From: Dickens Wasonga
Date: Tue, May 28, 2013 at 1:20 PM
Subject: Decade’s Largest Global Conference on Wom?e?n and Girls bagan today in Kuala Lumpur
To: jaluo karjaluo
Thousands of international leaders and advocates call for investments in women’s health and rights at Women Deliver 2013.
By: Dickens Wasonga.
Today, more than 3,000 world leaders, policymakers and advocates representing over 150 countries convened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for Women Deliver 2013, the decade’s largest meeting focused on girls’ and women’s health and rights.
The conference will feature more than 100 sessions with talks by some of the world’s leading voices on girls’ and women’s issues, including Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Chelsea Clinton, Board Member of the Clinton Foundation; Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Foundation (UNFPA); and Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Malaysian Prime Minister Honorable Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak led the opening ceremony on the first day of the meeting.
The Women Deliver 2013 conference will focus on themes including:
· the economic and social benefits of investing in girls and women;
· how to achieve the goal of reaching 120 million more women with voluntary family planning services by 2020; and
· the need to place girls and women at the heart of the post-2015 development agenda.
During the meeting, organizations such as the World Bank, the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization will release major new research and reports focused on the benefits of investing in girls and women.
“Women Deliver 2010 was critical in showing that investing in girls and women is not only the right thing to do, it is also good for the economy and good for society,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who gave opening remarks at Women Deliver 2010 and later that year launched the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. “Women Deliver 2013 will be an opportunity to keep up the pressure and to affirm our plans for the period ahead.”
Women Deliver 2013 takes place at a critical time, just days before the Secretary-General will receive recommendations for the post-2015 development framework. Conference speakers and attendees will call for action to ensure that girls and women are prioritized in the lead-up to the 2015 Millennium Development Goal deadline and beyond.
END.