​ Women leaders spotlight inspirational leadership to meet the human crisis of COVID-19

As part of the Decade of Action to reach the Sustainable Development Goals – the blueprint for a healthier, more equitable and more peaceful world – the interactive event supported by the UN Office for Partnerships gathers influential women to look at how their leadership is shaping the COVID-19 response and efforts to build back better. From local to global, Women Rise for All will highlight inspirational leadership and take on critical issues facing our world right now.

Among the participants are the President of Switzerland, the Prime Minister of Barbados, and Africa's first elected female president, the former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The keynote address will be delivered by Sustainable Development Goals Advocate Graça Machel.

Other speakers include Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee; Sustainable Development Goals Advocates Dia Mirza and Alaa Murabit; Bola Adesola, Senior Vice-Chairman, Africa, Standard Chartered Bank Group; Muniba Mazari, National UN Women Ambassador, Pakistan; KK Shailaja, State Minister for Health and Social Justice, Kerala, India; Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia, Canada; Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London; Natasha Wang Mwansa, Executive Director and Founder of the Natasha Mwansa Foundation; Jennifer Cassidy, Lecturer at the University of Oxford and Founding Member of the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group; Joyce Mendez, General Director and Co-Founder of ENERLAM and a researcher at the Latin American Energy Observatory;  Wawira Njiru, Founder and Executive Director of Food4Education; award-winning singer, songwriter and actor Andra Day; the heads of UN Women, the UN Environment Programme, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the UN Global Compact; and the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, in a programme moderated by former CNN anchor Zain Verjee.

“Like no other time in recent history, women are on the frontlines of COVID-19,” said the UN Deputy Secretary-General. “It is time for us to rise as women leaders taking action to conquer the pandemic and come out stronger.”

The special event will look at how women leaders globally and locally are winning against COVID-19 on the health and socio-economic fronts, and why intergenerational leadership is needed now, with a focus on inspiring transformative action to advance sustainability and inclusion.

Women Rise for All was launched on 27 April in support of the UN Secretary-General’s call for solidarity and urgent action in response to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. As a global advocacy effort to save lives and protect livelihoods, Rise for All urges leaders in all countries, across all sectors, to address the human crisis of the pandemic, and to support the UN COVID-19 Recover Better Fund, an inter-agency mechanism designed to help those countries and people most exposed to the economic hardship and social disruption the pandemic has caused.

 

For more information, including the full list of women leaders who have joined Rise for All, see: www.un.org/riseforall

 

To register for the 14 July event, please go to https://womenriseforall.eventfinity.co/register

 

Watch live on http://webtv.un.org