Our founding president Folly Bah Thibault attended the 74th annual UN General Assembly in New York, where she moderated the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative High Level Panel.
The Spotlight Initiative is a joint, multi-year partnership between the United Nations and the European Union, which launched in 2017 with the mission to end ALL forms of violence against women and girls by the end of 2030. Spotlight has placed the issue of violence against women in the center of efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment in line with the UN’s 2030 agenda’s focus of leaving no one behind. The initiative has deployed and targeted large scale investments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific and the Caribbean.
Folly moderated a high-level discussion on the progress and perspectives of the Spotlight Initiative at the UN’s ECOSOC chamber. The event was attended by Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, the president of the Republic of Niger Mahmadou, the European Union Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica and civil society leaders and women’s rights activists from all over the world.
Other high-profile guests included Mexican Actress Cecilia Suarez and Gambian women’s right activist Jaha Dukureh who are champions of the Spotlight Initiative and have been using their fame and platforms to advance and promote Gender Equality. Folly interviewed them both in the SDG Media Zone which is of the main features of the UN General Assembly High Level Week.
