What Will It Mean for Gender Equality?
By Inés Alberdi, Executive Director, UNIFEM Date: 13 July 2009 Occasion: Fifth Annual Meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament, Vienna, Austria, 13 July 2009 [Check against delivery.] I want to thank the members of the Women Speakers of Parliament for the opportunity to speak here today on the world economic crisis and its implications for gender equality. A week ago, the UN Secretary-General launched the 2009 UN Millennium Development Goals report, saying that while the full impact of the global economic crisis has yet to be felt, this crisis could “prevent us from keeping our promises, plunging millions more into poverty and risking social and political unrest.” For this reason, he continued, “our efforts to restore economic growth should be seen as an opportunity to take some of the hard decisions needed to create a more equitable and sustainable future.” It is with that bifocal lens, of challenge and opportunity, that I want to consider some initial findings and observations about t
