At the UN Assembly this year, the incredible women, who are the 2019 WE Empower Award winners, helped launch Target Gender Equality. Target Gender Equality is designed to accelerate gender equality by setting and reaching corporate targets for women’s representation and leadership in business. Companies have to be participants in the UN Global Compact and it's agenda in simple English, is to get more women in power because the positive impacts of more women in power and gender equality are well documented. The problem of course, is that despite this extensive documentation, discussion and agreement, including the knowledge that the potential value of gender equality exceeds $2 billion, so far only 6 of 193 UN signatory countries have mandated gender equality. The UN (and it's partners) are determined to step up the pressure and dramatically change this appalling statistic and Target Gender Equality is part of the strategy to achieve that. The WE Empower Challenge is an annual global business competition for women entrepreneurs. The Awards Ceremony coincides with the UN General Assembly each September and honours women who are inspiring their communities through their businesses. The award specifically targets women who are advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and inspiring entire communities to create the world we want by 2030.
The winners of this year's WE Empower awards were: UN Region: Africa - Christelle Kwizera, “Water Access Rwanda” Rwanda | UN Region: Asia-Pacific - Lina Khalifeh, “SheFighter” Jordan | UN Region: Eastern Europe - Zoya Lytvyn, “Novopecherska” Ukraine | UN Region: Latin America & the Caribbean - Karla Ruiz Cofiño, “Digital Awareness” Guatemala | UN Region: Western Europe & Other - Leah Lizarondo, “412 Food Rescue” United States of America