Address by the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and D...

27.09.2024 / Video

Address by the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Rebecca Greenspan to the participants of the IV Eurasian Women's Forum

Dear delegates, guests, ladies and gentlemen, friends! The Fourth Eurasian Women's Forum is an excellent platform to discuss the pressing issues and opportunities that women face in our interconnected world. The theme "Women for Building Trust and Global Cooperation" is especially relevant in our time.

Today, we live in a world characterized not only by a trust deficit, but also by a hope deficit. Economic stratification, inequality, geopolitical crisis, and worsening climate change create a sense of fragmentation and uncertainty.

But the fight for women’s empowerment is not and cannot be isolated. For me, as a Latin American, the empowerment of women in Eurasia is important because, although our continents are far apart, the challenges we face as women are strikingly similar.

Our struggle is universal because our problems and our aspirations are universal. To overcome the crisis we face today, we must harness the full potential of humanity. And that means empowering women to shape their own lives and to lead, innovate, and create change; to learn, build, trade, lead, collaborate, network, create, and care. Eurasia, the continental bridge between Europe and Asia, is a melting pot of cultures, histories, and aspirations. It is a region where languages intertwine, traditions mingle, and ideas intersect.

This Forum is an opportunity to draw on our collective wisdom. It is a chance to build partnerships, share best practices, and amplify the voices of women who are making change happen in their families, in their communities, in their countries, around the world, and in the multilateral system.

Let us seize this moment to build a future in which every woman, everywhere, can reach her full potential. And in doing so, we must also build the trust and cooperation that the world needs so that we can look to the future with hope. Thank you for your attention!