Photo: Ryan Brown / UN Women

On 14 to 16 October 2024, UN Women hosted the Global Annual Meeting for UN Gender Focal Points at the Danny Kaye Visitors Centre at UNICEF House in New York. More than 50 gender focal points from different UN agencies, funds and programmes attended the event in person, with over 100 additional colleagues joining remotely. The meeting was organized in connection to the seventh anniversary of the Secretary-General’s System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity.

This UN System-wide network is comprised of over 550 Gender Focal Points worldwide. The theme of this year’s Global Annual Meeting was ‘Account, Recommit, and Resource’, in alignment with the 30th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 2025, which focuses on achieving gender equality and ensuring the rights and empowerment of women and girls.

Attendees heard from UN leaders, including recorded messages from Ms. Catherine Russell, Executive Director, UNICEF and H.E. Mr. Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, who made an urgent call to the importance of promoting enabling work environments and cultures.

Ms. Sima Bahous, Executive Director, UN Women, gave remarks on the crucial role that gender focal points play. “This annual meeting will provide you with a unique opportunity to learn, shed ideas be inspired by the successes and good practices of your peers and to join forces with a growing network of committed individuals from across the United Nations system,” she said.  

“Your efforts are crucial to achieving gender parity. You are pushing priorities for women and girls, and I thank you all for what you do every day,” Ms. Bahous added.

Gender parity at UNJSPF

The UNJSPF leadership is committed to creating a supportive workplace environment. Staff members are provided with conditions such as work-life balance to attain gender parity and make sure no one is left behind.

“I commend the gender focal points for playing an important role at the Fund and would like to reaffirm my commitment to ensure that we reach gender parity at the senior and middle management levels,” said Ms. Rosemarie McClean, Chief Executive for Pension Administration.

“At the Fund, we are making an effort to reach gender parity at all levels in our recruitment and selection processes,” said Mr. Guazo, Representative of the Secretary-General for the Assets of the UN Pension Fund. “Moreover, we are pushing for gender equality in the companies we invest, through engagement as a shareholder,” he added. 

The Fund seeks to ensure gender diversity amongst its staff at all levels and follows the United Nations Secretariat’s lead in achieving 50/50 gender balance in its staff.

Voices of UNJSPF gender focal points

Ju Hui Lee, Head of Investment Risk and Performance at the UNJSPF Office of Investment Management (OIM), always wanted to be gender focal point at the Fund. For her, gender equity is a fundamental principle to uphold, particularly as an entity in the UN system. “The role of a gender focal point is indispensable in realizing this principle, by facilitating the exchange of thoughts and experiences with our peer focal points to foster mutual learning,” she said.

Suparna Bose, Programme Management Officer at UNJSPF Pension Administration, was eager to tap into the potential that Gender Focal Points can bring to the table. “I wanted to make sure that our voices are heard and to be able to make a difference, however small it may seem in the grand scheme of things,” she said.  

Alex Rafalovich, a Data Manager at OIM who has been working in the UN System for 19 years, said it’s critical to have the voices of both women and men heard: “Gender equality needs to include the rights of all staff members – independent of the gender – in an honest and fair conversation.”

Susan Chiu, Information System Officer at OIM, recognizes that she had the privilege of being raised in an environment where everyone is treated equally irrespective of their gender. “Being a gender focal point means that I have an opportunity to actively promote gender equality and provide a perspective that is genuine from my heart and how I live my values,” she said.

Lucía Manzano Gomez, Data Engineer at OIM, shared that working in a male-dominated sector can be isolating for women, which she has experienced first-hand. “While working at an NGO in Spain, we discovered that the digital gender gap is increasing. Fewer women choose technical careers, and this brings poor results such as gender biases in AI algorithms and misrepresentation of women in medical studies. When I joined the UN, I felt the urgent need to do something about this, and I thought that becoming a gender focal point was a great opportunity to keep helping women thrive.”

Elena Tejadillo, Information Systems Officer at PA says that it’s crucial to promote gender parity in all contexts. “It is an honor to support and assist UN in bridging the gender gap, as the UN plays a pivotal role in advancing gender parity globally.”