50 Years of Apollo 11: Celebrating the Past and Building the Future of Humanity in Space

– As delivered –

Statement by H.E. Mrs. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of the 73^rd Session of the UN General Assembly

19 July 2019

Ms. Anousheh Ansari, CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation,

Mr. Frank White, Founder of the Overview Effect,

Mr. Ron Garan, Social Entrepreneur and former Astronaut,

Mr. Kunal Sood, founder of NOVUS,

Entrepreneurs, Astronauts, current and future leaders,

It is a real privilege to celebrate with you the 50^th anniversary of the moon landing, and the wonderful

initiative by NOVUS, Google and NASA to put the first woman on the moon by 2024.

I was a little girl when Apollo 11 set off on its historic journey – big enough to feel the sense of excitement, but still small enough to think that going to the moon is just another thing that grown-ups do, from time to time. And I think there is a lot to be said for maintaining this dual approach in later life.

The aims of the United Nations are grand: peace, sustainable development and human rights for all. At the same time, we must treat them as goals that we can achieve, that we must achieve.

So today I would like to focus on two key ingredients we need to get there: first, gender equality and women’s empowerment, and second, stronger partnerships with business and entrepreneurs, with the tech and space communities, and with young people.

The first issue is particularly close to my heart. Last year, I became only the fourth woman in UN history to be elected as President of the General Assembly.  Since then, I have used every opportunity to empower women and make their voices heard.

I had the honor of meeting Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina in space, at an event I organized to boost women’s leadership and participation. Today, I’m delighted to have Anousheh Ansari in the room – the first female space tourist and first Muslim woman to leave the Earth’s atmosphere. I thank you, and all the trailblazers here, for your role in inspiring women and girls.

But while it is important to celebrate pioneering women, I am also frustrated that we still need to break these barriers, when all women and girls should be flying high.

And I say this not only because it is the right thing to do. But because there is simply no way that we can achieve the future we want without harnessing the full potential of women and girls.

This week, governments have been discussing the Sustainable Development Goals – a set of targets adopted by world leaders in 2015 to build a safer, fairer and more sustainable world. And my advice to them has been: focus on gender equality. It is the closet thing we have to a “magic formula” for reaching these Goals. There is a wealth of evidence to prove it.

Studies have shown that addressing the gender deficit could add as much as $12 trillion dollars to global GDP by 2025. When women are well represented in parliaments, there is greater investment in health, education and social protection. When women participate in peace processes, they are more likely to last at least 15 years. These are just a few examples of the transformative impact of women’s empowerment.

And still, women and girls face discrimination in every sector and region of the world. As this audience will know, women and girls are particularly under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Globally, less than 30% of researchers are women and under a third of female students select STEM-related subjects in higher education. Women in STEM are generally paid less, receive fewer citations and are less likely to progress to leadership roles.

This cannot go on. The UN estimates that we need some 2.5 million new engineers and technicians to improve clean water and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa. We need more statisticians to analyze big data, and innovators to work on green technologies. Men alone cannot make up this shortfall. Men alone cannot design solutions to meet the needs of all the world’s people.

We must work together to improve legislation and HR policies; to combat harassment and stereotyping; to celebrate women’s achievements; and to ask girls what support they need.

Let me now turn briefly to the role of partnerships. Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong had to move the landing point of the Eagle to avoid landing in a rocky crater. Today, it is humanity that needs a course correction.

The climate crisis is exacerbating longstanding challenges such as poverty and conflict, and we are approaching a cliff edge – with just 11 years left to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and only one to change course on emissions.

It is crystal clear that we cannot overcome these challenges through government action alone. Leadership must come from all sectors. For example, we need space organizations to provide geospatial data to support policy-making. We need business, academia, tech and media to drive the transition to the green economy, which could add $26 trillion dollars to the global economy by 2030. And we need the passion, ideas, and urgency that young people bring to the table.

Dear friends,

Buzz Aldrin described Apollo as “the story of people at their best, working together for a common goal”. That encapsulates, more clearly than any long UN document,

what we are trying to do. So I thank you for inviting me today. I hope that we can write this new story – of the world we want and the future we need – together.

Thank you.