Global Media Advisory: On International Women’s Day, UN Women calls on investing in women as the best solution to face growing crises

Date: Tuesday, 5 March 2024

United Nations, New York — In a year where almost half of the population lives in a country undergoing an election, this International Women’s Day on March 8 is a crucial opportunity to define the future we want.

As conflict, climate change and polarizing societies are eroding decades of progress in gender equality, UN Women is calling on “Invest in women: Accelerate Progress” to realise the gender equality dividend for all.

Following International Women’s Day, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will address the issue of poverty hundreds of millions of women and girls are facing and solutions to accelerate the progress on gender equality. More information on CSW is available here.

Members of the media are invited to attend the following events:

Media Advisory: On International Women’s Day, UN Women calls on investing in women as the best solution to face growing crises

International Women’s Day (IWD) official UN commemoration: “Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress”

8 March 2024, 10:00 – 11:30am ET
ECOSOC Chamber, UN Headquarters

The event will bring together the UN system, Member States, civil society organisations, youth groups and others to emphasize the critical actions required to bridge gender gaps, highlight the urgent need for strategic investment in gender equality and women’s empowerment, and showcase and celebrate key successes and best practices. The opening remarks will be followed by a high-level panel discussion. The event will also feature live musical performance by Broadway singers.

Expected participants include, amongst others (subject to change):

António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General
Dennis Francis, President of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly
Antonio Manuel Revilla Lagdameo, Chair of the Bureau for the 68th session of the CSW
Sima Bahous, UN Women Executive Director
Diene Keita, UNFPA Deputy Executive Director
Cristina Duarte, UN Special Adviser on Africa
Anne Hathaway, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, Actor and Activist

The event is open to UN Headquarters grounds pass holders and the UN accredited press corp. Registration is required for the in-person event, and it will be webcast on UN Web TV.

Ring the Bell for Gender Equality events at stock exchanges

From 4 March 2024, opening/closing bells

For the 10th year, over 100 stock exchanges around the world are hosting bell ringing ceremonies around International Women’s Day (March 8), to raise awareness of the pivotal role the private sector can play in advancing gender equality. The initiative is convened by UN Women in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation, United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, UN Global Compact and the World Federation of Exchanges.

In these 10 years of collaboration, participating stock exchanges have also taken the opportunity to make public commitments to gender equality through signing the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), encouraging listed companies to advance women’s representation on boards; or developing sustainability-linked bonds with gender criteria or gender-focused bonds.

UN Women Deputy Executive Director Kirsi Madi will participate in person at the closing bell at Nasdaq, New York, on 8 March.

A list of Ring the Bell events around the world can be found here. For additional information contact weps[at]unwomen.org

CSW68 opening ceremony

11 March 2024, 10:00am – 1:00pm ET
General Assembly Hall, UN Headquarters

The official opening session of the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place in person in the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters in New York. The CSW68 priority theme, “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”, represents a unique chance to address the gender-poverty gap and solutions, such as designing and delivering inclusive, gender-responsive economic policies. The event will be broadcast on UN Web TV. More information about CSW68: https://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw68-2024

UN Secretary-General’s Town Hall with CSOs

13 March 2024, 10:00am – 11:15am ET

The active participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) is a critical element in the work of the Commission of the Status of Women. The virtual town hall will be the UN Secretary-General’s António Guterres annual consultation with women’s civil society. It will provide an opportunity for women’s and youth civil society organisations to engage with the UN Secretary-General on the session’s priority theme. UN Women Executy Director Sima Bahous will moderate the conversation.

The event will be web streamed live on UN Web TV

Side event: Generation Equality: Driving feminist financing and accountability for women’s economic justice and eradicating women’s poverty

14 March 2024, 11:30am - 12:45pm ET

Conference Room 1, UN Headquarters

This event will explore innovative approaches for financing women’s economic justice and rights and for eradicating women’s poverty. It will highlight how Generation Equality’s multistakeholder model is driving concrete feminist financing and accountability strategies and policies for gender equality. An Accountability Report will be launched focusing on results from the Action Coalition on Economic Justice and Rights, pointing out progress made on this area.

To attend in person, please RSVP here or follow online on UNWeb TV.

CSW68 Youth Forum

15 March, 4:45 - 6:00pm ET, UN Headquarters
16 March, 9:00am - 4:00pm ET

17 March, 10:00am- 1:00pm ET

The in-person Youth Forum will host between 200 to 250 youth and adolescent participants, featuring a diverse and international assembly of young individuals, who will critically examine the impacts of current socio-economic crises on women and girls and commit and provide their recommendations for strengthening accountability mechanism, and present a declaration of commitments for advocating gender-responsive reforms in public institutions.

As seating is limited, attendance is by invite only. For inquiries please contact: youth.engage[at]unwomen.org

Side event: Financing social protection and care systems for the fulfilment of human rights, gender equality and poverty reduction

18 March 2024, 3:00 – 4:15pm ET

Conference Room 6, UN Headquarters

The event will bring together speakers to discuss how social protection can be harnessed to realize human rights, promote gender equality and eradicate poverty, especially in the context of multiple crises and repeated shocks. It will highlight good practices, lessons learned and country examples on how we can accelerate progress to expand social protection over the life course towards realizing rights, strengthening resilience in the face of shocks, and alleviating poverty through links with employment and livelihoods.
This event is open to UN Ground Pass holders.

Side event: Multi-stakeholder Partnerships and Practices to Push Forward for Gender Equality, Human Rights and Democracy

20 March 2024, 3:00 – 4:15pm ET

Conference Room 4, UN Headquarters

This event will explore innovative approach

UN Women is convening a high-level side event, in partnership with Member States, UN agencies and civil society partners to highlight how multistakeholder, issue-based coalitions at the country level, can accelerate and safeguard gender equality gains. This high-level side event will highlight good practices from countries. Examples will focus on intersectional, intergenerational and multistakeholder partnerships and issue-based coalitions that stakeholders across governments and civil society have developed to achieve change in their local and national contexts to uphold democracy and safeguard gender equality and women and girls’ rights.

This event is open to UN Ground Pass holders and participation is on a first come, first served basis.