I would like to congratulate you for serving and leading this executive board, and to thank you for presiding over this session. We would also like to express our appreciation and gratitude to UN-WOMEN staff and leadership for their hard work.

As the report on the progress made on the UN-WOMEN strategic plan for the years 2014-2017 shows, there have been promising advancements. It is quite remarkable that in 2014, the first year of implementation of the strategic plan, when all offices were developing new programs, UN-Women saw progress across almost all outcome indicators in the strategic plan, based on reporting at the country level.

Still, there is much more that needs to be done in order to achieve full implementation of the strategic plan by 2017 and to reach our goals of gender equality and empowerment of women. To achieve those goals, it is necessary for member states to increase their involvement and enlarge their contributions, and we encourage all to do so.

Mr. President,

The vision of the strategic plan of UN women is translated into reality in the work Israel is performing in the Mount Carmel Training Center, under the auspices of MASHAV, Israel’s development agency. The MCTC is a world renowned center for economic and political empowerment of women, named after the late Prime Minister of Israel, Ms. Golda Meir. We train women from all over the world in community development, entrepreneurship and innovation, and early childhood education.

I, myself, have had the pleasure of working on different international projects on behalf of the MCTC.  In Kenya, I served as a consultant for the establishment of the Africa Center for Transformative and Inclusive Leadership, where we took decades of knowledge that we have built in the MCTC and brought it to Africa to enhance women’s participation in leadership positions. In Senegal, in cooperation with UN-WOMEN West Africa, we trained women for leadership and entrepreneurship.

Mr. President,

We believe that we are on the right path, and that it is within reach to achieve our goals set out in the strategic plan. Let me finish by saying that training women in topics related to women’s empowerment is an empowering experience in itself.

One of the most rewarding experiences I have had was when one of the incredible women that I worked with in Senegal approached me after a session and said – “You helped me listen to my own voice”.

I’m sure that with the work of UN –Women and with the commitments made by member states including my own country, the state of Israel, we can empower women to do anything they wish to do, and to reach the ultimate goal of gender equality.

Thank you Mr. President.