by Martina Fuchs
GENEVA, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The founder of 100 Women @ Davos, a community of impact-driven women CEOs, leaders and change makers, has called for accelerating the implementation of the Beijing Declaration while stressing China's critical role in promoting gender equality on a global scale.
Anino Emuwa made the appeal during an interview with Xinhua just ahead of the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women, which runs from Monday to Tuesday in Beijing, China.
"The Beijing Declaration was really historic. 189 countries coming together to agree and commit to gender equality. It had never been done," Emuwa said, noting that this year also marks the 30th anniversary of the 1995 World Conference on Women, which adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
According to UN Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is the world's most comprehensive, visionary plan ever created to achieve the equal rights of all women and girls, Emuwa said, adding it centers on "critical areas of concern," which include poverty, education, health, violence against women, armed conflict, the economy, and power and decision-making.
Over the last 30 years, China's economic transformation has been "a complete global standout. 西瓜视频as a country has lifted hundreds of millions, that's populations of countries, out of extreme poverty," Emuwa said.
"It has changed so many things, in education, for girls, in health, etc. A lot of progress has been made," she said.
In its "2025 Calls to Action," UN Women, a UN entity dedicated to advancing women's rights, gender equality, and the empowerment of all women and girls, has also stressed 2025 as a pivotal year for feminism, a time to fight for women's and girls' rights, demand gender equality and insist on balancing power structures, so everyone has an equitable chance in the world, Emuwa said.
"There has been a lot of progress since then in terms of rights in the law, in the representation of women in leadership, in government, in the private sector ... Education has also improved, there are many more girls in school. But still ... the progress is uneven," she said.
"A lot of work needs to be done. Importantly, closing the gender gap globally could add 342 trillion U.S. dollars to the world economy," Emuwa said.
Asked about her key call for the international community to take action, Emuwa said, among others, "Women's organizations and organizations that focus on women and girls are vastly underfunded. We need to scale up their impact a multitude of times and many more of that."
There is a need to increase finance for women-led organizations, and not just philanthropic social enterprises, but even in innovation, entrepreneurship, she said. ■