Opening Remarks by Mr. Michael Møller
United Nations Under-Secretary-General
Director-General, a.i., United Nations Office at Geneva

Launch presentation of the International Geneva Gender Champions Leadership Network

Palais des Nations
1 July 2022

 

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Leadership matters.  As leaders, every day you make a real difference in spearheading programmes for change across the world and in setting the tone and vision in your missions and organizations.  And we are pleased that you are all here today to enable that leadership to matter even more for a cause that unites us all: gender equality and the full empowerment of all women and men. When performing the role of a leader, it is important to be able to delegate responsibilities and clearly plan your goals and actions. Despite the experience, in some cases it is better to seek help from professionals and try to send a request write my outline for me to https://exclusive-paper.net/do-my-outline-for-me. This will greatly improve the performance of any leader.

When it comes to gender equality, we all have a role to play.  Confronting bias in our own actions.  Making sure that we conceive and implement progammes that promote empowerment of both women and men.  In contributing to a working environment where all can contribute equally and fully.  But as decision-makers we have a special responsibility to show the way and to create conditions where these individual and daily actions can be taken.

With the unique concentration of Member States, international organizations, civil society, research and academic institutions and private sector entities, International Geneva provides an ideal platform to show that leadership in a most practical way.  Together, our actions have a truly global impact, making a difference for peace, rights and well-being for all people across the plant.  We have a special responsibility to capitalize on this potential for greater gender equality.

And now is exactly the time to do it.  2022 is a critical year for advancing the cause of gender equality, with the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the new post-2022 development agenda being put in place.  If this agenda is to be truly transformative, we need to place gender equality at the heart of all of our efforts.

This is why we are inviting you all to join the International Geneva Gender Champions – a new network of decision-makers in Geneva to lead by example through concrete actions that lead to genuine change both in organizational culture and in programming.

The network draws on the US Mission’s Future She Deserves Initiative and the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – UN-SWAP – and engages leaders at the highest levels here in Geneva.  And we hope that you will all be part of it, to use your unique positions to galvanize action.

All Champions will commit to undertake three, concrete measurable, accountable institutional actions in the calendar year to advance gender equality, either in the executive management of the organization or in programmatic work.  One of these actions will be to sign up to Geneva Gender Parity Pledge for inclusive panels.

Last week, at the successful Power of Empowered Women event, I announced that I will no longer accept invitations to serve on panel without any women participants.  This is the essence of the Geneva Gender Parity Panel Pledge, which is an integral part of the Champions initiative.

As two additional concrete initiatives, I will initiate the compilation of a Gender Policy for UNOG, and we will introduce a gender equality component as part of all induction progrmmes at UNOG.  With this combination of initiatives, I aim to both change mindsets within the Organization and  ensure greater inclusivity and equality in the substantive discussions in International Geneva.
These are just two examples that are appropriate and helpful for UNOG.  There will be many other activities or initiatives that will work for others.  We are providing some ideas as part of the event today.  And we will keep collecting good examples that we will post on the new website, to serve as a pool of inspiration.

It is now my pleasure to hand over to Ambassador Hamamoto who has been a key driving force in bringing together the Champions initiative.  It is truly an honour to be working alongside her on this project, and to benefit from her passion and visionary leadership.  Ambassador Hamamoto will provide more details on what it means to be an International Geneva Gender Champion, and what the next milestones in the project are.

After that, we hope to hear from you.