Opening Speech: International Women’s Day 2022 Virtual Forum

Distinguished audience, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon,

Please allow me to share an inspiring quote from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

“When the world invests in expanding opportunities for women and girls, all of humanity wins.”

Today, humanity is heading towards an uncertain future. Our planet is hanging by a thread and calling on us to act now. Just yesterday afternoon, we all witnessed yet another episode of unusually heavy rainfalls, and we spent the evening watching images of floods and picturing who and where and how many families went, in less than two hours, from a normal day to emergency mode.

Emergency mode is our reality and only option for years to come. It’s when societies are aware of the danger, that governments recognize that climate change and environment degradation cannot lead to prosperity, that depleting forests and natural resources will bring irreparable damage.

Emergency mode is when women’s leadership is needed most. Women have proved their ability to cope, act and make the world a better place. And today, we need the talents and immense potential of women to address the risks looming ahead.

8 March 2022

We meet here today, as we do every year, to celebrate women, to advocate for gender equality and raise our voices in support of more just societies. It is truly a privilege for me to be with you today.

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow,” when every woman and girl is recognized, respected, protected and empowered.

We are meeting today to honor and learn from women’s rights champions and advocates for a more sustainable and climate resilient future in Malaysia.

We have witnessed women’s heroism during a pandemic that has impacted every human on Planet Earth. Two long years where women rose as heroes and too many fell victims both to the disease and to the shadow pandemic of violence and abuse.

As we hear the insisting call to action for the survival of our planet and of humanity, and as the world gears up to deliver on commitments made in the Paris Agreement and keep the promise of the SDGs, women can and will respond and deliver.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The climate crisis is a women’s issue.

Women are more exposed to climate change impacts. They constitute the majority of the world’s poor and uneducated.

That is because social, economic, political and cultural barriers continue to impede their agency.

Women are keepers and managers of natural resources, and many perform physically draining tasks to access and use those resources.

When women cannot make decisions regarding access to and use of land, water or other resources, their livelihoods are threatened and vulnerability increased.

The future of our planet is also a women’s issue.

Women and girls are effective and powerful leaders and change-makers for climate mitigation and adaptation.

They are involved in sustainability initiatives around the world, and evidence shows that their participation and leadership result in more effective climate action.

Equally important are women’s traditional skills, knowledge and experience in natural resource management acquired and transmitted throughout generations.

Protecting the environment and combatting climate change can be effective only when and if it is gender-responsive and rooted in the rights and needs of women and men, girls and boys.

Delivering on the SDGs is precisely about policies that account for women and girls. It is also about coherence and interlinkages between the 17 goals. Progress on Goal 13 on climate change or Goal 6 on water and sanitation or Goal 2 on food security depends on legal and structural enablers set in Goal 5 on gender equality.

We are meeting today to celebrate women in Malaysia, to share ideas and experiences, and advance both the conversation and action.

Malaysia’s greenhouse gas emissions account for less than 0.7% globally. Yet, climate change is one of the most challenging threats to inclusive and sustainable development in Malaysia.

It has detrimental effects in the short and medium term, in frequent weather shocks – droughts, intermittent rainfalls, and floods. It will also lead, in the long term, to further gradual degradation of the environment.

Malaysia has set some bold targets. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable, low-carbon energy sources across all sectors, is an ambitious and costly endeavour.

It requires government, the private sector and society’s full mobilization around energy efficiency, integrated waste management, and a more sustainable and resilient agriculture.

Yet, in climate sensitive sectors like agriculture, energy, water and tourism, policymakers have not sufficiently used the gender lens, and the differentiated impact of climate change on men and women.

Malaysia needs to promote gender-sensitive investments in programmes for adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer and capacity building in order to reach the poor and vulnerable, most of whom are women.

To do that, we need knowledge, analysis and gender-disaggregated data. These are areas where the UN will continue to provide expertise and support.

In light of the recent weather events, we also need to work on making emergency responses gender sensitive. Natural disaster management is not men’s business; women can and should participate in decisions that affect them, their families and communities.

Their skills and resourcefulness should be tapped on in times of emergency and recovery.

The path of progress is rarely a straight line, but women are determined to engage and advance. What they need is an empowering environment in which their contributions are valued. They need the SDGs promise to be kept.

I will conclude by echoing the UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s call to “recommit our energies to achieve true and irreversible gender equality, because we all benefit when women have the opportunity to lead and to rise for all.”

Thank you and Happy International Women’s Day.

Rewatch the Forum here