News
UNIFEM Executive Director Visits India
Date: 5 November 2009
New Delhi — During her first official visit to India on 2-4 November, UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi met with representatives from national and local government and the national women’s machinery, visited NGO partners and signed a partnership agreement on a new programme on women and governance.
Executive Director Alberdi met with Krishna Tirath, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, in New Delhi on 3 November. Ms. Alberdi presented UNIFEM’s new programme, ‘Promoting Women’s Political Leadership and Governance in India and South Asia’, which focuses on strengthening the capacities of elected women representatives. During her visit, Ms. Alberdi signed a partnership agreement with the Norwegian Ambassador to India on the implementation of the programme from 2009 to 2012, which will include the establishment of a regional centre for capacity-building. Minister Tirath welcomed the initiative and suggested further collaboration with UNIFEM.
On the same day, Ms. Alberdi met with Girija Vyas, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW). As both UNIFEM and NCW are engaged in developing strategies to end trafficking and violence against women in India, they agreed that a partnership between the two agencies should be outlined at the earliest opportunity. The areas of collaboration would include a mapping of the regions in India that are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking and the organization of a pledging conference with donors to support long-term budgetary resources on the issues of ending violence against women and human trafficking.
In a meeting with Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms. Alberdi discussed UNIFEM’s ‘Global Programme on Safe Cities Free of Violence against Women and Girls’, a flagship initiative that focuses on reducing sexual harassment and violence in urban public spaces, through community empowerment and partnerships with local authorities. Ms. Dikshit expressed her support for the ‘Safe Cities’ initiative in India, the pilot project of which is to be implemented by the non-governmental organization Jagori in New Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram from 2009 to 2011.
Among the NGO partners visited was the Federation of Self-Employed Women’s Associations (SEWA Bharat), a national labour union of women workers in the informal economy. UNIFEM and SEWA have been collaborating since 1995 to promote the rights of home-based workers. Ms. Alberdi and the UNIFEM team were greeted by Renana Jhabvala, President of SEWA Bharat, and National Coordinator Sanjay Kumar, and engaged in lively discussions with grassroots women leaders.
For more information, contact Sushma Kapoor, UNIFEM Deputy Regional Programme Director, sushma.kapoor[at]unifem.org.
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