Over 3,000 delegates, including policymakers, advocates
and world leaders from more than 150 countries, will gather for the
Women Deliver 2013 Conference at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre today.
The
decade's largest meeting, which will see speakers like Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Melinda Gates, Clinton Foundation
board member Chelsea Clinton and UN Population Fund executive director
Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, will focus on the health and rights of girls
and women.
Malaysia is the first Asian country to be given the
honour to host the three-day global conference, which was previously
held in London and Washington DC.
The media secretariat said that
the conference would feature more than 100 sessions with talks by some
of the world's leading voices, calling for action to ensure that girls
and women were a priority in the run-up to the 2015 Millennium
Development Goal deadline and beyond.
Among the themes at the
conference are the economic and social benefits of investing in girls
and women, how to achieve the goal of reaching 120 million more women
with voluntary family planning services by 2020 and the need to place
them at the heart of the post-2015 development agenda.
Organisations
such as World Bank, Guttmacher Institute, which advocates sexual and
reproductive health, and World Health Organisation are also expected to
release major new research and reports during the conference.
In
his opening remarks at the Women Deliver Conference 2010, UN
secretary-general Ban Ki-moon had said that the meeting was critical in
showing that investing in girls and women was not only the right thing
to do but also good for the economy and society.
Ban, who later
that year launched the Global Strategy for Women and Children's Health,
said Women Deliver 2013 would be an opportunity to keep up the pressure
and affirm their plans for the period ahead.
This year's
conference is taking place at a critical time, just days before the
secretary-general receives recommendations for the post-2015 development
framework.
Those who are not able to attend the conference will
have a chance to get connected and catch up with the latest information
via a live webcast.
Advocacy & Communication for Women Deliver
senior director Vanita Gowda said the live webcast and archived video
of all plenary and presidential sessions would be available at the
organiser's official websites, adding that the public could watch the
events starting today.“They just have to go to the website at
http://new.livestream.com/womendeliver/conference2013 to watch the
conference via webcast or http://www.wd2013.org to get more information
on the topics about women and the speakers,” she said.
Source: The Star Online
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