UNESCO's Soft Power Today: Fostering Women's Empowerment and Leadership

UNESCO fulfils its mission through advocacy for peace and development and through the soft power of persuasion. To highlight this key instrument, UNESCO is organizing a series of thematic conferences within the framework of “UNESCO’s Soft Power Today”. The series will be launched on June 30 with a High-level Conference on “Fostering Women’s Empowerment and Leadership”, highlighting Gender Equality as one of UNESCO’s two Global Priorities.
The High-level Conference will gather over 50 high-level personalities and renowned experts from around the world and will serve as a platform to celebrate UNESCO’s achievements and to identify promising pathways for inclusive and innovative partnerships to work on women and girls’ empowerment and leadership. The day will be organized in three thematic sessions divided in morning and afternoon panels. Each panel will (1) present the state of the art through the participants’ experiences and work; (2) discuss the challenges and innovative solutions in the 2030 horizon, and (3) pave a way forward by leveraging on UNESCO’s role and added value.

Morning sessions
• "Women’s Empowerment and Sustainable Development - The Power of Women’s and Girls’ Education" (ROOM IV)

• "Breaking Gender Stereotypes - The importance of role models in changing cultural norms" (ROOM IX)

• "Leadership and Power - Women in Politics" (ROOM II)

Afternoon sessions
• "Women’s Empowerment and Sustainable Development - Women, Peace and Security"

• "Breaking Gender Stereotypes - Challenging the status quo"

• "Leadership and Power - Women in Business"

For further information on the panels and the speakers: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/BSP/GENDER/PDF/NICE30J...

At the end of each session, the moderators will report on the conclusions of each panel to the Rapporteur who will present the main outcomes in the closing ceremony. The resulting list of recommendations will help UNESCO and its partners identify and prioritize new areas of work and harmonize their approaches with a view to promote women’s empowerment and leadership worldwide. A Statement will be presented at the end of the Conference to renew the commitment of the Organization as a champion for the promotion of Gender Equality in the international arena.

ONLINE RSVP MANDATORY, before 28/06/17: https://fr.unesco.org/feedback/conference-soft-power-unesco-aujourd-hui-...