Awards ceremony to mark International Women's Day

by Punchamee Hewavissenti

[email protected]

The UN - Habitat Regional office for Asia and Pacific in collaboration with the United Nations Country team of Sri Lanka held an awards ceremony recently to commemorate International Women's Day yesterday.

Awards were conferred on civil society organisations and individuals who have shown excellence and innovation in initiatives which improve the rights responsiveness and gender-sensitivity in their community.

Awards were also presented to those who made a big contribution to eliminate gender-discrimination and promote gender equality.

The theme for this year's celebration 'Financing for Gender Equity' was introduced by Dr. Agostino Borra, WHO Representative and Chair UN Gender Theme Group and Neil Buhne, UN Resident Coordinator.

The keynote address was delivered by Jan Meeuwissen, Senior Human Settlements Officer, UN - Habitat Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP).

Awardees had specialised in gender perspective in rebuilding communities affected by disaster and conflict. The aim of the awards ceremony was based on `Gender main-streaming in Post-Disaster, Post Conflict and Disaster Preparedness'.

The awards were presented not only to these who had excellence in community activities but also for their leadership in main-streaming gender in the post-conflict or post-disaster context.

The panel comprise nine jurors, who evaluated applications and selected five candidates for excellence and innovation. The awards were presented under the patronage of the Norwegian Government as a part of regional and global program to enhance gender main-streaming and the replication of best practices in the area of gender and human settlements.

The following received awards:

Civil Society Award for Excellence

Sri Lanka Women's Development Cooperative Limited, Sri Lanka

Civil Society Award for innovation

Association for community Development, Bangladesh

Fund for the encouragement of Self-Reliance, Vietnam

Individual Award for Excellence

Helen Hakena, Papua New Guinea - Executive Director of Leitana

Nehan Women's Development agency

Individual Award for innovation Salima Sarwar, Bangladesh - Founder and Executive Director of the Association for Community Development which works to ensure women's human rights issues, elimination of gender discrimination and the promotion of gender equality.

Awarding Gender Main-streaming in Human Settlements has been acknowledged by experts in consultation with UN-HABITAT to be a best practice.