Ambassador Asoke Mukerji handed over check in New York.
By Sujeet Rajan
UNITED NATIONS: Ambassador Asoke K Mukerji, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations handed over a check of $1 million towards Government of India’s contribution to the core voluntary budget of UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) for the financial year 2013-2014.
This contribution constitutes the fourth installment of India’s multi-year pledge to provide five million US dollars as core predictable funding to UN Women’s resources, and takes the country’s existing contribution to $4 million to UN Women, so far.
The check was received on behalf of UN Women, by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women here, in New York.
On this occasion, Mukerji also reaffirmed the Government of India’s steadfast commitment to the goals of gender equality, the empowerment of women and gender mainstreaming, as enshrined in the mandate of UN Women. He also encouraged UN Women to focus on increasing the use of ICT and new technologies for empowerment of women.
India was one of the founding members of the Executive Board of the UN Women. It was created in July, 2010, as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment: Division for the Advancement of Women, International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, and United Nations Development Fund for Women.
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