VSO welcomes the appointment of Michelle Bachelet to the top job at the newly created UN Women agency

14/09/2010 16:15:00

VSO today welcomes the UN’s appointment of Michelle Bachelet to the top job at the newly created ‘UN Women’.  Kathy Peach, VSO UK’s Head of External Affairs said: 

“VSO welcomes the appointment of Michelle Bachelet as the Under Secretary General at the new UN’s women’s agency.  Her presidency of Chile was characterised by strong commitment to social reform and efforts to close the gap between rich and poor.  Her promise to improve the lives of the poorest women and children was borne out in the creation of thousands of crèches for deprived children and she took the unprecedented step of creating an equal number of government posts for men and women.

“We believe that ‘UN Women’ has the potential to make a genuine and lasting difference for millions of women around the world. With just five years left until the MDG deadline, the new agency was sorely needed.

“The appointment of Bachelet gives the new agency a fighting chance but there is now the need to show the same commitment to the financial resourcing. Civil Society Organisations, including VSO, believe the new agency should have at least $1bn annually so that it can run programmes that help women live free from violence, earn an income and have a say in decisions that affect their lives. We were disappointed earlier this year when member states did not set a funding goal for the agency.  We urge Bachelet to make securing funding the top priority in the first three months of her leadership.

“We also applaud the leadership shown by the British Government today as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announces that the entire UK aid programme will be reorientated to put women in developing countries at its heart. We hope that the Deputy Prime Minister will use next week’s UN MDG summit to call on other governments to show the same commitment to women’s development.” 

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For further information or to speak to a VSO spokesperson please contact Catherine Raynor on +44 7734 863987 or email Catherine.Raynor@vso.org.uk

Editor's notes

VSO is an international development charity that works through volunteers.  Since 1958 over 44,000 volunteers have worked in over 120 countries.  Today there are over 1600 international volunteers working in 42 countries around the world.

VSO recruits volunteers from a wide range of professional backgrounds.  The strongest need is for experienced managers, professionals with experience of working in primary education, and doctors and midwives.  VSO can use financial professionals where they have strong planning or management expertise.