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Celebration of International Women's Day

Remarks by
Ursula Schaefer-Preuss
Vice President
Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development
Asian Development Bank

7 March 2008
ADB Headquarters, Mandaluyong City

Dear guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

Today we celebrate the International Women's Day. Why dedicate a day exclusively to the celebration of women?

When in 1975 the UN resolution on the observance of Women's Day was adopted, the UN General Assembly cited two strong reasons: to acknowledge the fact that social progress requires the active participation of women, and to mark the contribution of women to international peace and security. These motives certainly ring true this year, when the official theme is ‘financing for gender equality' or perhaps more clearly: 'investing in women and girls'.

Promoting more investments for women and girls, as well as facilitating gender equality is an important part of what we do here at ADB. As most you are aware, ADB is currently formulating our Long Term Strategic Framework (LTSF) to guide our efforts for the future. An important consideration in that context is that despite rapid growth and reduction in poverty in Asia and the Pacific, disparities have increased, with women often among those left out of the benefits of progress. It is for this reason that the LTSF will aim to embrace inclusive growth as a key development goal for all citizens and continue to emphasize gender equality and the empowerment of women as elements in achieving inclusive growth. To achieve accelerated growth and poverty reduction, ADB will work for greater investments aimed at the inclusion of women by giving women better access to education, health, economic resources and opportunities.

This principle is reflected in the ADB Gender and Development Policy and related Plan of Action (2008-2010). The Plan identifies activities through which ADB can contribute to tangible women's empowerment results. The Plan is also characterized by its renewed commitment to profiling gender issues in the policy dialogue in the DMCs and greater collaboration with civil society NGOs.

But stated commitment to gender equality would remain empty words without investing directly in women and girls. This brings us back to the specific topic to the 2008 International Women's Day celebrations. What does ADB do in this respect?

The ADB multi-donor GAD Cooperation Fund - established in 2003 - with the support from our member governments Canada, Denmark, Norway and Ireland has developed innovative approaches to women's empowerment in Asia and the Pacific. Since 2003, the Fund has supported almost 50 projects for a total of $8 million in areas which include initiatives to support the enactment of gender equality laws and to strengthen the role of financial services for poor women, as well as the recently approved TA for Promoting Rural Women's Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies.

Our gender and development activities are supported by a highly appreciated advisory board, the External Forum on Gender.

These are clear demonstrations that ADB regards financing for gender equality an important development tool, to which I am confident we shall all continue to put energy and resources.

Let us now jointly welcome our guest speakers who will be introduced by Mr. Munenaga.

Thank you again.