Mr President of the Board, Madame Executive Director of UN Women,

We deliver this statement on behalf of the EU as a donor, as a partner and proud supporter of UN Women, which aims to better the lives of women and girls around the world.

Madame Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, this is our last Board meeting with you. We have come a long way together. We have seen successes, progress for women and girls in many areas, such as participation in all fields of life, access to education and greater political representation. We would like to commend you and the staff of UN Women: you have been the engine for this development. But much remains to be done.  Regrettably, we have witnessed setbacks of hard-won progress under the COVID-19 pandemic, as women and girls are bearing the brunt of the crisis, which has reinforced gender inequalities. This needs to be reversed. We commend you for stepping up the collaboration with other UN agencies in this endeavour including the collaboration with UNDP in ensuring the inclusion of gender aspects in socio-economic recovery plans. Building back better must be gender-transformative.

The European Union works with UN Women in over 80 countries, and we are particularly proud of our partnership in the Spotlight Initiative, together with UNFPA and UNDP, to end Gender Based Violence, with active programmes in more than 26 countries. For the EU, Spotlight represents with EUR 500 million the largest investment in a single cause that we ever made in the UN system

Human rights are always most at risk in times of crisis. We fully support UN Women’s efforts to “push back against the pushbacks”. We appreciate the commitment of UN Women to uphold all human rights of women and girls, including sexual and reproductive health and rights.

We welcome the publication of the first draft of UN Women’s next Strategic Plan 2022-2025, and the intensive work and consultations in the run-up, and look forward to its adoption in September and to showering the UN system with “Feminist Excellence”. The EU strongly supports the continuation of UN Women’s triple mandate, and will remain a reliable and predictable partner in all three areas.

We appreciate the information provided on the audit and evaluation functions in the run-up to the Annual Session, and the determination to translate lessons learned into improvements in how we operate. These are of crucial importance if we want – and I know you want – to get ever better in what we do and the results we are able to deliver for women around the globe.

We commend UN Women for making effective use of the repositioning of the UN Development System, which has enhanced its  coordination function on gender issues within the UN system. We trust that your strong commitment to the QCPR resolution will lead to effectiveness and efficiency gains and increased transparency of gender mainstreaming efforts, particularly at country level.

We value UN Women’s strong involvement in the work leading up to the Generation Equality Forum, and look forward to the event at the end of the month. As Spotlight partners, we are natural co-leads on the action coalition on Prevention of gender-based violence in this Forum.  Twenty-five years after Beijing, Generation Equality must be a sea change for the future of women and girls in all their diversity. As part of your global advocacy mandate for women, we encourage you to seek maximum commitments from all.

As the EU prepares to translate its new “Global Europe” instrument into programmes that will support partner countries for the next seven years, we stand firm in our commitment to advance women’s causes in all countries and all sectors, joining forces with UN Women.

Following the adoption of the EU Gender Action Plan III last year, EU Delegations around the world are currently preparing country-level implementations plans, in coordination with local authorities, NGOs and the UN system. Our objective is simple: 85% of all EU assistance will have a gender perspective.

The achievement of gender equality, the realisation of women’s and girls’ human rights and their empowerment, are a prerequisite for development, peace and security. That is why gender will remain at the centre of all our actions. We look forward to continuing cooperating with UN Women and all partners in this regard.

  Madame Executive Director, allow me to close with a question

• How does UN Women intend to implement the outcome of the Gender Equality Forum?

• How has the involvement of civil society organisations and action coalitions developed during your eight years with Un Women?

• In your view, how has the balance between the three mandates of UN Women changed during the eight years you led the organisation?