7th March 2022, Islamabad: SDGs Secretariat celebrated International Women’s Day in full-swing. The event was inaugurated by Hon. Speaker National Assembly Mr. Asad Qaiser, in his opening speech he stated, “Today’s event is a milestone in the history of the National Assembly. Today, with our friends from industry, civil society, tech start-ups, UNICEF, CPA, British High Commission and so many others, we are launching a one year programme on SDG-5. He also highlighted that “This year’s international women’s day theme by UN-Women is “gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”
Hon. Riaz Fatyana in his welcome remarks reiterated that, “We are gathered here today to celebrate and commemorate “International Women’s Day” and what could be a better way to celebrate than to provide a prestigious platform to the women of this country to showcase their talents, ideas, innovations and their potential for meaningful activism to achieve gender equality.”
On this occasion, Mr. Luis Gorjon, Social Policy Chief, UNICEF remarked, our aim is to create a safe and secure country for women to live in. We need to fill in the legislative gaps, specifically laws encircling women.” He affirmed UNICEF’s commitment to the Parliament.
The event was also attended by Visiting Chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Honorable Ian Liddell-Granger from the United Kingdom, House of Commons and Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Mr. Stephen Twigg, Former Minister for Education. They acknowledged all the pledges made by Partners and stated “If we make progress only on SDG 5, we make progress on all 16 goals.”
The SDGs Secretariat garnered the support of industry leaders, start-ups, social entrepreneurs, and activists to help bridge the digital and financial gender divide in order to work together, to plan innovations and to remove barriers for women in all spheres of life - in order to accelerate progress towards true and universal gender equality. Focusing on the globally trending hashtag #BreaktheBias, SDGs Secretariat has also incorporated “artivism” into the exciting event encapsulating art, colours of the universe, faith and woman as a mother.
The event was successfully moderated and conducted by Hon. Shandana Gulzar Khan, MNA and Chairperson, Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians. The event was attended by Hon. Mehnaz Akber Aziz, Hon. Nafeesa I. Khattak, Hon. Sana Jamali, Hon. Shaheen Naz Saifullah, Hon. Aisha Ghaus Pasha. Hon. Zille Huma, Hon. Naureen Farooq Ibrahim, Hon. Seemi Ezdi, Hon. Faisal Javed Khan.
On this occasion, Partners and Organisations working for SDG 5, gave out constructive pledges for all-year engagements with the SDGs Secretariat to empower women.
The event was concluded by Hon. Fakhar Imam, Minister for National Food Security and Research, he acknowledged SDGs Secretariat for arranging a very successful event and thanked all the partners, particularly UNICEF for their contribution to make it successful.
*-*-*-*-*
