UN chief unveils global empowerment plan for women, girls

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday launched a plan to boost empowerment of women and girls around the world, reported Xinhua.

"Equality is overdue; to achieve it, we must match rhetoric with resources," stated the UN chief during an International Women's Day event focused on investing in women and girls at the UN headquarters in New York, as he detailed the plan.

"We must invest in women and girls, turbocharge progress and build a better world for us all," he said.

The secretary-general's new UN System-Wide Gender Equality Acceleration Plan "commits to placing women and girls at the center of our work across the board."

"We will support governments around the world to design and implement policies, budgets and investments that respond to the needs of women and girls," Guterres said.

The new plan comes against a global backlash against women's rights that is threatening and sometimes reversing progress in developing and developed countries alike, he said, pointing to such egregious examples as Afghanistan's gender-based restrictions on school and work outside the home and The Gambia's consideration of legalizing the harmful practice of female genital mutilation.

"The global crises we face are hitting women and girls hardest, from poverty and hunger to climate disasters, war and terror," he said.

Over the past year, horrific reports on the impact of conflict which effects women and girls around the world have emerged, from testimonies of rape and trafficking in Sudan to recent reports on sexual violence during the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, said the UN chief.

Targeted programs and quotas may be required to tackle "baked-in bias" and dismantle obstacles to equality, Guterres said, urging member states at the forthcoming Summit of the Future in September to support proposals for metrics that go beyond gross domestic product (GDP).

GDP disregards domestic labor carried out by billions of women while complementary metrics provide a more comprehensive and balanced picture, he said.

In addition, resolving gender bias in poverty is critical, he added.

"At our current rate of change, full legal equality for women is some 300 years away," as is the end of child marriage, the UN chief said.

By 2030, over 340 million women and girls will still be living in extreme poverty, some 18 million more than men and boys, unless action is taken now. "That is an insult to women and girls, and a brake on all our efforts to build a better world," he said. "We must drastically up the pace of change."

Highlighting three priority areas for action to make investments in women and girls a reality, the top UN official said the first step is urgently increasing affordable, long-term finance for sustainable development.

The second step requires governments to prioritize equality for women and girls through such efforts as his newly launched plan and the final action area is to increase the number of women in leadership positions, which can help to drive investment in policies and programs that meet the needs of women and girls.

Also addressing the commemoration, UN Women's Executive Director Sima Bahous said the UN's values and principles "have never been as challenged as today."

"Poverty has a female face," she said. "When more women are economically empowered, economies grow."

Likewise, empowerment translates into helping families flourish alongside peace and justice for all, she said, stressing that "we need a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza now," as more than 9,000 women have been killed in Israeli attacks.

Gender equality is "absolutely non-negotiable," said UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed during a panel discussion.

"The atrocities, the tragedies, the burden of pain and sacrifice are every day," she said. "We need to speak out on it..."

The commemoration also featured open remarks by UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis, the chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, Antonio Manuel Revilla Lagdameo, presentations by young entrepreneurs, a panel discussion with Amina Mohammed, and Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund, Catherine Russell.