is is primarily text messaging and we have looked at a lot of initiatives, all well-meaning to reach girls in afghanistan if you look at the amazing videos that were prepared and that's because people don't have access to the internet.

this is a thing, the possibility of banning taliban access, we turn to whatsapp and they previously used whatsapp, so if they wanted to shut it down for us, so when we launched this month, the idea is solar education will be available■p so we are targeting girls but the beauty of it is boys, even not traditionally students would have accesshonest about this. it's not a replacement for an in

classroom experience. we have to innovate out of necessity that it is about keeping hope alive for thousands and thousands of afghan girls. i was one of the fortunate ones pens my■- parents have the education, so i ended attending school for the first time where the majority of my were. for us, we looked at the previousers to imagine to

make itfh easier accessible. each of them can open the page to sign class, to request content and after compti the coursework, they receive a certificate of completion that can be verified. the next step for us is to be able to work with international organizations who focus on providing access, certifications and making sure in the long run that it's a way of documenting progress in schools. at is the possibility of opening

communitieswhile we have this ie support, there are girls we br from refugee communities. we partnered with the government to then travel from those communities partner with agencies offices across the world, people who partner with us safely come to us in rwanda. finally, the other we are focusing on is creating a really

robust group of highly educated afghan women. rightqd after the regime collapd , thousands poured back into afghanistan and out of that group emerged a group of leaders. they ended up becoming some of our most prominent leaders in afghanistan. we look at this as awe need to d so when the time comes, and i am hopeful it would come in my lifetime, when we go back to

afghanistan, there are thousands of afghan women who going to go kim:onal, incredible work. i would like to imagine the education you are providing as a template for otherou education d for girls because of conflict in sudan, gaza, other places. absolutely. we are focused on and afghan wo, what we are doing is a model that is incredibly easily replicated. along the same lines of looking at rug in general, particularly girls and women, we have to be able to

look at it not as a burden coming upon us, but a wealth of resources that are forced to move. certainly the case for afghanistan. when i was evacuating our community, at the airport i witnessed the brave power of afghanistan. not because they wanted to, but because they had to. i knew when i was watching theme from from being a rich resource

to crossing the line and immediely being an unwanted group, a refugee. we have to equip them withcontiy in higher ads -- higher institution and all institutions at every level have to work together andh of scholarships and opportunities for the students from afghanistan and uaine and there has to be a very comprehensive well thought out response so that we can see these young people who are on the move go from place tolace and to be a continuity for their learning so that they can easily

transition. kim: and return eventually to build peace. david, thank you for joining us virtually. in the irc report emergency watchlist you highlight organizations are underfunded and you have rather shocking stats that say only 1.2% of humanitarian financing reaches women led organizations. so not only are women the main recipient of the violence and conflict, the first affected, but when they tried to do good they end up being underfunded as well. he international community do to first take stock of this quickly, and also address it quickly? because women should not only be

half of the economy, but half of the s -- half of the solution, so how can we adjust this? david: thank you. to apologize for not being in the room with you. i had to be in the ioc office the f -- this afternoon. there are three iorta question. first, we are a international humanitarian organization for people whose lives were shattered by conflict and we say we cannot be a successful organization unless we are also taking seriously the structural inequality that faces women and girls in the communities we work in. and within our sector and sometimes even our own ganization. the framing is very important. secondly about the situation in

afghanistan, we have 5000 people working in 12 provinces in afghanistan and 2200 of them are women despite the taliban ban on women working. 8they are a lifeline for their clients and also for the families each of the them support and the point about what's up, we have evidence from the middle east where we have run a very large early childhood development program and we use techniques where you can make one years worth of primary progress weeks of our program so in the right hands,

it can work. to your point about the funding and support of women led percentage of funding related to the amount of political rhetoric on the issue, funding for gender equalityou. but essentially what we are dealing with here is a massive mismatch between the political speeches andaction. it is all about political leadership, transparency, clarity, consistency. one example, in every crisis response, a humanitarian country 80% of them have no plan to reduce gender inequality, despite all the rhetoric about it that is how you end up in a situation of underfunding of local organizations in general

and of the women led organizations. in our area this is all about information that is secret and leads to reform, you have to have transparency, targets, leadership role modeling, and then you can make significant progress, whether it is about hiring or financial flows and i hope idp will make it part of its business to make sure fragile states are marginal to the global political conversation, but achieved the status they need, because if we know anything, it ishe unintended humanitarian crisis that leads to the instability and that is what we are seeing in many parts of the world, and frankly, there are 25 million people in sudan who are

suffering from an extraordinary military and political crisis and it is impossible to get kim: thank you, david. we are talking about conflict and how women are affected and first affected alongside children as well in a suit on, gaza, ukraine, afghanistan, but there is also what happens after the conflict. one could argue perhaps if women had been at the table in the discussion, perhaps better re made more progress. women are often excluded from the process and yet we know they are -- when they are included, peace is more sustainable and achievable. we have seen examples of that.

and. tell us a little about what people are missing when they go into peace negotiations if women are melanne: there is so much wisdom in what you said and before ■ maken attempt to address some of it, i want to thank the organizers, this is my second trip appear in a few weeks and ■2these -- up here in a few wees and these are profoundly deep and important conversations. there is a construct put in place by the security council of the united nations which focuses on peace a security. the resolution has been strengthenedmes over, realizing how critical it is that women fully participate in peace and security, whether it

is in presenting conflict, anticipating in conflict negotiations, whether in recovery, restriction comes faster during the transition and also recognizes that women need to be protected. we are talking about ways agency when it comes to the resolution regrettably the goals of the resolution have been largely unfulfilled. half the peace agreements put ae years. many conflicts are occurring. many genuinely important issues that have to be addressed are not. and women are not present, as so often we have to plead to be in one important conversation or another that could have made a

difference and i think when retrospectives are written, one of the most important reasons that we have what we had today in afghanistan i failure to take the challenge of half the population and incorporate it. so what can governments do that they are not doing? this is an evidence-based case. the evidence and data are there that show that when women are at the peace table, unfortunately no as much as they should be, and there are cases of success in columbia peace agreement slowly being fully implemented and one of the peace processes in the philippines, northern ireland, dealing with the troubles, that there is solid evidence that the issues that women put on the table would not be there otherwise. most of the conversations are

between the men on one side or the other or the rebel groups talking to one another and what we have seen is one of the first things they do is give themselves amnesty for what they have done to the women. that is no way to move to a better future, clearly. so recognizing the importance of this precipitation -- participation, reconciliation, human rights, ecom issues, bringing communities back together, being an honest brokth tangible input that women bring that have real positive conclusions to them. is clearly important. secondly, understanding the role that women play at the local level. dad brilliantly expressed the

critical role that is being played and stealing from you, david, as i often do, recognizing the centrality of that role at the local level. ringing community, facilitating dialogue among them, understanding the conflict, having central knowledge about what is going on, kedreally is o the conflict and a better future has to be incorporated in the discussions. sox what you have is a bifurcatd process. track two were track three happening at the lower -- local level, really important work going on, but it does not inform the formal level, track one. women level. so there has to be conductivity between one and two and preferably bringing more women secondly, what david said about

women's organizations, they are underfunded. and i agree completely. if we could take all of the wonderful rhetoric about how important this issue is and turn it into something tangible, we would have countless women at peace tles uch more peaceful world and plenty of resources for these organizations. it is not happening. it needs to happen. and we need more women in positions of responsibility, certainly as negotiators, as s, there are very few, 10% of negotiators and even fewer signatories to the agreement. so this recognition of the vital role is another critically important element. the security council also govert

national action plans to take the important work that this represents, implement it, realize it, and there are over 100 national action plans today. secretary clinton presided over the realization for the first time of the united states national action plan. some are shut the box, -- check the box, that is all the government can say, we have an action plan and that is all we can say about it. others, governments revisit year after year to see what they need to better implement the resolution. but there is still a lot of work that still needs to be done. israel and palestine, for example. no national action plan. it seems to me to really begin to deal with the dramatic

from a peace process over decades, it needs to start soon. it needs to have happened years ago. but one place local peace builders are working national action plan. another area that has to be addressed is for this to be real in government. you have a conversation about we have an app, we believe in women peace it is not connected to the foreign policy and it is something you mentioned earlier, kim, where afghan policy needs to be women peace and security. not separate women's issues. ukraine policy, women's peace and security. middle east policy, this needs to be mainstream integrated gender perspective participation of women.

only then will we be able to get the kind of effect we need to see. and i think also we increasingly need to bring governments need to come together. in london they have commitment 2025, which is to take somefthee commitments, amplify them by them coming together to have greatermpacts than going at it one at a time. but in the end, this is about political will. it is about leadership. it is about power. and it is easier to talk about this than the reality of what is happening and i just quote to ya former secretary of state you may recognize. she said, the time to change how the world thinks about conflict and how we stop it and prevented , how we think about security

and how we provided, how we think about peace and how to realize it, d it is past time for women to take their rightful place side-by-side with men in the room where people are deciding. negotiations, to make the piece, andhe peace. and women are still not there in the great numbers that they should be. kim: thank you so much. i am being told we have to wrap up. we could stay here and have a whole session but it is portant to remember that just as we discussed, including economies in the west, not looking at the issue of women as just social but also in areas of conflict but as part of the solution about peace and security in havingen seeing

them not just as victims but also agents of change and empowering them and counting on organizations like david's to find women led organizations. >> the u.s. hous returns today at noon eastern. members will consider several homeland secbills, including ltion requiring border proteion update portsentry inspection es to ensure drug interdiction policy is up to also, legislation reauthorizing to support efforts to sustaintes the health of the mother th pregnancy and postpartum. wednesday, members are expected to vote on the firsto federal sg packages to fund the government to october 1 to avert a shutdown friday at midnight. senate isk today at 3:00 p.m. eastern. senaill debate the nomination of ronald cahane to be assistant secretary for manpowereserve affairs and will vote to advance his noon at 5:30 p.m. eastern.

he was first nominy president biden over a year and a half ago in secretary of 2022? watch live coverage of t house on c-span, seeenate on c-span2. watch all of our congressional rage with our free video app, c-span now, or online at >> watch c-span's live campaign 2024 super tuesday coverage as 15 states, including the american samoa territory, cast their primaries or talk under the circumstanceses for their nominee for president. we'll take your calls and get your social media reaction to the live results as they come in, along with candidate speeches. watch live coverage tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on the c-span networks, c-span now, our free mobile app, or online atcj cspan.org/campaign2024. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. >> on thursday, pnt biden

is set to give the annual state ahead of his speech, we're important to you. is most to ptipate, scan the q.c. code on yoeen or go to cspan.org/poll to add your voice to the conversation. as is custom, the president will be speaking before a joint session of congress, where he'll outline his policy priorities for the coming year and share his thoughts on the state of the country. this will be the third state of the union address of his presidency and likely his speech before congress ahead of the 2024 preial election. we'll keep this poll open leading up tohe president's address. >> two years ago democracy faced its greatest threat since the civil war, and today though bruised, our democracy■d remains unbowed and unbroken. >> thursday president biden delivers the annual state of the union address during a joint session of congress to outlinort