Confederation of Nepalese Industries: Women’s Leadership Forum held its first flagship program, the Women’s Leadership Summit 23 on March 25 and 26 in the capital to address, deliberate and find solutions to three key areas of women’s leadership in the aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic. It was an opportunity for gender equality champions and women leaders to exchange ideas, share strategies, celebrate successes, be encouraged, and learn from each other in a two-day summit that was designed to challenge and inspire. Inaugurating the two-day international summit, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal emphasised the importance of women’s participation in every sector of society. He shared that the country is moving towards building an equitable society by prioritising women’s participation in every activity of the society including political leadership. He said, “An equitable society can be built only with the participation of women in every sector including education, health, environment and social service. Equal representation of women is necessary at the policymaking level by involving them in political leadership.” PM Dahal said the constitution has guaranteed a certain percentage of women’s participation in different bodies of the government, and an adequate amount of budget and resources have been allocated for the empowerment of women. He stressed that the Constitution has made it mandatory that there should be 33% participation of women in Parliament, adding that the representation of women at local levels is now more than 41% in the country, highlighting that the political participation of women is more when compared to other countries. He stated, “It is unquestionable that women’s participation in politics and policy drives change. It is my government’s commitment to ensure that we do our best to ensure greater female representation in key positions across the country”. The Prime Minister also presented the title of the CNI WLF Inspiring Woman of the Year 2023 to Sonika Manandhar of Aloi and Maggie Doyne of Kopila Valley or their contribution in their respective fields. At the inaugural function, Member of Parliament and Industrialist, Dr Binod Chaudhary spoke about how empowered women have worked across the spectrum for greater change in their fields and in nation building. Chaudhary expressed his belief that businesses run under women’s leadership are often more organised and systematic. CNI President Vishnu Kumar Agarwal said, “Equality demands that men and women have equal rights and opportunities, in politics, business and social contexts. In every sphere, women’s voices, rights and contributions are vital to build the sustainable economies and resilient societies. We need the government, businesses and all of society to act and create enabling environments for women to reach the top. Our actions must include clear, consistent policies that are enforced and implemented with well defined targets that aim at overcoming the disparities in female leadership in politics and in the corporate world”. Arnaud Cauchois, Asian Development Bank’s Country Director for Nepal, lauded that Nepal has achieved a significant result in terms of women empowerment and equality. He stated that the ADB has emphasised gender equality in its programmes and projects, and articulated his readiness for further collaboration for this cause. Chhaya Sharma, Chairperson of the Women’s Leadership Forum stated that women must continue to push for spaces that amplify the voices of women and other genders. She expressed that the two-day international summit would serve as a platform to exchange ideas among the women leaders and to formulate common strategies, share success stories and motivate fellow women entrepreneurs among others. Also speaking at the summit were notable guests Suresh Prabhu, former Minister of Railways, Government of India; Member of Parliment and former Minister, Gagan Thapa; Venerable Mingyur Rinpoche. The two-day summit had several panel discussions revolving around business, women’s empowerment, and politics alongside key note speeches by Zeina Jallad, a ground-breaking Palestinian lawyer and human-rights scholar and Ernesta Redi, an entrepreneur, Virologist and woman empowerment advocate. A fireside dialogue was also held between the brainchild of the Women Leadership Summit and Vice President of CNI, Nirvana Chaudhary and Jaivir Singh of the PwC Foundation. A marketplace was also organised over the two days with entrepreneurs showcasing and selling Make In Nepal products, yet another initiative of CNI titled Swdeshi campaign. The closing ceremony of the Summit saw a declaration being presented to the representative of the National Planning Commission, GoN and to related organisations that vied for ways forward towards an Equal 2030. The Women’s Leadership Summit 2023 was supported by ADB, the World Bank, US-AID, Heifer, WWF, NTB, UK Aid and several private organisations including Bottlers Nepal, Daraz, Nabil Bank, RMC, MAW, etc. Business 360 was the media partner and the Editor, Charu Chadha designed and executed the Summit. [gallery columns="6" ids="35755,35756,35757,35758,35759,35760,35761,35762,35763,35764,35766,35765"]
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