Izumi Nakamitsu ** y Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka *
** High Representative for Disarmament Affairs of the United Nations and * Executive Director of UN Women
For all of us, but especially women, the pandemic is a reminder that the traditional notions of “security” that drive the arms industry cannot protect us from the dangers and challenges we routinely face.
Before the pandemic, women were already overrepresented in vulnerable economic sectors and carried out most of the domestic and care work without remuneration. When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, women, who make up 70% of the world’s healthcare workforce, were on the front lines of the response, even as countless other women lost their livelihoods and took on greater household burdens.
The pandemic will drive 47 million more women and girls into extreme poverty. Rates of intimate partner violence, mainly perpetrated by men against women, have skyrocketed, in a horrifying “shadow pandemic” of all forms of violence against women and girls. Millions of women now face an increased risk of preventable female genital mutilation, child marriage, or maternal mortality.
In short, the virus revealed that gender differences not only persist, but are worsening, threatening decades of progress, especially if women continue to be excluded from crafting the pandemic response.
Recovering from the pandemic must mean strengthening women’s social and economic security, including through increased investments in health, education, and social protection systems that promote gender equality.
However, the safety and well-being of ordinary people have historically taken a back seat to a more limited and militarized idea of “security”, which continues to lead decision-makers to spend huge amounts of money to build. weapons arsenals overflowing. The United Nations Secretary-General called for a global ceasefire early in the pandemic, but most parties to the conflict continued to fight, and the international arms trade remained as active as at almost any time since the Cold War.
However, all these weapons have not led us to peace. On the contrary, they have only sowed mistrust, eroded relations between countries and increased global tensions.
Moving forward will require a broader vision of security that reduces dependence on military weapons, considers our common humanity and recognizes the empowerment of women as an essential factor for sustainable peace and development.
These ideas are not new. For example, the United Nations has made reducing military budgets a primary goal since its founding.
However, attention to the problem has waned in recent decades. High military budgets were the center of global attention for much of the cold war. But in the years that followed, relatively few expressed concern when military spending more than doubled. Military spending in 2020 reached $ 1.981 trillion, which is roughly $ 252 per person in one year. By comparison, in 2018, only $ 115.95 per person was spent on bilateral aid on average, of which a meager 0.2% went directly to women’s rights organizations, a percentage that has not changed in a decade.
The pandemic has provided us with a unique opportunity to “realign” our approach to security, so that gender equality is also improved. As two United Nations leaders working for disarmament and gender equality, we believe that three things need to happen.
First of all, we must refrain from avoiding difficult questions. Whose safety is protected by modernizing or expanding weapons, such as nuclear bombs, that would cause a human catastrophe, with a disproportionate impact on women and girls, if used? To end our global addiction to weapons, decision-makers must adopt a more human-centered approach to security, recognizing how countries have worked for centuries to achieve disarmament as a way to protect themselves. themselves, take care of each other and avoid unnecessary human suffering. This will require political will and a revitalization of diplomacy, over and above investment in large armies.
Second, the voices calling for an end to rampant militarization must be taken seriously. Many women’s organizations have opposed runaway military spending for more than a century, while feminist movements have been instrumental in critically examining whether our governments’ investments in strengthening security have actually had the opposite effect. They are part of a drive for multigenerational and multisectoral change. We must hear these messages loud and clear, and create the conditions to include them in policymaking.
Third, we need our elected officials to take steps to stop spending so much money on guns. Instead, if our leaders prioritize investments in social protections, such as equal access to quality health care and education for all, they can bring us closer to achieving the Global Goals, including those for gender equality. These investments should be seen for what they are: down payments to make our societies more resilient, egalitarian and secure.
From April 10 to May 17 we will celebrate the tenth edition of the Global Days of Action on Military Expenditures. To seize this moment, our governments must take a stand by sharing concrete commitments to begin redirecting resources toward a more peaceful and secure future that benefits us all.
It is not a utopian ideal, but an achievable need.
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