Diverse side events hosted by different countries and NGOs
Taking place in New York from March 10-21, the 58th Commission on the Status of Women focused on the Millennium Development Goals set to expire at the end of 2015 and their achievements and challenges.
During her keynote speech delivered on March 10, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said “The theme of CSW58 is challenges and achievements in the implementation of the MDGs for women and girls. This theme is about taking stock and getting ready to move forward, so that today is better than yesterday and tomorrow is better than today.” She also highlighted that communicating across generations and focusing energy on what each generation has to do is especially important at a time when MDGs are set to expire and the landmark Beijing Platform for Action is going to celebrate its 20th anniversary. In building up to Beijing+20, UN Women launched the He for She campaign so that men and boys alike can raise their voices for gender equality.
Representatives from the United Nations and its member countries, and about 6000 representatives from 860 civil society organizations registered for CSW58. During a 12-day event, 135 events were organized by UN agencies, along with official meetings of the Commission and more than 300 parallel events held by NGOs.
On March 14, UN Women and Cherie Blair Foundation, renowned for its mentoring programs for women entrepreneurs, announced a new partnership to accelerate women’s economic empowerment over the next 12 months.
Countries and NGOs outlined a blueprint for the post-2015 agenda that stresses the importance of women’s rights, empowerment, and gender equality by hosting diverse events: Announcement on the production of publications to raise voices of African women, How the Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund is Spearheading the Market Women’s Movement Across Africa, and European Parliament’s presentation on the status of human trafficking.
On March 10, UN Women unveiled the Women in Politics Map 2014 according to which the number of women in cabinet across the world is 17.2% on average. At the beginning of the year 2014, women’s representation in cabinet went above 30% in 36 countries, up from 26 in 2012. With 14 women ministers, Nicaragua topped the list, followed by Sweden, Finland, and France. The percentage of women parliamentarians is at a record high of 21.8%, with numbers growing annually. There are 46 countries with 30% or more women parliamentarians.
