UN Women brings focus on gender at international meetings on world economy and finance
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UN Women will be represented at the highest level in the upcoming Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group (Bank) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), taking place in Washington D.C., USA, from 21 - 23 April. Each year, the Spring Meetings bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, private sector executives, and academics. Represented by its Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Deputy Executive Director Yannick Glemarac, UN Women will aim to ensure that gender is at centre of the agenda at this year’s meetings.
Simultaneously, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri will participate in the Migration and Gender discussion organized by the Organization of American States, alongside high-level representatives from Central America, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO) on 20 April.
At the plenary session on the flagship event on Boosting Women’s Economic Empowerment, on 20 April, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka’s opening remarks will focus on the findings of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel report on Women’s Economic Empowerment, which was released last month, to mobilize development partners around actions to accelerate women’s economic empowerment in countries.
The plenary session will be co-chaired with World Bank’s President Jim Y. Kim and panellists include Luis Guillermo Solis, President of Costa Rica and HLP co-chair (by video); Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance of Canada; Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of Finance of Indonesia; Simona Scarpaleggia, CEO of IKEA Switzerland and HLP co-chair; and Sigve Brekke, President and CEO, Telenor.
UN Women’s Executive Director will also take part in the Toronto Centre Executive Panel on Closing the Gender Gap in Finance on 21 April, accompanied by UN Women’s Deputy Executive Director, Yannick Glemarec.
While considerable progress has been made in increasing access to financial services, the gap in usage by women relative to men persists in many countries, and there is an even larger gender gap in management of financial institutions. The Toronto Centre Executive Panel will spotlight the need to eliminate the gaps in women’s access to and use of financial services, as a crucial step towards economic development and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.