Opening remarks by Mr. Michael Møller, Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, on the occasion of the African Women’s Forum
October 26, 2018
Prime Minister,
Excellences,
Ladies and
gentlemen,
A very warm welcome
to the Palais des Nations. It is indeed a pleasure to join you today.
We are meeting
three years into our collective journey to make the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development a reality. Our ambitions are crystal clear: a world free of poverty
and hunger; a fairer, more equal world; a world that respects the limits of
nature.
We are making
progress, embracing change, and increasingly working together and learning from
each other across regions and disciplines.
But we also know we
are not moving fast enough. In some areas, we risk backsliding.
And just as
progress in one area supports progress in the other, so too does failure in one
force failure in the other.
This
interdependency is true across the full spectrum of the 2030 Agenda, but it is
particularly pronounced in the links between empowering women on the one hand
and eradicating poverty and ending hunger on the other, the focus of our
discussion today.
Let me approach
this in the context of a broad picture. And let’s be clear. We’re failing women
the world over, in rural and in urban areas, in the Global North and in the
Global South - to the detriment of us all.
Just 5 percent of
heads of state and government are women. Just 5 percent of women lead the
world’s largest companies.
These abysmal
numbers are the result of practical and cultural obstacles women face at all
levels, from lack of opportunity to lack of basic human decency, from explicit
legal barriers to implicit attitudes and cultural norms.
Things are changing
of course, with inspiring trailblazers all over the planet, in Africa in
particular. Just yesterday, I was excited to see my former colleague Sahle-Work
Zewde elected Ethiopia’s first female president.
And I was
encouraged to learn that the highest share of women in the workforce globally
is found in Africa.
But the pace of
change is too slow. Just think that it would take another 217 years to achieve
gender equality if we don’t accelerate our efforts.
Promoting equality
is a fundamental goal in itself. But more than this, we simply cannot address
the complex and growing global challenges of our day without the full capacity
of half of our population.
Women’s equal
participation in the labour force would unlock trillions for our global economy
- in London as much as in Lagos, in rural Africa as much as in America’s corn
belt.
Women are proven
agents of sustainable development, investing salaries and profits into their
families and communities, with benefits for health, education, and stability.
With benefits,
crucially, for food security.
For in our world of
plenty, one person in nine still does not have enough to eat. Most of them are
women.
And it could yet
get worse. From overcultivation to overgrazing, from deforestation to
desertification: once fertile soils turn into barren land, triggering
humanitarian and economic crises.
Meanwhile, food
demand only grows - in Africa, by over 50 percent in the coming years.
Clearly, we need to
redouble our efforts promoting and applying sustainable agricultural practices.
But thinking about
the right answer to this challenge also brings me back to the interdependency I
mentioned at the outset.
And it reminds me,
as so often, of Kofi Annan, who saw this earlier than most. Over a decade ago,
he told us that, and I quote him “no tool for development is more effective
than the empowerment of women…no other policy as likely to raise
productivity…and no policy as sure to improve nutrition and promote health.”
And we have since
found powerful evidence that there is also no policy more important in
sustaining peace. In fact, peace agreements are 30 percent more likely to last
when women are meaningfully represented at the negotiating table - instead of
routinely excluded.
All of which is why
Kofi Annan used to say that we are not facing “problems in search of a
solution…We know what works, and what doesn’t.”
“What doesn’t work”
is continuing business as usual, with all its short-sightedness and power
imbalances.
“What works”, by
contrast, is challenging convention, is taking the holistic view, is acting
sustainably. “What works”, above all, is women’s empowerment at all levels.
Which is why your
theme today - “African women, the driving force for economic and social development”
- is spot on.
All across the
continent, women are taking charge, as entrepreneurs, as innovators, as
pioneers - they are the ones paving the way towards an Africa that is inclusive
and integrated; prosperous and vibrant.
Today’s Forum is a
chance to move ahead in the fight for gender equality, to keep the ambition
high and work together in our collective endeavour for a better, more just
future.
I wish you every
success in your discussions.
And
I thank you very much for being here today.
