International Women’s Day Forum on increasing women’s share
March 09 , 2024
Participants at a forum held in Beijing are calling for more effort in empowering women. Titled “Invest In Women, Accelerate Progress,” the forum was jointly organized by the China International Development Cooperation Agency, UN Women and the Center for China and Globalization(CCG). Zhang Siran reports.
It’s the third year for the series of forums dedicated to women’s rights being held in Beijing on International Women’s Day. This year’s event, attended by government officials, UN agencies and experts from the private sector and civil society, aims at galvanizing cross-sector efforts towards financing and investing in women.
SMRITI ARYAL Country Representative, UN Women in China “The theme this year is invest in women: accelerate progress. This comes out of the fact that the SDG 5 is really lagging behind. And there is a massive global shortfall of funding to achieve even the three targets related to SDGs on hunger, food, security, and on women’s participation. So we do need a concerted effort towards poverty alleviation. And if women have income, they have livelihood, it has multiple-layer effect on the empowerment and overall development of women.”
According to UN Women, developing countries need 360 billion U.S. Dollars annually to address gender equality under the Sustainable Development Goals. Increasing women’s share of assets and finances benefits women and the society as a whole.
MABEL LU MIAO Co-founder & Secretary-General Center for China and Globalization “We can utilize the data and research to identify the gaps in opportunities for investing in women. Additionally, we can introduce financial incentives and instruments, or subsidies, to encourage governments and business to support, invest in women’s training and education. Therefore, we should establish a mechanism for governing and guaranteeing those improvements.”
ZHANG SIRAN Beijing “On this International Women’s Day, global efforts towards gender equality are in focus once again. According to the participants in the forum, China’s engagement in this dialogue underscores the importance of collective action in empowering women and girls everywhere to achieve their full potential. Zhang Siran, CGTN, Beijing.”
