International Women ’s Day, 2021Women’s Leadership in the Global Recovery from COVID-19 Pandemic

UN Women China Qinghai programme beneficiaries. Credit: UN WomenBy Siddharth Chatterjee and Smriti AryalBEIJING, Mar 6 2021 (IPS) Today is International Women’s Day (IWD), and the theme for this year’s celebration is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” We recognize the tremendous contribution and leadership demonstrated by women and girls around the world in shaping our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and a more sustainable future. A global review of the progress achieved towards commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women 25 years ago in Beijing, conducted by UN Women in 2020, reveals that no country has fully delivered on the Beijing Platform for Action, nor is close to it. Globally, women currently hold just one-quarter of the seats at the tables of power across the board and are absent from some key decision-making spaces, including in peace and climate negotiations. This reality is despite the advances that we can see globally: there are now more girls in school than ever before, fewer women are dying in childbirth, and over the past decade, 131 countries have passed laws to support women’s equality. However, progress has been too slow and uneven. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is further exacerbating pre-existing inequalities and threatening to halt or reverse the gains from decades of collective effort – with data revealing that the pandemic will push 47 million more women and girls below t...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Civil Society Education Gender Gender Violence Global Health Humanitarian Emergencies Inequity Labour Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations Women & Economy Women in Politics Women's Health International Women's Day 2021 Source Type: news