Madame President,
I would like to congratulate you on your able stewardship of the Executive Board. I would also like to congratulate and commend the Executive Director of UN WOMEN, Madame Michelle Bachelet, and her team for the remarkable work they have been doing since the creation of UN WOMEN less than a year ago.
Israel strongly supports UN WOMEN’s Strategic Plan for 2011-13. The core principles and thematic priorities, identified by the Executive Director in her “vision and 100 Day Action Plan”, which was presented to the board in January, reflect the main challenges for member states and the international community as a whole. It is naïve to think that we can reach in the short term societies that are completely free of gender based discrimination and violence; societies in which gender equality and women’s empowerment are fully achieved. However, UN WOMEN’s Strategic Plan is a major step toward achieving these goals.
Israel has full confidence in the ability of UN WOMEN to promote the coherence and ensure the mainstreaming of gender issues in the work of the UN.
Additionally, UN WOMEN should serve as a leader both inside the UN and in the international arena at large.
We are pleased to see that UN WOMEN presented us with a Strategic Plan that is results focused. It is important for UN WOMEN to be able to measure and assess its work and present the Executive Board with clear deliverables and outcomes in order to evaluate progress. We encourage UN WOMEN to continue this results based approach while implementing the Strategic Plan.
Madame President,
Gender equality is a key priority for MASHAV – Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation.
Israel regards the empowerment of women as a crucial element for achieving the MDGs, bearing in mind that women face continued discrimination in developed and developing countries alike.
The Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, was one of the world’s first development training centers dedicated to the empowerment of women.
In addition to organizing numerous courses at all levels, the Carmel Center hosts a biennial International Conference for Women Leaders on development themes of current interest for women active in public life. Just last month the center hosted the 27th International Conference entitled: “Science, technology and innovation: education and training for Women and Girls”. We were honored and pleased that the Deputy Secretary General, Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro and the Director-General of UNESCO, Ms. Irina Bokova, opened the Conference and that dozens of women leaders from around the world accepted the invitation of Israel to participate.
Before concluding, I’m happy to report that given the importance we attribute to the work of UN WOMEN, Israel has substantially increased its core funding commitment to UN WOMEN for the years 2011-13.
I would like to reiterate once again Israel’s strong support for the Strategic Plan and our commitment to support UN WOMEN in its implementation.
I thank you for your attention.
