Kuala Lumpur – The final day of the Women Deliver Conference 2013 focused on the critical need to prioritise girls and women in the lead-up to the 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and beyond. The conference brought together people from over two thousand organisations and 149 countries and focused on girls’ and women’s health and rights.
Women Deliver President Jill Sheffield summed up the achievements of the conference thus: “This week, we renewed our commitments, shared lessons learnt and listened to those leading the way on women’s health and rights. . . we know, when girls and women survive, all of us thrive.”
Discussions during the conference focused on the importance of placing girls and women at the centre of the next global development agenda at a time when the UN is expected to announce its recommendations for the post-2015 development framework. With progress lagging on the MDGs relating to women, policymakers are tasked to provide answers on how the next set of development goals can effectively and adequately address women’s health as well as empowerment. UNDP Administrator Helen Clark called for a global development agenda that gives priority to gender equality and empowers girls and women to make their own decisions and choices about their lives.
Key personalities at the conference included Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-Chair Melinda Gates, African Women’s Development Fund CEO Theo Sowa, HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Former President of Finland Tarja Halonen and Former US First Daughter Chelsea Clinton.
During the closing ceremony, Jill Sheffield and Melinda Gates presented the first ever ‘Women Deliver Rising Star Awards’ to three emerging voices in the area of women’s health rights. The awardees were Remmy Shawa, a South African who coordinates a projects that aims to end violence against women in Africa; Senator Pia Cayetano, a staunch advocate for health who is also the youngest woman to be elected to the Philippines Senate. and Imane Khachani, a Moroccan with extensive experience in sexual and reproductive health research and advocacy.
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