Founder and CEO of Orender Unlimited and Generation W, Former President of The Women’s National Basketball Association | USA
Donna Orender has been recognized as one of the top 10 Most Powerful Women in sports and one of Newsweek`s 100 most Influential people in the business of sports and is a best-selling author with her 2018 release of Wowsdom! the Girl’s Guide to the Positive and the Possible. Prior to the WNBA, Donna spent 17 years at the PGA TOUR where she was one of 3 senior executives serving in the Office of the Commissioner. As the CEO of Orender Unlimited, she works on the development of a strategic plan for the golf industry, initiated by the PGA of America. A Hall of Fame athlete at Queens College, Donna has been a recipient of the March of Dimes Sports Leadership Award and was honored by the UJA-Federation of New York’s Entertainment, Media and Communications Division for her dedication to the community. Donna Orender discussed the transformative role of sports in building inclusive and peaceful societies for all. Sharing her years of leadership experiences, Orender underlined the life-changing empowerment that sports provides for women and girls. As she elaborated on Generation W’s mission, she underlined that elevating girls means elevating the world.
Generation W, whose mission is educating, inspiring and connecting women and girls while building community, recently hosted the annual thought leadership event with the theme focused on the Vision 20/20.9 Generation W was excited to be exploring how they saw the world, the differing lenses, perspectives and who was focusing on what and why.
Then the unexpected happened. Who could have predicted, our eyes widely open, confronted by something one could not see, a small pathogen that would turn the world upside down? Today, as human persons, we could not have imagined previously such a situation and yet eagerly anticipated as all need to be together the interconnectivity of our global community. The need for the connection has never been more apparent.
The pandemic continues to disproportionately impact women and girls by laying bare the inequities that are found across the globe, despite efforts over the years to arrest them. The efforts from different quarters have not been lessened, on the contrary.
Our sense of urgency and pursuit of actionable change is heightened by the recent loss of one of the greatest champions, leaders and warriors. This is the American Supreme Court JUSTICE Ruth Bader Ginsburg. With her tremendous vision, intellect, powerful words and writings, paved the way for the policy which initiated tangible and actionable changes to creating a more equitable world. While progress has been made, all are well aware that women continue to disproportionately represent the encumbered, the beleaguered, the impoverished and the embattled.
In my work and passionate pursuits, I have been struck by how the world speaks to us. It tells us, women, in a myriad of ways who is worth more and who is worth less. As an athlete, who competed at all levels and ultimately as a professional athlete, I encountered signs, signals even silence that showed how the world valued me or it did not. It was the same for ultimately the strong accomplished women I was privileged to represent as the President of the WNBA. It speaks to all of us every day, women and men, whether we choose to see it or not in the resources afforded, economic support, business partnerships, marketing relationships, overall visibility, media support, fields to play on, it is a long list.
The summary of this struggle, when you stripped down, is about power; who has it, who does not. Ultimately it is important to underline how do we work together to show that power shared, is power amplified. Research has proven that diverse voices in any room where decisions are made, produces better results. It has been proven that women make great leaders, that they are innovators and managers. Most recently, women leaders across the globe, have charted the most effective responses to COVID-19 for their countries.
When sports is used as an analogy while one is putting together a team to compete, talent is a difference maker and having access to an entire talent pool, men and women only make a person stronger. Together makes us all stronger, stronger families, communities, cities, nations and a planet.
The most impactful tools we have today are not new at all. It has been proven to work for boys for generations. Equal access to sports for girls is a game changer for everyone. The physical and emotional benefits of better health, increased strength, confidence and specifically, a reduction in the incidence of cancers among women is life changing. Girls are learning how to compete, to lead others and themselves. As girls lead, they pull their families and their communities upward with them. The emphasis is not about making elite athletes, although that will and can happen, it is about building more inclusive communities through sports. Sports speak loudly to men. It is something they can see, a place where they can relate. It is a common space to build respect and understanding. It is more challenging in some villages and cities than others. However, it is happening as men increasingly come to champion their daughters’ opportunities.
The power of sports drives our global institution, lifts nations, forges peace and is the greatest of international languages. All people can speak about the power of the ball and most importantly how to share that power, how we can share that ball, teams win when that happens and that is statistically verifiable.
It is about the extra pass and not holding onto it for yourself. It is imperative that our future teams have gender parity and that young girls, who continue to face the realities of child marriage, genital mutilation, trafficking, domestic violence and lack of educational opportunities are given the chance to compete and succeed just as it has been for young boys for generations. I had the privilege, recently, to participate as a judge in the Beyond Sports initiative that drives collaboration to increase the ability for organizations to drive social change through sport and in this case with a particular focus on gender equality.
It was exciting and inspiring to see how:
• Soccer, and football becomes a platform for teamwork and physical strength but also a knowledge base for sharing better maternal health practices, and education around child marriage in Uganda and India. In Zambia, football is a way of teaching Through the Girls Money savvy Project, how to become financially literate where girls learn how to earn money to support their schooling just as boys do.
• In Nepal, Empowering Women of Nepal is a group that works with disadvantaged young women and girls offering a comprehensive training program to become trekking guides. Women who began with no self-esteem or a pathway to hope emerge with leadership skills and opportunities to become economically independent with an ability to pursue education. As reported, they become multipliers of positive change changing social norms around a society free of discrimination and oppression.
• In America we have many organizations, including the Women’s Sports foundation whose mission is to unlock the possibilities in every girl and woman through the power of sport founded by the inimitable Billie Jean King10. It is worthy to mention the World Surf League’s program, Rising Tides, that builds young girls` confidence through surfing around the world while teaching them the values of sustainability and the vital life force of our oceans.
• The strong correlation between athletic and business success speaks to the support of sport as a difference making strategy in changing the trajectory of girls and women’s lives. With EY research reporting 94% of executive women having a background in sport, 80% of fortune 500 women exec having played competitive sports and over 60% of those women believing that playing sports contributed positively to their career success and advancement. They are joined in that belief by male executives as well.
I am one of those women. Sports allows me to sit with all the esteemed leaders today. I am a part of a global community of athletes who have lived first-hand the opportunity to realize self, and then team and then world. It is the power of the mind and body that enables, unleashes the power of change. Yet all are still very much on the front lines of fighting for gender equality and equity here in America, both on our playing fields and in our board rooms. When I look at the game clock on this team sport called life, I am dismayed to see that humankind is way too far into overtime with respect to the wins they are looking for girls, women, their families. Society is losing their opportunities, collectively by leaning to believe in this WE situation.
One of the core beliefs at Generation W is: When you elevate a woman, you elevate us all. This intergenerational mentorship is the way all can learn, live and ultimately lead together. The interaction with Vital Voices, a global NGO borne out of Beijing 1995 Conference, has taught all that when you invest in women you improve the world. They bring to the fore an undeniable truth that women are essential to progress to their communities and that our world cannot move forward without their full participation. Thank you to their great leader Alyse Nelson.
Esteemed supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg shared her thoughts on a meaningful life, by stating, “A meaningful life is living not for oneself but for one’s community.”11 Where a devotion to equity and equality are goals worth fighting for every day. We should remember that what we do not see can be just as informative as what we do. Everyone should reach for new ideas, break out of the box, seek innovation, deploy technology for its best and highest usage, recognize that we must discard strategies that have not worked and demand with our actions that an acceleration of progress is the only next step that we can take.
The stakes are high not only for our daughters, but for our sons, for our families, for our communities. Life is a team sport and gender equality are a game changer. Let us change the game, and when we do, we all win.
The UNGA Conference 2020 started with the Welcome Remarks by Mehmet Kilic, President of the Journalists and Writers Foundation. Mr. Kilic said: “The year 2020 is historic time as we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations and the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration that focus on women empowerment and gender equality. The UNGA Conference 2020 aimed at reviewing the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals five years after the adoption of the UN Global Agenda 2030 in 2015.” It is an opportunity for us to look back on the achievements and look forward to the challenges we face as humanity and deliver sustainable solutions.
Honorable Prof. Bob Carr, a professor and a career diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, delivered his Keynote Speech with his greetings from Sydney, Australia. Prof. Carr stated that we are living at a time of substantial global challenges: global warming and the challenge of producing a world where there is peace, justice and strong institutions. He said: “The persistent challenge of climate is very valid but the problems we face in achieving peace, security and robust institutions is all the greater than the climate change. We’ve witnessed tragically a retreat of the civic space where we thought people could operate independent of government and make criticisms and seek information and fight for their rights.” The right to speaking out and advancing the frontiers of freedom are being restricted, the civic space is becoming restricted and is not being expanded. He suggested that world leaders can solve such challenges by ensuring the norms of political contestability and pluralism, respecting the views of others, and not persecuting people for holding dissident opinions.
Dr. Wayne Henry, Director General, Planning Institute of Jamaica delivered his Keynote Speech on COVID-19 and Beyond: Perspectives from Jamaica’s experience in integrating the SDGs in the implementation of Vision 2030 Jamaica, a National Development Plan from 2015 to 2020. Dr. Henry examined areas of progress, strengths and gaps sharing early insights on the way forward with Jamaica’s motto, “Out of Many One People” that represents integration, equity and inclusion as core principles in advancing a vision for Jamaicans and the rest of the world. Vision 2030 Jamaica provides a framework for the achievement of a secure and prosperous future where “Jamaica becomes the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business.” It is geared towards the achievement of four synergistic and interdependent sustainable development goals which cascade into 15 National Outcomes.
Jeff Schlegelmilch is the Director for the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute spoke about Responding to Global Emergencies and Best Practices from COVID-19. There is a very uneven experience with Covid-19 that is driven by ecological conditions to the natural spread of the disease to population density and movement, seasonal effects that aren’t fully understood as well as within communities themselves.
Basma Alawee is the State Refugee Organizer of Florida Immigrant Coalition in the USA. Ms. Alawee spoke about the Refugee Rights during the Pandemic. Today, nearly 80 million people are forcibly displaced, which is more than one percent of the world population. There are 26 million refugees and more than 4 million asylum seekers globally. Nearly 46 million people are internally displaced. Nearly 90 percent of refugees live in developing and low-income countries with the fastest growing infection rates, which makes refugees more vulnerable. During Covid-19, there is a lot of deficiencies in medical supplies, health services, and accurate information during the Covid-19 pandemic. Vaccine nationalism pose risks of limited access for refugees and migrant populations who are often not included in country specific pandemic reopening plans.
Shiv Vikram Khemka is Vice-Chairman of SUN Group and Executive Chairman, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation in India. He spoke about the New Era of Online Engagement: Evolving Economic Development and Private Sector. Mr. Khemka said that the private sector is going through unprecedented times with the issue of jobs. It is a new era of online engagement with considerable risks and some opportunities. Most people are working remotely over 50 percent of those in the working population. Some recent surveys showed that 70 percent of people are actually not complaining and believe their efficiency may be going up whereas 30 percent are unhappy. Many jobs have been lost and many more jobs could be lost depending on how long this recession goes on.
Paula Boland is an attorney specializing in environmental law and international affairs and serves as the President of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area and the Chair of the UNA-USA National Council. Ms. Boland moderated Panel Session 2 that focused on Implementing SDG #16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
Natalia Marcela Molina is a criminal judge and member of the International Association of Women Judges and Second Vice President of the Women Judges Association in Argentina. Ms. Molina spoke about children’s human rights and digital environments, global considerations. Her mission today is to inspire those who were thinking about being actively involved on campaigns that inform and promote the importance of children’s human rights.
Michael Collins, Executive Director of the Americas of Institute for Economics and Peace, spoke about the Decline of Democratic Values and Rise of Autocracy Globally. Mr. Collins presented findings from a recent Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) Report, with regards to reducing violence in line with targets and indicators related to SDG #16. The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute. They dedicate their work to shifting the World to focus on peace as a positive, tangible and achievable measure of human well-being and progress. This is the 14th year of the Global Peace Index and it ranks 163 countries according to their relative state of peace. The definition of peace in the index is the “lack of violence or fear of violence.” 
Waqar Gillani, a senior journalist and special correspondent for the News on Sunday (Pakistan) spoke about the Rise of Violence Against Journalists and Right to Access Information for Strong Institutions. Gillani presented on the Rise of Violence against Journalists and Right to Access to Information for Strong Institutions in a country like Pakistan. The subject area touched on freedom of expression which is facing multiple challenges.
Dr. Shekh Mohammad Altafur Rahman is a human rights lawyer and faculty member of the School of Global Studies, Thammasat University, Thailand. Dr. Rahman spoke about the importance of Access to Justice for Transparency and Accountability in Governance. Dr. Rahman discussed the meaning and components of access to justice that is directly related to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #16. He explained that the SDG #16 and the access to justice component have a clear characteristic of overlapping feature, which cannot stand alone as an achievable component. In another words, there is a clear relationship between strong institutions and the notion of judicial system.
Houry Geudelekian, the Chair of the NGO CSW talked about the review of the Beijing Declaration from 1995 to 2020. The NGO CSW had organized the largest gathering in March of 2020 in New York City during Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The ultimate goal is to bring voices of women and girls globally to the UN Headquarters. In March 2020, around 20,000 women signed up to come for the CSW64 events, which was going to be the second coming of Beijing Platform for Action as we celebrate the Beijing Declaration +25. NGO CSW team alone had organized 520 panel discussions in the two weeks that the CSW64 until the arrival of silent enemy Covid-19.
Mohna Ansari, a Member of the National Human Rights Commission of NEPAL spoke about Gender Perspectives and Women’s Leadership in Policy Making. 25 years after the Beijing Declaration, Nepal has gone through major challenges in the last two decades following a decade long conflict and a peace process, which started in 2006 that transformed the country into a secular, republican, secular state. Women had a significant role in this transformation. The first elected constituent assembly in 2008 had 197 women members out of 601 members. The second constituent assembly had 176 of women. Nepal’s Constitution has ensured women’s representation in federal and provincial parliaments, as well as local government bodies 32 percent and 40 percent, respectively. Currently, 90 of the 275 MPs are women in Lower House. The Upper House has 22 women members of the 59 members. Six of the 10 parliamentary committee are headed by women lawmakers. Election Act has ensured 50 percent women candidates in leadership position of the local boards. In 2016, local election was elected as a deputy chair or mayor of a seven hundred local bodies of the 753, also 18 women were elected as a mayor or Chair. Based on the act, over 6500 women were elected in a local body, these are Dalit women, and we all know in South Asia that Dalits are highly oppressive caste group.
Prof. Diane Elson, Emeritus Professor at the Department of Sociology from University of Essex in U.K., spoke about Inclusive Economies for Women’s Empowerment. Prof. Diane Elson discussed the meaning inclusive economies for women’s empowerment and new challenges COVID-19 pandemic posed on inclusive economies and women’s empowerment. Prof. Elson claimed that the sustainable development agenda has no goal or target that specifically focus on economic inclusion and women’s empowerment. In other words, sustainable, inclusive and sustained economic growth don’t actually mean women’s empowerment. SDG Goal #5 requires governments to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls but it doesn’t actually mention economic inclusion of women. However, it holds governments accountable to undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources. I think we need to focus more on the issue of rights, not just participation, to ensure that economic inclusion really empowers women.
Diya K. Wynn, an AI/ML Ethicist in Emerging Technologies & Intelligent Platforms GSP at Amazon Web Services, talked about Technological Advancements for Women’s Empowerment: Opportunities and Challenges.Ms. Wynn started her speech by sharing her story of a little girl from a single parent, poverty-stricken home in the South Bronx, in NY. She was awarded with a computer for her accomplishment in school, which fascinated her in science and technology, which opened up a world to study and pursue a career in computers and technology. In the stories she read and the movies she watched, there were no role models of women or girls with jobs and careers in computers and science. The media and the society portrayed women with roles as homemakers, teachers, and nurses.
Dr. Marina Sorokina, Head of the Department of History at Alexander Solzhenitsyn Center for the Study of the Russian Diaspora, spoke about Russia`s best practices on implementing the SDG #5: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering all Women and Girls. Marina’s presentation gave a careful but precise reflection on women scholars in exile, women and immigration. Russians has had three major waves of migration abroad since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. During this Bolshevik Revolution and civil war many people were forced to migrate as refugees. The second wave was during the World War II and the third migration came after the Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost (1984). The underlying factor for migration of Russians out of their homeland and traditional environment was the pressure of the political persecution. They found new homes in many countries in the world, in Latin America, especially in Brazil. From these migrants a number of schools were founded and scientists have emerged from these emigrants.