Mutiny, Tantrums, Recovery & Reconstruction
Edition 88
Happy Weekend folks!
I hope this move to a Saturday newsletter gives you all plenty of time to read, share and send me some feedback! Do the topics I write about interest you, what do you want to learn about, which regions and women do you want to get to know better, how can the format be changed to make it even more of a must-read for you? I know I’d appreciate hearing from you!
Mutiny/Rebellion/Tantrum - Russia’s alpha males
William Congreve once wrote “Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.” That is probably the most accurate statement about a woman ever written/expressed by a man! You’d think a scorned alpha male would be even more dangerous!
But it turns out alpha men, even those that create mercenary groups with grimacing skull logos, specialising in inflicting terror on civilians in countries from Mali to Ukraine - well, when they have a tantrum, it tends to fizzle out faster than me getting my friend’s 5-year-old in line, by threatening his birthday/Christmas haul!
The Russian drama that unfolded over the past week and a half was a damp squib. It was reminiscent of someone in a Hollywood studio who decided to remake an old Bond movie, give it a tinge of K-drama and add some high-end Matt Damon/Bourne series style action scenes. But like most remakes, the story line was weak, and the ending left one a tad underwhelmed.
If you missed it, a bunch of old Russian men decided to throw a tantrum about the how unfair the Kremlin/Putin’s war in Ukraine was for their profitability. They did some scheming that would make the mothers-in-law in telenovelas/Indian soap operas proud, rolled a few tanks down Russian highways a ’la biker gang style, created a spectre of potential civil war, only for it all to end abruptly. Said main tantrum throwing protagonist ended the high stakes geopolitical drama with a whimper, running off to cry in the bosom of an ally and pal.
You can read more on Sky News about what’s happened to “the hotdog vendor-turned-prison recruiter- ((turned mercenary boss)) Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion.” What we know as of today - The Kremlin has given him amnesty for his tantrum (let’s just call it that!), allowing him and his Wagner soldiers to head off into the sunset and live in Belarus under the watchful eye of Alexander Lukashenko. What don’t we know? Where he is exactly and whether breaking news in a week/month/year will be that he disappeared, fell off a balcony, had a toad poison heart attack or some other predictable Kremlin-style end.
In their report Sky News also heads into the conspiracy of whatever happened to all the other big Russian names MIA since the rebellion? Those like General Sergei Surovikin and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. There is even a name for a rather long list of people connected to the Kremlin who have suddenly disappeared or died under suspicious circumstances - “Sudden Russian death Syndrome” (SRDS).
This week’s victim of the syndrome was Kristina Baikova, a 28-year-old vice president of Loko Bank. She died after falling from the 11th floor window of her apartment. She joins a long list of mostly energy oligarchs, financiers and Kremlin officials who make this morbid list after seemingly falling out of favour. If you want to know the scale of fatality due to SRDS, LBC has compiled a relatively comprehensive account of victims since the Ukraine war began.
Why talk Russia, when it’s not a female/women related issue, you ask!?
The short answer - Ukraine!
Everyone in the world wants to get in on the Ukraine reconstruction deal. Of course, they do. There is money to be made! I can remember clearly the time when I was getting involved with the Iraq reconstruction projects. That eye opening experience was enough to send me straight back into the arms of journalism!
The UK recently hosted a massive 3-day conference to plan the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine. Since I’m on the advisory board of the Ukrainian non-profit Impact Force and my amazing friends who have been working tirelessly to better the lives of their fellow countrymen/women were in town, where better to catch up!
The cynic in me tends to not put much stock in much of what is said in conferences like these. Back room deals and diplomacy is where things happen after all. But one session that had more meat than most was at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. The conversations laid bare the reality of the agenda, money and logistics needed. The EBRD’s focus was how to ensure a gender responsive recovery.
Turns out, according to Denise Brown the UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine, gender and women weren’t even a part of the recovery/reconstruction negotiations taking place. “This room (EBRD) is full of like-minded people,” she said. “It doesn’t actually matter when you look at reality. we are talking in silos.” Having just come into the EBRD meeting from recovery negotiations, she was visibly fuming. She told the 200+ people gathered with me that having seen gender missing from the agenda, she’d put it on the table, but was ignored.
Why does that matter? The “UN RC in Ukraine is the designated representative of the UN Secretary-General and aims to bring together different resident and non-resident UN agencies, funds and programmes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operational activities at a country level.” This is the UN’s point person - for money, policy, everything! If she can be ignored, then what chance does anyone else have of putting women on the agenda of recovery and reconstruction in Ukraine, or elsewhere?
Natalia Karbowska Chair of the Board, Ukrainian Women's Fund talked about international policy papers changing the very language needed to highlight critical gender issues. The word ‘citizen’ she said was replacing men and women. Neutralising gender as such therefore ended up creating a scenario where inclusion, while being spoken about was not really present. “Political will for real inclusion isn’t there. We need expertise and data - we don’t have that. We need a strong civil society and partnerships that are real,” she said.
According to Natalia a gender responsive recovery is about implementation - it needs to be practical. She acknowledged that while policymakers cannot include gender everywhere all the time, they do need priorities. Her suggestion - to select sectors with the biggest gender gap (economy/employment) to assist and to keep the pressure on the Ukrainian government for not forgetting their women.
That was a sentiment echoed by Sabine Freizer Gunes who heads UN Women in Ukraine. She talked about how under Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the new state strategy was a great example of inclusion reform at a policy level. But she highlighted where the pitfalls are -echoing Natalia- it is in implementation.
Per UN Women, they see very little gender representation/balance in the financing plans of the recovery. Her perspective: This can be changed NOW. We are after all just entering the process of planning a recovery. The aim she said? Not just to create a gender balance in services but enable the building of truly sustainable institutions.
Others who brought more reality checks to our group, and frankly should have been voices to be heard at the closed-door negotiations were:
Nina Levchuk, co-founder of Impact Force. She talked about the necessity to fund entrepreneurial techies in Ukraine and most critically the reforms needed to bring investors to the table. Having just travelled back from Kyiv, her co-founder Olga Diakova, has been working tirelessly to push that agenda amongst the halls of power in Ukraine.
Olga Kovalchuk, founder of Horizon Capital shared how 25% of Horizon’s capital was allocated to women led SMEs. She works closely with the EBRD and shared the lessons about the massive impact that kind of investment strategy makes to not just those female entrepreneurs who receive the funding, but the economy around them.
Then there were the voices of NGOs on the ground:
Those like Ukraine women’s congress who asked for institutional support for women’s organisations and bi-lateral women’s projects between countries and organisations.
Or those helping disabled women - those women who cannot get a job in a warzone, having never worked and are at risk of poverty and starvation. Or women in wheelchairs, alone with their children, who risk death everyday unable to access bomb shelters.
Or those helping Internally Displaced People (IDPs). Women who aren’t welcome in communities after a while, or veterans (including women) who return home with life changing injuries, with no support.
Or the LGBTQ+ in the Ukrainian army, who it seems are not just fighting Russians, but Ukrainian homophobia at the same time. It was claimed that due to institutionalised discrimination- the Ukrainian LGBTQ+ soldiers are twice as likely to suffer PTSD and mental health issues than heterosexuals.
The issues are so vast that the above are frankly just the tip of the iceberg. But a truly gender responsive recovery in Ukraine presents a massive opportunity. It could become the benchmark for a real, truly inclusive world to build, if we do it right.
As Denise Brown said to us, “We need to think differently, to do something differently.”
Important Note: I am currently working on a plan with Ukraine’s Members of Parliament to bring people together and highlight the critical issue of human rights violations and the war crime of “disappeared/kidnapped” Ukrainian civilians, including children.
If you think you can help - from funding sources, corporate donors, to media contacts and influential policy makers, please drop me an email! My Ukrainian friends and I would be so very grateful for your assistance!