Media Advisory: On International Women’s Day, UN Women calls on investing in women as the best solution to face growing crises

8 March 2024, 10:00 – 11:30am ET
ECOSOC Chamber, UN Headquarters

The event will bring together the UN system, Member States, civil society organisations, youth groups and others to emphasize the critical actions required to bridge gender gaps, highlight the urgent need for strategic investment in gender equality and women’s empowerment, and showcase and celebrate key successes and best practices. The opening remarks will be followed by a high-level panel discussion. The event will also feature live musical performance by Broadway singers.

Expected participants include, amongst others (subject to change):

• António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
• Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General
• Dennis Francis, President of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly
• Antonio Manuel Revilla Lagdameo, Chair of the Bureau for the 68th session of the CSW
• Sima Bahous, UN Women Executive Director
• Diene Keita, UNFPA Deputy Executive Director
• Cristina Duarte, UN Special Adviser on Africa
• Anne Hathaway, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, Actor and Activist

The event is open to UN Headquarters grounds pass holders and the UN accredited press corp. Registration is required for the in-person event, and it will be webcast on UN Web TV.

From 4 March 2024, opening/closing bells

For the 10th year, over 100 stock exchanges around the world are hosting bell ringing ceremonies around International Women’s Day (March 8), to raise awareness of the pivotal role the private sector can play in advancing gender equality. The initiative is convened by UN Women in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation, United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, UN Global Compact and the World Federation of Exchanges.

In these 10 years of collaboration, participating stock exchanges have also taken the opportunity to make public commitments to gender equality through signing the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), encouraging listed companies to advance women’s representation on boards; or developing sustainability-linked bonds with gender criteria or gender-focused bonds.

UN Women Deputy Executive Director Kirsi Madi will participate in person at the closing bell at Nasdaq, New York, on 8 March.

A list of Ring the Bell events around the world can be found here. For additional information contact weps[at]unwomen.org

11 March 2024, 10:00am – 1:00pm ET
General Assembly Hall, UN Headquarters

The official opening session of the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place in person in the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters in New York. The CSW68 priority theme, “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”, represents a unique chance to address the gender-poverty gap and solutions, such as designing and delivering inclusive, gender-responsive economic policies. The event will be broadcast on UN Web TV. More information about CSW68: https://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw68-2024

14 March 2024, 11:30am - 12:45pm ET

Conference Room 1, UN Headquarters

This event will explore innovative approaches for financing women’s economic justice and rights and for eradicating women’s poverty. It will highlight how Generation Equality’s multistakeholder model is driving concrete feminist financing and accountability strategies and policies for gender equality. An Accountability Report will be launched focusing on results from the Action Coalition on Economic Justice and Rights, pointing out progress made on this area.

To attend in person, please RSVP here or follow online on UNWeb TV.

14 March 2024, 3pm - 6pm ET

Conference Room 4, UN Headquarters

The interactive dialogue with youth representatives will focus on the exchange of experiences, sharing knowledge, lessons learned and good practices on the role of young people in addressing poverty, strengthening institutions and financing from a gender perspective.

Follow online on UNWeb TV.

15 March, 4:45 - 6:00pm ET, UN Headquarters
16 March, 9:00am - 4:00pm ET

17 March, 10:00am- 1:00pm ET

The in-person Youth Forum will host between 200 to 250 youth and adolescent participants, featuring a diverse and international assembly of young individuals, who will critically examine the impacts of current socio-economic crises on women and girls and commit and provide their recommendations for strengthening accountability mechanism, and present a declaration of commitments for advocating gender-responsive reforms in public institutions.

As seating is limited, attendance is by invite only. For inquiries please contact: youth.engage[at]unwomen.org

18 March 2024, 3:00 – 4:15pm ET

Conference Room 6, UN Headquarters

The event will bring together speakers to discuss how social protection can be harnessed to realize human rights, promote gender equality and eradicate poverty, especially in the context of multiple crises and repeated shocks. It will highlight good practices, lessons learned and country examples on how we can accelerate progress to expand social protection over the life course towards realizing rights, strengthening resilience in the face of shocks, and alleviating poverty through links with employment and livelihoods.
This event is open to UN Ground Pass holders.

20 March 2024, 3:00 – 4:15pm ET

Conference Room 4, UN Headquarters

UN Women is convening a high-level side event, in partnership with Member States, UN agencies and civil society partners to highlight how multistakeholder, issue-based coalitions at the country level, can accelerate and safeguard gender equality gains. This high-level side event will highlight good practices from countries. Examples will focus on intersectional, intergenerational and multistakeholder partnerships and issue-based coalitions that stakeholders across governments and civil society have developed to achieve change in their local and national contexts to uphold democracy and safeguard gender equality and women and girls’ rights.

This event is open to UN Ground Pass holders and participation is on a first come, first served basis. Follow the event online here.