A blog on International Women's Day

A blog on International Women’s Day

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of co-hosting an event at our Embassy with the High Commissioner of Kenya, Mr Lazarus Amayo, in association with VSO and UN Women. It was held to mark International Women’s Day and was designed to highlight the continued importance of gender equality, an issue on which much work still needs to be done. At the event, we heard powerful statements from Hon Esther Muguri of the Kenyan Women Parliamentary Association and Binti Alii Goga, Chair of a grassroots Kenyan NGO, on how women can take leadership roles in politics and in their communities.

Here is the gist of what I said when welcoming our guests to the Embassy.

This evening’s event offers us a valuable opportunity to celebrate International Women’s Day and to highlight the issue of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Combating gender inequality is a core component of Ireland’s Policy on International Development, One World, One Future. The issue also features strongly in the recently-published review of Ireland’s Foreign Policy. In January, Ireland launched its second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, reaffirming our firm commitment to this important agenda.

Despite some progress in recent years gender inequality remains the most persistent and pervasive of all human rights abuses and women’s full participation in decision-making is clearly an indispensible component of a true democracy. Next week, our development cooperation programme, Irish Aid, will co-host an important side-event at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York which will centre on this very theme.

A key aspect of Ireland’s work in this important area is our collaboration with valuable partners such as the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and UN Women. Ireland has a proud tradition of volunteering overseas and the Government has committed to develop Irish Aid’s support for volunteering though the Volunteering Initiative launched in 2013. This initiative recognises the contribution volunteering makes to sustainable development and to deepening understanding between communities and nations.

Ireland has also worked closely with UN Women since its establishment in 2010, serving as a member of the Executive Board in 2013 and providing consistent financial support, both through core funding and to programmes such as the Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and the Global Facility on Women Peace and Security.

I also want to mention that, two weeks ago, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, accepted an invitation from UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, to become one of 10 champion world leaders for UN Women’s HeForShe campaign, which aims to engage men and boys in the shared task of removing social and cultural barriers to gender equality, to the benefit of all.

This year we are embarking on the final phase of negotiations on the UN’s post-2015 development agenda which will replace the Millennium Development Goals and underpin global efforts to achieve sustainable development between now and 2030. These goals will be universal and applicable in all countries.

Ireland has been closely engaged in the process over the course of the past two years serving as a co-facilitator at the UN Secretary’s Special Event on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2013 and through active participation in the Open Working Group (OWG) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These efforts were given recognition last October with the appointment of Ireland’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador David Donoghue, together with Ambassador Kamau of Kenya, as co-facilitators of the final negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda. Together, the co-facilitators have set out the roadmap for the negotiations. The next stage will be negotiations this month on goals and targets, and in April and May on the Global Partnership and Means of Implementation as well as on follow-up and review.

Addressing Gender Equality is one of the principal sustainable development and human rights challenges which the post-2015 agenda must tackle. It is encouraging to note that a robust and standalone goal on gender equality was achieved along with a series of strong targets addressing gender equality concerns, not just within that goal but across the goals.

The proposed SDGs already represent a significant and positive change from the MDGs including strong targets on women’s participation, on violence against women, on access by women and girls to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, on women’s access to primary and secondary education, and on ending discrimination against women.

We know that there may be elements of the proposed targets which some have found disappointing and it remains to be seen if the negotiations will give rise to an adjustment of these targets, which would need to be agreed by the participating countries.

I am sure that I speak for the co-facilitators, Ambassadors Donoghue and Kamau, when I stress the importance of ensuring an open and inclusive process which allows for the views of all member states and all stakeholders to feed into the discussions and to shape the final text. It has been encouraging to witness the dynamic engagement of Civil Society in the discussions on the Political Declaration in February, which included direct input by James O’Brien from VSO Ireland who spoke on behalf of VSO at large.

Once again, I am delighted to welcome you all tonight and I look forward to hearing from our eminent speakers. With that let me hand you over to the High Commissioner of Kenya, Lazarus Amayo.

Daniel Mulhall is Ireland’s Ambassador in London.