New York, September 20 – Women Heads of State and Government met today on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵGA) High-level Week to discuss global issues in the newly created Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵGA Platform of Women Leaders. The event, under the theme of \u201cTransformative Solutions by Women Leaders to Today\u2019s Interlinked Challenges<\/i>\u201d, highlights that women\u2019s full and effective political participation and decision-making are crucial to addressing global priorities effectively, decisively, and inclusively.<\/p>\n
With the presence of Her Excellencies President\u00a0Katalin Nov\u00e1k<\/b>\u00a0of Hungary, Prime Minister\u00a0Sheikh Hasina<\/b>\u00a0of Bangladesh, Prime Minister\u00a0Katr\u00edn Jakobsd\u00f3ttir<\/b>\u00a0of Iceland, Prime Minister\u00a0Fiam\u0113 Naomi Mata\u02bbafa<\/b>\u00a0of Samoa, and Prime Minister\u00a0Robinah Nabbanja<\/b>\u00a0of Uganda, as well as Prime Minister\u00a0Evelyn Wever-Croes<\/b>\u00a0of Aruba and Prime Minister\u00a0Silveria E. Jacobs<\/b>\u00a0of St. Maarten, and former Prime Minister\u00a0Helen Clark<\/b>\u00a0of New Zealand the event was hosted by the Office of the President of the General Assembly and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Women, in cooperation with the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL).<\/p>\n
Mr.\u00a0Csaba K\u0151r\u00f6si<\/b>, President of the 77th session of the General Assembly, said:\u00a0\u201cWomen leadership is transformative. The women leaders with us today are living proof of this fact.\u00a0Inclusive governance can result in policies that create positive change over the long term. By integrating the views of diverse women \u2013 especially at the highest levels \u2013 Governments can effectively tailor and target solutions to those most in need.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Ms.\u00a0Sima Bahous,<\/b>\u00a0Executive Director of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Women, said:\u00a0\u201cWhen more women lead in political and public life, everyone benefits, especially in crises. A new generation of girls see a possible future for themselves. Health, education, childcare, and violence against women receive greater attention and better solutions. We must find every possible way to amplify the assets women leaders bring. This Platform is an opportunity to do just that.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Recent global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate, and conflicts, have shown the positive difference women\u2019s leadership and decision-making can make in executive positions, parliaments, and public administration. For example, the\u00a0Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDP-Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Women COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker<\/a>\u00a0shows that governments with higher women\u2019s representation in parliaments adopted a higher number of gender-sensitive policy measures in response to COVID-19, including policies aimed directly at strengthening women\u2019s economic security.<\/p>\n Out of the 193 Member States of the United Nations, only 28 women serve as elected Heads of State or Government. Whilst progress has been made in many countries, the global proportion of women in other levels of political office worldwide still has far to go:\u00a021%<\/a>\u00a0of the world\u2019s ministers,\u00a026%<\/a>\u00a0of national parliamentarians, and\u00a034%<\/a>\u00a0of elected seats of local government. According to a\u00a0new Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ report<\/a>, at the current pace of progress, equal representation in parliament will not be achieved until 2062.<\/p>\n The Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵGA Global Platform of Women Leaders stems from a meeting on 21 September 2021, between women Heads of State and Government and Mr.\u00a0Abdulla Shahid<\/b>, the President of the 76th<\/sup>\u00a0session of the General Assembly.<\/p>\n Mr.\u00a0Shahid<\/b>:\u00a0\u201c<\/i>The necessity of this meeting is evident when we consider the statistics. At our current rate of progress, it could take 300 years to achieve gender equality. We must act now. Accelerate investment in girls and women. Scale up efforts to empower women. Expand opportunities for girls. Eliminate gender-based violence.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Ms.\u00a0Katr\u00edn Jakobsd\u00f3ttir<\/b>, Prime Minister of the Republic of Iceland and Chair of the\u00a0Council of Women World Leaders, said: \u201cIt is my strong belief that the world needs more women leaders and more diverse leaders, people with all kinds of backgrounds and life experiences. The decisions leaders make affect all people in our societies. These decisions should be made by people who have a real and deep understanding of how most people live, of what their concerns are, and are therefore responsive to their needs.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n The Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵGA Platform of Women leaders and today\u2019s event will also help bring visibility to women in prominent political leadership positions. The critical role of women\u2019s leadership in driving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is well documented. Countries with greater numbers of women political leaders tend to give\u00a0greater attention<\/a>\u00a0to issues like health, education, infrastructure, and ending violence against women. In response to the pandemic,\u00a0women leaders<\/a>\u00a0championed policies that addressed the pandemic\u2019s social and economic impacts on the most vulnerable groups. In conflict-affected contexts,\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0shows that women\u2019s representation in public life brings heightened credibility to peace processes and negotiations, helping unify divided communities.\u00a0Research<\/a>\u00a0has also shown that seeing more women in power, increases girls\u2019 educational and career aspirations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Platform of Women Leaders meets at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ General Assembly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":348,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-material"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/348"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}