Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Today, Wednesday, in Belgium, the fourth edition of the roundtable for partners funded by the United Nations Women's Agency was launched. The roundtable will be held on May 10 and 11, 2023.
UN Women is the United Nations agency responsible for promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls around the world.
This roundtable is an annual strategic event that brings together major donors to the budget of UN Women in order to exchange views on several topics related to the effective operation of the organization and countries' expectations towards it.
This event has been successfully organized before in Helsinki, Dublin and Berlin and now it is Brussels' turn to host the event. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Belgium, a copy of which we received on Wednesday, the Minister of Development Cooperation, Caroline Gines, and the Executive Director of the United Nations Women, Sima Bahus, co-chair this round table in Brussels.
In the statement, the Belgian government said that despite the difficulties it faced due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis on public finances, Belgium decided to maintain its core funding for UN Women. “The response to these challenges must not be at the expense of women and girls on the other side of the world. Our country calls on all partners around the table to contribute to the core resources of UN Women in order to reach the level of resources needed to fulfill its mandate.”
For the 2023 edition, the Belgian chair of the roundtable stated that the main topic of discussions is "protecting and demonstrating the impact of the essential resources to fulfill the mandate of UN Women". The discussion will focus on how the organization operates, its operations, its goals, and its place at the heart of the global gender equality architecture.
The expected outcome of this round table is an agreement on the way forward in terms of funding to ensure the sustainable functioning and work of UN Women.
Development Cooperation Minister Caroline Genez said: "Gender equality is and remains an absolute priority for Belgium, and this applies to our domestic and foreign policies. It is a great honor for me to welcome so many women and inspiring leaders here in Brussels to see how together we can continue and strengthen the fight for women's rights." ".
According to the statement of the Foreign Ministry in Brussels, "Belgium is a reliable partner of UN Women and an old ally for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. It supports the work of UN Women in implementing its mandate and encourages the entity to continue its work in promoting gender integration and joint programming within the United Nations system."
The statement added, “The underrepresentation of women in decision-making bodies, the low participation of women in the formal economy, gender-based violence, and school dropouts, which are predominantly female, are harmful phenomena that can be explained by the presence of toxic masculinity and gender stereotypes.”
Belgium encourages UN Women to continue its work on social norms and gender stereotypes and to promote transformative masculinities that enable women and girls to better access education, employment opportunities and decision-making roles.
For the period 2021-2024, Belgium's contribution to UN Women is €18.73 million. In addition, Belgium is funding the “African Girls Can Be” initiative with €1.2 million for the period 2021-2023. This initiative aims to train and empower 2,000 girls between the ages of 17-20 across Africa to become computer programmers, creators and designers, and pursue studies and careers in the ICT sector. The five African countries participating in the Belgian funding are Burundi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger and Tanzania