About 30 Presbyterians will attend the Commission on the Status of Women. This participation is a partnership between Presbyterian Women, Racial Ethnic Young Women Together, the National Network of Presbyterian College Women, and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.
Today brought the NGO Consultation Day organized by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, NY.
Former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the newly formed UN Women provided the keynote address. Ms. Bachelet spoke about her vision for the work of UN Women – how it will improve the lives of women and girls – how she will draw on her work as a medical doctor – how it will intersect with the Millennium Development goals – how it will involve women in working for peace and security.
Dr. Kaosar Afsana, Associate Director of the Health Programme at BRAC Bangladesh organization, spoke of how Bangladeshi doctors are using innovative mobile technologies to help poor and rural women. She noted that the future is with women and the future is with mobile health.
A panel on education, science and technology followed with speakers:
- Eleanor Nwadinobi, Medical Women’s International Association, Nigeria, on increasing women’s access to and use of technology, including more gender-responsive products;
- Shelley Canright, NASA, USA, on increasing women’s access to and participation in science and technology education and training;
- Miriam Erez, Technion University Israel, on eliminating barriers to women’s participation in science and technology employment – experiences from Israel; and
- Akanisi Kedrayate Tabualevu, U. of South Pacific, Fiji, on eliminating barriers to women’s participation in science and technology employment — experiences from Fiji.
Charlotte Bunch, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University, Bani Dugal, Baha’i International Community to the UN, and Rachel Harris, Women’s Environment and Development Organization reflected on UN Women. They highlighted the Gear Campaign to build a United Nations that really works for all women.
The Project Girl Performance Collective gave an extremely powerful performance on the theme of rape violence against girls in the Congo, relating it back to U.S. women's and girls' shared commonalities. On March 1, the collective will present a collection of new work dealing with techonology, education, poverty and global women's rights issues.
The afternoon brought breakout sessions in which participants considered four topics in greater depth:
- Increasing women’s access to and use of technology, including more gender responsive products
- Increasing women’s access to and participation in science and technology education and training
- Eliminating barriers to women’s participation in science and technology employment
- The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child
Tomorrow 22 February 2011, the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women begins.