Ambassador Le Thi Hong Van, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to UNESCO, attends the virtual conference (Photo: VNA)Those present at the event included Secretary-General of theInternational Organisation of La Francophonie Louise Mushikiwabo, Secretary-Generalof the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Martin Chungong, UNESCO Director-GeneralAudrey Azoulay, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperationand Development (OECD) Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the GenerationEquality Forum Delphine O, along with ambassadors and permanent representativesof countries.
Participants shared the view that the COVID-19 pandemic withunprecedented impacts has been worsening inequality, undermining theachievements in narrowing the gender gap in recent years, and posing manychallenges to women such as job losses, the digital and gender leadership gap widenedin both the state and private sectors, gender-based violence, and the shortageof resources for women empowerment programmes.
They held that it is necessary to have an overall approachthat closely associates gender equality with social progress and growth forsustainable, inclusive and resilient development. Women and girls should beplaced at the centre of socio-economic recovery solutions in the face of thepandemic.
At present, every resource needs to be prioritised forpromoting women’s power, especially economic power, mainstreaming the gender perspectiveinto policies, guaranteeing women’s participation and leadership in all socialaspects, and connecting efforts and mechanisms in each country and region with effortsby the entire world, they said.
With the Paris IGC Hub’s establishment, the delegatesstrongly affirmed the commitment and efforts to boost gender equality viaincreasing international cooperation, exchanging experience, devising measures,and attracting resources necessary for promoting women’s role andcontributions.
Addressing the event, Ambassador Van, Permanent Representativeof Vietnam to UNESCO, highlighted the county’s consistent policy of bringinginto full play women’s role and huge potential in national development and defence,raising women’s position, and bolstering gender equality in all areas, frompolitics and economy to culture and society.
She also noted the initiatives and efforts by Vietnam, asChair of ASEAN in 2020, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for2020-2021, and Chair of the 41st General Assembly of the ASEANInter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), to foster cooperation in promoting genderequality and women empowerment, which could be seen in the successful organisationof the first ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summit, the ASEAN Ministerial Dialogue onStrengthening Women’s Role for Sustainable Peace and Security, and theInternational Conference on Women, Peace and Security.
The important outcomes of those activities have helped stepup international efforts in the promotion of gender equality in 2020, whichmarked the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council’s Resolution1325 on women, peace and security, and also the 25th anniversary ofthe Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Van added.
At the meeting, participants highly valued Vietnam’s activeand proactive contributions, as well as its growing stature in theinternational arena.
The IGC is a leadership network that brings together leadersof international organisations, permanent delegations, and research institutes.Founded in Geneva in 2015, it has been expanded with hubs in New York, Vienna,Nairobi, and The Hague. The Paris IGC Hub initiative was proposed at the ParisPeace Forum in 2019./.
VNA
