UN Women Executive Director at Women’s G7 Forum
Date:
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka will be in Rome, Italy, from 7 – 8 April, to participate at the Women’s G7 Forum (W7) “Starting from girls”. The Women’s Forum, organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, WE-Women Empower the World and the Aspen Institute, aims to foster dialogue among civil society, business, academia and the G7 institutional representatives on issues related to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The W7 Forum in Italy will be the first official convening of a formally recognized G7 women’s engagement group. The process to establish the group gained momentum in 2015 during Germany’s presidency of the G7 when Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted the G7 Forum for Dialogue with Women from 16 – 17 September, 2015 in Berlin.
The Executive Director will participate in the opening plenary session along with Mario Giro, Italy’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Benedetto Della Vedova, Under-Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Emma Bonino, President of WE-Women Empower the World and President of the European Council on Foreign Relations; Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Princess Sarah Zeid, Her Royal Highness of Jordan.
In her intervention on “The fight for gender parity: progress and obstacles”, the Executive Director will draw attention to the link between women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work—the topic of the recently concluded 61st session of the Commission of the Status of Women—and the W7 forum’s focus on ‘inequality and sustainable growth’, stressing that: “Both forums aim for transformative action to reduce gaps in workforce participation, achieve equal pay, attain sexual and reproductive health and rights, and build leadership.” Read her full statement>>
In the Ise-Shima Leaders’ Declaration of 2016, the G7 committed to create a society where all women and girls are empowered and actively engaged for sustainable, inclusive and equitable economic growth. These commitments included the promise to increase women’s workforce participation; increase technical and vocational education and training; support women in science, technology, engineering and math fields; and call on companies to integrate the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles in their activities. The W7 Women’s Forum will provide a platform to discuss how to implement these recommendations together and ensure that gender equality commitments are turned into definitive action.
UN Women will also participate in a number of the thematic working groups which will discuss issues such as: investing in girls’ economic empowerment; closing the gender gap to foster growth; social inequalities and the future of democracy; women, health and science; and women and girls on the move: refugees, migration and integration.
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