Senior United Nations officials from around the world are marking International Women’s Day with calls to \u201cStep It Up\u201d with more resources and greater political action to achieve gender equality by 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remain outraged by the denial of rights to women and girls \u2013 but I take heart from the people everywhere who act on the secure knowledge that women’s empowerment leads to society’s advancement,\u201d Secretary-General<\/a> Ban Ki-moon said in his message<\/a> for the Day.<\/p>\n \u201cLet us devote solid funding, courageous advocacy and unbending political will to achieving gender equality around the world. There is no greater investment in our common future.\u201d<\/p>\n Listing successes during the past eight years within the UN linked to gender equality and women’s empowerment, Mr. Ban said he has signed nearly 150 letters of appointment for women in positions for Assistant Secretary-General or Under-Secretary-General.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have shattered so many glass ceilings we created a carpet of shards,\u201d he said. \u201cNow we are sweeping away the assumptions and bias of the past so women can advance across new frontiers.\u201d<\/p>\n The theme for this year’s Day is \u201cPlanet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality.\u201d The year 2030 is the deadline for the new Sustainable Development Goals<\/a> (SDGs<\/a>), which include targets on achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, as well as ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning.<\/p>\n The other half of the theme is a reference to UN Women’s Step It Up initiative, which asks governments to make national commitments that will close the gender equality gap, by the 2030 deadline.<\/p>\n As part of this initiative, more than 90 Member States have pledged concrete actions \u201cto crack some of the fundamental barriers to achievement of gender equality in their countries,\u201d said<\/a> UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.<\/p>\n Given the \u201cunprecedented\u201d expressions of political will, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka called for the beginning of a countdown to substantive gender equality by 2030, supported by accountability and measurable actions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe participation of women at all levels and the strengthening of the women’s movement has never been so critical, working together with boys and men, to empower nations, build stronger economies and healthier societies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Promoting gender equality is also a top priority guiding the work of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO<\/a>) in education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.<\/p>\n In her message<\/a>, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova called the promotion of gender equality \u201ca transformational force for more just, inclusive and sustainable development.\u201d<\/p>\n She noted that despite progress, steep obstacles remain before genuine equality is a reality for all women and girls.<\/p>\n \u201cThe new global agenda will succeed only if every country advances the rights, ingenuity and innovation of every one of its citizens, starting with girls and women,\u201d Ms. Bokova said referring to the SDGs and Agenda 2030.<\/p>\n In Geneva, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, spoke about his conversations with Syrian women who have been affected by the country’s five-year war.<\/p>\n In a video message<\/a>, Mr. de Mistura said he has been able to see the women’s \u201cenormous suffering and their dignity\u201d and yet they have retained hope and given the international community hope.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have, and must have, the right to be part of the political process and the negotiations which we, at the UN, are planning to have. They are part of the future of Syria, of the present and of the past. They have much to say and much to teach us,\u201d said Mr. de Mistura, who has established a special advisory board comprised solely of Syrian women to advise him about what is really needed in political aspects of Syria. Senior UN officials from around the world are marking International Women’s Day with calls to \u201cStep It Up\u201d with more resources and greater political action to achieve gender equality by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[59,293,5688],"class_list":["post-15892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender-equality","category-news","tag-gender","tag-gender-equality","tag-international-womens-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15892\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVia UN News Centre<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"