The theme for the 2021 International Women’s Day (IWD) is ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world’, the UN Women has announced.
The theme, according to the UN agency, was chosen to celebrate the tremendous efforts by women and girls in the fight against the pandemic.
Development Diaries understands that women stand at the front lines of the Covid-19 crisis, as health care workers, caregivers, innovators, and community organisers.
The UN agency said in a statement that women leaders and women’s organisations have demonstrated their skills, knowledge and networks to effectively lead in Covid-19 response and recovery efforts.
‘Today there is more acceptance than ever before that women bring different experiences, perspectives and skills to the table, and make irreplaceable contributions to decisions, policies and laws that work better for all’, the statement read.
It also noted that across the world women are facing increased domestic violence, unpaid care duties, unemployment and poverty.
‘Despite women making up a majority of front line workers, there is disproportionate and inadequate representation of women in national and global Covid-19 policy spaces’, the statement read.
‘To uphold women’s rights and fully leverage the potential of women’s leadership in pandemic preparedness and response, the perspectives of women and girls in all of their diversity must be integrated in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes in all spheres and at all stages of pandemic response and recovery’.
Source: UN Women
Photo source: UN Women