The theme of International Women’s Day 2021 is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world”. At Montrose, the majority of our senior managers and programme managers are women. Women and women’s organisations are leading the response to Covid-19 recovery across many of Montrose’s flagship projects in education and health. Yet across the world, women are facing increased domestic violence, unpaid care duties, unemployment and poverty.
UN Women is calling on organisations worldwide to integrate the diverse perspectives of women and girls in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes in all sectors.
Montrose has recently been awarded preferred bidder status on UNICEF’s Gender Equality Long Term Arrangement for Services (LTAS). Over the next three years, Montrose will be requested to provide technical assistance, strategy/policy advice, capacity building and other support services to UNICEF covering various thematic areas and contexts, including humanitarian emergencies.
Many of our other programmes highlight efforts by women and girls to shape a more equal future. In the education sector we are working to improve girls’ learning outcomes, attendance and retention through two programmes: Girls’ Education South Sudan, and the Girls’ Education Challenge Transition Project in Uganda. In our major health sector projects – Health Pooled Fund South Sudan and Saving Lives in Sierra Leone – we celebrate, promote and encourage women who stand at the front lines of the Covid-19 crisis, as health care workers, caregivers, innovators, and community organisers.
Throughout our work this year, we will support the priority theme of the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women: “Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.”
