A few cups of coffee, an apple cart, and a few hours of socializing: it's a modest but all the more heartfelt farewell to longtime companions.
Esther Zehntner and Irmgard Frank left the Women and Gender Commission this year. Josefina Hurtado handed over after eight years as head of the Women and Gender Unit this year the task to Barbara Heer. With the farewell afternoon at the Ayledo restaurant, the commission thanks the three women for their commitment.
Long way to today's importance
The Expert Commission and the Women and Gender Unit have a long history. Their roots go back to 1842, and the committees have had various names and focuses since then. The first predecessor, for example, was founded with the task of advocating for the education of women and girls in the project countries.
After the turn of the century, the focus shifted to the training, selection and mentoring of women employees. The committee became more and more important and women gained more and more responsibility: From 1961, the women's officer selected women and men for assignments.
Recognition in the leadership, however, had to be won. The Women's Department, as the commission was then called, was not mentioned for the first time until 1982 in the annual report of the Basel Mission.
Networking and equality
For Mission 21, the expert commission has been an important companion of the staff unit Women and Gender since 2001. These twenty years were particularly eventful for Esther Zehntner. "On the one hand, there was the era with Meehyung Chung, with whom we wrote the gender policy." Chung, a theologian from Korea, headed the Women and Gender staff unit from 2005.
The principles of the Policy for Equal Rights and Opportunities are now firmly anchored in the departments. This is also very important to Irmgard Frank. The long-time head of the expert committee later answers questions about the highlights during her membership from 1994 by e-mail. She cannot be present at the farewell event. "I also think of the advocacy work with Josefina. She gave a boost to collaboration with colleagues in Africa, Asia and Latin America! That was also a highlight." writes Irmgard.
Esther is of the same opinion. As head of the staff unit, she says, Josefina has always worked to ensure that women in partner countries network internationally. Together, women today have a stronger voice in the fight for equality.
Knowledge promotes equality
Josefina Hurtado herself says: "A highlight for me was the joint conference of women from our project countries with UN experts in Geneva. "It is important that lawyers and scientists talk to women who do grassroots work - and vice versa.
For Josefina, it is also important that women have the necessary knowledge. "For example, many didn't know about the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, or CEDAW. Each country reports regularly in Geneva on its progress." Arguments for greater equality can be better built on this basis.
Still active in the network
Josefina, Esther and Irmgard see great potential with the network the commission has built up in recent years. "There are contacts with churches, the university and other organizations. This brings knowledge to us and strengthens everyone in common concerns," says Josefina. Esther and Irmgard are of the same opinion here.
And the members of the commission who were present at the farewell party are confident about the network: university staff and board members from other organizations and associations are sitting at the table. And for Esther, Irmgard and Josefina it is clear: Even after their departure, they will remain part of the network around the expert commission and staff unit Women and Gender of Mission 21. Because their commitment to gender justice remains a matter of the heart.
Samuel Rink
Josefina Hurtado, head of the Women and Gender Unit at Mission 21 until summer 2021, and Esther Zehntner, longtime member of the expert commission. Photo: Samuel Rink
