Istanbul

24 May 2016

Deputy Secretary-General's opening remarks to the High-Level Leaders' Rountable on " Women and Girls; Catalyzing Action to Achieve Gender Equality [as prepared for delivery]

Jan Eliasson, Former Deputy Secretary-General

I call to order the High-level Leaders’ Roundtable on Women and Girls: Catalyzing Action to Achieve Gender Equality. [GAVEL]

I am pleased to be joined by the Co-Chairs of this roundtable:
Her Excellency Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, President of the Republic of Croatia;
His Excellency Michael Higgins, President of Ireland;
Her Excellency Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa;
Her Excellency Margot Wallstrom, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden;

Allow me to begin with some brief introductory remarks.

You are here to make commitments to advance gender equality, women’s empowerment, and women’s rights in humanitarian action. 

These goals are critical to meeting this Summit’s objectives.

We can help end need when humanitarian assistance addresses the priorities of women and girls.

We can build resilience by supporting women’s work as agents of change, and empowering them in decision-making roles.

And we can better respond to crisis by ending the scourge of violence against women and girls in emergencies.

By providing universal access to sexual and reproductive health, we will protect the wellbeing of women and girls everywhere.

By ending gender-based violence, we will provide women and girls with the security that they need to build dignified futures.

By ensuring that humanitarian programming is gender-responsive, we will lay the foundation for peaceful and inclusive societies, which are resilient to future crisis.

And by complying with humanitarian policies and  frameworks, we can guarantee that respect for gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s rights are at the heart of all we do.

This is a commitment session and we intend to lead by example. 

The United Nations today commits to ramp up action on gender equality and to strive to increase the percentage of women at all levels in the continuum of our work – from humanitarian action to development, from field to headquarters.  We will seek to surpass 40% by 2020 and achieve a 50% fully balanced workforce by 2030.  We also commit to doing more to raise awareness on the imperative of gender equality and empowerment across the organization.

With these initial words, let me now turn it over to our co-chairs for their statements.