STORY: UN Women's deputy chief urges action to invest in women for societal progress
SHOOTING TIME: March 8, 2024
DATELINE: March 10, 2024
LENGTH: 00:05:36
LOCATION: UN Headquarters
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda receiving interview
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): NYARADZAYI GUMBONZVANDA, Deputy executive director of UN Women
3. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda receiving interview
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): NYARADZAYI GUMBONZVANDA, Deputy executive director of UN Women
5. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda receiving interview
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): NYARADZAYI GUMBONZVANDA, Deputy executive director of UN Women
7. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda receiving interview
8. SOUNDBITE 4 (English): NYARADZAYI GUMBONZVANDA, Deputy executive director of UN Women

STORYLINE:

The deputy chief of United Nations (UN) Women on Friday called for investing in women and girls to drive societal advancement while reiterating the agency's dedication to fostering gender equality and enhancing women's participation in decision-making roles.

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, deputy executive director of UN Women, the world body's entity dedicated to promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women globally, told Xinhua so in an exclusive interview in the UN Women's office in New York.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): NYARADZAYI GUMBONZVANDA, Deputy executive director of UN Women
"Our first message is: Let's invest in women and girls, let's create opportunities for them to be socially empowered, to be economically empowered, to be in positions of decision-making. The importance of investing in women is that when women at the household level are educated and have income, they are able to also send their children to school. If the world does not invest in women, we are short-changing ourselves in terms of the economies of the country, but also when women are in the positions of decision-making. Because the investment we are talking about is the investment for the economic (aspects), but also for their voice and perspective to influence policies. So when women are at the decision-making table, they are able to move the policies that also address some of the inequalities we see in society and some of the issues that might not be prioritized. Political participation and women in decision-making were a priority when we met in Beijing in 1995. When we invest in the little girls, in the young women, in the women, in the elderly, we are able to see the dividends in our families, in our society, in our nation."

"On International Women's Day and beyond, we implore our member states to intensify their efforts" in "creating economic opportunities for women and fostering violence-free environments in our families and communities," she said.

Gumbonzvanda, from Zimbabwe, assumed her duties as UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination, and Programme Results on Feb. 6.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): NYARADZAYI GUMBONZVANDA, Deputy executive director of UN Women
"When we have 60 countries going into elections, 1.3 billion women voting, first is to say this is a pivotal moment for women to vote and ask the governments that would be elected to prioritize gender equality. It is also an opportunity for us to move the needle and have more women in decision-making. So we are saying men and women vote for women because we need to reach the 50-50 parity that member states have agreed to."

Addressing the alarming prediction that over 300 million people could still be living in poverty by 2030, she stressed the need for governmental commitment to prioritize resources for poverty alleviation programs and called for "reform of the global financial architecture to address inequalities and enhance support for gender equality programs, including education and healthcare for women."

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): NYARADZAYI GUMBONZVANDA, Deputy executive director of UN Women
"There are so many actions which are possible, and indeed when we look back into some of the solutions we proposed in 1995. First is our government's commitment to prioritizing resources of governments to programs that address the issues of poverty. And there's been many countries that have done this, that are trying to do this. Secondly, is to reform the financial architecture, the global financial architecture, which creates some inequalities and which makes the situation worse. And this is very important because we are also seeing a reduction in the overseas development assistance to programs that support gender equality, that go to communities to make sure that we have schools functioning and support health care for women."

Gumbonzvanda expressed pride in UN Women's current initiatives with China, particularly the projects in Wuhan, which focus on "bringing our technical expertise to support efforts in the country" and "creating policies and employment capacities" targeting women.

SOUNDBITE 4 (English): NYARADZAYI GUMBONZVANDA, Deputy executive director of UN Women
"First, it is a huge privilege for UN Women to have been working in 'one state, one county' in Wuhan, and to have been collaborating on how can we bring our knowledge into supporting the efforts of the country. And this is an example for us of how UN Women can work in various contexts to bring our technical expertise to support how to create policies and employment capacities that can also target women, that can address issues that are particularly faced, including within the context of care. That is for us, of course, looking at how huge China is and the population, even if it's a tiny drop, but its waves are created by little drops. So we are looking forward actually to expanding our relationship with China, to doing more in also middle-income countries, to say what UN Women brings is its knowledge as well to countries like China, its expertise, to say this is how we can do it. And this knowledge and this expertise are so profound because we see it being expressed in the meeting coming next week on the Commission on the Status of Women. And we really are looking forward to the continued collaboration with China and to see how we can go to scale on the initiative that we've been doing together."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from UN Headquarters.
(XHTV)