A Statement from Siobhán McGee, ICGBV’s Incoming Chair: 

I am honoured to be the newly appointed Chair of the Consortium and am enthusiastic about stewarding the Consortium during a strategically critical period for us. I would also like to extend a special thank you to Dominic MacSorley, Concern Worldwide CEO, who did excellent work chairing the Consortium over the last three years.

Since 2015, I have been CEO of ActionAid Ireland. I am proud of our ongoing commitment to gender equality and GBV and as a Member of the Consortium, I really value the role of the Consortium to enable us to improve and grow our work in this area.

At the heart of the Consortium is a commitment to learning and continuously striving to improve our programming on GBV. In delivering this, it is enormously important that the team is in place to achieve this Strategy, through active membership and by the staff of the Consortium.

Our pioneering survivor-centred approach is not possible without engagement of our colleagues who are working with communities and survivors every day. I intend to continue to nurture these relationships with the support of my colleagues in the ICGBV.

In all that we do and plan to do, we seek to ensure that the voices of women and girls are being heard on an international level. Through our work, we have had success in this, but I remain focussed on building on our work.

2020 is an important year with the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the 20th Anniversary of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, and the first five years of the SDGs. It is important that we keep GBV on the agenda around all of these milestones and make sure that it remains a priority for all of us.

Our collective aim is to eliminate GBV in humanitarian and development contexts. Considering the increasing conflicts and displacement globally, this is more urgent than ever. The Consortium shall remain very clear about utilising our unique perspective and ensuring our efforts have the most impact. We will continue to be informed by the experiences of women and girls from the global south and to work hard to have our voices heard at a policy level.

I am passionately committed to continuing the work of the Consortium which combines an important blend of learning and sharing best practice, as well as influencing policy. Examples of this vital work include implementing ongoing IASC trainings overseas, and our representation at high level events such as CSW most recently in 2019.

Siobhán McGee

Chair, Irish Consortium on Gender Based Violence