Proceedings of the UNESCO Future Forum on Gender Equality: The Missing Link? Rethinking the Internationally Agreed Development Goals beyond 2015, 9-11 September 2010, Athens, Greece

Click here to go back to the Athens Future Forum information page.

It is increasingly clear that a cross-cutting approach to gender equality is essential not only to the realization of women’s rights, but to the achievement of the wider goals of development and peace. [...] We need to rethink internationally agreed development goals in terms of the missing link of gender equality with a view to ensuring that women’s rights and potential are woven into the social and cultural fabric of all nations. All the development goals reinforce each other, but none can be reached without empowering girls and women with the capabilities and confidence they need to live in freedom and dignity.
Irina Bokova
Director-General of UNESCO