Media Advisory: UN Women at Women Deliver 2019 Global Conference
Date:
Updated with latest information on 3 June
Media Contact: media.team[at]unwomen.org
On-site [2–6 June]: zina.alam[at]unwomen.org
At the Women Deliver 2019 Global Conference, UN Women will organize several events with civil society and women’s rights activists; along with the next generations of changemakers, including youth and visionaries who were instrumental in creating the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) at the Fourth World Conference on Women more than two decades ago.
In 2020, it will be 25 years since the Beijing Platform for Action set out a roadmap on how to remove the systemic barriers that hold women and girls back from equal participation in all areas of life. Despite some progress, real change has been slow. Multiple obstacles remain unchanged in law and in culture. As a result, women continue to be discriminated against, their contributions are undervalued, they continue to work more, earn less, have fewer choices, and experience multiple forms of violence at home and in public spaces.
As the global champion for women and girls, UN Women stands at the centre of mobilizing governments and civil society to fulfill the promises of the Beijing Platform for Action to all of society. At the Women Deliver 2019 Global Conference, UN Women events will bring together senior officials and policy experts on a range of critical areas including women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, health and research and development to address key issues that can accelerate the unfinished business of empowering women and girls around the world. Below are the UN Women activities taking place at the Women Deliver 2019 Global Conference.
Editorial Spotlight: UN Women at Women Deliver 2019
UN Women events at Women Deliver:
➤Communities in Action to End Violence against All Women and Girls: This session will share practices and tools to support women and other community agents of change to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women in public and private spaces. A facilitated panel session with an intersectionality lens will capture experiences and results from our partnerships with government, women's rights organizations, grassroots women's groups, academia, and the private sector working on comprehensive programmes, supported by UN Women, including from Global Initiatives (Prevention, Essential Services, Safe Public Spaces). Speakers and panelists include: Kalliopi Mingeirou, Chief, Ending Violence against Women Section, UN Women; Lopa Banerjee, Director, Civil Society, UN Women; Rochelle Squires, Minister responsible for Status of Women, Manitoba, Canada; Alessandra Aresu, Inclusive Health Policy Lead, Humanity & Inclusion; Katja Freiwald, Global Director Partnerships & Advocacy Gender, Unilever; Cheryl Thomas, Global Rights for Women
2 June, 10 a.m.–12 p.m., Room 202-204, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤The Future of Work in the 21st Century: A panel session on the future of work that will bring together key leaders in the business community and public sector to discuss the changing world of work and its implications for women's economic empowerment. The jobs of the future are a key emerging area that is galvanizing both excitement and concern: if we are not making drastic and transformative changes to the economy and labour market, women and girls risk will lose out on what the 21st century labour market, workplace and marketplace have to offer. Speakers include United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
2nd June, 3–5 p.m., Room 220, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤Making Connections, Demanding Rights: The power to choose, power to decide, and power to seek services can successfully lead to women and girls realizing their rights to sexual and reproductive health services. Barriers to women’s access to health and rights are not primarily medical in nature—they are social, cultural, economic and political. Speakers will discuss how and why a gender equality and women’s empowerment approach is critical to improve health and development outcomes for women and girls. Speakers include United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka; Deborah Birx, Global AIDS Coordinator and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy; Samina Naeem Khalid, Reproductive Health Research Center, White Ribbon Alliance – Pakistan; Nyasha Sithole, ATHENA Network; Terry McGovern, Chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University. Reception to follow.
2nd June, 6–8 p.m., Room 212, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤From Problem Statement to Problem Solving: Advancing Solutions for Gender Data: Closed roundtable meeting bringing together donors from governments and foundations for an off-the-record discussion on the progress achieved since the Women Deliver Conference in 2016, lessons learned and the challenges that still remain, including the financing needed to ensure more and better production and use of gender data. Co-hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Data2X, and UN Women.
3rd June, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Pacific Hotel; this meeting is by-invitation only.
➤UN Women Press Conference: Beijing+25: Time is now for Bold, Urgent, Robust Actions:2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the 4th UN World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action—the international blueprint to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment. The context for the realization of the rights of women and girls has significantly shifted since 1995. While no country has achieved gender equality, feminist advocacy and women’s activism has increased worldwide. Yet, feminist gains are experiencing reversals in all contexts, with civil society activists facing reprisals and attacks. At the press conference, UN Women will share its plans for collective mobilization for 2020 to counter the polarization that the gender equality agenda is facing. Led by Lopa Banerjee, Director of Civil Society Division, UN Women. Speakers include: Kalliope Mingeirou, Chief, Ending Violence Against Women, UN Women; Nazneen Damji, Policy Advisor, Gender Equality, HIV and Health, UN Women; as well as other senior experts from UN Women.
5 June, 4.15-5 p.m., Press Conference Room, Vancouver Convention Center
➤Power of Community—Advocates Organizing Around Beijing+25: The 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 2020 presents us with a unique opportunity to galvanize collective action towards achieving gender equality. Join UN Women and Womankind in an open and informal dialogue on how to use this moment to strengthen the feminist movement and counter the global pushback on women's rights. Open to all participants. Speakers include UN Women Director of Civil Society Division Lopa Banerjee.
6 June, 10.30 a.m.–12 p.m., Room 202-204, Vancouver Convention Centre
UN Women senior officials will be speaking at the following sessions:
➤Power. Progress. Change. Women Deliver 2019 Global Conference Opening Press Conference Women Deliver: President/CEO Katja Iversen joins heads of state, the Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and a Women Deliver Young Leader to open the Women Deliver 2019 Conference
3 June, 2.30-3.30 p.m., Virtual conference on wd2019.org
➤Face to Face on WD Live: Join CNN International journalist Hannah Vaughan Jones for a one-on-one high-profile conversation with United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as she gives her take on the status of women’s rights around the world today. This interview will be streamed live over Women Deliver’s YouTube, Facebook, and on wd2019.org.
4 June, 10.30–11.00 a.m., Broadcast live on WD Live
➤Experts Desk—UN Women’s Chief Statistician Papa Seck will be available for Q&A: Papa Seck leads statistics and data work at UN Women and contributes to UN Women’s research work, including co-authoring two editions of Progress of the World’s Women as well as various other research products. He leads UN Women's efforts to monitor the SDGs and for the past year has coordinated the UN System’s efforts to ensure the inclusion of strong gender indicators in the SDGs. Full bio below.
4 June, 12–12.30 p.m., Media Centre, Vancouver Convention Centre
UN Women will also speak at the following official events during Women Deliver:
➤Youth Pre-Conference—Speaking Truth to Power: Young people are changing the world today, creating the reality of tomorrow. Speaking up, challenging norms, collaborating, and building networks—young advocates are driving positive change in their communities, countries and around the world. Speakers include United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
3 June, 8 a.m.–2 p.m., Plenary Hall, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤Plenary 2—The Power of Now—Taking stock of where we stand and what opportunities and challenges lie ahead: A dynamic discussion between leaders from civil society, the UN, government, and private sector, on opportunities and challenges ahead. Panellists include United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
4 June, 8.30–10 a.m., Plenary Hall, Vancouver Convention Centre, broadcast on WD Live
Concurrent Sessions:
➤Women's Rights and LGBTI Rights—Stronger Together: LGBTI and women’s rights advocates are more powerful together. This session will tackle patterns of exclusion that contribute to homophobia and transphobia among women’s organizations and the ways LGBTI groups can be patriarchal. Speakers include UN Women Director of Civil Society Division Lopa Banerjee. Hosted by CREA, International Women’s Health Coalition, Outright Action International.
4 June, 10.30 a.m.–12 p.m., Room 215-216, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤How Advertisers and Advocates are Dismantling Gender Stereotypes in Media: This session will show how advertising and media can challenge gender stereotypes and biases, change people’s perceptions of ‘others,’ and reduce discrimination. Speakers include UN Women Director of Civil Society Division Lopa Banerjee. Hosted by Global Citizen, Global Press Institute, Lisa Russell Films/Create 2030, RNW Media.
4 June, 1.30–2.30 p.m., Room 301-305, Vancouver Convention Centre, broadcast on WD Live
➤Advancing Women in the Workplace, Today and in the Future—The Power of Parity: Five years ago, a McKinsey report found that countries could add USD 12 trillion to GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s equality on both social and economic indicators. This panel will discuss policies and best practices to advance women in the workplace, as well as new imperatives for women in an age of automation. Speakers include UN Women Policy Advisor on Women’s Economic Empowerment Anna Falth. Hosted by McKinsey Global Institute and UN Foundation.
5 June, 12–1.30 p.m., Room 221-222, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤In the Wake of #MeToo, What Does the Workplace Look Like Now?: In the era of #MeToo, sexual harassment is being taken more seriously and more companies are finally addressing toxic workplace culture and the power dynamics that enable it. Speakers include UN Women Director of Civil Society Division Lopa Banerjee. Hosted by Catalyst.org, Mercer, and P&G.
5 June, 10.30 a.m.–12 p.m., Room 301-305, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤24 years later, are women’s rights human rights?: As we look forward to the 25th anniversary of Beijing Platform for Action (adopted at the historic Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995) next year, or toward efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 in 2020, women’s rights are still under attack. With the rise of misogynistic, populist, and nationalist movements, and dwindling resources for feminist and women’s rights organizations, how can we achieve our goals? Speakers include UN Women Director of Civil Society Division Lopa Banerjee. Hosted by Cameroon Centre for Integrated Development (CCID), International Center for Research on Women.
5 June, 3–4 p.m., Room 301-305, Vancouver Convention Centre
Partner Side Events:
➤Creating a Gender Equal World—The Transformative Power of Women’s Rights to Land: This session will showcase the transformative power of realizing women’s rights to land. UN Women Chief Statistician Papa Seck will share perspectives on the linkages between women’s land rights and gender equality and women’s and girls’ (economic) empowerment. Hosted by Landesa.
2 June, 6–8 p.m., Room 221-222, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤Decoding Fintech and Capturing the Opportunities for Financial Inclusion and Gender Equality: The panel will discuss how private enterprise and investors can work with the public sector to ensure that targeted investment aims to match financial inclusion outcomes. Panellists include United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Hosted by Toronto Centre-Global Leadership for Financial Supervision.
3 June, 1.30–3 p.m., Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, Cheakamus Room
➤From Charlevoix to Biarritz and Beyond—The G7 as an Accelerator for Gender Equality?: This year marks the second year of the Gender Equality Advisory Council to the G7 Presidency, and WD2019 provides an opportunity to reaffirm and call for ambitious, sustainable commitments to advance gender equality in and outside G7 countries. Participants include United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who is a member of the Council. Hosted by Women Deliver, Government of Canada, and Government of France.
4 June, 8–10 p.m., Room 109, Vancouver Convention Centre, by invitation only
➤Launch of the report—’State of the World's Fathers’: Join the launch of State of the World’s Fathers, a globally recognized, biennial report and advocacy platform produced by Promundo on behalf of MenCare: A Global Fatherhood Campaign. Speakers include United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Hosted by Promundo and Unilever, Dove Men+Care, the Governments of Sweden and Iceland, Plan International.
5 June, 12–1.30 p.m., Room 211, Vancouver Convention Centre
Spotlight Initiative events:
➤Beyond the Hashtag—Power and Women’s Movements in the Era of #MeToo: This session will look at how we can expand resources to community-based organizations, particularly girl- and women-centered and -led organizations. Hosted by the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative, Together for Girls, MenEngage, and UNFPA.
4th June, 10.30 a.m.–12 p.m., Room 301-305, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤Let’s Talk About Power—Structural Gender Inequalities and Gender-Based Violence: Gender-based violence (GBV) emerges from unequal power relations and is normalized under a patriarchal system of oppression in which girls and women are treated as having lower status than boys and men. Hosted by the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative, Together for Girls, MenEngage, UNFPA.
5 June, 3–4 p.m., Room 211, Vancouver Convention Centre
➤Sex and Power—The Dynamics Between Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV): Intimate partner violence and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) can directly impact sexual and reproductive health (SRHR)—from the ability to access and utilize family planning tools, to an increased risk of unintended pregnancy, and sexual transmitted infections. On the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development and its Programme of Action, this session examines successful interventions and linkages between SRHR and GBV. Hosted by the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative, Together for Girls, MenEngage, UNFPA.
6 June, 1.30–2.30 p.m., Room 211, Vancouver Convention Centre
UN Women Senior Officials available for interviews at Women Deliver 2019:
Please contact media.team[at]unwomen.org to set up interviews.
On-site [2–6 June]: zina.alam[at]unwomen.org
➤Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN Women
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. She was sworn into office on 19 August 2013 and brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this position, having devoted her career to issues of human rights, equality and social justice. Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka has worked in government and civil society, and with the private sector, and was actively involved in the struggle to end apartheid in her home country of South Africa.
From 2005 to 2008, she served as Deputy President of South Africa, overseeing programmes to combat poverty and bring the advantages of a growing economy to the poor, with a particular focus on women. Prior to this, she served as Minister of Minerals and Energy from 1999 to 2005 and Deputy Minister in the Department of Trade and Industry from 1996 to 1999. She was a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 1996 as part of South Africa’s first democratic government.
Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka began her career as a teacher and gained international experience as a coordinator at the World YWCA in Geneva, where she established a global programme for young women. She is the founder of the Umlambo Foundation, which supports leadership and education. A longtime champion of women’s rights, she is affiliated with several organizations devoted to education, women’s empowerment and gender equality.
She has completed her PhD on education and technology at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
➤Lopa Banerjee
Director, Civil Society Division, UN Women
Lopa Banerjee is the Director of the Civil Society Division at UN Women. She leads UN Women’s work on partnering with, supporting and strengthening women’s rights groups and civil society networks as well as their contribution, participation and influence in policy discussion at global, regional and national levels.
Lopa’s work focuses on partnership development with civil society organizations to influence global action on gender equality, in particular related to standard setting, policy discussion and stakeholder accountability. She leads UN Women’s strategic engagement, advocacy and alliance building initiatives with women’s and human rights groups, social justice actors and stakeholders including faith-based constituencies, men and boys’ groups, trade union movements, youth groups, among others, to promote intersectional partnerships for gender equality. She supports UN Women’s convening role in creating dialogue platforms and opportunities where UN Women engages multiple stakeholders – civil society, think tanks, academia, member states for political influence and support for the gender equality agenda.
A gender and human rights thematic expert with substantive experience in social policy and governance issues across Asia and Africa, Lopa has worked for over 3 decades on international development, policy advocacy, communication and partnership building, across the UN and in the private sector. Prior to the UN she worked with the private sector as well as with civil society, in India. Before joining UN Women, Lopa worked with UNDP and OHCHR in South Africa and UNICEF in Iran (the Islamic Republic of), Bangladesh and New York. In India, Lopa worked for several years in communication, research and advocacy.
Lopa’s areas of specialization include feminist policy advocacy and analysis, and inclusive partnership development and engagement. She lives in New York City.
➤Papa Seck
Chief Statistician, Research & Development Section, UN Women
Papa Seck is the Chief Statistician at UN Women. Since joining UN Women in 2009, he has led statistics and data work at UN Women and has also contributed to the Research work of UN Women more broadly, including co-authoring two editions of Progress of the World’s Women as well as various other research products. He leads UN Women's efforts to monitor the SDGs and for the past year has coordinated the UN System’s efforts to ensure the inclusion of strong gender indicators in the SDGs.
He led the development of UN Women's flagship programme initiative on gender statistics: Making Every Woman and Girl Count, to improve the production and use of gender relevant statistics and to help countries systematically monitor the Sustainable Development Goals form a gender perspective, and is currently leading its implementation. He also helped to develop of the Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) programme, in collaboration with the UN Statistics Division, to develop innovative new measures and standards to measure asset ownership and entrepreneurship from a gender perspective.
➤Nazneen Damji
Policy Advisor, Gender Equality, HIV and Health, UN Women
Nazneen Damji is the Policy Advisor for Gender Equality, HIV and Health at UN Women. With over 20 years of professional experience promoting women’s rights and gender equality, she oversees UN Women’s policy and programming efforts on gender equality dimensions of HIV and AIDS, as well as, women’s health, including sexual and reproductive rights. She brings particular expertise on the socio-economic impact of HIV and AIDS on households. She holds an MSc. in Economics (Gender and Development) from the London School of Economics.
➤Anna Falth
Senior Global Programme Manager, WE Empower Programme of the European Union, UN Women and International Labour Organization
Anna Fälth manages the EU-funded programme “WE EMPOWER through responsible business conduct in G7 countries”. As such, Anna heads the Women’s Empowerment Principles Secretariat and leads the online platform EmpowerWomen.org, promoting online collaboration, learning and innovation to advance women’s economic empowerment across the world. Anna is also responsible for spearheading WeLearn, a virtual skills school that will tackle some of the skills gaps faced by women and girls for the jobs of the future. An economist, Anna has more than 20 years of experience as economic advisor within the UN system, including UNCTAD, UN-DESA, UNDP and UN Women. She has a MSc in Economics from Lund University, Sweden, and a Masters in Law and Economic from Hamburg University, Germany.
➤Kalliopi Mingeirou
Chief, Ending Violence against Women Section, UN Women
Kalliopi Mingeirou is currently the Chief of the Ending Violence against Women Section at UN-Women in New York. She has been leading global initiatives, including diverse inter-agency initiatives, on prevention of and responses to violence against women and girls in public and private spaces. She is a lawyer by training and holds an LL.M. on public international law. Prior to joining UN-Women, Ms. Mingeirou worked as a lawyer in Greece, and at the international level, she worked for UN agencies, as well as INGOs, in the areas of human rights, women’s human rights and refugee protection in several countries both in development and humanitarian settings.