UN Women Convenes Global Business and Philanthropic Leaders to Help Accelerate SDG Action Through Women’s Empowerment

The year 2030—and with it the deadline for achieving global gender equality—will be here before we know it, and at our current rate of progress, the goal seems out of reach. But since the Sustainable Development Goals were established in 2015, and with them Goal 5 to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, UN Women has been working tirelessly to achieve gender equality worldwide. The organization brought philanthropists and business leaders together at the SDG 5 Forum to bring together partners from diverse areas to organize and work together toward the common goal of gender equality. Forum participants included Al Waleed Philanthropies, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chanel Foundation, Ford Foundation, Procter & Gamble, Revlon, Unilever, WPP and Read on for more details; including how much work we still have to do and the public and private sector efforts to envision—and achieve—true global gender equality.

UN WOMEN—One thousand days into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and counting down to 2030, which is the deadline for achieving global gender equality under SDG 5, UN Women convened business and philanthropic leaders on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 73) to step up commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Global business and philanthropic leaders pledged more than USD 70 million in 2018 (USD 13 million of which was pledged at the UNGA 73 SDG 5 Forum today) to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment through UN Women.

No single country has ever achieved gender equality, and according to industry estimates this failure will cost USD 28 trillion[1] by 2025. Forum participants focused on how public and private sectors can bolster efforts to achieve global gender equality by 2030.

“Every day there is more evidence of what the world is missing when it falls short of equality between women and men. Our globally agreed roadmap of the 2030 Agenda puts the drive for that equality right at the centre of all the goals to be achieved,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “Governments, civil society and the business world all contributed to that vision and must act together in shaping the solution. These combined forces are critical if we are to make unstoppable progress by 2020 and meet the 2030 target.”

UN Women was established in 2010 to help the world end gender inequality and the 17 SDGs were adopted by global leaders in 2015, with SDG 5 focusing on achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment in every country of the world. The World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 217 years to achieve gender equality at the current rate of progress.

The SDG 5 Forum builds on UN Women’s work across sectors, including this month’s launch of the Global Innovation Coalition for Change’s (GICC) Gender Innovation Principles, a global set of standards adopted by an alliance of 27 partners from private sector, non-profit organizations and academic institutions that takes a gender-responsive approach to innovation and technology. The financial commitments at the SDG 5 Forum and from UN Women’s strategic partnerships will support efforts toward innovation, eliminating violence against women and girls, generating gender equality data and evidence, fast tracking women’s economic empowerment, ensuring education, providing access to health services and protection of women’s livelihoods in crisis settings, as well as building climate resilience in sustainable agricultural food chains that benefit women farmers.

We're at the #UNGA #SDG5 Forum with a special group of private sector and philanthropic leaders. Follow along as we show the world that #TimeIsNow for gender equality! pic.twitter.com/jnSdmIy7bC

— UN Women (@UN_Women) September 27, 2018

Global business and philanthropy leaders that pledged support at today’s event through UN Women to countries around the world included: Al Waleed Philanthropies, Chanel Foundation, Revlon, WPP and Zonta International Foundation. UN Women continues to benefit from financial support from foundations and global organizations such as Alibaba Group, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, International Olympic Committee, Procter & Gamble and Unilever, as well as public sector funding that enables private sector engagement from the European Union and the NAMA Women Advancement Establishment.

UN Women has established several mechanisms to mobilize private sector and foundations in the world’s quest to achieve SDG 5 by 2030 including the 1,800 companies that signed onto the  Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), the HeForShe impact movement, Common Ground, the GICC, and the  Unstereotype Alliance participants.

As the world comes together for #UNGA we ask business and philanthropic leaders to stand with us on 27 September to act for gender equality. The #TimeIsNow. Will you join us? pic.twitter.com/qamcZtIM07

— UN Women (@UN_Women) September 27, 2018

To date, UN Women has continued to connect women, governments, and communities to foster change across sectors, from using technology to increase the income of women in agriculture to help them secure decent jobs, to supporting the reform discriminatory laws worldwide. UN Women has trained more than 7,000 women leaders in politics and governance last year alone, and over 1.5 billion women and girls in 52 countries are better protected from violence through stronger legal frameworks.

Follow the hashtag #TimeIsNow and @UN_Women on Twitter for updates.

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UN Gender Focus: gender equality, Somalia and youth

unmultimedia.org - Women should be able to "leapfrog" into evolving world of work The world of work is changing and women should be empowered to "leapfrog" into high-tech or green jobs in the future, the Deputy-Executive Director of UN Women has said. Lakshmi Puri shared this message with delegates at a multi-stakeholder forum on "Women's Economic Empowerment in the Changing World of Work". It is also the priority theme for the latest session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) taking place in March. Speaking to Jocelyne Sambira, Ms Puri also highlighted the structural barriers to gender equality and gender-based discrimination that persist within and across national boundaries.

A "massive, structural transformation" is needed to advance women's political representation in Somalia, a female member of parliament or MP has urged. Asha Gelle Dirie was appointed Chairperson of the Committee of Goodwill Ambassadors in the Horn of Africa country to help women secure 30 per cent of seats in the Federal Parliament. Women faced a tough battle in last year's election, she recently told members of the UN Security Council, but ultimately won 25 per cent of seats. Speaking to Vibhu Mishra, Ms. Dirie called for more logistical and financial support for women in politics to "even the playing field".

‘World Must Implement Pledges on Women’s Human Rights’

ipsnews.net - ROME, Jan 31 2017 (IPS) - “Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work” will provide concrete, practical and action-oriented recommendations that will cover significant new ground, on overcoming structural barriers to gender equality, gender-based discrimination and violence against women at work, a senior United Nations official stressed. Speaking at a consultation in preparation for the Commission on the Status of Women, a body exclusively dedicated to promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment, Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), on Jan. 30 called for sustained commitment and leadership to ensure a successful outcome of the Commission.

“We are at an important [juncture] in the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment and women’s human rights,” she said.

Recalling the recent adoption of a number of far-reaching global commitments, such as Beijing+20 (the 20-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on climate change, the New Urban Agenda, and the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, Puri added:

UN Women Spotlights Child Marriage on International Day of the Girl

“Without progress for girls, there can be no real progress,” says UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

The International Day of the Girl is a day to celebrate girls -- their strength, their talents, their tenacity, their kindness, their accomplishments -- as well as to reaffirm that girls matter and how we need to do better protecting and lifting up girls everywhere. They're not property, they're not inferior to boys and men, and they have the right to determine and forge their own futures.

UN Women focuses on how an issue that often stands in the way of girls' futures: child, early and forced marriage. Presenting sobering facts and data on child marriage, the organization offers statistics, discussion, personal stories, videos and more detailing how to help, protect and empower girls around the globe. Click through to check out a thorough study into the subject, also including UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson visiting Malawi to highlight the need to end child marriage.

Learn the facts on child marriage, share your hopes for girls around the world -- and may we all lift up and celebrate all girls, all day, every day.

unwomen.org - There are 1.1 billion girls today, a powerful constituency for shaping a sustainable world that’s better for everyone. They are brimming with talent and creativity. But their dreams and potential are often thwarted by discrimination, violence and lack of equal opportunities. There are glaring gaps in data and knowledge about the specific needs and challenges that girls face.

What gets counted, gets done. The theme for this year’s International Day of the Girl Child, on 11 October, “Girls’ Progress = Goals’ Progress: A Global Girl Data Movement,” is a call for action for increased investment in collecting and analyzing girl-focused, girl-relevant and sex-disaggregated data. One year into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, improving data on girls and addressing the issues that are holding them back is critical for fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals

One such issue that is standing in the way of girls’ progress is child marriage. The data is daunting—one in three girls in developing countries (except China) get married before they turn 18. Girls who are child brides miss out on education, are more vulnerable to physical and sexual violence, and bear children before they are physically or emotionally prepared. The cycle of violence that begins in girlhood, carries over into womanhood and across generations. The 2030 Agenda must address their needs and unlock their potential.

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UN Women works around the world to empower women and girls and raise awareness on their rights, advocate for the adoption and implementation of laws and policies that prohibit and prevent child, early and forced marriage, and mobilize communities against the practice.

On the International Day of the Girl Child, we stand with the global community to support girls’ progress everywhere. Let girls be girls.

Read more

UN: Empowering Women Helps the World

The Women’s Empowerment Principles, a joint initiative of the UN Global Compact and UN Women, are a set of standards aiming to set a foundation of equality and to advocate for workplace rights for women. In this post by the UN Global Compact, learn more about the principles and how empowering women to participate fully—both economically and professionally—helps raise the standard for business and society.

Article by UN Global Compact

In collaboration with UN Women, the UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary driver of globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.

A key component to achieving several initiatives for 2015 is the empowerment of women in communities and in the workplace.

UN: Empowering Women Helps the World

Women's Empowerment Principles are a set of principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. They are the result of a collaboration between the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the United Nations Global Compact.

The Women's Empowerment Principles are: 1. Leadership promotes gender equality 2. Equal opportunity, inclusion and nondiscrimination 3. Health, safety and freedom from violence 4. Education and training 5. Enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices 6. Community leadership and engagement 7. Transparency, measuring and reporting

The Women's Empowerment Principles—Equality Means Business is a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact. The Principles outline seven steps for business on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. The Principles highlight that empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors and throughout all levels of economic activity is essential to build strong economies; establish more stable and just societies; achieve internationally agreed goals for development, sustainability and human rights; improve quality of life for women, men, families and communities; and propel business' operations and goals. Learn more at the WEP’s Website. For a full list of companies that have signed the CEO Statement of Support for the WEP’s click here: WEPs Company Database

This year, a number of global milestones—the twentieth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (PfA), the Post-2015 Development Agenda and anticipated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—provide a unique opportunity to ensure that the business community commits, contributes and is a key partner to achieving gender equality.

Winners of the Freedom from Violence Photo Competition in India send a strong message for change

Check out this amazing album from the UN Women Asia & the Pacific Flickr page, highlighting the winners of their UN Women’s Freedom from Violence Photo Competition. Photographers used their skills and time to highlight women's issues, raise awareness, send a powerful message and paint a revealing picture of what women's lives—and rights—mean for them and for the world.

Click through to view the whole gallery and to read stories about the photos. Visit them online to learn more about UN Women Asia & the Pacific.

flickr.com - Tash McCarroll, Akshita Agrawal and Animesh Malakar are the three winners of UN Women’s Freedom from Violence Photo competition.

They won Nikon Cool Pix cameras for their award-winning effort.

Akshita Agrawal recognised women's freedom of choice as central to ensuring their dignity. “A woman who has the freedom to make choices lives a life of dignity and respect,” she said.

Tash McCarroll spent four days on the streets of Mumbai in Dharavi talking to people about women's rights and taking photographs.

She saw UN Women’s Freedom from Violence Photo Competition as "a great opportunity to educate others and advocate about women's rights to different groups of people, both men and women". She believes that campaigns like this contribute to pushing for change.Tash is one of the three winners of UN Women’s Freedom from Violence Photo competition.

Here we feature the three winning pictures as well as the ten runner ups from the Freedom from Violence for Women and Girls Photo Competition.

Through the two-month long photo competition that ran from 9 December 2012 to 10 February 2013, UN Women encouraged young people to show the world what freedom from violence against women meant to them. As part of the UN Secretary General's UNiTE to End Violence against Women and Girls campaign, millions were encouraged to discuss and prevent violence against women through social media and on ground activation