Speech: Setting a course for a gender-equal world for all women and girls

I would like to acknowledge our dedicated Secretary of the Board, Jean-Luc Bories, and his outstanding team for once again ensuring a flawlessly organized session.

And of course, my heartfelt thanks to all my UN Women colleagues—both here in New York and around the globe. Your hard work in preparing documents, briefings, and updates has been invaluable as always.

This session has modelled the way we aspire to work in the year ahead. The UN Women Board remains a driving force for gender equality. Your engagement, your ambition, and your clarity of purpose shown over the past two days are a source of optimism as we face the very real challenges ahead.

The JIU [Joint Inspection Unit] Working Group has now been established, and the terms of reference adopted by the Triple Board and the Board of UNICEF. We look forward to the first meeting of the Working Group as we advance this crucial work together.

I said in our opening yesterday that 2025 is a demanding year for all of us. We must make this year of milestones count. We will develop a new, forward-looking, and fit-for-purpose Strategic Plan that properly articulates the ambitions we share in an ever-more-complex world. And while we remain hopeful for a strong financial outlook, we must also be realistic and ready to navigate a constrained resource environment.

In these endeavours and more, UN Women remains guided by the mandate that you, the Member States, gave us in our founding resolution 64/289. That resolution is clear. Let me remind us of paragraph 51(a), which states:

The Charter of the United Nations, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, including its twelve critical areas of concern, the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, and applicable United Nations instruments, standards, and resolutions that support, address, and contribute to gender equality and the empowerment and the advancement of women will provide a framework for the work of the Entity.

And so they do, and so they will.

The Beijing Declaration, in particular, affords us the clearest roadmap we could wish for.

• During this session, in this pivotal year, we have spoken of the imperative of women’s full and equal participation in political life. Paragraph 13 of the Beijing Declaration underscores that women’s empowerment and leadership in decision-making are essential in achieving equality, development, and peace.
• We have spoken of the urgency of women’s economic empowerment—to finally reap the benefits of equality in the workforce for all.
• The Beijing Declaration in paragraph 16 and elsewhere underscores this imperative, calling for the removal of barriers to women’s economic participation, equal access to resources, and the right to decent work and fair wages.
• We have spoken of the imperative of ending violence against women and girls. The Declaration is unambiguous in paragraph 29 and elsewhere: violence against women is a violation of human rights and must be eliminated through action, not words.
• We have spoken about the importance of peace and security. The Declaration in paragraph 28 and elsewhere asserts the centrality of gender equality and women’s voice and leadership in its pursuit. As the world faces rising conflict and crises, the WPS [women, peace, and security] agenda must not be sidelined, women’s contribution must not be squandered. UN Women will continue to play its role in ensuring it is afforded its proper attention and resourcing.

And we have spoken about the fact that our work must serve ALL women and girls—a principle we will echo at this year’s International Women’s Day commemoration.

As underscored in paragraph 32 of the Beijing Declaration, this means redoubling efforts to ensure that those facing multiple and intersecting barriers—whether due to race, age, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability, or Indigenous identity—can fully enjoy their rights and freedoms.

The upcoming 69th Commission on the Status of Women will be pivotal. We will set a course for a gender-equal world for all women and girls. A strong forward-looking political declaration will be essential. You, Member States, will be called upon again to craft it, and UN Women looks forward to supporting you.

Excellencies,

We have heard your priorities and your concerns.

As lead agency on gender equality, we are strengthening our coordination mandate to drive system-wide change.

The Secretary General’s Gender Equality Acceleration Plan provides a bold roadmap, and we are committed to leading its implementation, ensuring every part of the United Nations system delivers on gender equality with ambition and accountability. We look forward to continuing to update you.

Through our pivot to the country level and to the regions, we are better aligning our entire organization—from my office to the field—to drive real change where it matters most. We welcome your ongoing questions and oversight.

We are working with you on our next Strategic Plan, where we will together make UN Women more agile, better resourced, and impactful at scale. We are confident together we can develop a plan which truly elevates our work in all its aspects, in line with our ambitions to continuously be more efficient, more effective, and more impactful.

These are complex times, but this Board is a demonstration of the way the multilateral system is designed to rise to complexity. I applaud you all for your contribution to that. This Board has distinguished itself many times over these last 15 years. You have shown a formidable capacity to find effective pathways forward that distil the collective wisdom, the views, and the perspectives of its membership. That capacity is fully on display now as well.

I am grateful for your unwavering commitment and engagement, for your guidance, for your oversight, and for your support. And I look forward to working with you in the year ahead, and I thank you again.