In January, Daniela Ligiero became vice president of girls and women strategy at the United Nations Foundation, Women and Children. Here, she shares how her background led to her work empowering billions of women who lack financial services, safety – and equality to men.
What about your early childhood inspired the work you do today?
One of the hardest questions for me to answer growing up was, “Where are you from?” My dad was Brazilian. My mother was American, of German [and] Irish descent. And I’m [a] third-generation foreign service [worker], which meant moving countries every few years. This exposure to the disparities between countries and injustice in the world was instrumental to my work. Whether you are born somewhere extremely sexist like Paraguay, or in different countries like Germany and the US, this will always affect your opportunities.
Interacting with different people and cultures also instilled in me a passion for equality, social justice and the belief we can together work to make change.
What was your childhood like?
My parents met [while working in their countries’ respective] foreign service. The law back then forbade married couples [from] working for two different governments. So, without conversation, my mother relinquished her career. That experience and living in Paraguay, which maintained sexist laws and cultural restrictions forbidding women to drive or enter college, and then attending protests on female equality in the US with my mother, offered me contradictory definitions of womanhood. My girlhood showed me what it meant to have different powers in different cultures.
Describe your mentors.
My parents always mentored me, and my mother urged me to pursue – and avoid giving up – my career. Along the way, both men and women mentored me. So when we talk about empowering women, men must join the stage. My most recent boss understood I was juggling an intense and demanding job alongside motherhood and told me: never let anyone tell you can’t be a good mother and a professional simultaneously. “We are going to make this work,” he said. We need this kind of leadership, flexibility and commitment to empower women.
As your career has progressed, how has your approach, strategy and ideas stood apart from your peers?
Living overseas made me fearless to stand out. Therefore, I’m often the only one challenging a speaker and the first answering a question. Frequently I’m a minority – the only woman and/or Latina in the group. You must feel comfortable with standing out if you want to meaningfully challenge the status quo and create change.
Additionally, I am an open survivor of sexual violence. While it’s extremely rare for public officials to publicly share this kind of information, this experience influenced my desire to pursue this work and helped me understand how sexual violence affects people in a broader context. If I am an educated, empowered woman sharing this information and I feel scared, how can sharing the experience not feel terrifying for adolescents? I want to share my story to help break the silence, so others will feel less scared sharing their own stories.
The UN Foundation describes you as a “true champion for women and girls”. Please share your proudest achievements.
When I worked as deputy representative for Brazil’s United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) on adolescent and reproductive health, we rolled out a curriculum into the school system about sexual reproductive health, along with the government. This involved sexual orientation, how people express sexuality, conversations on condom use and pregnancy prevention. In Brazil, 90% of kids attend schools, so we created huge and considerable reach. I’m proud of the result and that millions of kids in Brazil benefited.
As senior gender technical advisor for the US president’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, I integrated gender-based violence and family planning into the world’s largest HIV prevention program with $5bn in programming each year. I feel honored I was part of that process.
Describe your happiest, and proudest, career moments so far with the UN Foundation.
When I first began my role, the UN Foundation sought a celebrity to champion issues affecting women and children. I’ve helped to announce Jennifer Lopez in September as our first ever Global Advocate for Girls and Women. We hope she will raise awareness about violence, sexual health and the various pieces that must belong within our overall agenda. Having Lopez, with 90 million social media followers, and her commitment to our work is incredible.
Overseeing the UN Foundation’s portfolio on girls and women includes promoting gender equality, improvements in international reproductive health, adolescent girls and women’s economic empowerment. How do you prioritize your biggest goals?
This new position means making things up as I go along. My purpose is thinking about all the issues – health, data and economic empowerment and bring strategy to our investments. I am reinforcing the notion that economic empowerment, gender equality and financial inclusion all interconnect. We must address all these issues to spark real change for girls and women.
We are also trying to raise communication, awareness and advocacy around reaching gender equality. The recent McKinsey report that shows closing the gender gap adds $28tn to the global economy confirms equality as a global health and economic development issue, not a women’s issue. I’m also working to create a bigger dialogue engaging the usual partners and also actors not normally in the space.
In part 2, Ligiero explains more about the UN Foundation’s efforts in promoting gender equality.
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