‘Ending all forms of discrimination and violence against women by 2030 is the mission of our time’ – Executive Director

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Good afternoon, Mr. President, members of the bureau, members of the board,distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends, 

I would like to thank youfor guiding this annual session of the UN Women Executive Board to a successfulconclusion.

I especially thank the President, the bureau members, UN Womencolleagues, the Secretary of the Executive Board and his team for all the workput into the preparations of this session.

I believe that this session markeda turning point for UN Women. Over the past three days, you have celebrated oursuccess and achievements, and not only our potential.

You acknowledge thatUN Women has until now been under-resourced, and you have committed to supportus both politically and financially.

On behalf of all of us at UN Women, Ithank all Member States very much for your numerous expressions of appreciationand support to UN Women.

We are indeed pleased with what we haveaccomplished together over the last years - the institution we have built - thepartnerships we have strengthened, and, as you have so eloquently underscored,the results we have achieved, which has led to higher expectations.

Thisboard session came at a strategic moment as the Beijing+20 review and post-2015appraisal process is underway.

UN Women looks forward to working with all ofyou for a dynamic, forward-looking and inclusive process to strengthen actiontowards achievement of gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment.

On the opening day of the session, we reviewed the strategic plan andthe progress we have made, with a focus on the year 2013.

The reportgives to the board an opportunity to use the lessons learnt to review theimplementation of UN Women’s current Strategic Plan for the period 2014 to 2017.

We also have the outcome of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)58 and the latest report of the Open Working Group on Sustainable DevelopmentGoals.

UN Women welcomes the strong support of Open Working Group membersfor a goal on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and the integration ofgender equality dimensions in all other goals through gender-sensitive targetsand indicators.

For proposed goal 5: Attain gender equality, empower womenand girls, UN Women is calling for the title of the goal to include: fullyrealize their human rights everywhere.

UN Women looks forward to working withall of you to realize the future women want by 2030.

We also welcomeyour support for evaluation. I noted that Member States highly appreciated thejoint efforts of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United NationsPopulation Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF and UN Women on evaluating the impact of theirpartnership on joint programmes on gender equality.

The pledging eventyesterday was a second success after the turning point of last year. I am surewe will have even more success in 2015. There is appreciation of ouraccomplishments and recognition that UN Women deserves a new and higher level ofsupport.

I am pleased to report that 44 countries took the floor atyesterday’s pledging event, and UN Women now has a total of 82 pledges.

We have 39 multi-year pledges, nine countries with increased funding, and threecountries that pledged for the first time. The pledging event was an unqualifiedsuccess.

We agree with Sweden that the time has come for a dialogue onstructural financing and we look forward to pursuing this as part of ourenhanced resource mobilization strategy. We intend to be innovative in ourfundraising.

We also take note of discussions on current administrativeservices provided to UN Women and will look into more independent services inthe medium to long-term.

Yesterday we had a chance to focus on theoperational response of UN Women at country level. We heard from UN Womenrepresentative in Papua New Guinea on the implementation of the safe citiesprogramme.

We saw real challenges and opportunities to align ournormative, operational and advocacy mandate. We saw how support and resourcesare desperately needed to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.

And today on the third and final day of the session we had a chance tofocus on the report on audit and investigation and on the a joint event UN Womenwas coordinating for the first time this year, the Joint field visit of theExecutive Boards of UNDP/UNFPA/United Nations Office for Project Services(UNOPS), UNICEF, UN-Women and the World Food Programme (WFP) to Panama and ElSalvador.

The visit was commended by all of you. You commended UN Womencoordinating the organization of the visit taking into account the smallcapacity of the entity.

I take this occasion to thank you again thePresident of UN Women Executive Board for being the team leader and all therapporteurs for the hard work they have been doing collecting suggestions andrecommendations and writing together the report.

I would like also tothank you Ms. Vanda Pignato Secretary of Social inclusion of El Salvador thatpresented the board with the Ciudad Mujer project, an emblematic programme thatis changing the life of thousands of women in El Salvador.

During thisannual session, you have advised us on many important matters and on behalf ofUN Women, I thank you. We do not just want to hear praise, but also yourcriticism, advice and guidance. We cherish an open dialogue!

We havetaken note of your comments, suggestions and decisions and will take themforward as we move ahead.

In our focus on resource mobilization, we willcontinue to widen and deepen our donor base in part through country-specificoutreach to traditional and non-traditional donors. We want to encourage doubledigit contributions amongst UN Member States while reaching out to the privatesector.

We will look for innovative approaches, which we will share withyou. At the same time, we urge you to re-prioritize and frontload contributionsto UN Women to enable us to fully deliver on our mandate and the results in ourstrategic plan.

I welcome the small, medium and large donations! Yoursupport is a testament to your commitment to the achievement of gender equalityand the empowerment of women on a universal scale.

We want to reach apoint where our discussions are no longer focused on our shortage of funds, butrather on our collaboration and concrete accomplishments for the future womenwant by 2030.

We want to direct our energy and total commitment to themission of our time which is to end all forms of discrimination and violenceagainst women and girls by 2030.

I thank the board for its commitment andthe good work of the Secretariat and our staff. We are moving forward withrenewed energy after this board session.

I call upon all Member Statesto commit themselves to the Beijing +20 review and appraisal process. Thecampaign is a call for action, the momentum for change.

We expect to seeyou at the Apollo Theater on 26 June for our special event when we celebrate ourBeijing+20 campaign, Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity.This is not amission impossible. This is a mission of our time!

I thank you and lookforward to working with on our shared mission!