Wishing you a Gender-Empowered International Women's Day.

Women all over the world continue to face enormous challenges of the global financial crisis, widespread food insecurity, natural and man-made disasters and climate change. The year 2010 has been a milestone for gender equality and women’s rights because it marks the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action as well as the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals along with the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 on gender, peace and equality. Time passes fast, and only five years remain until we achieve our target set out in the Millennium Development Goals.

Meeting the challenges that we must face will require greater accountability at all levels. For this reason we called for a move to establish a new UN entity for gender equality and women’s empowerment that was strongly supported by the UN General Assembly in a September 2009 resolution. The forward motion on this resolution is timely, too, in the context of the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, for which the target date of 2015 is the same as for achieving the MDGs. It also mirrors efforts to improve accountability for implementing Security Council resolution 1325, which recognized the key role women play in all aspects of recovery from conflict.

In recent weeks we have seen women and men helping countries such as Haiti recover from imminent disaster. UNIFEM staff members in Haiti assisted women and their families in temporary shelters trying to build a sense of security and making connections along with sharing what they have with their neighbors. Women in Haiti are often an active player in Haitian households and now they have taken the lead in starting recovery efforts by improvising communal meals and childcare arrangements as well as caring for communities and neighborhoods. Following UNIFEM's lead in Haiti, the President of Chile, Michele Bachelet is now inspiring her own country to rebuild after their country’s own earthquake that claimed hundreds of lives.

This kind of leadership is often forgotten in some places because women are often not a part of the decision-making process on how to deal with resources or relief efforts or how to plan ahead for the next time a disaster strikes. The world needs to change its focus on human security and humanitarian assistance and allow women to exercise a greater influence at the decision-making tables.

As the President of the Board of Directors for the Canadian National Committee for UNIFEM, my colleagues and I highly encourage you to assist us financially to pursue our reconstruction efforts in Haiti and also empower our Violence against Women Campaigns.

This  International Women’s Day, please donate generously and help us fight in a united voice for promotion of gender equality, governmental equality, eradication of violence against women and adequate food and economic security for women and their families to make poverty history.

The message from the Canadian National Committee for the International Women’s Day is clear and straight-forward in the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the Change that you want to see in this world”

Please click DONATE NOW and give generously to UNIFEM or purchase our membership and become a proactive player in bringing change for the betterment of society and women. All donations to UNIFEM Canada are tax-deductible and tax reciepts can be issued upon request.

Let’s make change! Let’s do it now!

Yours Truly,

Almas Jiwani
President
Canadian National Committee
United Nations Development Fund for Women