Launch of the Enabling Environment Guidelines for the United Nations System

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a pleasure to be with you today for the launch of the Enabling Environment Guidelines for the United Nations System. My thanks to UN Women for bringing these guidelines to Geneva.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has put the goal of attaining gender parity firmly on our agenda; he included it on the list of his highest personal and professional priorities. And he is serious about it. His system-wide Strategy on Gender Parity, launched in 2017, has already achieved transformational results in the UN System.

For the first time in the history of the United Nations the Secretary-General’s Senior Management Group has an equal number of women and men. The same goes for the Resident Coordinators system. Gender parity achieved at the highest leadership level of the UN! Serious, strong and persistent political will and action – that is what it took to transform the UN leadership landscape. Our next target – gender parity at all levels of the UN System by 2028.

And this is not the end of the story. Numbers are important, but achieving real parity goes way beyond the numbers. It is also about transforming our organizational culture and mindset. It is about establishing an enabling and inclusive working environment for all, free from gender bias and discrimination.

I congratulate UN Women on the launch of The Enabling Environment Guidelines for the United Nations System. Showing us the direction we need to travel in order to create an inclusive and respectful working environment, the Guidelines collate good practices and recommendations to help guide and support all UN entities.

UN Women did outstanding work in collecting good practices that already exist in many parts of the UN, translating them into actionable recommendations and offering this product to all of us.

I am proud that some of those practices came from the UN Office at Geneva, including the campaign against casual sexism we conducted last year, the programme to strengthen career development and leadership skills for female professionals, or our efforts to implement flexible working arrangements. UN Geneva is in its third year of the implementation of the Policy for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and these new guidelines will help us make further progress in this area.

And of course I should also mention the International Gender Champions Initiative, which originated in Geneva. Every champion – and there are over 235 of them active across Geneva, New York, Vienna, Nairobi, Bonn and The Hague as we speak – commits to three tangible actions to advance gender equality. This leadership network will, no doubt, draw on the guidelines for further action towards gender equality.

Dear Colleagues,

The UN has a responsibility to lead by example and demonstrate the core values of equality, human rights and non-discrimination through our actions. This responsibility lies with each one of us, from the organization’s leaders to junior staff. We all have a part to play in creating an enabling working environment for all.

I thank all of you for joining us today – representatives of the Member States and NGOs, colleagues from the International Gender Champions network, Gender Focal Points, Human Resources staff and interested colleagues.

I thank Ms. Katja Pehrman, UN Women Senior Advisor and Focal Point for Women in the UN System, for coming to Geneva to engage with all of us on this occasion.

Thank you.