[Watch the video on webtv.un.org]

Warm greetings.

It is a pleasure to welcome you to this Women Rise for All leadership dialogue on “Financing a Future for Women”.

I thank UN Global Compact for convening leaders across sectors today. And I thank the International Trade Center for their continuous strategic support.

Together we are illustrating opportunities for advancing gender equality.

While women are at the frontline of the COVID-19 response—keeping people and communities alive—women are also disproportionately affected by the crisis.

Women are more likely than men to own vulnerable micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises and to work in the informal sector.  

Women shoulder the burden of unpaid work and often lack access to financial assets and services.

For these reasons and more, the United Nations Roadmap for Social and Economic Recovery advocates for a just and inclusive recovery, emphasizing the need for increased fiscal space and greater social protections for women. 

Advancing gender equality in response to the COVID-19 crisis could add $13 trillion to global Gross Domestic Product by 2030.

With targeted support, women-led businesses can play a major role in job creation and economic recovery, keeping households and businesses afloat.

Given this immense potential, I am inspired to see women leaders unite to identify, support and finance women-led businesses and to protect vulnerable workers.

Women Rise for All recognizes women as drivers of economic resilience beyond the pandemic and into the Decade of Action.

I especially want to thank Arancha González, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain—a true champion of women’s entrepreneurship.

Let’s remember together we are stronger, when women rise for all!

Thank you.