On September 8, 2022, Focus on the Global South co-organized a webinar on “The Impact of the War in Ukraine on Women Globally, Voices from the Global South”. This webinar is a part of a two series webinar organized on ‘Impact of the War In Ukraine on Women Globally’, conducted by BFW (BRICS Feminist Watch) in partnership with WIDE +, AIDOS, Focus on the Global South and its members Gen Dev, Inequality Movement, Espaço Feminista, and PWESCR. The discussion was moderated by Priti Darooka from BRICS Feminist Watch and Shalmali Guttal from Focus on the Global South.

Speakers:

Shreen Abdul Saroor is a co-founder of Mannar Women’s Development Federation (MWDF) and Women’s Action Network, a collective of 11 women’s groups that have been working on advocacy on women’s rights and documentation with a focus in the north and east of Sri Lanka. In 2008 Shreen was awarded the Voices of Courage award by the International Rescue Committee’s Women and Refugees’ Commission for her international and regional work on highlighting the plight of internally displaced women, and in 2011 Shreen was awarded the 5th ‘International Bremen Peace Award’ under the category of public engagement for peace and justice.

Hala N. Barakat is an archaeobotanist. With a PhD in Paleoecology from the University of Aix-Marseille III, France. She worked as a lecturer at Cairo University from 1995-2000 and as deputy director at the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) affiliated with the Library of Alexandria (2000-2012). In January 2013, she joined the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) as a part-time researcher on the issues of “Right to Food” and “Food Sovereignty” in Egypt. She is also a founding member and former president of Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE), a non-profit organization active in the conservation of endangered species and habitats.

Dr Yu Xiaogang is a Chinese environmentalist. Yu studied a dam’s social and environmental impacts at Lashi Lake for his PhD thesis. He was awarded the Goldman Prize in 2006 for developing groundbreaking watershed management programs to protect China’s Nu River and riverside communities from dams and development. In addition, he is among the six winners of the 2009 Raman Magsaysay Awards, considered by many to be the Asian equivalent of the Nobel prize.

Fabrina Furtado is a Professor at the Department of Development, Agriculture and Society and the Graduate Program in Social Sciences in Development, Agriculture and Society (CPDA) at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. Member of the research groups “Extractivism and Authoritarianism”; “Study Group on Social Change, Agribusiness and Public Policies” and “Gender and Ruralities”, all of which involve different universities around Brazil. Has a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Master’s in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick, England; Specialization in Political Ecology and Rural Development from the State University of Maranhão, Brazil.

Funeka Yazini April: Dr April works at the Human Science Research Council with expertise on mineral industrialization. Dr April has several publications, which include the following edited books: FOCAC 2018: Agricultural Modernization and Industrialization, FOCAC 2015: A New Beginning of China-Africa Relations, Perspectives on South Africa-China Relations, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and The Politics of Human Resource Development. Dr April completed her PhD at the University of Limpopo, South Africa. Dr April has also published several book chapters, policy briefs and journal articles, such as A Comparative Analysis of Industrialization in the Case of the African Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations.

Discussants:

Prof. (retd.) Anuradha Chenoy is Adjunct Faculty in Jindal School of International Affairs, O.P. Jindal Global University. She was earlier, Professor and Dean of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She was chairperson and director of JNU’s Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies. She has been an engaged scholar with many civil society groups and Prof. Chenoy has written many books, including: Re-emerging Russia: Institutions, Structures, Processes, Palgrave, 2019; The BRICS in International Development.

Mariama Williams, Ph. D., is a feminist economist with over 20 years of experience working on economic development, macroeconomics, trade external debt and finance issues, focusing on gender equality and women’s empowerment, social equity, sustainable sustainability finance and development and climate change issues. She has published widely. Mariama Williams is also a director of the Institute of Law and Economics (ILE) in Jamaica, a member of the Caribbean Feminist Action Network, the Gender and Trade Coalition and a principal consultant for the Integrated Policy Research Institute (IPRI).