1 July 2015, New York, USA - UNITAR’s Multilateral Diplomacy Programme delivered a Women’s Leadership workshop for delegates to the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development.

In the context of UNITAR’s new Women’s Leadership Programme, launched hand-in-hand with UN Women and working across the UN System, UNITAR delivered a high-level workshop for diplomats and delegates accredited to the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development. 

The HLPF on Sustainable Development facilitates dialogue between key stakeholders and their role in the implementation, integration and review of the post-2015 development agenda.The 2015 session focused on the different levels of review at national, regional and global levels and discussed the role of science, how to communicate the new development agenda and investment in the new agenda and tracking progress.

The Women’s Leadership workshop highlighted the pivotal role that women have to play in implementing the SDGs at all levels, and their crucial leadership in the SDGs’ success. Facilitated by Ambassador Tania Dussey-Cavassini, the Women’s Leadership workshop provided aunique opportunity for participants toconsider the characteristics of effective leaders, and provided an open and mindful space for participants to consider their own personal strengths and leadership styles. The workshop aimed to empower, enthuse and inspire, as well as function as an excellent forum and platform for participants to build personal connections and networks.

Participants explored what characterizes a strong leader and what is meant by charismatic and visionary leadership.  Patricipants also considered the challenges and opportunities of being a female leader, and appreciated how theseshould be taken into consideration with respect to sustainability practice.

UNITAR and UN Women together recognise that year 2015 represents a key opportunity for placing gender equality and women's empowerment at the heart of the global agenda. Women’s participation in leadership roles remains a high priority as we celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and move towards a new post-2015 development agenda, calling for the integration of gender equality perspectives across all goals.

UNITAR’s new Women’s Leadership Programme seeks to build on this oppprtunity to deliver on the challenging goals of achieving gender parity and promoting equal leadership opportunities for women within governments particularly in the context of multilateral decision making fora.

All participants found the workshop extremely useful and expressed the need for more training opportunities as such.

“The workshop was presented in an engaging and interactive way that helped to draw out good learning from all participants”

The workshop built upon the success of the Women’s Leadership workshop for WMO delegates in Geneva on 6 June 2015, and the High Level Panel Discussion on Women in Diplomacy: The Leading Role of Women in Weather and Climate Contexts on 26 May 2015. Further workshops in the series will be planned in advance of key multilateral conferences in Geneva, particularly those in which women are underepresented within delegations or in the field in question. This may include in the field of ICTs and telecommunications, Trade, Science and Technology, Peace and Security, Disarmanment, Disaster Risk Reduction or otherwise.

For more information, please contact Emily Fraser and/or Emily Bradley at womensleadership@unitar.org