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| Gender equality has always been an absolute priority for Belgium. (Source: Stock Adobe) |
The Conference was co-chaired by Belgian Minister for Development Cooperation Caroline Gennez and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.
This is an annual strategic meeting that brings together major contributors to UN Women's budget to discuss topics related to the organization's operations and their expectations.
This year's conference, themed "Protecting and demonstrating the impact of core resources on UN Women's mission", resulted in a funding agreement to ensure the sustainable work of UN Women in promoting gender equality.
Speaking at the conference, Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation Caroline Gennez said that gender equality has always been an absolute priority for the country in both domestic and foreign policy. The event is an opportunity for all parties to continue and strengthen the fight for women's rights.
For many years, Belgium has been a reliable partner of UN Women and a major source of funding for the organization, even when facing many difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the effects of the conflict in Ukraine.
Belgian funding has contributed to UN Women addressing the difficulties and challenges facing women and girls in many parts of the world through various programmes.
In addition, Belgium always encourages other partners to contribute to UN Women's core resources to help the agency carry out its missions, including promoting social norms and changing gender stereotypes, helping women and girls have better access to education, actively participate in the labor market and have a decision-making role.
According to statistics, in the period 2021-2024, the country contributed 18.73 million Euros to UN Women, and sponsored 1.2 million Euros for the “African Girls Can Code” initiative in the period 2021-2023.
“African Girls Can Code” is an initiative to train 2,000 young African girls between the ages of 17 and 20 to become computer programmers, innovators and designers so that they can later pursue careers in information and communications technology.
There are five countries in the region receiving Belgian funding: Burundi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger and Tanzania.
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