United Nations Headquarters
It’s October 24th: a day for celebrating sandwich meat (National Bologna Day), but more significantly United Nations Day, the anniversary of the United Nations’ founding in 1945.
United Nations and the Women’s National Book Association: A Long Partnership
The WNBA has supported the UN and its initiatives, continuing to renew its NGO status for close to 60 years! As members, it is our job to serve as ambassadors, educating the community about UN issues and seeking to weave our goals together. Because the WNBA has strong ties to the UN, it is valuable to see what our UN counterparts are doing, specifically at UN Women.
About UN Women
UN Women continues to promote its mission of gender equality and women empowerment by highlighting the issues they view as most significant. Working in tandem with the UN’ssustainable development goals (SDGs), UN Women has been making strides to connect these goals to their own initiatives. Although the fifth SDG, gender equality, is a main priority for UN Women, women have an impact on all of the goals.
Supporting SDGs
Here’s how UN Women aims to support each SDG:
- No Poverty: The most important step to ending poverty is by giving women the means to live above the poverty-level, providing them with basic human rights and the ability to make equal pay. UN Women has developed programs that seek to train and educate women and give them the skills to economically support themselves. Many women farmers lack the same resources that men do and therefore cannot grow adequate crops. UN Women has assisted women in gaining access to property ownership, raw materials, and advanced technology.
- End Hunger: Women around the world are the ones preparing a majority of meals for their families. Lack of nourishment in food leads women to have health problems, especially in pregnancy. UN Women aims to stop hunger by providing agricultural resources to women and viewing them as the foundation of food security. They have created a website titled Empower.org, which unites women and allows them to share their food-producing expertise.
- Good Health and Well-Being: UN Women has partnered with governmental/non-governmental entities to ensure women and girls have access to healthcare, as well as preventing hurtful practices, like female genital mutilation. They also work to provide women and children with the proper medical care during virus outbreaks and those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
- Quality Education: UN Women gives girls the opportunity to attend school and receive an education by altering the curriculums and educating teachers and caregivers on its importance.
- Gender Equality: At UN Women, two of their essential goals are to promote women in politics and leadership roles, while also looking to increase their economic gain. They help women find jobs, overcome acts of violence, and advocate for gender equality through their HeForShe campaign.
Getting Involved with UN Women
Want to help support the UN’s SDGs? You can! If you’re in NYC, you can join the Metro NY chapter, which has convenient access to UN headquarters in Manhattan. If you live elsewhere, consider checking out other UN Women chapters that may be near you:
