|
Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of UNWTO, and Michelle Bachelet,
Executive Director of UN Women, renewed the framework cooperation agreement
between the two organizations on 29 October 2011, during a retreat of the United
Nations Chief Executives' Board for Coordination (CEB) in New York, chaired by
UN Secretary-General, Ban ki-Moon, who joined the signing.
Collaboration between the two agencies dates back to 2008, when the initial
cooperation agreement was signed between UNIFEM (now UN Women) and UNWTO, with
the aim of harnessing tourism’s potential to contribute to gender equality and
women’s empowerment. A concrete result of this partnership, the Global Report on
Women in Tourism 2010, was launched at ITB Berlin in March 2011 and represents a
landmark effort to comprehensively map women’s participation in the tourism
sector. Confirming that tourism can provide tangible opportunities for women’s
empowerment, it also highlights remaining barriers and provides recommendations
to stakeholders to redress gender inequalities throughout tourism.
Through the 2011 agreement, UNWTO and UN Women commit to build on the findings
of the Global Report to generate momentum for tourism’s active contribution to
equality and women’s empowerment, as well as to develop a gender mainstreaming
strategy for the public and private members of the tourism sector. Planned
activities include the Women in Tourism Empowerment Programme and the Tourism
and Gender Portal.
|
