minutes.his is one hour and 20

good morning and welcome to our friends and colleagues in the room and online. for the last four years since the inception of the wilmington building please consult i've been honored to serve as cochair along with our moderator, megan buyer. it is fitting that we gather today in march, and month in which the u.s. celebrates women's history and the world acknowledges and preserves international women's day. we are here to recognize for extraordinary women whose invaluable contributions to

peace is an inspiration to us all. we celebrate their courage, their vision and their unwavering commitment. fees for women are from the democratic republic of the congo, kenya, syria and haiti. of these wome to advance peace by mediating conflicts with armed actors, building systems to holistically address the needs of marginalized women, disabilities. training networks of peace builders and adopting creative forms of healing. the world needs the example to learn how to yield to a different kind of power and

influence and one that carries us towards a more secure and peaceful world. yet these women are not alone. countless women risk their lives to create peace in their community. this year as in years past, the women building■ peace council ad the u.s. ipt has put out a call for nominations from 42 countries we are receiving 150 nominations of women fromé civl societies, women working on the front lines. the council then began the very difficult at adjudication process that rendered the finalists into single awardee. and so it is my privilege to

introduce the moderator for today's conversation with the 2023 peace builders. megan is a journalist, lifelong advocate and cochair of the women building peace council. [applause] >> thank you. happy women's history month. if you listen to the un last year in the report there was some history that we are not living up to what we should be doing for women and girls all around the world. but sometimes those moments of difficulty that haven't returned to action and so there is some hope in that and in the year 2000, there was some bad news as

well and that was a threat■9 a e at the same time. it was a very obvious pivot on the battleground and in the places where terrorism and conflict occur, where civilians were the targets notably women and children were the targets. at the same time we were collecting so much data that the first impression, the first a veryobvious trends that came ous when you integrated the structural into the peace negotiations and peace process, that piece was much more sustainable and not by a little, but by 50%. and so with those two things, the un security council with a

resolution 13-25 it was unanimously accepted and there were promises made in the resolution to integrate women structurally into the peace and try to get some of that dividend the data showed us that we would have, because you know, it was an appreciation of what women do. you take out the women, you take out the village. we put women on the lead and you have a durable peace. while it's a bad news and good news situation, it clearly arises from the recognition that women are really the answer and

that's what you're going to learn about today with of the winner of our women building peace award. the stories of the finalists this year trace the geography of some oe war-torn conflicts in the area and we will begin in a syria. please join me. what began as a protest aimed at the syrian president bashar al-assad and exploded into so many years in the civil war with a virtual proxy conflict taking place between the united states and allies and aired on, hezbollah and to that it's

become internally 6.9 million with more than 5.4 million abroad. add to that the attacks it's unimaginable destabilization so i'm setting the stage. please watch this video before.

>> you start with -- tell us about your approach and how you feel motivated. when youl that your neighbors are fighting or you might lose your house, there is enough conflict around you. >> what came of this dialogue? >> there were so many outputs

according to the group. so it might be around a domestic issue because we have less resources with different ethnic roots and it might also be based on the political background or based dialogues so there are several kinds of dialogues and each one has its own. >> the dialogue is over. even the process at the beginning has had a lot of patience and tolerance and

anyone over personal conflict and stepping inside him area where we have a common understanding about the decision to the country. so now there is no time to have normal dialogues. it has to be into the work that he or she is doing. >> when we hear about the situation, the dialogue process that you initiated and have been involved in, does that give people the confidence to word some kind of a positive resolution? i almost wonder how you can do what you do.

>> i would be surprised to see that they have enough so far especially the syrians, 12 years of conflict. regional conflict and so that you cannot say i am staying home i'm tired. the people are engaging from their own money for transportation that is so (h they want us to listen. our duty is what they want, buts the only level of oxygen that we could provide for the people that had this conflict for so many years.

>> it's sort of the line of the magic hours that we hold and it seems that this peace process and peace initiative is driven by that. what has come out of the communication and dialogue that has the traction? >> more and hope for people to continue. asking people not to hold an opinion against each other but a common understanding. acknowledgment and devaluing the diversity in the community. we did not have the chance to listen. islands isolated but unfortunately there was

something good in the conflict where we could come together and listen. we have the right to dream, and it gives us the right t. >> it's mostly women. >> easier to bring women to dialogue. >> and women have so much in common in the threat. there was an incident during that high level of conflict.

both came together to try any effort to■" stop the war. they don't want more children and families to be killed. so they had this kind of peace initiative. sometimes it is the percentage that they gave and they asked them to fight. >> i did want to make one note about what happened at the other night when you got your award and we do have a woman leader within bessette or thomas can build. and you had a conversation with her and i just wondered how that went. >> it went very good.

i believe so our duty is to support the women on all levels when they are displaced or in a decision-making provision. things are happening so they can make the right decisions. the peace decision and this i think is what you have been doing. the biggest mistake if women■b o that. >> we are going to go now from the middle east to the caribbean. the next finalist, would you mind joining us. from haiti this sounds very

familiar to what is going on in syria, the devastating 2010 earthquake and then the socioeconomic political and economic unrest over the past five years including the brutal assassination in 2021. other crimes destroyed the social fabric of haiti in the city of port-au-prince where there were women and children particularly harmed by this. everything, everywhere, all at once, peacemakers, doctors. we are going to see a little bit of your story.

♪♪ the center where i am located health and human development

we had that video of the program. now before you got involved, they hadn't had this approach, did they? this was your creation? >> yes. good morning, everyone. i got to work on the fight

against hiv-aids and so i had the approach of communicating with my patients. you can hear and communicate. from there i was talking to a few women. we realized early the women were dependent on their partner and had to integrate because we were askingor more. but i had nowhere to send my kids to school, i did not have a

house. we created and said okaya;. not too early because for them the opportunity to have access so i had not to worry about it. so that is how you started, and mouth-to-mouth it's spread out and in 2021.

the gangs took over and used women as their weapon because they need to control the sectors, so that's where we are now. they are spreading. there i to call. but amazingly every day i leave÷ home. do you think that you have been safeç because people know what you are doing?

>> definitely. you can't be dealing with gangs from another territory when they are fighting charter. it is an issue of poverty as well and the lack of leadership in the country where the civil society takes over. i realized very early that i had to work with the head of the family to convince them together. now what is amazing is to see on this catastrophe situation access to school in the area but yesterday i heard there were shootings by the campus airport

so they had to run away. so the situation is tragic. >> how do they get to school every day given this violence it certainly reflects the value and they risk their lives to try to get a semblance of order and catch the education that could mean hope. >> what you are saying is right, what happened, and i think this model is the difference between you and i, the level of execution. i went to school. my parents insisted. if they send their kids and have access to education and we women care about our children and family. we want them to do better.

they make sure the kids go to school but at the time that we say please be careful sometimes we have 60%, so we need to do better to address the security. what are the priorities. >> you said you've never thought of yourself as a peacemaker before. >> you do your daily activitiess what i'm going to bring back.

i said when men, we are peace builders and that is what we are going to do next and strengthen the program. we realized. >> the lesson we learn is to be really grateful we learned a lot on this meeting with you. >> very good. so our next finalist works to empower people with disabilities. a finalist who is a woman with a disability. could you please join us.

she had polio as a child. she is committed to providing opportunity and security for all who work in kenya her focus is to stop terrorists from recruiting young men in her community and she is supportive hundreds again we are hearing this theme of education and training to create some hope in the future. we will take a quick look at the video and then start the conversation.

do you think that having a disability has made you sort of the person who would stand up to give hope to others? >> thank you so much. thank you everyone who is here.

my disability was once a disadvantage to me and my society and even to my family. but today it is a very big adnt opportunity changing what everyone was saying. i cannot do that. and that's something women say generally in the world is not daunting feeling that maybe i am not the one who can do this. how did you feel when you got the letter had been selected?

>> [inaudible] of. [laughter] until i learned for the fifth time and for some i know they nominated me so then i called my son, and i will show you one thing to make sure. i taught him to read and understand he was also confused and was like mom, this is huge. it will remain confidential

can we call these people and confirm? [laughter] and they said yes we jus n the call for we decided after a few hours to until the response came and said we are going to take the process >> but you know what i find interesting is it seemed from this imposter system it cannot be me and what you do every day you should get this attention.

what do you think this does for people with disabilities? >> actually, first before i go to the rest, i would say it's huge. people say all dreams are vabut. i wake up every morning making sure i've supported as many people in my area as possible. but u.s. ip to identify, recognize and even say nou to come for this, i had never seen it coming. so it is he to my community

and family. the rest, this is a platform of recognition that is something i cannot describe because i know that in the u.s. ip it has been women every year but they've never given the need to out run that and this being my first time to have received this, i feel like fl well, you're not flying yet. we have a few more questions for you. we will get into more of this later but tell me about any

transfmational efforts that have been put out into the world where an incident transformation that your work has created in kenya. >> after realizing that we cannot have peace, many of our youth have been lured into violent extremism, radicalization issues of drug and drug abuse, idealized that we need to reach further to the rest of the community so that we can give economic empowerment and so that we can transform them from where they are to some people who have better in the

society, and this is where i came up with the income project with disabilities so that we can all be transformed because if we leave them behind, we are seeing the and betterment. we decided now we would involve everyone that is being ruled into these activities so it's why began the project and the first transformation would be towards to change public. everyone had not thought of this, but i usually say i had that dream, and my dream has become best when it's a very vey

in the morning. this is where i dreamt i think that we can change them and give them to you and they become employment, so i think i knocked some doors a bit in and then we hired youth, somewhat to transfer funds. if you want to take ba a project, if you want to go for an on-call unit, you pay for what you're going to do before you go do it. so, you pay and benefits a short call also you also paid 30

because then we buy detergent and tissue paper, we buy toiletries, so we started with 12 and also some three women with disabilities and for youth with disabilities and now more than 400 in that project and also the supply of the detergent come from the groups, so we taught them how to make liquid soap and how to go and purchase the toilet papers with the toiletries come from that group so each group would be supplied

for six months so we have a long period of being transformed. >> it's all creating hope and empowerment so you can see how hard this was for us to choose among so many amazing women like this and now we've come to our selected candidate, the 2023 women building peace awardee if you could join us. from the democratic republic of congo she■a grew up in the province and today it is a humanitarian catastrophe, national armies, local militia, burned villages, ceased prisoners, comparúnies and gang,

valuable gems, natural resources, uncontrolled logging, stripping forests into moonscape's, it is a place that appears to have no hope and incredible violence living day-to-day is aí challenge. overall the conflicts have uprooted more than 1.7 million people, a quarter of the provinces in the population and before we view the video, a little background. she has said that her peace building courage is multigenerational and she tells the story of her grandmother going out to farm one day from the village and suddenly a huge

leopard confronted her and this was in the days that was the big danger, a leopard. the leopard■< was snarling so slowly she bent her knees to lower the knife and she told they began to talk to the leopard. i looked straight and his eyes and kept myác voice calm and evn amanda told him you and i are doing the same thing this morning. you are looking for food to eat and i am going to my field to grow crops for my children. let us not disturb each other. we have nothing to fear, you and i. the leopard went away so despite her fear, her grandmother you will hear that that is exactly what she does.

she had driven or sometimes even walked into unprotected deep forests ruled by men with guns and grudges. she had negotiated for cease-fires, freed hostages and saved lives standing up to commanders and some of the worlds violent militias. her children encouraged her to do it, so let's take a look and then we will begin our conversation with the winter.t,

about fire you just have to stop it. so you were working and it was this approach. as a humanitarian it was to help people in these camps if people get their they are sitting under these temps and there is no water. there is no food. so there was this program, and i was the person responsible for this program. i was the one who had to bring the water.

you wouldn't have anything to wash yourself with and i remember my first assignment as a humanitarian i had to go through the territories and they were in conflict. now, how did i do that? i went through the territory and they said to me if the humanitarians aret happen so thy asked me can you help reconciles with a humanitarian aid has been channeled and i had never done something like that so i started to reflect. i was talking and working together with the chief and at the end he said to me that humanitarian aid can be channeled through our territory.

then my boss said can you not work for peace and i said no, look at what is going on around me. i have children. how do you want me to go to war. at that moment in time, the war separated me yet for seven years i didn't know where my husband wasn't my husband didn't know where i was so those were things that happened during the war and it took me eight months. i said i am not going to do this and at the end my boss said to me i really think you can do it. at the end i asked my children i said this is what they ask of me and i said that much because i would say no, no, don't do this.

if my children how to said no, i wouldn't have done it but strangely enough they said you know, mother, i think that you can do it. god is going to help you, and when the children said it, then i was proud. i said okay i am going to go and i started out very slowly and here i today. >> the children had confidence in you. what is it like? are you feeling to the humanity when you talk about trying to do these negotiations and you are advocating for peace? in these very dangerous situations? grandmother told me.hat my

i didn't know at that time how it was going to affect me but later when i was in a scenario of danger and facing armed men, then i was thinking about what my grandmother told me in today's. there were lions, leopards, elephants which could run over me and so what is the attitude that i have and how am i going to react to face these militias and i think tt to bring about peace, you have to transform your self within your self. i was getting angry.

the first step i undertook was to change myself and that was the most no to in your like because if you work for peace, that is very difficult. sometimes i am not eating for four days. you have to deal with the sacrifices and it made me become very humble. i was an unarmed woman facing armed men. why is war continuing? because the whole entire world thinks that the war is the solution but then after aever tn you have the guns and the bombs and on the other side you have

the same thing and people fighting. i don't understand. on the other side of these weapons, if you have peace>d within you, you will win and this is what my grandmother taught me. you look the danger right in the eye then you are at peace with yourself and this is how i wondered sometimeswa very difficult. i had to work on myself, i had to humiliate myself, but i was always the winner. >> you said something when you received your award the other night, and i think we need to listen to you because you were the experts in peace building and you talked about how the rich minerals, jams, forests,

the beloved that you grew up in that was so beautiful and how that has become the reason for so much of the conflict and you proposed a peaceful unwinding of that. we knew that there was a lot of minerals, but later on it was discovered that in the eve of the congo there are so many minerals and you have the feeling that the minerals come

from us, from the ground, laptops, electric cars, there are people who areanufacturing bombs into these minerals are used to do these things and there are probably some that have not even been found or discovered get. everybody needs the minerals, right? so there are thiev c steal our minerals and there are so many weapons in the province. when we were on the disarmament we asked them to hand over the weapons and they do it. once i was the political authority, i was the governor,

and instead of giving the weapons back to the united nations were to the government or the military personnel, they came to me and gave me all of w. .. and who needed minerals if they exchange the minerals with guns. they rape the women in it. they kill the people. and so i use this to say look the united states is a huge a power and also our need of these minerals.

to open free-trade market for this mineral. and so the young people do neat not need their guns anymore. for the free training agreement. wherever you need them in the world. and so you could buy them. just like any other good. that is a population can benefit from it. thatould give a better life for the people live in our country. in the beginning i saw thought it between ethical group but also i worked on this i saw it was because of the minerals. and the neighboring countries have their own divisions. and it is so strange the international community at even the american government they prer to work then to work with the country that has the

minerals. it is instead of coming to fish you were going to give money to the thief infill stealing money from our pond sets out what's happening. i am wondering why in this pond there are fish just come to the pond and for sur self instead of sending a thief and then who fish for you in your name. we have the wealth of the minerals in our grounds. who needs these minerals. that should be distributed in a fair way that should be marketed in the free-trade agreement like it is done with other merchandisers in theld. without people having to die. you have created something create something calledthe foune it's a free trade agreement.

no not at all. because it was after my work as a humanitarian where they told i should work on peace building. work on peace it's is the first ngo i created it was the foundation for sustainable peace. at that point in time i was convinced the problem was in the ethical communities. i started working with the communities. i told the groups to hand me their weapons. i did not have the vision that this was a problem of wealth. but it was only later when i was looking at it and i saw weapons

came from everywhere. who don't have one drop of gold producer that is not true. since they come they come and rob us they think they are the producer they don't have one drop of gold. maybe later on the fine minds and their countries but after this moment in time it is in ou. i had my eyes closed. and then later on my eyes open wide.

the armed groups. they said to me the problem because they were talking to me. they looked at the person that get dressed. give them gold they would giv them money i would also like to add something. when i was governor this was the case. today you have to armed groups whose working in the minds belong to the chinese. you see these minds are on our grounds they are in charge of the minds about the minds of going to china. this is very strange and we have to open our eyes. we really have to understand we

have to find a solution if we had a free-trade agreement that higher prices than what we can offer. you have had the opportunity extrapolating for what was going on the ground. having an epiphany about the big picture. i want to open it up now to all of you to exchange a little. please join us.

are there some collective lessons? are there some commonalities that you see are the things we can learn from the experience of all of you being similar? when you look at it from africa middle e we are all dealing with the common issue. which is violence. the world is focusing more on war than we have investing more than bringing peace. women are trapped unfortunately this institution instead of

investing in war and bringing peace. that is a conversation every nation has when we look at it cynical pieces and the data shows this is a phenomenon when you have no gender equality. it can be reduced to the spoils of war and seeing it through that lens. but when you add the women they take the lives we have heard about so vividly today, the lens of the family and the community and the economy that keeps families thriving. that is why the pieces more durable. i have learned at something going and inside each person

there is a piv need. they need to discover things in each of our communities. and inside us there is goodwill we need to discover and work around. >> it must be somebody who has a question. i'll take the question for the one who gets the mike first appeared your name please? >> from the foundation i would like to ask which countries do you want to have free-trade agreements? how would this benefit mine workers?

this farsighted technology right now needs a minerals we have what country exists that we could mention who doesn't have cell phones and does not have gold. what country is thinking about electrical vehicles what does it need uranium for their bombs. and how can i say this, that is the challenge. that is not just a concern of my country but really should be a concern to the world. how to come together, you know

how divided the world is. how many oars there are. that's why each tower comes and takes for itself.■y perhaps we could come together a single market. mighlt country the democratic of the congo should describe in its policies how to interact and how to organize this market. and fortunately i do not work at that level. and i am under the impression that i wouldn't dare say this these are people at higher levels. the democratic congo need to think about this. think the time has come to begin. i think there is not been that reflection. otherwise there'd be small advances discussions for example if that existed.

the democratic republic of the congo would not be attacking one another it is because they have not realize there might be a way there might be a way through dialogue, through diplomacy to find a path apart it's a problem that to this date has not been broached positively. such this does not leave it to death afraid that's all i can say about this. that my level i situation but i am not at the level where these decisions are made. >> i have seen the situation but i am not at the level where these decisions are made. >> i am from afghanistan. i must say by the discussion

this morning i think it will stay always with me. it was very touching my question you mentioned regarding women and unity in syria. my own experience from my background is conflict fragment the society. women are not separate from society. so i would like to know what keeps women glued to each other they are so special that keep the unity together which is very much important. i also have question forgot the

name. yes. you spoke about like you by gangs and groups of four in i mentioned before in every conflict something human which is about peace. because of your work that you are doing you get respect. >> you think she will answer a question, thank you. >> are two main factors to come together more easily the first their losses. they do not want to have other

losses. that brings women together in the community. with the office of envoy. the interaction eight middle-class woman expert into the international where there is a peace negotiation. which was one of the successes that we managed to do. this is because of the great sicilian woman work and educate to bring the women they were so engaged with the community that's a bottom up approach where we worked with wh women who have these losses and to ask them what they see and a chance to overcome these losses and the advisory board who also

have lots of inputs where that ci is coming together for peace talk. >> yes thank you for the question. with the work i am doing i think we respond to their needs and not only the needs of the gang but the community of the women of the children of the use and the leaders as well. they seat work as an opportunity and not only that, the communication we establish an worker on the field are listening to what we have to say we are doing.■p that's probably what is missing the dialogue and communication we are not there for war.

we are there to respond to their needs. the country were well known for the work we are doing for 40 years now. chuck's other any other questions? this will be our last one we are wrapping up if we could get a microphone. from the internatiol society action network. thank you very much for all your remarks being here today congratulations to all of you i'm from the international civil society action network. thank you very much for all your remarks being here today congratulations to all of you. i think it was in that video one of the greatest challenges is speaking with those actors who are funding the armed groups. i think across all of your contacts in the conflicts in which you work there are people

that have a vested interest in the conflict. international community best intervene in trying to bring them to the table. >> and a reference of that so i will let you start and any others want to chime in on that. that w war many of the times need to come together without any cards on the table. we will put all cards on the table.

when one so we can put this to a stop. quick she's also asking about one of the interests and monetary possibility the outside the outside influence that are creating such a violence on the ground. how can they help to mitigate the influence from outside the community beyond your peace efforts on the ground? outside tt wants to what we are doing. it is to her work.

>> we are going to have to end on that. sorry. this is an amazing conversation you have seen the living representations. would like to say one word or two? go ahead. facts very quickly i think those who are on the outside, first you have to begin by trying to understand what is happening far away from where you are. what is happening in syria? what is happening in kenya? that is what has to comes first. and when you know you can better understand and then read the reports. there are many reports by humanitarian workers. there are reports from the un mission that is on the ground.

there are reports by experts. who go do research you will get a better understanding for us, for me we need to support women. whatever the external reasons if the population support as such at the negotiations table they have their vision they have their way of going about things. women think with their headseird we will all win. [applause] >> nobody could say better than that thank you very much for joining us the women in building the peace and counsel appreciates your support we look forward to seeing you next year. we will be in touch and co finalist throughout the year here.