Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Unilever, yesterday at a United Nations event in New York made commitment worth millions of dollars to promote gender equality .
Commitments made at the Business and Philanthropy Leader’s Forum, hosted by the UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women (UN Women), seeks to close the deep financing gaps that hinder progress for women and girls.
The forum, co-hosted with Alibaba Group and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, received contributions of $5 million and $1 million from these organizations, respectively.
Achieving gender equality is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a 2030 Agenda, which world leaders adopted on Friday.
According to UN Women, gender equality is crucial to realizing the “transformative promise” of the new global development agenda.
“There can be no gender equality without investment and willingness to change the status quo,” Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the agency’s director said adding that to make 2030 the expiry date for all forms of gender discrimination, everywhere, all businesses will need to step up essential investments in gender equality.
Executive Chairman, of Alibaba, Jack Ma noted that achieving gender equality by 2030 is an ambitious, yet realistic goal in the modern age and the private sector has a critical role to play.
Melinda Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of the Gates Foundation, also noted that the world is moving in the right direction because women are pushing it that way. “Women drive progress for all of us by demanding better healthcare and opportunities for their children and greater equity for everyone. That’s why, when we invest in women and girls, we’re investing in the people who invest in everyone else” she said.
Unilever, which has set for itself the goal of empowering five million women across the world by 2020, also extended support to promote economic opportunities for women, reduce unpaid care work and ensure the safety of women and girls.
Other organizations taking part in the event in support of UN Women are representatives of Coca-Cola, Cisco, Infosys, Itaipu, MasterCard, H&M, Citibank, State Bank of India, Ford Foundation, General Electric Foundation and Nigeria-based Dangote Foundation.
The event took place preceding the Global Leader’s Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment – a Commitment to Action, at which heads of State and government will discuss actions to achieve gender equality by 2030.
Elizabeth Archibong
