Message
of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, for International
Women’s Day 2015
03 March 2015
In 1995, at the Fourth World
Conference on Women in Beijing, world leaders committed to a future where women
are equal.
One hundred and eighty nine
countries and 4,000 civil society organizations, attended the conference.
Women left Beijing with high
hopes, with a well-defined path towards equality, and firm commitments at the
highest level. Their hope was that we would see this by 2005.
Today, not one single country has
achieved equality. It is more urgent than ever that we define – and stick to –
a time frame.
There has been some progress in
the last 20 years – although it has been slow and uneven.
Countries have narrowed the
gender gap in education and some have even reached gender parity in school enrolment.
They have reduced the toll of
maternal mortality and morbidity. Many more women survive pregnancy and
childbirth than in 1995.
Many countries have created
institutions that address gender inequality. Many have passed laws against
gender-based discrimination. Many have made domestic violence a crime.
This is all good news.
And yet we are still a long way
from achieving equality between men and women, boys and girls. Implementation of good policies
has been patchy. Allocation of the resources needed for effective
implementation has been insufficient to fund women’s ministries, gender
commissions, gender focal points, and gender-responsive budgeting.
For too many women, especially in
the least-developed countries, not enough has changed.
In Africa, 70 per cent of crop
production depends on women yet women still own only 2 per cent of the land.
Violence against women continues
to blight lives in all countries of the world.
And no country has achieved
gender equality.
Women need change and humanity
needs change. This we can do together; women and girls, men and boys, young and
old, rich and poor.
The evidence is overwhelming of
the benefits that equality can bring. Economies grow, poverty is alleviated,
health status climbs, and communities are more stable and resilient to
environmental or humanitarian crises.
Women want their leaders to renew
the promises made to them. They want leaders to recommit to the Beijing
Declaration, to the Platform for Action, and to accelerated and bolder
implementation. They want more of their leaders
to be women. And they want those women, together with men, to dare to change
the economic and political paradigms. Gender parity must be reached before
2030, so that we avert the sluggish trajectory of progress that condemns a
child born today to wait 80 years before they see an equal world.
Today, on International Women’s
Day, we call on countries to “step it up” for gender equality, with substantive
progress by 2020. Our aim is to reach ‘Planet 50:50’ before 2030.
The world needs full equality in
order for humanity to prosper.
Empower women, empower humanity.
I am sure you can picture an equal world! |
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