This conversation is a reflection on the recent SVRI Forum 2022 with Ruth Nekura, a feminist human rights lawyer and socio-legal researcher from Kenya, who attended the conference.
SVRI Forum is the largest global, abstract-driven research and advocacy conference on violence against women and violence against children. It brought together researchers, funders, practitioners, policymakers, activists, and survivors every two years to connect, learn and share. This year it was hosted in Cancún, Mexico
Mamello: What was your experience of SVRI 2022?
Ruth: I’m always grateful for the space to meet different people, people we know and who are doing similar work because there aren’t a lot of spaces for us to share our joint passions regarding ending violence against women. SVRI is a rare space, it is a conference that specifically focuses on research and interventions to end gender-based violence. That is not often prioritised and given time and space or funding, so I was motivated to go, thanks to AWDF’s support. I connected with great people in the sector and that is the point of SVRI which I resonate with.
The first time I attended an SVRI conference was in Rio in 2017. It was not a diverse space, there were few Africans, majority of participants were from the global north, and white. However, the programme was beautiful. A lot of the conference conveners came from a strong public health background and the benefit was that their research gave us data showing that nationally and globally gender-based violence was and still is a pandemic. Feminists had been saying this, but they seldom believe us unless it comes as headlines announcing that someone has been killed. The evidence research presented gave detailed information which was beneficial to our work and movement.
Beyond research with a public health or humanitarian incline, other disciplines in the VAW and VAC sector were missing like the diverse knowledge from social scientists, lawyers, human rights experts, other feminist activists . We know that there is a desire to consolidate the sector and harmonise the VAW field, I hope in the coming conferences we achieve this.
Mamello: Looking back at the history of SVRI how is the space growing and evolving?
Reflecting back from 2017 there has been a trajectory of great progress at SVRI, both in terms of infusing a feminist analysis and decolonising the space. At the 2017 Rio conference, most research and interventions were quite Apolitical and didn’t have a strong feminist analysis. But there was one strong panel by COFEM where a series of papers on returning and anchoring VAW work back to its feminist roots was powerful. The 2019 conference happened in Cape Town, South Africa, which was a good attempt to take the conference to different regions of the world to increase access. However, South Africa has strict immigration laws against Africans. In contrast people from the global north, USA and Europe don’t struggle as much to gain access to the country. So, South Africa is not the most accessible country for participation of Africans. At this 2022 conference, there was a strong decolonial theme which created the opportunity to have conversations about decolonising funding and decolonising research methods. That is a very important forward trajectory. However, decolonisation can be a buzzword, used superficially without rigour. A lot of the panels didn’t have proper representation of black African people and decolonial experts. Most of these panels were conversational and were not abstract driven, as the rest of the content in the conference was. It felt as though decolonisation as an agenda item that was not taken seriously. While this conversation style can be a powerful method of dialogue and discussion, at SVRI the decolonial sessions did not de-centre power and facilitate inclusive debate. The Participants/audience was largely excluded from the discussions only to be given the last a few minutes at the end. I found some conversations were not as rich and rigorous , compared to the other work that was presented. We wondered why the panels didn’t have a good representation of black African people who could speak about the topic and who are doing the work, yet we know these people exist.
Mamello: What does decolonising look like in a space that was in ways colonial?
Ruth: We need to think about decolonising in terms of time and space. It is about acknowledging the politics of knowledge production that is still much defined by along axis of race, class, gender, (dis)ability etc. Sometimes it’s as simple as who can speak about what, and why? Who is the authority on what and why? What is considered scientific knowledge? What is the relationship between access to resources and knowledge production and ownership? Who are the authorities or ‘giants’ of knowledge and why? At SVRI a significant amount of research is done on Africa, or other low- and middle-income countries, yet the presenters of these findings are authors who are from the global north, or generally white is it the lack of other black and brown people who are experts, co-authors, or who have an interest or who are passionate about these things? Could the space and time to share not have been democratised and spread out among more people? Could they not have made more people contribute and lead conversations or facilitate and just be part of the space. Decolonisation is complex. however, at the heart of it, it is simple. We must consider time and space; who is included and excluded and why; Otherwise, it just feels like we are trying to check a tick box.
Mamello: How does collective healing look like in spaces like SVRI?
Ruth: What is nice about this 2022 conference is that we had collective wellness, self-care, and healing incorporated in the conference. It felt like there was a recognition that the work we do is traumatising and that we were dealing with a lot of traumas. Most of us are often drawn to this work because of traumatic experiences or we may know someone close to us who has experienced these traumas. When I looked at the conference agenda and saw that they included wellness and healing, I was happy that they were being radical and it’s something that has never been included in conferences that I’ve been to. It is another positive change although, the space still felt the same way as it did in 2017. It still felt like it was a space for a selected few, the ones who are connected to global organisations, mostly white, not really for black people and people of colour. There were a few black/people of colour people who were actively involved, but just like one man from Nepal said on the decolonisation panel- we must acknowledge that these few are often themselves connected to global north organisations. I suppose it is also about acknowledging the privileges we all may have. For instance, I know I am also privileged, and my academic titles, expertise and authority gives me access to certain spaces and resources, and I always have to ask I’m I truly the best placed to lead this discussion, or is someone else best places? We must always ask are you really the best person to share the knowledge that is being produced or can you step away for someone else who might be better suited to be the authority in that field? There needs to be an honest conversation about white women and them needing to step away and allow the space and time for brown and coloured women or experts to step up and be the authorities.
Mamello: What are your thoughts on ethical funding?
Ruth: It’s not new, but it’s unique that the SVRI conference on research and interventions on VAW chose to centre this discussion. I think that was very special and important. The best thing about it is that the conference because a space for discussing innovation, and opportunity to ask ourselves what is working and what is not working when it comes to funding work for preventing and responding to violence. So, including funders in the space is powerful. Feminist funders have been doing the work to change the funding landscape and culture, to think outside of the box about how we can close the gap between the hierarchies that are created because of resources. I was happy to see research that was presented by funders about how they reflected on their funding ways and how to decentralise power and create more fair funding, which was amazing.