Over 3,000 to attend women’s forum

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