UN Secretary-General issues a congratulatory message on International
Women’s Day

armradio.am
08.03.2008 11:48

At the 2005 World Summit, Governments of all nations agreed that
`progress for women is progress for all’. Yet the 10-year review of the
implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action revealed a serious
gap between policy and practice in many countries. A lack of political
will is reflected in the most telling way of all: lack of resources and
insufficient budgetary allocations. That is why the theme of this
International Women’s Day is `Investing in Women and Girls’.

This failure of funding undermines not only our endeavors for gender
equality and women’s empowerment as such; it also holds back our
efforts to reach all the Millennium Development Goals. As we know from
long and indisputable experience, investing in women and girls has a
multiplier effect on productivity and sustained economic growth. No
measure is more important in advancing education and health, including
the prevention of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as likely to improve
nutrition, or reduce infant and maternal mortality.

We do have some progress to build on. Financial resources have been
mobilized in increasing women’s employment, enhancing the role of
microfinance, advancing credit for enterprises for women, and driving
public finance reforms. More than 50 countries have launched
gender-responsive budgeting initiatives. The private sector is scaling
up efforts to finance women’s economic empowerment, and women’s funds
and foundations are emerging as innovative sources of financing.

But we must do more. All of us in the international community —
Governments, multilateral Organizations, bilateral institutions and the
private sector — need to calculate the economic costs of persistent
gender inequality, and the resources required to remedy it. We need to
create mechanisms for tracking investments in gender equality. We need
to monitor and report resource allocations on a regular basis. We need
to adjust domestic budgets as well as international aid flows to real
needs, and ensure that they are sustained.

In the United Nations family too, we need to better match demands with
resources. The resources available for gender mainstreaming must be
made more sustainable and predictable — particularly at the regional
and country levels. And to make a real difference, our gender-specific
machinery needs funding that is commensurate with the challenges. I
firmly believe that one dynamic and strengthened gender entity,
consolidating resources currently scattered among several structures,
would attract better funding from the donor community. By mobilizing
forces of change at the global level, and inspiring enhanced results at
the country level, such an entity would better advance our cause to
empower women and realize gender equality worldwide. I urge Member
States to muster the political will to bring the consultations on this
issue to a successful conclusion.

This year we find ourselves at the mid-point in the race to reach the
Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015. Only by
investing in the world’s women and girls can we expect to reach our
destination. On this International Women’s Day, let us resolve to unite
in this mission.