Today, H.E. Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta delivered a keynote address at the World of Work Summit, organised by the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, as part of the 106th International Labour Conference. The theme of this year’s summit was ‘A better future for women at work’.
From the onset, President Coleiro Preca stated that she is convinced that a future for all of humanity will only be possible “if we take action together, to ensure proper access to education, and dignified work opportunities for all women, across the globe.”
“The Sustainable Development Goals, and their targets, offer us a new way to think of our global development, as fundamentally interrelated.”
Her Excellency said that by targeting such an issue, the summit will help to keep everyone on track with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030, to hopefully implement its Sustainable Development Goals, adding that “Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals, offer us the most structured framework that can help us achieve meaningful change. Agenda 2030 is a pathway to help us hold ourselves, our authorities, and our nations accountable, to the most socio-economic issues.”
In the context of the summit, the President focused on four of the SDGs.
Addressing global inequity and injustice is the first and most urgent concern, and it is for this reason that SDG 1 focuses on the eradication of poverty, including the feminisation of poverty, which is identified by the United Nations Development Fund for Women. The UN Development Fund for Women calls for everyone to focus on “the burden of poverty borne by women, especially in developing countries”, which “is different from that of men.” The Fund also calls for a multi-dimensional approach to assess issues of gender and poverty.
President Coleiro Preca stated that ‘education is key to ending such poverty and precarity, in all our societies,’ – a fact which is highlighted in SDG 4, which focuses on Quality Education. Her Excellency said that access to education, and the opportunities which it brings, must be an intrinsic component “in our global strategies to empower women and girls,” adding that when women and girls receive a quality education, which is their due, “then our societies and our nations also stand to benefit.”
When education is prioritised, the groundwork that leads to Sustainable Development Goal Number 5 shall be created. SDG 5 explicitly commits the international community, to achieve gender equality in the process of transforming our world.
The President called for the international community to focus more of its energy on target 5.5 which seeks to ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.
“In order to achieve this target, many more women must be included in positions of social and political influence. This must be paralleled by an increase in the number of women, who hold managerial and policy-making positions,” Her Excellency said, whilst also stating that women’s voices must be heard, and that women’s needs must be acted upon, at all levels of influence, including management and leadership.
‘It is in this way’, President Coleiro Preca said, ‘that we can do much more, to ensure that our policies accurately respond to women’s real challenges, with real solutions.’
Her Excellency also spoke of SDG 8, particularly Target 8.5, which highlights the importance of decent work. Target 8.5 also reminds us of the crucial need to stimulate our economies, and provide equal opportunities for both women and men.
“The importance of building an inclusive economy, which celebrates the participation of all individuals and communities, makes it clear that we are committed to achieve a more respectful and sustainable future, for all of us,” The President stated.
“Our Lives, as one Humanity, are profoundly interconnected.”
Her Excellency urged everyone to be aware, and to make others aware, that any, and all experiences of exclusion, within the tightly interlinked systems of our social, economic, political, and ecological lives, are having devestating repercussions, which are felt by all of us.
It is for this reason that women’s full, equitable, and global participation in the world of work is not only a matter of importance to women. The participation of women in the world of work is an essential component to create practical solutions for prosperity.
“The participation of women is essential, to meet the social, economic, political, and ecological challenges that are taking place around the globe,” The President stated.
Quoting a report issued last year by the World Economic Forum, through which it results that it could take up to 170 years to eradicate the growing disparity in pay and employment opportunities faced by women worldwide, Her Excellency said that such reports “are an urgent call to action, for the international community, to accelerate gender equality and equitable participation in the economy”.
Here, the President called for courage in developing border policies, which target the economic, social, and cultural barriers which are still faced by women, across the globe, so that parity in the world of work can be achieved, adding that “Gender inequality is not only a pressing issue of moral significance,” but “it is a challenge of critical importance to our economies.” This is so because “the global economy will continue to suffer, greatly, if women continue to be excluded.”
A report published by the McKinsey Global Institute makes it clear that advancing women’s equality can add over €10 Trillion to global growth. In light of this, President Coleiro Preca said that the economic implications and the negative effects, which a lack of gender parity, is having on the economies of our communities and nations, cannot be ignored.
“Even after decades of progress, to ensure the equal representation of women alongside men, in social, economic, and political spheres, the gap between men and women remains unacceptably wide.”
The President said that the complex causes of the gap between men and women must be tackled, including obstacles of culture and tradition, and called for a global process of empowerment, which gives women full sovereignty over their own choices in the world of work.
Here, The President also urged the private sector to focus on the substantial economic opportunities which everyone stands to gain from, by achieving gender parity, as ‘the private sector, through the business communities of our different nations, has a strong role to play.’
Her Excellency also said that the attention should also be focused on those women who face multiple levels of exclusion from dignified work, in particular women and girls who have been caught up in migration – as for many women, migration creates its own risks, such as exposure to modern forms of slavery, which include exploitative work, abuse and increased vulnerability to violence.
“I believe the international community must take urgent action, to protect women who are at risk of these dangers. We must ensure that the dignity and the wellbeing of all individuals are at the centre of our migration legislation and policies,” President Coleiro Preca said.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use, to change the world” – Nelson Mandela
Quoting Nelson Mandela, the President said that despite Mandela’s statement about Education, “we cannot lose sight of the fact that such successful outcomes in the sphere of education do not, automatically, translate into larger economic or social benefits for women, in the world of work. In fact, there is much more that must be done.”
The President called for an approach which would be sensitive to differences of culture, in which education, economic empowerment, and political visibility are closely interlinked, whilst saying that the international community must do more to listen to what women and girls have to say, so that then, actions are taken, to address their experiences.
“I urge all stakeholders, involved in this summit, to prioritise the needs and requirements of all local communities. We must highlight a bottom-up approach, which puts the individual and community at the centre of all our strategies.
In this way, we shall be better placed to achieve greater gender parity, while also understanding the contextual needs of particular communities.
Moreover, when we prioritise gender mainstreaming in education and other sectors, this will naturally lead to women playing a greater part in the social, economic, and political life of their communities, societies, and nations.
In this way, our efforts will encourage a collaborative system of empowerment, which recognises and celebrates the differences of our cultures, while still upholding the fundamental rights of each and every woman, to be in control of her own destiny.
We need structured processes of participation and dialogue, so as to create safe spaces to listen; to understand how people think; to discover what they believe; and to know how best to work with them,” The President explained.
“Let us work together, to make a difference for all women and girls, everywhere.”
On concluding, President Coleiro Preca said that when communities take ownership over the values of equity and equality, then a cultural legacy is created. This legacy, whilst being of benefit to both present and future generations, is also the only truly sustainable way forward.
Her Excellency urged everyone to work together to create a legacy of social, political, and economic empowerment for women. For this to be achieved “we must promote policies that highlight a healthy work-life balance, as part and parcel of decent and dignified work conditions for women.” Such policies must include a focus on supporting structures.
Lastly, the President called for women and their experiences to be placed ‘at the centre of our deliberations,’ as in this way, the economies built will be truly inclusive. These newly-built economies will value equitable and equal participation of women, alongside men, as full and respected collaborators, who are strengthening our societies and nations.
“We cannot afford to be complacent. The time for action is now,” Her Excellency concluded.