On 21 July the UN General Assembly held a one full-day virtual Multi-Stakeholder Hearing on Beijing +25 ‘Accelerating the realization of Gender Equality and Empowerment of all Women and Girls’ as part of the activities organized by the Generation Equality Forum sponsored by UN Women. This hearing is part of the preparations for the high-level meeting of the General Assembly to be held in New York, on 23 September 2020, with the overall theme: “Accelerating the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.

The event was inaugurated by the President of the General Assembly and more than one thousand States representatives, policy-makers, activists and practitioners from all over the world participated in four thematic panel discussions analysing the main challenges and achievements so far obtained in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action and the promising ways forward to build back better for women and girls in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

GI-ESCR’s Executive Director, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, chaired the interactive panel discussion on ‘Gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment: drivers for sustainable development’. In her opening remarks, she highlighted the disproportionate effect that the pandemic has had on women‘s and girls’ rights, particularly on those already living in precarious socio-economic conditions, and emphasized the crucial importance of avoiding retrogressions in hard-fought gains for women’s equal rights and economic justice.

She kicked off the discussion among the panellists posing questions aiming to exchange ideas, share lessons learned, and good practices concerning, among other things, social protection program’s coverage and benefits levels; opportunities and challenges in online education programmes; the advancement of the agenda to recognize, reduce, and redistribute care work, and the crucial need to adequately finance essential public services for a just and gender-responsive recovery post COVID-19.  

The discussion featured the following panellists:

• Rachel Moussié, Deputy Director, Social Protection Programme, Women in Informal Employment (WIEGO)

• Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director, Women's Budget Group

• Corina Rodriguez Enriquez, Executive Committee Member, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)

• Leyla Zuleikha Makhmudova, Co-founder, FemAgora Feminist Foundation

• Noelene Nabulivou, Co-founder, Diverse Voices and Action for Equality (DIVA)

• Emmanuelle Larroque, Founder and Director, Social Builder

Magdalena Sepúlveda concluded the debate adverting that acknowledging and paying attention not only to human rights abuses, but also to the positive and promising practices that have emerged in response to the pandemic is essential to promote innovative solutions and accelerate gender equality. Watch the full debate HERE.