The UN Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG Fund), the Sino-American Friendship Association (SAFA), in partnership with the China Women Development Foundation (CWDF), hosted the summit entitled “2015 Empowering Women and Sustainable Development Summit”.  The event was significant since it is 20 years since the Beijing Call for Action.

The Summit launched the Women in Sustainable Tourism Program as a partnership between CWDF, SDG-F and SAFA and also the Women’s Cultural Innovation Fund by CWDF and SAFA. A delegation of Chinese business women from several industrial clusters like textiles, food and technology were in the audience. CWDF) announced the donation of one million yuan (U.S. $15,600) for the development of its women's public welfare programs in Africa.

H.E. Oh Joon, President of ECOSOC and Permanent Representative of Republic of Korea to the UN opened the programme with a keynote speech. He remarked that gender equality, the empowerment of women, and the full realization of their human rights are essential for the achievement of sustainable development and for building peaceful, just and inclusive societies.

As part of the summit, two panels discussed: (1) how public and private partnerships Impact on Women’s Public Welfare Projects. And (2) Empowering Women and Sustainability.

On the first panel, Ms. Tara Sharafudheen, Head of Partnerships, Policy and Communications Unit spoke on the importance of public and private partnerships for poverty reduction. In her opening speech, she explained UNCDF’s role in make investments in the strategic public private partnerships that take the differentiated needs of men and women into consideration. She pointed to several synergies with CWDF’s own work in providing poor women access to critical public services and micro-credit. “UNCDF has a strong track record of investing in countries and projects where others do not, and then leveraging in larger sources of public and private capital. We believe in transforming the ecosystems that will enable women to progress,” she said.

The Panel also included:  Will Kennedy, Programme Officer, United Nations Office for Partnerships, Deborah Rosado-Shaw, Senior Vice President, Chief Global Diversity and Engagement Officer, PepsiCo, Zhang, Jianmin, Deputy Secretary-General of China Women’s Development Foundation and Woo, Swee Lian, President of Perfect (China) Co., Ltd.

About the China Women’s Development Foundation (CWDF)

CWDF was established in December 1988 and is a nation-wide non-profit organization registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and approved by People's Bank of China. Its goal is to improve women's quality, ensure legal rights and promote women’s development and enterprises. It works with the domestic and international enterprises and public sector undertakings, social organizations and individuals.

For more information: https://www.cwdf.org.cn/