危機的状況におけるコミュニティのレジリエンス向上の戦略としての女性のエンパワーメントに係るドナーラウンドテーブル

(As delivered)
 

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon and thank you all for your participation today.

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this Donor Round table on Investment in women’s resilience as a strategy for community resilience in crisis context. I would particularly like to welcome Mr. Yanick Glemarec, ASG and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women.

We are currently experiencing an unprecedented scale of natural disasters and the greatest numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons since World War Two.

There are an estimated 136 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and three-quarters of them are women and children. Women and girls are especially vulnerable in crisis situations in conflict as well as during massive natural disasters.

Protracted crises have made the situation even more complicated. The longer stay of refugees has exhausted host community resources and thus exacerbated existing vulnerabilities.

The role of women in combatting increased gender inequality and discrimination in crisis settings is particularly important and yet often not well recognized. 

To end this situation as quickly as possible, Japan is proud to support UN Women and its “Women’s Leadership, Empowerment, Access & Protection in Crisis Response” programme, also known as LEAP, under UN Women’s Flagship Programming Initiatives.

LEAP provides a comprehensive response to the urgent needs of women, including protection from sexual and gender-based violence, and the promotion of women’s empowerment and participation in decision-making processes to improve their community’s resilience.

With LEAP’s support, women and girls in crisis settings participate in crisis response and reconstruction efforts, which empower and enable them to achieve their full potential.

Japan has contributed 16 million US dollars to promote LEAP for the last two years.

As an example of our contribution, in Jordan, we support a project that addresses the urgent needs, well-being, and protection of displaced women, as well as strengthens their voice and participation in decision-making processes.

To expand these efforts, we have decided to contribute 8.7 million US Dollars to promote women’s resilience including the LEAP programme in 2018.

To solve the complicated situation in crises, it is necessary to accelerate the efforts of the international community to support “women’s resilience as a strategy for community resilience in crisis context”.

Strengthening women’s resilience not only contributes to women’s empowerment but also has a positive impact on their family and community. This provides an opportunity to challenge and eliminate gender inequality and stereotypes embedded in society.  

Therefore Japan, as champion of LEAP, is hosting today’s round table with UN Women.

Today, we would like to discuss issues and opportunities in enhancing women’s resilience and share efforts and good practices with all participants and international organizations.

I sincerely hope today’s roundtable will serve as a driving force for donor countries to further promote concrete efforts for women’s resilience.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.